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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison
+by James E. Seaver
+
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+Title: A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison
+
+Author: James E. Seaver
+
+Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6960]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on February 19, 2003]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF MRS. MARY JEMISON ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by Robert Connal, David Moynihan,
+Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+A NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF MRS. MARY JEMISON,
+
+Who was taken by the Indians, in the year 1755, when only about twelve
+years of age, and has continued to reside amongst them to the present time.
+
+CONTAINING
+
+An Account of the Murder of her Father and his Family; her sufferings; her
+marriage to two Indians; her troubles with her Children; barbarities of
+the Indians in the French and Revolutionary Wars; the life of her last
+Husband, &c.; and many Historical Facts never before published.
+_Carefully taken from her own words, Nov._ 29th, 1823.
+
+TO WHICH IS ADDED,
+
+An APPENDIX, containing an account of the tragedy at the Devil's Hole, in
+1783, and of Sullivan's Expedition; the Traditions, Manners, Customs, &c.
+of the Indians, as believed and practised at the present day, and since
+Mrs. Jemison's captivity; together with some Anecdotes, and other
+entertaining matter.
+
+BY JAMES E. SEAVER.
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+That to biographical writings we are indebted for the greatest and best
+field in which to study mankind, or human nature, is a fact duly
+appreciated by a well-informed community. In them we can trace the effects
+of mental operations to their proper sources; and by comparing our own
+composition with that of those who have excelled in virtue, or with that
+of those who have been sunk in the lowest depths of folly and vice, we are
+enabled to select a plan of life that will at least afford
+self-satisfaction, and guide us through the world in paths of morality.
+
+Without a knowledge of the lives of the vile and abandoned, we should be
+wholly incompetent to set an appropriate value upon the charms, the
+excellence and the worth of those principles which have produced the
+finest traits in the character of the most virtuous.
+
+Biography is a telescope of life, through which we can see the extremes
+and excesses of the varied properties of the human heart. Wisdom and
+folly, refinement and vulgarity, love and hatred, tenderness and cruelty,
+happiness and misery, piety and infidelity, commingled with every other
+cardinal virtue or vice, are to be seen on the variegated pages of the
+history of human events, and are eminently deserving the attention of
+those who would learn to walk in the "paths of peace."
+
+The brazen statue and the sculptured marble, can commemorate the greatness
+of heroes, statesmen, philosophers, and blood-stained conquerors, who have
+risen to the zenith of human glory and popularity, under the influence of
+the mild sun of prosperity: but it is the faithful page of biography that
+transmits to future generations the poverty, pain, wrong, hunger,
+wretchedness and torment, and every nameless misery that has been endured
+by those who have lived in obscurity, and groped their lonely way through
+a long series of unpropitious events, with but little help besides the
+light of nature. While the gilded monument displays in brightest colors
+the vanity of pomp, and the emptiness of nominal greatness, the
+biographical page, that lives in every line, is giving lessons of
+fortitude in time of danger, patience in suffering, hope in distress,
+invention in necessity, and resignation to unavoidable evils. Here also
+may be learned, pity for the bereaved, benevolence for the destitute, and
+compassion for the helpless; and at the same time all the sympathies of
+the soul will be naturally excited to sigh at the unfavorable result, or
+to smile at the fortunate relief.
+
+In the great inexplicable chain which forms the circle of human events,
+each individual link is placed on a level with the others, and performs an
+equal task; but, as the world is partial, it is the situation that
+attracts the attention of mankind, and excites the unfortunate vociferous
+eclat of elevation, that raises the pampered parasite to such an immense
+height in the scale of personal vanity, as, generally, to deprive him of
+respect, before he can return to a state of equilibrium with his fellows,
+or to the place whence he started.
+
+Few great men have passed from the stage of action, who have not left in
+the history of their lives indelible marks of ambition or folly, which
+produced insurmountable reverses, and rendered the whole a mere
+caricature, that can be examined only with disgust and regret. Such
+pictures, however, are profitable, for "by others' faults wise men correct
+their own."
+
+The following is a piece of biography, that shows what changes may be
+effected in the animal and mental constitution of man; what trials may be
+surmounted; what cruelties perpetrated, and what pain endured, when stern
+necessity holds the reins, and drives the car of fate.
+
+As books of this kind are sought and read with avidity, especially by
+children, and are well calculated to excite their attention, inform their
+understanding, and improve them in the art of reading, the greatest care
+has been observed to render the style easy, the language comprehensive,
+and the description natural. Prolixity has been studiously avoided. The
+line of distinction between virtue and vice has been rendered distinctly
+visible; and chastity of expression and sentiment have received due
+attention. Strict fidelity has been observed in the composition:
+consequently, no circumstance has been intentionally exaggerated by the
+paintings of fancy, nor by fine flashes of rhetoric: neither has the
+picture been rendered more dull than the original. Without the aid of
+fiction, what was received as matter of fact, only has been recorded.
+
+It will be observed that the subject of this narrative has arrived at
+least to the advanced age of eighty years; that she is destitute of
+education; and that her journey of life, throughout its texture, has been
+interwoven with troubles, which ordinarily are calculated to impair the
+faculties of the mind; and it will be remembered, that there are but few
+old people who can recollect with precision the circumstances of their
+lives, (particularly those circumstances which transpired after middle
+age.) If, therefore, any error shall be discovered in the narration in
+respect to time, it will be overlooked by the kind reader, or charitably
+placed to the narrator's account, and not imputed to neglect, or to the
+want of attention in the compiler.
+
+The appendix is principally taken from the words of Mrs. Jemison's
+statements. Those parts which were not derived from her, are deserving
+equal credit, having been obtained from authentic sources.
+
+For the accommodation of the reader, the work has been divided into
+chapters, and a copious table of contents affixed. The introduction will
+facilitate the understanding of what follows; and as it contains matter
+that could not be inserted with propriety in any other place, will be read
+with interest and satisfaction.
+
+Having finished my undertaking, the subsequent pages are cheerfully
+submitted to the perusal and approbation or animadversion of a candid,
+generous and indulgent public. At the same time it is fondly hoped that
+the lessons of distress that are portrayed, may have a direct tendency to
+increase our love of liberty; to enlarge our views of the blessings that
+are derived from our liberal institutions; and to excite in our breasts
+sentiments of devotion and gratitude to the great Author and finisher of
+our happiness.
+
+THE AUTHOR.
+
+_Pembroke, March_ 1, 1824.
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+The Peace of 1783, and the consequent cessation of Indian hostilities and
+barbarities, returned to their friends those prisoners, who had escaped
+the tomahawk, the gauntlet, and the savage fire, after their having spent
+many years in captivity, and restored harmony to society.
+
+The stories of Indian cruelties which were common in the new settlements,
+and were calamitous realities previous to that, propitious event;
+slumbered in the minds that had been constantly agitated by them, and were
+only roused occasionally, to become the fearful topic of the fireside.
+
+It is presumed that at this time there are but few native Americans that
+have arrived to middle age, who cannot distinctly recollect of sitting in
+the chimney corner when children, all contracted with fear, and there
+listening to their parents or visitors, while they related stories of
+Indian conquests, and murders, that would make their flaxen hair nearly
+stand erect, and almost destroy the power of motion.
+
+At the close of the Revolutionary war; all that part of the State of
+New-York that lies west of Utica was uninhabited by white people, and few
+indeed had ever passed beyond Fort Stanwix, except when engaged in war
+against the Indians, who were numerous, and occupied a number of large
+towns Between the Mohawk river and lake Erie.
+
+Sometime elapsed after this event, before the country about the lakes and
+on the Genesee river was visited, save by an occasional land speculator,
+or by defaulters who wished by retreating to what in those days was deemed
+almost the end of the earth, to escape the force of civil law.
+
+At length, the richness and fertility of the soil excited emigration, and
+here and there a family settled down and commenced improvements in the
+country which had recently been the property of the aborigines. Those who
+settled near the Genesee river, soon became acquainted with "The White
+Woman," as Mrs. Jemison is called, whose history they anxiously sought,
+both as a matter of interest and curiosity. Frankness characterized her
+conduct, and without reserve she would readily gratify them by relating
+some of the most important periods of her life.
+
+Although her bosom companion was an ancient Indian warrior, and
+notwithstanding her children and associates were all Indians, yet it was
+found that she possessed an uncommon share of hospitality, and that her
+friendship was well worth courting and preserving. Her house was the
+stranger's home; from her table the hungry were refreshed;--she made the
+naked as comfortable as her means would admit of; and in all her actions,
+discovered so much natural goodness of heart, that her admirers increases
+in proportion to the extension of her acquaintance, and she became
+celebrated as the friend of the distressed. She was the protectress of the
+homeless fugitive, and made welcome the weary wanderer. Many still live to
+commemorate her benevolence towards them, when prisoners during the war,
+and to ascribe their deliverance to the mediation of "The White Woman."
+
+The settlements increased, and the whole country around her was inhabited
+by a rich and respectable people, principally from New-England, as much
+distinguished for their spirit of inquisitiveness as for their habits of
+industry and honesty, who had all heard from one source and another a part
+of her life in detached pieces, and had obtained an idea that the whole
+taken in connection would afford instruction and amusement.
+
+Many gentlemen of respectability, felt anxious that her narrative might be
+laid before the public, with a view not only to perpetuate the remembrance
+of the atrocities of the savages in former times, but to preserve some
+historical facts which they supposed to be intimately connected with her
+life, and which otherwise must be lost.
+
+Forty years had passed since the close of the Revolutionary war, and
+almost seventy years had seen Mrs. Jemison with the Indians, when Daniel
+W. Banister, Esq. at the instance of several gentlemen, and prompted by
+his own ambition to add something to the accumulating fund of useful
+knowledge, resolved, in the autumn of 1823, to embrace that time, while
+she was capable of recollecting and reciting the scenes through which she
+had passed, to collect from herself, and to publish to an accurate account
+of her life.
+
+I was employed to collect the materials, and prepare the work for the
+press; and accordingly went to the house of Mrs. Jennet Whaley in the town
+of Castile, Genesee co. N.Y. in company with the publisher, who procured
+the interesting subject of the following narrative, to come to that place
+(a distance of four miles) and there repeat the story of her eventful
+life. She came on foot in company with Mr. Thomas Clute, whom she
+considers her protector, and tarried almost three days, which time was
+busily occupied in taking a sketch of her narrative as she recited it.
+
+Her appearance was well calculated to excite a great degree of sympathy in
+a stranger, who had been partially informed of her origin, when comparing
+her present situation with what it probably would have been, had she been
+permitted to have remained with her friends, and to have enjoyed the
+blessings of civilization.
+
+In stature she is very short, and considerably under the middle size, and
+stands tolerably erect, with her head bent forward, apparently from her
+having for a long time been accustomed to carrying heavy burdens in a
+strap placed across her forehead. Her complexion is very white for a woman
+of her age, and although the wrinkles of fourscore years are deeply
+indented in her cheeks, yet the crimson of youth is distinctly visible.
+Her eyes are light blue, a little faded by age, and naturally brilliant
+and sparkling. Her sight is quite dim, though she is able to perform her
+necessary labor without the assistance of glasses. Her cheek bones are
+high, and rather prominent, and her front teeth, in the lower jaw, are
+sound and good. When she looks up and is engaged in conversation her
+countenance is very expressive; but from her long residence with the
+Indians, she has acquired the habit of peeping from under eye-brows as
+they do with the head inclined downwards. Formerly her hair was of a light
+chestnut brown--it is now quite grey, a little curled, of middling length
+and tied in a bunch behind. She informed me that she had never worn a cap
+nor a comb.
+
+She speaks English plainly and distinctly, with a little of the Irish
+emphasis, and has the use of words so well as to render herself
+intelligible on any subject with which she is acquainted. Her recollection
+and memory exceeded my expectation. It cannot be reasonably supposed, that
+a person of her age has kept the events of seventy years in so complete a
+chain as to be able to assign to each its proper time and place; she,
+however, made her recital with as few obvious mistakes as might be found
+in that of a person of fifty.
+
+She walks with a quick step without a staff, and I was informed by Mr.
+Clute, that she could yet cross a stream on a log or pole as steadily as
+any other person.
+
+Her passions are easily excited. At a number of periods in her narration,
+tears trickled down her grief worn cheek, and at the same time, a rising
+sigh would stop her utterance.
+
+Industry is a virtue which she has uniformly practised from the day of her
+adoption to the present. She pounds her samp, cooks for herself, gathers
+and chops wood, feeds her cattle and poultry, and performs other laborious
+services. Last season she planted, tended and gathered corn--in short she
+is always busy.
+
+Her dress at the time I saw her, was made and worn after, the Indian
+fashion, and consisted of a shirt, short gown, petticoat, stockings,
+moccasins, a blanket and a bonnet. The shirt was of cotton and made at the
+top, as I was informed, like a man's without collar or sleeves--was open
+before and extended down about midway of the hips.--The petticoat was a
+piece of broadcloth with the list at the top and bottom and the ends sewed
+together. This was tied on by a string that was passed over it and around
+the waist, in such a manner as to let the bottom of the petticoat down
+half way between the knee and ankle and leave one-fourth of a yard at the
+top to be turned down over the string--the bottom of the shift coming a
+little below, and on the outside of the top of the fold so as to leave the
+list and two or three inches of the cloth uncovered. The stockings, were
+of blue broadcloth, tied, or pinned on, which reached from the knees, into
+the mouth of the moccasins.--Around her toes only she had some rags, and
+over these her buckskin moccasins. Her gown was of undressed flannel,
+colored brown. It was made in old yankee style, with long sleeves, covered
+the top of the hips, and was tied before in two places with strings of
+deer skin. Over all this, she wore an Indian blanket. On her head she wore
+a piece of old brown woollen cloth made somewhat like a sun bonnet.
+
+Such was the dress that this woman was contented to wear, and habit had
+rendered it convenient and comfortable. She wore it not as a matter of t
+necessity, but from choice, for it will be seen in the sequel, that her
+property is sufficient to enable her to dress in the best fashion, and to
+allow her every comfort of life.
+
+Her house, in which she lives, is 20 by 28 feet; built of square timber,
+with a shingled roof, and a framed stoop. In the centre of the house is a
+chimney of stones and sticks, in which there are two fire places. She has
+a good framed barn, 26 by 36, well filled, and owns a fine stock of cattle
+and horses. Besides the buildings above mentioned, she owns a number of
+houses that are occupied by tenants, who work her flats upon shares. Her
+dwelling, is about one hundred rods north of the Great Slide, a curiosity
+that, will be described in its proper place, on the west side of the
+Genesee river.
+
+Mrs. Jemison, appeared sensible of her ignorance of the manners of the
+white people, and for that reason, was not familiar, except with those
+with whom she was intimately acquainted. In fact she was (to appearance)
+so jealous of her rights, or that she should say something that would be
+injurious to herself or family, that if Mr. Clute had not been present, we
+should have been unable to have obtained her history. She, however, soon
+became free and unembarrassed in her conversation, and spoke with degree
+of mildness, candor and simplicity, that is calculated to remove all
+doubts as to the veracity of the speaker. The vices of the Indians, she
+appeared disposed not to aggravate, and seemed to take pride in extoling
+their virtues. A kind of family pride inclined her to withhold whatever
+would blot the character of her descendants, and perhaps induced her to
+keep back many things that would have been interesting.
+
+For the life of her last husband, we are indebted to her cousin, Mr.
+George Jemison, to whom she referred us for information on that subject
+generally. The thoughts of his deeds, probably chilled her old heart, and
+made her dread to rehearse them, and at the same time she well knew they
+were no secret, for she had frequently heard him relate the whole, not
+only to her cousin, but to others.
+
+Before she left us she was very sociable, and she resumed her naturally
+pleasant countenance, enlivened with a smile.
+
+Her neighbors speak of her as possessing one of the happiest tempers and
+disposition, and give her the name of never having done a censurable act
+to their knowledge.
+
+Her habits, are those of the Indians--she sleeps on skins without a
+bedstead, sits upon the floor or on a bench, and holds her victuals on her
+lap, or in her hands.
+
+Her ideas of religion, correspond in every respect with those of the great
+mass of the Senecas. She applauds virtue, and despises vice. She believes
+in a future state, in which the good will be happy, and the bad miserable;
+and that the acquisition of that happiness, depends primarily upon human
+volition, and the consequent good deeds of the happy recipient of
+blessedness. The doctrines taught in the Christian religion, she is a
+stranger to.
+
+Her daughters are said to be active and enterprizing women, and her
+grandsons, who arrived to manhood, are considered able, decent and
+respectable men in their tribe.
+
+Having in this cursory manner, introduced the subject of the following
+pages, I proceed to the narration of a life that has been viewed with
+attention, for a great number of years by a few, and which will be read by
+the public the mixed sensations of pleasure and pain, and with interest,
+anxiety and satisfaction.
+
+
+
+
+LIFE OF MARY JEMISON.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+Nativity of her Parents.--Their removal to America.--Her Birth.--Parents
+settle in Pennsylvania.--Omen of her Captivity.
+
+Although I may have frequently heard the history of my ancestry, my
+recollection is too imperfect to enable me to trace it further back than
+my father and mother, whom I have often heard mention the families from
+whence they originated, as having possessed wealth and honorable stations
+under the government of the country in which they resided.
+
+On the account of the great length of time that has elapsed since I was
+separated from my parents and friends, and having heard the story of their
+nativity only in the days of my childhood, I am not able to state
+positively, which of the two countries, Ireland or Scotland, was the land
+of my parents birth and education. It, however, is my impression, that
+they were born and brought up in Ireland.
+
+My Father's name was Thomas Jemison, and my mother's before her marriage
+with him, was Jane Erwin. Their affection for each other was mutual, and
+of that happy kind which tends directly to sweeten the cup of life; to
+render connubial sorrows lighter; to assuage every discontentment and to
+promote not only their own comfort, but that of all who come within the
+circle of their acquaintance. Of their happiness I recollect to have heard
+them speak; and the remembrance I yet retain of their mildness and perfect
+agreement in the government of their children, together with their mutual
+attention to our common education, manners, religious instruction and
+wants, renders it a fact in my mind, that they were ornaments to the
+married state, and examples of connubial love, worthy of imitation. After
+my remembrance they were strict observers of religious duties; for it was
+the daily practice of my father, morning and evening, to attend, in his
+family, to the worship of God.
+
+Resolved to leave the land of their nativity they removed from their
+residence to a port in Ireland, where they lived but a short time before
+they set sail for this country, in the year 1742 or 3 on board the ship
+Mary William, bound to Philadelphia, in the state of Pennsylvania.
+
+The intestine divisions, civil wars, and ecclesiastical rigidity and
+domination that prevailed those days, were the causes of their leaving
+their mother country and a home in the American wilderness, under the mild
+and temperate government of the descendants of William Penn; where without
+fear they might worship God, and perform their usual avocations.
+
+In Europe my parents had two sons and one daughter, whose names were John,
+Thomas and Betsey; with whom, after having put their effects on board,
+they embarked, leaving a large connexion of relatives and friends, under
+all those painful sensations, which are only felt when kindred souls give
+the parting hand and last farewell to those to whom they are endeared by
+every friendly tie.
+
+In the course of their voyage I was born, to be the sport of fortune and
+almost an outcast to civil society; to stem the current of adversity
+through a long chain of vicissitudes, unsupported by the advice of tender
+parents, or the hand of an affectionate friend; and even without the
+enjoyment from others, of any of those tender sympathies that are adapted
+to the sweetening of society, except such as naturally flow from
+uncultivated minds, that have been calloused by ferocity.
+
+Excepting my birth, nothing remarkable occurred to my parents on their
+passage, and they were safely landed at Philadelphia. My father being fond
+of rural life, and having been bred to agricultural pursuits, soon left
+the city, and removed his family to the then frontier settlements of
+Pennsylvania, to a tract of excellent land lying on Marsh creek. At that
+place he cleared a large farm, and for seven or eight years enjoyed the
+fruits of his industry. Peace attended their labors; and they had nothing
+to alarm them, save the midnight howl of the prowling wolf, or the
+terrifying shriek of the ferocious panther, as they occasionally visited
+their improvements, to take a lamb or a calf to satisfy their hunger.
+
+During this period my mother had two sons, between whose ages there was a
+difference of about three years: the oldest was named Matthew, and the
+other Robert.
+
+Health presided on every countenance, and vigor and strength characterized
+every exertion. Our mansion was a little paradise. The morning of my
+childish, happy days, will ever stand fresh in my remembrance,
+notwithstanding the many severe trials through which I have passed, in
+arriving at my present situation, at so advanced an age. Even at this
+remote period, the recollection of my pleasant home at my father's, of my
+parents, of my brothers and sister, and of the manner in which I was
+deprived of them all at once, affects me so powerfully, that I am almost
+overwhelmed with grief, that is seemingly insupportable. Frequently I
+dream of those happy days: but, alas! they are gone; they have left me to
+be carried through a long life, dependent for the little pleasures of
+nearly seventy years, upon the tender mercies of the Indians! In the
+spring of 1752, and through the succeeding seasons, the stories of Indian
+barbarities inflicted upon the whites in those days, frequently excited in
+my parents the most serious alarm for our safety.
+
+The next year the storm gathered faster; many murders were committed; and
+many captives were exposed to meet death in its most frightful form, by
+having their bodies stuck full of pine splinters, which were immediately
+set on fire, while their tormentors, exulting in their distress, would
+rejoice at their agony!
+
+In 1754, an army for the protection of the settlers, and to drive back the
+French and Indians, was raised from the militia of the colonial
+governments, and placed (secondarily) under the command of Col. George
+Washington. In that army I had an uncle, whose name was John Jemison who
+was killed at the battle at the Great Meadow or Fort Necessity. His wife
+had died some time before this, and left a young child, which my mother
+nursed in the most tender manner, till its mother's sister took it away, a
+few months after my uncle's death. The French and Indians, after the
+surrender of Fort Necessity by Col. Washington, (which happened the same
+season, and soon after his victory over them at that place,) grew more and
+more terrible. The death of the whites, and plundering and burning their
+property, was apparently their only object: But as yet we had not heard
+the death-yell, nor seen the smoke of a dwelling that had been lit by an
+Indian's hand.
+
+The return of a new-year's day found us unmolested; and though we knew
+that the enemy was at no great distance from us, my father concluded that
+he would continue to occupy his land another season: expecting (probably
+from the great exertions which the government was then making) that as
+soon as the troops could commence their operations in the spring, the
+enemy would be conquered and compelled to agree to a treaty of peace.
+
+In the preceding autumn my father either moved to another part of his
+farm, or to another neighborhood, a short distance from our former abode.
+I well recollect moving, and that the barn that was on the place we moved
+to was built of logs, though the house was a good one.
+
+The winter of 1754-5 was as mild as a common fall season, and the spring
+presented a pleasant seed time, and indicated a plenteous harvest. My
+father, with the assistance of his oldest sons, repaired his farm as
+usual, and was daily preparing the soil for the reception of the seed. His
+cattle and sheep were numerous, and according to the best idea of wealth
+that I can now form, he was wealthy.
+
+But alas! how transitory are all human affairs! how fleeting are riches!
+how brittle the invisible thread on which all earthly comforts are
+suspended! Peace in a moment can take an immeasurable flight; health can
+lose its rosy cheeks; and life will vanish like a vapor at the appearance
+of the sun! In one fatal day our prospects were all blasted; and death, by
+cruel hands, inflicted upon almost the whole of the family.
+
+On a pleasant day in the spring of 1755, when my father was sowing
+flax-seed, and my brothers driving the teams, I was sent to a neighbor's
+house, a distance of perhaps a mile, to procure a horse and return with it
+the next morning. I went as I was directed. I was out of the house in the
+beginning of the evening, and saw a sheet wide spread approaching towards
+me, in which I was caught (as I have ever since believed) and deprived of
+my senses! The family soon found me on the ground, almost lifeless, (as
+they said,) took me in, and made use of every remedy in their power for my
+recovery, but without effect till day-break, when my senses returned, and
+I soon found myself in good health, so that I went home with the horse
+very early in the morning.
+
+The appearance of that sheet, I have ever considered as a forerunner of
+the melancholy catastrophe that so soon afterwards happened to our family:
+and my being caught in it I believe, was ominous of my preservation from
+death at the time we were captured.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+Her Education.--Captivity.--Journey to Fort Pitt.--Mother's Farewell
+Address.--Murder of her Family.--Preparation of the Scalps.--Indian
+Precautions.--Arrival at Fort Pitt, &c.
+
+My education had received as much attention from my parents, as their
+situation in a new country would admit. I had been at school some, where I
+learned to read in a book that was about half as large as a Bible; and in
+the Bible I had read a little. I had also learned the Catechism, which I
+used frequently to repeat to my parents, and every night, before I went to
+bed, I was obliged to stand up before my mother and repeat some words that
+I suppose was a prayer.
+
+My reading, Catechism and prayers, I have long since forgotten; though for
+a number of the first years that I lived with the Indians, I repeated the
+prayers as often as I had an opportunity. After the revolutionary war, I
+remembered the names of some of the letters when I saw them; but have
+never read a word since I was taken prisoner. It is but a few years since
+a Missionary kindly gave me a Bible, which I am very fond of hearing my
+neighbors read to me, and should be pleased to learn to read it myself;
+but my sight has been for a number of years, so dim that I have not been
+able to distinguish one letter from another.
+
+As I before observed, I got home with the horse very early in the morning,
+where I found a man that lived in our neighborhood, and his sister-in-law
+who had three children, one son and two daughters. I soon learned that
+they had come there to live a short time; but for what purpose I cannot
+say. The woman's husband, however, was at that time in Washington's army,
+fighting, for his country; and as her brother-in-law had a house she had
+lived with him in his absence. Their names I have forgotten.
+
+Immediately after I got home, the man took the horse to go to his house
+after a bag of grain, and took his gun in his hand for the purpose of
+killing game, if he should chance to see any.--Our family, as usual, was
+busily employed about their common business. Father was shaving an
+axe-helve at the side of the house; mother was making preparations for
+breakfast;--my two oldest brothers were at work near the barn; and the
+little ones, with myself, and the woman and her three children, were in
+the house.
+
+Breakfast was not yet ready, when we were alarmed by the discharge of a
+number of guns, that seemed to be near. Mother and the women before
+mentioned, almost fainted at the report, and every one trembled with fear.
+On opening the door, the man and horse lay dead near the house, having
+just been shot by the Indians.
+
+I was afterwards informed, that the Indians discovered him at his own
+house with his gun, and pursued him to father's, where they shot him as I
+have related. They first secured my father, and then rushed into the
+house, and without the least resistance made prisoners of my mother,
+Robert, Matthew, Betsey, the woman and her three children, and myself, and
+then commenced plundering.
+
+My two brothers, Thomas and John, being at the barn, escaped and went to
+Virginia, where my grandfather Erwin then lived, as I was informed by a
+Mr. Fields, who was at my house about the close of the revolutionary war.
+
+The party that took us consisted of six Indians and four Frenchmen, who
+immediately commenced plundering, as I just observed, and took what they
+considered most valuable; consisting principally of bread, meal and meat.
+Having taken as much provision as they could carry, they set out with
+their prisoners in great haste, for fear of detection, and soon entered
+the woods. On our march that day, an Indian went behind us with a whip,
+with which he frequently lashed the children to make them keep up. In this
+manner we travelled till dark without a mouthful of food or a drop of
+water; although we had not eaten since the night before. Whenever the
+little children cried for water, the Indians would make them drink urine
+or go thirsty. At night they encamped in the woods without fire and
+without shelter, where we were watched with the greatest vigilance.
+Extremely fatigued, and very hungry, we were compelled to lie upon the
+ground supperless and without a drop of water to satisfy the cravings of
+our appetites. As in the day time, so the little ones were made to drink
+urine in the night if they cried for water. Fatigue alone brought us a
+little sleep for the refreshment of our weary limbs; and at the dawn of
+day we were again started on our march in the same order that we had
+proceeded on the day before. About sunrise we were halted, and the Indians
+gave us a full breakfast of provision that they had brought from my
+father's house. Each of us being very hungry, partook of this bounty of
+the Indians, except father, who was so much overcome with his
+situation--so much exhausted by anxiety and grief, that silent despair
+seemed fastened upon his countenance, and he could not be prevailed upon
+to refresh his sinking nature by the use of a morsel of food. Our repast
+being finished, we again resumed our march, and, before noon passed a
+small fort that I heard my father say was called Fort Canagojigge.
+
+That was the only time that I heard him speak from the time we were taken
+till we were finally separated the following night.
+
+Towards evening we arrived at the border of a dark and dismal swamp, which
+was covered with small hemlocks, or some other evergreen, and other
+bushes, into which we were conducted; and having gone a short distance we
+stopped to encamp for the night.
+
+Here we had some bread and meat for supper: but the dreariness of our
+situation, together with the uncertainty under which we all labored, as to
+our future destiny, almost deprived us of the sense of hunger, and
+destroyed our relish for food.
+
+Mother, from the time we were taken, had manifested a great degree of
+fortitude, and encouraged us to support our troubles without complaining;
+and by her conversation seemed to make the distance and time shorter, and
+the way more smooth. But father lost all his ambition in the beginning of
+our trouble, and continued apparently lost to every care--absorbed in
+melancholy. Here, as before, she insisted on the necessity of our eating;
+and we obeyed her, but it was done with heavy hearts.
+
+As soon as I had finished my supper, an Indian took off my shoes and
+stockings and put a pair of moccasins on my feet, which my mother
+observed; and believing that they would spare my life, even if they should
+destroy the other captives, addressed me as near as I can remember in the
+following words:--
+
+"My dear little Mary, I fear that the time has arrived when we must be
+parted forever. Your life, my child, I think will be spared; but we shall
+probably be tomahawked here in this lonesome place by the Indians. O! how
+can I part with you my darling? What will become of my sweet little Mary?
+Oh! how can I think of your being continued in captivity without a hope of
+your being rescued? O that death had snatched you from my embraces in your
+infancy; the pain of parting then would have been pleasing to what it now
+is; and I should have seen the end of your troubles!--Alas, my dear! my
+heart bleeds at the thoughts of what awaits you; but, if you leave us,
+remember my child your own name, and the name of your father and mother.
+Be careful and not forget your English tongue. If you shall have an
+opportunity to get away from the Indians, don't try to escape; for if you
+do they will find and destroy you. Don't forget, my little daughter, the
+prayers that I have learned you--say them often; be a good child, and God
+will bless you. May God bless you my child, and make you comfortable and
+happy."
+
+During this time, the Indians stripped the shoes and stockings from the
+little boy that belonged to the woman who was taken with us, and put
+moccasins on his feet, as they had done before on mine. I was crying. An
+Indian took the little boy and myself by the hand, to lead us off from the
+company, when my mother exclaimed, "Don't cry Mary--don't cry my child.
+God will bless you! Farewell--farewell!"
+
+The Indian led us some distance into the bushes, or woods, and there lay
+down with us to spend the night. The recollection of parting with my
+tender mother kept me awake, while the tears constantly flowed from my
+eyes. A number of times in the night the little boy begged of me earnestly
+to run away with him and get clear of the Indians; but remembering the
+advice I had so lately received, and knowing the dangers to which we
+should be exposed, in travelling without a path and without a guide,
+through a wilderness unknown to us, I told him that I would not go, and
+persuaded him to lie still till morning.
+
+Early the next morning the Indians and Frenchmen that we had left the
+night before, came to us; but our friends were left behind. It is
+impossible for any one to form a correct idea of what my feelings were at
+the sight of those savages, whom I supposed had murdered my parents and
+brothers, sister, and friends, and left them in the swamp to be devoured
+by wild beasts! But what could I do? A poor little defenceless girl;
+without the power or means of escaping; without a home to go to, even if I
+could be liberated; without a knowledge of the direction or distance to my
+former place of residence; and without a living friend to whom to fly for
+protection, I felt a kind of horror, anxiety, and dread, that, to me,
+seemed insupportable. I durst not cry--I durst not complain; and to
+inquire of them the fate of my friends (even if I could have mustered
+resolution) was beyond my ability, as I could not speak their language,
+nor they understand mine. My only relief was in silent stifled sobs.
+
+My suspicions as to the fate of my parents proved too true; for soon after
+I left them they were killed and scalped, together with Robert, Matthew,
+Betsey, and the woman and her two children, and mangled in the most
+shocking manner.
+
+Having given the little boy and myself some bread and meat for breakfast,
+they led us on as fast as we could travel, and one of them went behind and
+with a long staff, picked up all the grass and weeds that we trailed down
+by going over them. By taking that precaution they avoided detection; for
+each weed was so nicely placed in its natural position that no one would
+have suspected that we had passed that way. It is the custom of Indians
+when scouting, or on private expeditions, to step carefully and where no
+impression of their feet can be left--shunning wet or muddy ground. They
+seldom take hold of a bush or limb, and never break one; and by observing
+those precautions and that of setting up the weeds and grass which they
+necessarily lop, they completely elude the sagacity of their pursuers, and
+escape that punishment which they are conscious they merit from the hand
+of justice.
+
+After a hard day's march we encamped in a thicket, where the Indians made
+a shelter of boughs, and then built a good fire to warm and dry our
+benumbed limbs and clothing; for it had rained some through the day. Here
+we were again fed as before. When the Indians had finished their supper
+they took from their baggage a number of scalps and went about preparing
+them for the market, or to keep without spoiling, by straining them over
+small hoops which they prepared for that purpose, and then drying and
+scraping them by the fire. Having put the scalps, yet wet and bloody, upon
+the hoops, and stretched them to their full extent, they held them to the
+fire till they were partly dried and then with their knives commenced
+scraping off the flesh; and in that way they continued to work,
+alternately drying and scraping them, till they were dry and clean. That
+being done they combed the hair in the neatest manner, and then painted it
+and the edges of the scalps yet on the hoops, red. Those scalps I knew at
+the time must have been taken from our family by the color of the hair. My
+mother's hair was red; and I could easily distinguish my father's and the
+children's from each other. That sight was most appaling; yet, I was
+obliged to endure it without complaining.
+
+In the course of the night they made me to understand that they should not
+have killed the family if the whites had not pursued them.
+
+Mr. Fields, whom I have before mentioned, informed me that at the time we
+were taken, he lived in the vicinity of my father; and that on hearing of
+our captivity, the whole neighborhood turned out in pursuit of the enemy,
+and to deliver us if possible: but that their efforts were unavailing.
+They however pursued us to the dark swamp, where they found my father, his
+family and companions, stripped and mangled in the most inhuman manner:
+That from thence the march of the cruel monsters could not be traced in
+any direction; and that they returned to their homes with the melancholy
+tidings of our misfortunes, supposing that we had all shared in the
+massacre.
+
+The next morning we went on; the Indian going behind us and setting up the
+weeds as on the day before. At night we encamped on the ground in the open
+air, without a shelter or fire.
+
+In the morning we again set out early, and travelled as on the two former
+days, though the weather was extremely uncomfortable, from the continual
+falling of rain and snow.
+
+At night the snow fell fast, and the Indians built a shelter of boughs,
+and a fire, where we rested tolerably dry through that and the two
+succeeding nights.
+
+When we stopped, and before the fire was kindled, I was so much fatigued
+from running, and so far benumbed by the wet and cold, that I expected
+that I must fail and die before I could get warm and comfortable. The
+fire, however, soon restored the circulation, and after I had taken my
+supper I felt so that I rested well through the night.
+
+On account of the storm, we were two days at that place. On one of those
+days, a party consisting of six Indians who had been to the frontier
+settlements, came to where we were, and brought with them one prisoner, a
+young white man who was very tired and dejected. His name I have forgotten.
+
+Misery certainly loves company. I was extremely glad to see him, though I
+knew from his appearance, that his situation was as deplorable as mine,
+and that he could afford me no kind of assistance. In the afternoon the
+Indians killed a deer, which they dressed, and then roasted it whole;
+which made them a full meal. We were each allowed a share of their
+venison, and some bread, so that we made a good meal also.
+
+Having spent three nights and two days at that place, and the storm having
+ceased, early in the morning the whole company, consisting of twelve
+Indians, four Frenchmen, the young man, the little boy and myself, moved
+on at a moderate pace without an Indian behind us to deceive our pursuers.
+
+In the afternoon we came in sight of Fort Pitt (as it is now called,)
+where we were halted while the Indians performed some customs upon their
+prisoners which they deemed necessary. That fort was then occupied by the
+French and Indians, and was called Fort Du Quesne. It stood at the
+junction of the Monongahela, which is said to signify, in some of the
+Indian languages, the Falling-in-Banks, [Footnote: Navigator.] and the
+Alleghany [Footnote: The word Alleghenny, was derived from an ancient race
+of Indians called "Tallegawe." The Delaware Indians, instead of saying
+"Alleghenny," say "Allegawe," or "Allegawenink," _Western Tour_--p.
+455.] rivers, where the Ohio river begins to take its name. The word
+O-hi-o, signifies bloody.
+
+At the place where we halted, the Indians combed the hair of the young
+man, the boy and myself, and then painted our faces and hair red, in the
+finest Indian style. We were then conducted into the fort, where we
+received a little bread, and were then shut up and left to tarry alone
+through the night.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+She is given to two Squaws.--Her Journey down the Ohio.--Passes a Shawanee
+town where white men had just been burnt.--Arrives at the Seneca
+town.--Her Reception.--She is adopted.--Ceremony of Adoption.--Indian
+Custom.--Address.--She receives a new name.--Her Employment.--Retains her
+own and learns the Seneca Language.--Situation of the Town, &c.--Indians
+go on a Hunting Tour to Sciota and take her with them.--Returns.--She is
+taken to Fort Pitt, and then hurried back by her Indian Sisters.--Her
+hopes of Liberty destroyed.--Second Tour to Sciota.--Return to Wiishto,
+&c.--Arrival of Prisoners.--Priscilla Ramsay.--Her Chain.--Mary marries a
+Delaware.--Her Affection for him.--Birth and Death of her first
+Child.--Her Sickness and Recovery.--Birth of Thomas Jemison.
+
+The night was spent in gloomy forebodings. What the result of our
+captivity would be, it was out of our power to determine or even
+imagine.--At times we could almost realize the approach of our masters to
+butcher and scalp us;--again we could nearly see the pile of wood kindled
+on which we were to be roasted; and then we would imagine ourselves at
+liberty; alone and defenceless in the forest, surrounded by wild beasts
+that were ready to devour us. The anxiety of our minds drove sleep from
+our eyelids; and it was with a dreadful hope and painful impatience that
+we waited for the morning to determine our fate.
+
+The morning at length arrived, and our masters came early and let us out
+of the house, and gave the young man and boy to the French, who
+immediately took them away. Their fate I never learned; as I have not seen
+nor heard of them since.
+
+I was now left alone in the fort, deprived of my former companions, and of
+every thing that was near or dear to me but life. But it was not long
+before I was in some measure relieved by the appearance of two pleasant
+looking squaws of the Seneca tribe, who came and examined me attentively
+for a short time, and then went out. After a few minutes absence they
+returned with my former masters, who gave me to them to dispose of as they
+pleased.
+
+The Indians by whom I was taken were a party of Shawanees, if I remember
+right, that lived, when at home, a long distance down the Ohio.
+
+My former Indian masters, and the two squaws, were soon ready to leave the
+fort, and accordingly embarked; the Indians in a large canoe, and the two
+squaws and myself in a small one, and went down the Ohio.
+
+When we set off, an Indian in the forward canoe took the scalps of my
+former friends, strung them on a pole that he placed upon his shoulder,
+and in that manner carried them, standing in the stern of the canoe,
+directly before us as we sailed down the river, to the town where the two
+squaws resided.
+
+On our way we passed a Shawanee town, where I saw a number of heads, arms,
+legs, and other fragments of the bodies of some white people who had just
+been burnt. The parts that remained were hanging on a pole which was
+supported at each end by a crotch stuck in the ground, and were roasted or
+burnt black as a coal. The fire was yet burning; and the whole appearances
+afforded a spectacle so shocking, that, even to this day, my blood almost
+curdles in my veins when I think of them!
+
+At night we arrived at a small Seneca Indian town, at the mouth of a small
+river, that was called by the Indians, in the Seneca language,
+She-nan-jee, [Footnote: That town, according to the geographical
+description given by Mrs. Jemison, must have stood at the mouth of Indian
+Cross creek, which is about 76 miles by water, below Pittsburgh; or at the
+mouth of Indian Short creek, 87 miles below Pittsburgh, where the town of
+Warren now stands: But at which of those places I am unable to determine.
+_Author_.] where the two Squaws to whom I belonged resided. There we
+landed, and the Indians went on; which was the last I ever saw of them.
+
+Having made fast to the shore, the Squaws left me in the canoe while they
+went to their wigwam or house in the town, and returned with a suit of
+Indian clothing, all new, and very clean and nice. My clothes, though
+whole and good when I was taken, were now torn in pieces, so that I was
+almost naked. They first undressed me and threw my rags into the river;
+then washed me clean and dressed me in the new suit they had just brought,
+in complete Indian style; and then led me home and seated me in the center
+of their wigwam.
+
+I had been in that situation but a few minutes before all the Squaws in
+the town came in to see me. I was soon surrounded by them, and they
+immediately set up a most dismal howling, crying bitterly, and wringing
+their hands in all the agonies of grief for a deceased relative.
+
+Their tears flowed freely, and they exhibited all the signs of real
+mourning. At the commencement of this scene, one of their number began, in
+a voice somewhat between speaking and singing, to recite some words to the
+following purport, and continued the recitation till the ceremony was
+ended; the company at the same time varying the appearance of their
+countenances, gestures and tone of voice, so as to correspond with the
+sentiments expressed by their leader:
+
+"Oh our brother! Alas! He is dead--he has gone; he will never return!
+Friendless he died on the field of the slain, where his bones are yet
+lying unburied! Oh, who will not mourn his sad fate? No tears dropped
+around him; oh, no! No tears of his sisters were there! He fell in his
+prime, when his arm was most needed to keep us from danger! Alas! he has
+gone! and left us in sorrow, his loss to bewail: Oh where is his spirit?
+His spirit went naked, and hungry it wanders, and thirsty and wounded it
+groans to return! Oh helpless and wretched, our brother has gone! No
+blanket nor food to nourish and warm him; nor candles to light him, nor
+weapons of war:--Oh, none of those comforts had he! But well we remember
+his deeds!--The deer he could take on the chase! The panther shrunk back
+at the sight of his strength! His enemies fell at his feet! He was brave
+and courageous in war! As the fawn was harmless: his friendship was
+ardent: his temper was gentle: his pity was great! Oh! our friend, our
+companion is dead! Our brother, your brother, alas! he is gone! But why do
+we grieve for his loss? In the strength of a warrior, undaunted he left
+us, to fight by the side of the Chiefs! His war-whoop was shrill! His
+rifle well aimed laid his enemies low: his tomahawk drank of their blood:
+and his knife flayed their scalps while yet covered with gore! And why do
+we mourn? Though he fell on the field of the slain, with glory he fell,
+and his spirit went up to the land of his fathers in war! Then why do we
+mourn? With transports of joy they received him, and fed him, and clothed
+him, and welcomed him there! Oh friends, he is happy; then dry up your
+tears! His spirit has seen our distress, and sent us a helper whom with
+pleasure we greet. Dickewamis has come: then let us receive her with joy!
+She is handsome and pleasant! Oh! she is our sister, and gladly we welcome
+her here. In the place of our brother she stands in our tribe. With care
+we will guard her from trouble; and may she be happy till her spirit shall
+leave us."
+
+In the course of that ceremony, from mourning they became serene--joy
+sparkled in their countenances, and they seemed to rejoice over me as over
+a long lost child. I was made welcome amongst them as a sister to the two
+Squaws before mentioned, and was called Dickewamis; which being
+interpreted, signifies a pretty girl, a handsome girl, or a pleasant, good
+thing. That is the name by which I have ever since been called by the
+Indians.
+
+I afterwards learned that the ceremony I at that time passed through, was
+that of adoption. The two squaws had lost a brother in Washington's war,
+sometime in the year before and in consequence of his death went up to
+Fort Pitt, on the day on which I arrived there, in order to receive a
+prisoner or an enemy's scalp, to supply their loss.
+
+It is a custom of the Indians, when one of their number is slain or taken
+prisoner in battle, to give to the nearest relative to the dead or absent,
+a prisoner, if they have chanced to take one, and if not, to give him the
+scalp of an enemy. On the return of the Indians from conquest, which is
+always announced by peculiar shoutings, demonstrations of joy, and the
+exhibition of some trophy of victory, the mourners come forward and make
+their claims. If they receive a prisoner, it is at their option either to
+satiate their vengeance by taking his life in the most cruel manner they
+can conceive of; or, to receive and adopt him into the family, in the
+place of him whom they have lost. All the prisoners that are taken in
+battle and carried to the encampment or town by the Indians, are given to
+the bereaved families, till their number is made good.
+
+And unless the mourners have but just received the news of their
+bereavement, and are under the operation of a paroxysm of grief, anger and
+revenge; or, unless the prisoner is very old, sickly, or homely, they
+generally save him, and treat him kindly. But if their mental wound is
+fresh, their loss so great that they deem it irreparable, or if their
+prisoner or prisoners do not meet their approbation, no torture, let it be
+ever so cruel, seems sufficient to make them satisfaction. It is family,
+and not national, sacrifices amongst the Indians, that has given them an
+indelible stamp as barbarians, and identified their character with the
+idea which is generally formed of unfeeling ferocity, and the most
+abandoned cruelty.
+
+It was my happy lot to be accepted for adoption; and at the time of the
+ceremony I was received by the two squaws, to supply the place of their
+brother in the family; and I was ever considered and treated by them as a
+real sister, the same as though I had been born of their mother.
+
+During my adoption, I sat motionless, nearly terrified to death at the
+appearance and actions of the company, expecting every moment to feel
+their vengeance, and suffer death on the spot. I was, however, happily
+disappointed, when at the close of the ceremony the company retired, and
+my sisters went about employing every means for my consolation and comfort.
+
+Being now settled and provided with a home, I was employed in nursing the
+children, and doing light work about the house. Occasionally I was sent
+out with the Indian hunters, when they went but a short distance, to help
+them carry their game.
+
+My situation was easy; I had no particular hardships to endure. But still,
+the recollection of my parents, my brothers and sisters, my home, and my
+own captivity, destroyed my happiness, and made me constantly solitary,
+lonesome and gloomy.
+
+My sisters would not allow me to speak English in their hearing; but
+remembering the charge that my dear mother gave me at the time I left her,
+whenever I chanced to be alone I made a business of repeating my prayer,
+catechism, or something I had learned in order that I might not forget my
+own language. By practising in that way I retained it till I came to
+Genesee flats, where I soon became acquainted with English people with
+whom I have been almost daily in the habit of conversing.
+
+My sisters were diligent in teaching me their language; and to their great
+satisfaction I soon learned so that I could understand it readily, and
+speak it fluently. I was very fortunate in falling into their hands; for
+they were kind good natured women; peaceable and mild in their
+dispositions; temperate and decent in their habits, and very tender and
+gentle towards me. I have great reason to respect them, though they have
+been dead a great number of years.
+
+The town where they lived was pleasantly situated on the Ohio, at the
+mouth of the Shenanjee: the land produced good corn; the woods furnished a
+plenty of game, and the waters abounded with fish. Another river emptied
+itself into the Ohio, directly opposite the mouth of the Shenanjee. We
+spent the summer at that place, where we planted, hoed, and harvested a
+large crop of corn, of an excellent quality.
+
+About the time of corn harvest, Fort Pitt was taken from the French by the
+English. [Footnote: The above statement is apparently an error; and is to
+be attributed solely to the treachery of the old lady's memory; though she
+is confident that that event took place at the time above mentioned. It is
+certain that Fort Pitt was not evacuated by the French and given up to the
+English, till sometime in November, 1758. It is possible, however, that an
+armistice was agreed upon, and that for a time, between the spring of 1755
+and 1758, both nations visited that post without fear of molestation. As
+the succeeding part of the narrative corresponds with the true historical
+chain of events, the public will overlook this circumstance, which appears
+unsupported by history. AUTHOR.]
+
+The corn being harvested, the Indians took it on horses and in canoes, and
+proceeded down the Ohio, occasionally stopping to hunt a few days, till we
+arrived at the mouth of Sciota river; where they established their winter
+quarters, and continued hunting till the ensuing spring, in the adjacent
+wilderness. While at that place I went with the other children to assist
+the hunters to bring in their game. The forests on the Sciota were well
+stocked with elk, deer, and other large animals; and the marshes contained
+large numbers of beaver, muskrat, &c. which made excellent hunting for the
+Indians; who depended, for their meat, upon their success in taking elk
+and deer; and for ammunition and clothing, upon the beaver, muskrat, and
+other furs that they could take in addition to their peltry.
+
+The season for hunting being passed, we all returned in the spring to the
+mouth of the river Shenanjee, to the houses and fields we had left in the
+fall before. There we again planted our corn, squashes, and beans, on the
+fields that we occupied the preceding summer.
+
+About planting time, our Indians all went up to Fort Pitt, to make peace
+with the British, and took me with them. [Footnote: History is silent as
+to any treaty having been made between the English, and French and
+Indians, at that time; though it is possible that a truce was agreed upon,
+and that the parties met for the purpose of concluding a treaty of peace.]
+We landed on the opposite side of the river from the fort, and encamped
+for the night. Early the next morning the Indians took me over to the fort
+to see the white people that were there. It was then that my heart bounded
+to be liberated from the Indians and to be restored to my friends and my
+country. The white people were surprized to see me with the Indians,
+enduring the hardships of a savage life, at so early an age, and with so
+delicate a constitution as I appeared to possess. They asked me my name;
+where and when I was taken--and appeared very much interested on my
+behalf. They were continuing their inquiries, when my sisters became
+alarmed, believing that I should be taken from them, hurried me into their
+canoe and recrossed the river--took their bread out of the fire and fled
+with me, without stopping, till they arrived at the river Shenanjee. So
+great was their fear of losing me, or of my being given up in the treaty,
+that they never once stopped rowing till they got home.
+
+Shortly after we left the shore opposite the fort, as I was informed by
+one of my Indian brothers, the white people came over to take me back; but
+after considerable inquiry, and having made diligent search to find where
+I was hid, they returned with heavy hearts. Although I had then been with
+the Indians something over a year, and had become considerably habituated
+to their mode of living, and attached to my sisters, the sight of white
+people who could speak English inspired me with an unspeakable anxiety to
+go home with them, and share in the blessings of civilization. My sudden
+departure and escape from them, seemed like a second captivity, and for a
+long time I brooded the thoughts of my miserable situation with almost as
+much sorrow and dejection as I had done those of my first sufferings.
+Time, the destroyer of every affection, wore away my unpleasant feelings,
+and I became as contented as before.
+
+We tended our cornfields through the summer; and after we had harvested
+the crop, we again went down the river to the hunting ground on the
+Sciota, where we spent the winter, as we had done the winter before.
+
+Early in the spring we sailed up the Ohio river, to a place that the
+Indians called Wiishto, [Footnote: Wiishto I suppose was situated near the
+mouth of Indian Guyundat, 327 miles below Pittsburgh, and 73 above Big
+Sciota; or at the mouth of Swan creek, 307 miles below Pittsburgh.] where
+one river emptied into the Ohio on one side, and another on the other. At
+that place the Indians built a town, and we planted corn.
+
+We lived three summers at Wiishto, and spent each winter on the Sciota.
+
+The first summer of our living at Wiishto, a party of Delaware Indians
+came up the river, took up their residence, and lived in common with us.
+They brought five white prisoners with them, who by their conversation,
+made my situation much more agreeable, as they could all speak English. I
+have forgotten the names of all of them except one, which was Priscilla
+Ramsay. She was a very handsome, good natured girl, and was married soon
+after she came to Wiishto to Capt. Little Billy's uncle, who went with her
+on a visit to her friends in the states. Having tarried with them as long
+as she wished to, she returned with her husband to Can-a-ah-tua, where he
+died. She, after his death, married a white man by the name of Nettles,
+and now lives with him (if she is living) on Grand River, Upper Canada.
+
+Not long after the Delawares came to live with us, at Wiishto, my sisters
+told me that I must go and live with one of them, whose name was
+Sheninjee. Not daring to cross them, or disobey their commands, with a
+great degree of reluctance I went; and Sheninjee and I were married
+according to Indian custom.
+
+Sheninjee was a noble man; large in stature; elegant in his appearance;
+generous in his conduct; courageous in war; a friend to peace, and a great
+lover of justice. He supported a degree of dignity far above his rank, and
+merited and received the confidence and friendship of all the tribes with
+whom he was acquainted. Yet, Sheninjee was an Indian. The idea of spending
+my days with him, at first seemed perfectly irreconcilable to my feelings:
+but his good nature, generosity, tenderness, and friendship towards me,
+soon gained my affection; and, strange as it may seem, I loved him!--To
+me he was ever kind in sickness, and always treated me with gentleness; in
+fact, he was an agreeable husband, and a comfortable companion.
+
+We lived happily together till the time of our final separation, which
+happened two or three years after our marriage, as I shall presently
+relate.
+
+In the second summer of my living at Wiishto, I had a child at the time
+that the kernels of corn first appeared on the cob. When I was taken sick,
+Sheninjee was absent, and I was sent to a small shed, on the bank of the
+river, which was made of boughs, where I was obliged to stay till my
+husband returned. My two sisters, who were my only companions, attended
+me, and on the second day of my confinement my child was born but it lived
+only two days. It was a girl: and notwithstanding the shortness of the
+time that I possessed it, it was a great grief to me to lose it.
+
+After the birth of my child, I was very sick, but was not allowed to go
+into the house for two weeks; when, to my great joy, Sheninjee returned,
+and I was taken in and as comfortably provided for as our situation would
+admit of. My disease continued to increase for a number of days; and I
+became so far reduced that my recovery was despaired of by my friends, and
+I concluded that my troubles would soon be finished. At length, however,
+my complaint took a favorable turn, and by the time that the corn was ripe
+I was able to get about. I continued to gain my health, and in the fall
+was able to go to our winter quarters, on the Sciota, with the Indians.
+
+From that time, nothing remarkable occurred to me till the fourth winter
+of my captivity, when I had a son born, while I was at Sciota: I had a
+quick recovery, and my child was healthy. To commemorate the name of my
+much lamented father, I called my son Thomas Jemison.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+She leaves Wiishto for Fort Pitt, in company with her Husband.--Her
+feelings on setting out.--Contrast between the labor of the white and
+Indian Women.--Deficiency of Arts amongst the Indians.--Their former
+Happiness.--Baneful effects of Civilization, and the introduction of
+ardent Spirits amongst them, &c.--Journey up the River.--Murder of three
+Traders by the Shawnees.--Her Husband stops at a Trading
+House.--Wantonness of the Shawnees.--Moves up the Sandusky.--Meets her
+Brother from Ge-nish-a-u.--Her Husband goes to Wiishto, and she sets out
+for Genishau in company with her Brothers.--They arrive at
+Sandusky.--Occurrences at that place.--Her Journey to Genishau, and
+Reception by her Mother and Friends.
+
+In the spring, when Thomas was three or four moons [months] old, we
+returned from Sciota to Wiishto, and soon after set out to go to Fort
+Pitt, to dispose of our fur and skins, that we had taken in the winter,
+and procure some necessary articles for the use of our family.
+
+I had then been with the Indians four summers and four winters, and had
+become so far accustomed to their mode of living, habits and dispositions,
+that my anxiety to get away, to be set at liberty, and leave them, had
+almost subsided. With them was my home; my family was there, and there I
+had many friends to whom I was warmly attached in consideration of the
+favors, affection and friendship with which they had uniformly treated me,
+from the time of my adoption. Our labor was not severe; and that of one
+year was exactly similar, in almost every respect, to that of the others,
+without that endless variety that is to be observed in the common labor of
+the white people. Notwithstanding the Indian women have all the fuel and
+bread to procure, and the cooking to perform, their task is probably not
+harder than that of white women, who have those articles provided for
+them; and their cares certainly are not half as numerous, nor as great. In
+the summer season, we planted, tended and harvested our corn, and
+generally had all our children with us; but had no master to oversee or
+drive us, so that we could work as leisurely as we pleased. We had no
+ploughs on the Ohio; but performed the whole process of planting and
+hoeing with a small tool that resembled, in some respects, a hoe with a
+very short handle.
+
+Our cooking consisted in pounding our corn into samp or hommany, boiling
+the hommany, making now and then a cake and baking it in the ashes, and in
+boiling or roasting our venison. As our cooking and eating utensils
+consisted of a hommany block and pestle, a small kettle, a knife or two,
+and a few vessels of bark or wood, it required but little time to keep
+them in order for use.
+
+Spinning, weaving, sewing, stocking knitting, and the like, are arts which
+have never been practised in the Indian tribes generally. After the
+revolutionary war, I learned to sew, so that I could make my own clothing
+after a poor fashion; but the other domestic arts I have been wholly
+ignorant of the application of, since my captivity. In the season of
+hunting, it was our business, in addition to our cooking, to bring home
+the game that was taken by the Indians, dress it, and carefully preserve
+the eatable meat, and prepare or dress the skins. Our clothing was
+fastened together with strings of deer skin, and tied on with the same.
+
+In that manner we lived, without any of those jealousies, quarrels, and
+revengeful battles between families and individuals, which have been
+common in the Indian tribes since the introduction of ardent spirits
+amongst them.
+
+The use of ardent spirits amongst the Indians, and the attempts which have
+been made to civilize and christianize them by the white people, has
+constantly made them worse and worse; increased their vices, and robbed
+them of many of their virtues; and will ultimately produce their
+extermination. I have seen, in a number of instances, the effects of
+education upon some of our Indians, who were taken when young, from their
+families, and placed at school before they had had an opportunity to
+contract many Indian habits, and there kept till they arrived to manhood;
+but I have never seen one of those but what was an Indian in every respect
+after he returned. Indians must and will be Indians, In spite of all the
+means that can be used for their cultivation in the sciences and arts.
+
+One thing only marred my happiness, while I lived with them on the Ohio;
+and that was the recollection that I had once had tender parents, and a
+home that I loved. Aside from that consideration, or, if I had been taken
+in infancy, I should have been contented in my situation. Notwithstanding
+all that has been said against the Indians, in consequence of their
+cruelties to their enemies--cruelties that I have witnessed, and had
+abundant proof of--it is a fact that they are naturally kind, tender and
+peaceable towards their friends, and strictly honest; and that those
+cruelties have been practised, only upon their enemies, according to their
+idea of justice.
+
+At the time we left Wiishto, it was impossible for me to suppress a sigh
+of regret on parting with those who had truly been my friends--with those
+whom I had every reason to respect. On account of a part of our family
+living at Genishau, we thought it doubtful whether we should return
+directly from Pittsburgh, or go from thence on a visit to see them.
+
+Our company consisted of my husband, my two Indian brothers, my little son
+and myself. We embarked in a canoe that was large enough to contain
+ourselves, and our effects, and proceeded on our voyage up the river.
+
+Nothing remarkable occurred to us on our way, till we arrived at the mouth
+of a creek which Sheninjee and my brother said was the outlet of Sandusky
+lake; where, as they said, two or three English traders in fur and skins
+had kept a trading house but a short time before, though they were then
+absent. We had passed the trading house but a short distance, when we met
+three white men floating down the river, with the appearance of having
+been recently murdered by the Indians, we supposed them to be the bodies
+of the traders, whose store we had passed the same day. Sheninjee being
+alarmed for fear of being apprehended as one of the murderers, if he
+should go on, resolved to put about immediately, and we accordingly
+returned to where the traders had lived, and there landed.
+
+At the trading house we found a party of Shawnee Indians, who had taken a
+young white man prisoner, and had just begun to torture him for the sole
+purpose of gratifying their curiosity in exulting at his distress. They at
+first made him stand up, while they slowly pared his ears and split them
+into strings; they then made a number of slight incisions in his face; and
+then bound him upon the ground, rolled him in the dirt, and rubbed it in
+his wounds: some of them at the same time whipping him with small rods!
+The poor fellow cried for mercy and yelled most piteously.
+
+The sight of his distress seemed too much for me to endure: I begged of
+them to desist--I entreated them with tears to release him. At length they
+attended to my intercessions, and set him at liberty. He was shockingly
+disfigured, bled profusely, and appeared to be in great pain: but as soon
+as he was liberated he made off in haste, which was the last I saw of him.
+
+We soon learned that the same party of Shawnees had, but a few hours
+before, massacred the three white traders whom we saw in the river, and
+had plundered their store. We, however, were not molested by them, and
+after a short stay at that place, moved up the creek about forty miles to
+a Shawnee town, which the Indians called Gaw-gush-shaw-ga, (which being
+interpreted signifies a mask or a false face.) The creek that we went up
+was called Candusky.
+
+It was now summer; and having tarried a few days at Gawgushshawga, we
+moved on up the creek to a place that was called Yis-kah-wa-na, (meaning
+in English open mouth.)
+
+As I have before observed, the family to which I belonged was part of a
+tribe of Seneca Indians, who lived, at that time, at a place called
+Genishau, from the name of the tribe, that was situated on a river of the
+same name which is now called Genesee. The word Genishau signifies a
+shining, clear or open place. Those of us who lived on the Ohio, had
+frequently received invitations from those at Genishau, by one of my
+brothers, who usually went and returned every season, to come and live
+with them, and my two sisters had been gone almost two years.
+
+While we were at Yiskahwana, my brother arrived there from Genishau, and
+insisted so strenuously upon our going home (as he called it) with him,
+that my two brothers concluded to go, and to take me with them.
+
+By this time the summer was gone, and the time for harvesting corn had
+arrived. My brothers, for fear of the rainy season setting in early,
+thought it best to set out immediately that we might have good travelling.
+Sheninjee consented to have me go with my brothers; but concluded to go
+down the river himself with some fur and skins which he had on hand, spend
+the winter in hunting with his friends, and come to me in the spring
+following.
+
+That was accordingly agreed upon, and he set out for Wiishto; and my three
+brothers and myself, with my little son on my back, at the same time set
+out for Genishau. We came on to Upper Sandusky, to an Indian town that we
+found deserted by its inhabitants, in consequence of their having recently
+murdered some English traders, who resided amongst them. That town was
+owned and had been occupied by Delaware Indians, who, when they left it,
+buried their provision in the earth, in order to preserve it from their
+enemies, or to have a supply for themselves if they should chance to
+return. My brothers understood the customs of the Indians when they were
+obliged to fly from their enemies; and suspecting that their corn at least
+must have been hid, made diligent search, and at length found a large
+quantity of it, together with beans, sugar and honey, so carefully buried
+that it was completely dry and as good as when they left it. As our stock
+of provision was scanty, we considered ourselves extremely fortunate in
+finding so seasonable a supply, with so little trouble. Having caught two
+or three horses, that we found there, and furnished ourselves with a good
+store of food, we travelled on till we came to the mouth of French Creek,
+where we hunted two days, and from thence came on to Conowongo Creek,
+where we were obliged to stay seven or ten days, in consequence of our
+horses having left us and straying into the woods. The horses, however,
+were found, and we again prepared to resume our journey. During our stay
+at that place the rain fell fast, and had raised the creek to such a
+height that it was seemingly impossible for us to cross it. A number of
+times we ventured in, but were compelled to return, barely escaping with
+our lives. At length we succeeded in swimming our horses and reached the
+opposite shore; though I but just escaped with my little boy from being
+drowned. From Sandusky the path that we travelled was crooked and obscure;
+but was tolerably well understood by my oldest brother, who had travelled
+it a number of times, when going to and returning from the Cherokee wars.
+The fall by this time was considerably advanced, and the rains, attended
+with cold winds, continued daily to increase the difficulties of
+travelling. From Conowongo we came to a place, called by the Indians
+Che-ua-shung-gau-tau, and from that to U-na-waum-gwa, (which means an
+eddy, not strong), where the early frosts had destroyed the corn so that
+the Indians were in danger of starving for the want of bread. Having
+rested ourselves two days at that place, we came on to Caneadea and stayed
+one day, and then continued our march till we arrived at Genishau.
+Genishau at that time was a large Seneca town, thickly inhabited, lying on
+Genesee river, opposite what is now called the Free Ferry, adjoining
+Fall-Brook, and about south west of the present village of Geneseo, the
+county seat for the county of Livingston, in the state of New-York.
+
+Those only who have travelled on foot the distance of five or six hundred
+miles, through an almost pathless wilderness, can form an idea of the
+fatigue and sufferings that I endured on that journey. My clothing was
+thin and illy calculated to defend me from the continually drenching rains
+with which I was daily completely wet, and at night with nothing but my
+wet blanket to cover me, I had to sleep on the naked ground, and generally
+without a shelter, save such as nature had provided. In addition to all
+that, I had to carry my child, then about nine months old, every step of
+the journey on my back, or in my arms, and provide for his comfort and
+prevent his suffering, as far as my poverty of means would admit. Such was
+the fatigue that I sometimes felt, that I thought it impossible for me to
+go through, and I would almost abandon the idea of even trying to proceed.
+My brothers were attentive, and at length, as I have stated, we reached
+our place of destination, in good health, and without having experienced a
+day's sickness from the time we left Yiskahwana.
+
+We were kindly received by my Indian mother and the other members of the
+family, who appeared to make me welcome; and my two sisters, whom I had
+not seen in two years, received me with every expression of love and
+friendship, and that they really felt what they expressed, I have never
+had the least reason to doubt. The warmth of their feelings, the kind
+reception which I met with, and the continued favors that I received at
+their hands, rivetted my affection for them so strongly that I am
+constrained to believe that I loved them as I should have loved my own
+sister had she lived, and I had been brought up with her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+Indians march to Niagara to fight the British.--Return with two Prisoners,
+&c.--Sacrifice them at Fall-Brook.--Her Indian Mother's Address to her
+Daughter.--Death of her Husband.--Bounty offered for the Prisoners taken
+in the last war.--John Van Sice attempts to take her to procure her
+Ransom.--Her Escape.--Edict of the Chiefs.--Old King of the tribe
+determines to have her given up.--Her brother threatens her Life.--Her
+narrow Escape.--The old King goes off.--Her brother is informed of the
+place of her concealment, and conducts her home.--Marriage to her second
+Husband.--Names of her Children.
+
+When we arrived at Genishau, the Indians of that tribe were making active
+preparations for joining the French, in order to assist them in retaking
+Fort Ne-a-gaw (as Fort Niagara was called in the Seneca language) from the
+British, who had taken it from the French in the month preceding. They
+marched off the next day after our arrival, painted and accoutred in all
+the habiliments of Indian warfare, determined on death or victory; and
+joined the army in season to assist in accomplishing a plan that had been
+previously concerted for the destruction of a part of the British army.
+The British feeling themselves secure in the possession of Fort Neagaw,
+and unwilling that their enemies should occupy any of the military posts
+in that quarter, determined to take Fort Schlosser, lying a few miles up
+the river from Neagaw, which they expected to effect with but little loss.
+Accordingly a detachment of soldiers, sufficiently numerous, as was
+supposed, was sent out to take it, leaving a strong garrison in the fort,
+and marched off, well prepared to effect their object. But on their way
+they were surrounded by the French and Indians, who lay in ambush to
+deceive them, and were driven off the bank of the river into a place
+called the "Devil's Hole," together with their horses, carriages,
+artillery, and every thing pertaining to the army. Not a single man
+escaped being driven off, and of the whole number one only was fortunate
+enough to escape with his life. [Footnote: For the particulars of that
+event, see Appendix, No. 1.] Our Indians were absent but a few days, and
+returned in triumph, bringing with them two white prisoners, and a number
+of oxen. Those were the first neat cattle that were ever brought to the
+Genesee flats.
+
+The next day after their return to Genishau, was set apart as a day of
+feasting and frolicing, at the expence of the lives of their two
+unfortunate prisoners, on whom they purposed to glut their revenge, and
+satisfy their love for retaliation upon their enemies. My sister was
+anxious to attend the execution, and to take me with her, to witness the
+customs of the warriors, as it was one of the highest kind of frolics ever
+celebrated in their tribe, and one that was not often attended with so
+much pomp and parade as it was expected that would be. I felt a kind of
+anxiety to witness the scene, having never attended an execution, and yet
+I felt a kind of horrid dread that made my heart revolt, and inclined me
+to step back rather than support the idea of advancing. On the morning of
+the execution she made her intention of going to the frolic, and taking me
+with her, known to our mother, who in the most feeling terms, remonstrated
+against a step at once so rash and unbecoming the true dignity of our sex:
+
+"How, my daughter, (said she, addressing my sister,) "how can you even
+think of attending the feast and seeing the unspeakable torments that
+those poor unfortunate prisoners must inevitably suffer from the hands of
+our warriors? How can you stand and see them writhing in the warriors'
+fire, in all the agonies of a slow, a lingering death?
+
+How can you think of enduring the sound of their groanings and prayers to
+the Great Spirit for sudden deliverance from their enemies, or from life?
+And how can you think of conducting to that melancholy spot your poor
+sister Dickewamis, (meaning myself), who has so lately been a prisoner,
+who has lost her parents and brothers by the hands of the bloody warriors,
+and who has felt all the horrors of the loss of her freedom, in lonesome
+captivity? Oh! how can you think of making her bleed at the wounds which
+now are but partially healed? The recollection of her former troubles
+would deprive us of Dickewamis, and she would depart to the fields of the
+blessed, where fighting has ceased, and the corn needs no tending--where
+hunting is easy, the forests delightful, the summers are pleasant, and the
+winters are mild!--O! think once, my daughter, how soon you may have a
+brave brother made prisoner in battle, and sacrificed to feast the
+ambition of the enemies of his kindred, and leave us to mourn for the loss
+of a friend, a son and a brother, whose bow brought us venison, and
+supplied us with blankets!--Our task is quite easy at home, and our
+business needs our attention. With war we have nothing to do: our husbands
+and brothers are proud to defend us, and their hearts beat with ardor to
+meet our proud foes. Oh! stay then, my daughter; let our warriors alone
+perform on their victims their customs of war!"
+
+This speech of our mother had the desired effect; we stayed at home and
+attended to our domestic concerns. The prisoners, however, were executed
+by having their heads taken off, their bodies cut in pieces and shockingly
+mangled, and then burnt to ashes!--They were burnt on the north side of
+Fall-brook, directly opposite the town which was on the south side, some
+time in the month of November, 1759.
+
+I spent the winter comfortably, and as agreeably as I could have expected
+to, in the absence of my kind husband. Spring at length appeared, but
+Sheninjee was yet away; summer came on, but my husband had not found me.
+Fearful forebodings haunted my imagination; yet I felt confident that his
+affection for me was so great that if he was alive he would follow me and
+I should again see him. In the course of the summer, however, I received
+intelligence that soon after he left me at Yiskahwana he was taken sick
+and died at Wiishto. This was a heavy and an unexpected blow. I was now in
+my youthful days left a widow, with one son, and entirely dependent on
+myself for his and my support. My mother and her family gave me all the
+consolation in their power, and in a few months nay grief wore off and I
+became contented.
+
+In a year or two after this, according to my best recollection of the
+time, the King of England offered a bounty to those who would bring in the
+prisoners that had been taken in the war, to some military post where they
+might be redeemed and set at liberty.
+
+John Van Sice, a Dutchman, who had frequently been at our place, and was
+well acquainted with every prisoner at Genishau, resolved to take me to
+Niagara, that I might there receive my liberty and he the offered bounty.
+I was notified of his intention; but as I was fully determined not to be
+redeemed at that time, especially with his assistance, I carefully watched
+his movements in order to avoid falling into his hands. It so happened,
+however, that he saw me alone at work in a corn-field, and thinking
+probably that he could secure me easily, ran towards me in great haste. I
+espied him at some distance, and well knowing the amount of his errand,
+run from him with all the speed I was mistress of, and never once stopped
+till I reached Gardow. [Footnote: I have given this orthography, because
+it corresponds with the popular pronunciation.] He gave up the chase, and
+returned: but I, fearing that he might be lying in wait for me, stayed
+three days and three nights in an old cabin at Gardow, and then went back
+trembling at every step for fear of being apprehended. I got home without
+difficulty; and soon after, the chiefs in council having learned the cause
+of my elopement, gave orders that I should not be taken to any military
+post without my consent; and that as it was my choice to stay, I should
+live amongst them quietly and undisturbed. But, notwithstanding the will
+of the chiefs, it was but a few days before the old king of our tribe told
+one of my Indian brothers that I should be redeemed, and he would take me
+to Niagara himself. In reply to the old king, my brother said that I
+should not be given up; but that, as it was my wish, I should stay with
+the tribe as long as I was pleased to. Upon this a serious quarrel ensued
+between them, in which my brother frankly told him that sooner than I
+should be taken by force, he would kill me with his own hands!--Highly
+enraged at the old king; my brother came to my sister's house, where I
+resided, and informed her of all that had passed respecting me; and that,
+if the old king should attempt to take me, as he firmly believed he would,
+he would immediately take my life, and hazard the consequences. He
+returned to the old king. As soon as I came in, my sister told me what she
+had just heard, and what she expected without doubt would befal me. Full
+of pity, and anxious for my preservation, she then directed me to take my
+child and go into some high weeds at no great distance from the house, and
+there hide myself and lay still till all was silent in the house, for my
+brother, she said, would return at evening and let her know the final
+conclusion of the matter, of which she promised to inform me in the
+following manner: If I was to be killed, she said she would bake a small
+cake and lay it at the door, on the outside, in a place that she then
+pointed out to me. When all was silent in the house, I was to creep softly
+to the door, and if the cake could not be found in the place specified, I
+was to go in: but if the cake was there, I was to take my child and; go as
+fast as I possibly could to a large spring on the south side of Samp's
+Creek, (a place that I had often seen,) and there wait till I should by
+some means hear from her.
+
+Alarmed for my own safety, I instantly followed her advice, and went into
+the weeds, where I lay in a state of the greatest anxiety, till all was
+silent in the house, when I crept to the door, and there found, to my
+great distress, the little cake! I knew my fate was fixed, unless I could
+keep secreted till the storm was over, and accordingly crept back to the
+weeds, where my little Thomas lay, took him on my back, and laid my course
+for the spring as fast as my legs would carry me. Thomas was nearly three
+years old, and very large and heavy. I got to the spring early in the
+morning, almost overcome with fatigue, and at the same time fearing that I
+might be pursued and taken, I felt my life an almost insupportable
+burthen. I sat down with my child at the spring, and he and I made a
+breakfast of the little cake, and water of the spring, which I dipped and
+supped with the only implement which I possessed, my hand.
+
+In the morning after I fled, as was expected, the old King came to our
+house in search of me, and to take me off; but, as I was not to be found,
+he gave me up, and went to Niagara with the prisoners he had already got
+into his possession.
+
+As soon as the old King was fairly out of the way, my sister told my
+brother where he could find me. He immediately set out for the spring, and
+found me about noon. The first sight of him made me tremble with the fear
+of death; but when he came near, so that I could discover his countenance,
+tears of joy flowed down my cheeks, and I felt such a kind of instant
+relief as no one can possibly experience, unless when under the absolute
+sentence of death he receives an unlimited pardon. We were both rejoiced
+at the event of the old King's project; and after staying at the spring
+through the night, set out together for home early in the morning. When we
+got to a cornfield near the town, my brother secreted me till he could go
+and ascertain how my case stood; and finding that the old King was absent,
+and that all was peaceable, he returned to me, and I went home joyfully.
+
+Not long after this, my mother went to Johnstown, on the Mohawk river,
+with five prisoners, who were redeemed by Sir William Johnson, and set at
+liberty.
+
+When my son Thomas was three or four years old, I was married to an
+Indian, whose name was Hiokatoo, commonly called Gardow, by whom I had
+four daughters and two sons. I named my children, principally, after my
+relatives, from whom I was parted, by calling my girls Jane, Nancy, Betsey
+and Polly, and the boys John and Jesse. Jane died about twenty-nine years
+ago, in the month of August, a little before the great Council at
+Big-Tree, aged about fifteen years. My other daughters are yet living, and
+have families.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+Peace amongst the Indians.--Celebrations.--Worship. Exercises.--Business
+of the Tribes.--Former Happiness of the Indians in time of peace
+extolled.--Their Morals; Fidelity; Honesty; Chastity; Temperance. Indians
+called to German Flats.--Treaty with Americans.--They are sent for by the
+British Commissioners, and go to Oswego.--Promises made by those
+Commissioners.--Greatness of the King of England. Reward that was paid
+them for joining the British. They make a Treaty.--Bounty offered for
+Scalps. Return richly dressed and equipped.--In 1776 they kill a man at
+Cautega to provoke the Americans. Prisoners taken at Cherry Valley,
+brought to Beard's Town; redeemed, &c.--Battle at Fort Stanwix.--Indians
+suffer a great loss.--Mourning at Beard's Town.--Mrs. Jemison's care of
+and services rendered to Butler and Brandt.
+
+After the conclusion of the French war, our tribe had nothing to trouble
+it till the commencement of the Revolution. For twelve or fifteen years
+the use of the implements of war was not known, nor the war-whoop heard,
+save on days of festivity, when the achievements of former times were
+commemorated in a kind of mimic warfare, in which the chiefs and warriors
+displayed their prowess, and illustrated their former adroitness, by
+laying the ambuscade, surprizing their enemies, and performing many
+accurate manoeuvres with the tomahawk and scalping knife; thereby
+preserving and handing to their children, the theory of Indian warfare.
+During that period they also pertinaciously observed the religious rites
+of their progenitors, by attending with the most scrupulous exactness and
+a great degree of enthusiasm to the sacrifices, at particular times, to
+appease the anger of the evil deity, or to excite the commisseration and
+friendship of the Great Good Spirit, whom they adored with reverence, as
+the author, governor, supporter and disposer of every good thing of which
+they participated.
+
+They also practised in various athletic games, such as running, wrestling,
+leaping, and playing ball, with a view that their bodies might be more
+supple, or rather that they might not become enervated, and that they
+might be enabled to make a proper selection of Chiefs for the councils of
+the nation and leaders for war.
+
+While the Indians were thus engaged in their round of traditionary
+performances, with the addition of hunting, their women attended to
+agriculture, their families, and a few domestic concerns of small
+consequence, and attended with but little labor.
+
+No people can live more happy than the Indians did in times of peace,
+before the introduction of spirituous liquors amongst them. Their lives
+were a continual round of pleasures. Their wants were few, and easily
+satisfied; and their cares were only for to-day; the bounds of their
+calculations for future comfort not extending to the incalculable
+uncertainties of to-morrow. If peace ever dwelt with men, it was in former
+times, in the recesses from war, amongst what are now termed barbarians.
+The moral character of the Indians was (if I may be allowed the
+expression) uncontaminated. Their fidelity was perfect, and became
+proverbial; they were strictly honest; they despised deception and
+falsehood; and chastity was held in high veneration, and a violation of it
+was considered sacrilege. They were temperate in their desires, moderate
+in their passions, and candid and honorable in the expression of their
+sentiments on every subject of importance.
+
+Thus, at peace amongst themselves, and with the neighboring whites, though
+there were none at that time very near, our Indians lived quietly and
+peaceably at home, till a little before the breaking out of the
+revolutionary war, when they were sent for, together with the Chiefs and
+members of the Six Nations generally, by the people of the States, to go
+to the German Flats, and there hold a general council, in order that the
+people of the states might ascertain, in good season, who they should
+esteem and treat as enemies, and who as friends, in the great war which
+was then upon the point of breaking out between them and the King of
+England.
+
+Our Indians obeyed the call, and the council was holden, at which the pipe
+of peace was smoked, and a treaty made, in which the Six Nations solemnly
+agreed that if a war should eventually break out, they would not take up
+arms on either side; but that they would observe a strict neutrality. With
+that the people of the states were satisfied, as they had not asked their
+assistance, nor did not wish it. The Indians returned to their homes well
+pleased that they could live on neutral ground, surrounded by the din of
+war, without being engaged in it.
+
+About a year passed off, and we, as usual, were enjoying ourselves in the
+employments of peaceable times, when a messenger arrived from the British
+Commissioners, requesting all the Indians of our tribe to attend a general
+council which was soon to be held at Oswego. The council convened, and
+being opened, the British Commissioners informed the Chiefs that the
+object of calling a council of the Six Nations, was, to engage their
+assistance in subduing the rebels, the people of the states, who had risen
+up against the good King, their master, and were about to rob him of a
+great part of his possessions and wealth, and added that they would amply
+reward them for all their services.
+
+The Chiefs then arose, and informed the Commissioners of the nature and
+extent of the treaty which they had entered into with the people of the
+states, the year before, and that they should not violate it by taking up
+the hatchet against them.
+
+The Commissioners continued their entreaties without success, till they
+addressed their avarice, by telling our people that the people of the
+states were few in number, and easily subdued; and that on the account of
+their disobedience to the King, they justly merited all the punishment
+that it was possible for white men and Indians to inflict upon them; and
+added, that the King was rich and powerful, both in money and subjects:
+That his rum was as plenty as the water in lake Ontario: that his men were
+as numerous as the sands upon the lake shore:--and that the Indians, if
+they would assist in the war, and persevere in their friendship to the
+King, till it was closed, should never want for money or goods. Upon this
+the Chiefs concluded a treaty with the British Commissioners, in which
+they agreed to take up arms against the rebels, and continue in the
+service of his Majesty till they were subdued, in consideration of certain
+conditions which were stipulated in the treaty to be performed by the
+British government and its agents.
+
+As soon as the treaty was finished, the Commissioners made a present to
+each Indian of a suit of clothes, a brass kettle, a gun and tomahawk, a
+scalping knife, a quantity of powder and lead a piece of gold, and
+promised a bounty on every scalp that should be brought in. Thus richly
+clad and equipped, they returned home, after an absence of about two
+weeks, full of the fire of war, and anxious to encounter their enemies.
+Many of the kettles which the Indians received at that time are now in use
+on the Genesee Flats.
+
+Hired to commit depredations upon the whites, who had given them no
+offence, they waited impatiently to commence their labor, till sometime in
+the spring of 1776, when a convenient opportunity offered for them to make
+an attack. At that time, a party of our Indians were at Cau-te-ga, who
+shot a man that was looking after his horse, for the sole purpose, as I
+was informed by my Indian brother, who was present, of commencing
+hostilities.
+
+In May following, our Indians were in their first battle with the
+Americans; but at what place I am unable to determine. While they were
+absent at that time, my daughter Nancy was born.
+
+The same year, at Cherry Valley, our Indians took a woman and her three
+daughters prisoners, and brought them on, leaving one at Canandaigua, one
+at Honeoy, one at Cattaraugus, and one (the woman) at Little Beard's Town,
+where I resided. The woman told me that she and her daughters might have
+escaped, but that they expected the British army only, and therefore made
+no effort. Her husband and sons got away. Sometime having elapsed, they
+were redeemed at Fort Niagara by Col. Butler, who clothed them well, and
+sent them home.
+
+In the same expedition, Joseph Smith was taken prisoner at or near Cherry
+Valley, brought to Genesee, and detained till after the revolutionary war.
+He was then liberated, and the Indians made him a present, in company with
+Horatio Jones, of 6000 acres of land lying in the present town of
+Leicester, in the county of Livingston.
+
+One of the girls just mentioned, was married to a British officer at Fort
+Niagara, by the name of Johnson, who at the time she was taken, took a
+gold ring from her finger, without any compliments or ceremonies. When he
+saw her at Niagara he recognized her features, restored the ring that he
+had so impolitely borrowed, and courted and married her.
+
+Previous to the battle at Fort Stanwix, the British sent for the Indians
+to come and see them whip the rebels; and, at the same time stated that
+they did not wish to have them fight, but wanted to have them just sit
+down smoke their pipes, and look on. Our Indians went, to a man; but
+contrary to their expectation, instead of smoking and looking on, they
+were obliged to fight for their lives, and in the end of the battle were
+completely beaten, with a great loss in killed and wounded. Our Indians
+alone had thirty-six killed, and a great number wounded. Our town
+exhibited a scene of real sorrow and distress, when our warriors returned
+and recounted their misfortunes, and stated the real loss they had
+sustained in the engagement. The mourning was excessive, and was expressed
+by the most doleful yells, shrieks, and howlings, and by inimitable
+gesticulations.
+
+During the revolution, my house was the home of Col's Butler and Brandt,
+whenever they chanced to come into our neighborhood as they passed to and
+from Fort Niagara, which was the seat of their military operations. Many
+and many a night I have pounded samp for them from sun-set till sun-rise,
+and furnished them with necessary provision and clean clothing for their
+journey.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+Gen. Sullivan with a large army arrives at Canandaigua.--Indians'
+troubles.--Determine to stop their march.--Skirmish at Connessius
+Lake.--Circumstances attending the Execution of an Oneida warrior. Escape
+of an Indian Prisoner.--Lieut. Boyd and another man taken
+Prisoners.--Cruelty of Boyd's Execution.--Indians retreat to the
+woods.--Sullivan comes on to Genesee Flats and destroys the property of
+the Indians.--Returns.--Indians return.--Mrs. Jemison goes to Gardow.--Her
+Employment there.--Attention of an old Negro to her safety, &c.--Severe
+Winter.--Sufferings of the Indians.--Destruction of Game.--Indians'
+Expedition to the Mohawk.--Capture old John O'Bail, &c.--Other Prisoners
+taken, &c.
+
+For four or five years we sustained no loss in the war, except in the few
+who had been killed in distant battles; and our tribe, because of the
+remoteness of its situation, from the enemy, felt secure from an attack.
+At length, in the fall of 1779, intelligence was received that a large and
+powerful army of the rebels, under the command of General Sullivan, was
+making rapid progress towards our settlement, burning and destroying the
+huts and corn-fields; killing the cattle, hogs and horses, and cutting
+down the fruit trees belonging to the Indians throughout the country.
+
+Our Indians immediately became alarmed, and suffered every thing but death
+from fear that they should be taken by surprize, and totally destroyed at
+a single blow. But in order to prevent so great a catastrophe, they sent
+out a few spies who were to keep themselves at a short distance in front
+of the invading army, in order to watch its operations, and give
+information of its advances and success.
+
+Sullivan arrived at Canandaigua Lake, and had finished his work of
+destruction there, and it was ascertained that he was about to march to
+our flats, when our Indians resolved to give him battle on the way, and
+prevent, if possible, the distresses to which they knew we should be
+subjected, if he should succeed in reaching our town. Accordingly they
+sent all their women and children into the woods a little west of Little
+Beard's Town, in order that we might make a good retreat if it should be
+necessary, and then, well armed, set out to face the conquering enemy. The
+place which they fixed upon for their battle ground lay between Honeoy
+Creek and the head of Connessius Lake.
+
+At length a scouting party from Sullivan's army arrived at the spot
+selected, when the Indians arose from their ambush with all the fierceness
+and terror that it was possible for them to exercise, and directly put the
+party upon a retreat. Two Oneida Indians were all the prisoners that were
+taken in that skirmish. One of them was a pilot of Gen. Sullivan, and had
+been very active in the war, rendering to the people of the states
+essential services. At the commencement of the revolution he had a brother
+older than himself, who resolved to join the British service, and
+endeavored by all the art that he was capable of using to persuade his
+brother to accompany him; but his arguments proved abortive. This went to
+the British, and that joined the American army. At this critical juncture
+they met, one in the capacity of a conqueror, the other in that of a
+prisoner; and as an Indian seldom forgets a countenance that he has seen,
+they recognized each other at sight. Envy and revenge glared in the
+features of the conquering savage, as he advanced to his brother (the
+prisoner) in all the haughtiness of Indian pride, heightened by a sense of
+power, and addressed him in the following manner:
+
+"Brother, you have merited death! The hatchet or the war-club shall finish
+your career!--When I begged of you to follow me in the fortunes of war,
+you was deaf to my cries--you spurned my entreaties!
+
+"Brother! you have merited death and shall have your deserts! When the
+rebels raised their hatchets to fight their good master, you sharpened
+your knife, you brightened your rifle and led on our foes to the fields of
+our fathers'--You have merited death and shall die by our hands! When
+those rebels had drove us from the fields of our fathers to seek out new
+homes, it was you who could dare to step forth as their pilot, and conduct
+them even to the doors of our wigwams, to butcher our children and put us
+to death! No crime can be greater!--But though you have merited death and
+shall die on this spot, my hands shall not be stained in the blood of a
+brother! _Who will strike_?"
+
+Little Beard, who was standing by, as soon as the speech was ended, struck
+the prisoner on the head with his tomahawk, and despatched him at once!
+
+Little Beard then informed the other Indian prisoner that as they were at
+war with the whites only, and not with the Indians, they would spare his
+life, and after a while give him his liberty in an honorable manner. The
+Oneida warrior, however, was jealous of Little Beard's fidelity; and
+suspecting that he should soon fall by his hands, watched for a favorable
+opportunity to make his escape; which he soon effected. Two Indians were
+leading him, one on each side, when he made a violent effort, threw them
+upon the ground, and run for his life towards where the main body of the
+American army was encamped. The Indians pursued him without success; but
+in their absence they fell in with a small detachment of Sullivan's men,
+with whom they had a short but severe skirmish, in which they killed a
+number of the enemy, took Capt. or Lieut. William Boyd and one private,
+prisoners, and brought them to Little Beard's Town, where they were soon
+after put to death in the most shocking and cruel manner. Little Beard, in
+this, as in all other scenes of cruelty that happened at his town, was
+master of ceremonies, and principal actor. Poor Boyd was stripped of his
+clothing, and then tied to a sapling, where the Indians menaced his life
+by throwing their tomahawks at the tree, directly over his head,
+brandishing their scalping knives around him in the most frightful manner,
+and accompanying their ceremonies with terrific shouts of joy. Having
+punished him sufficiently in this way, they made a small opening in his
+abdomen, took out an intestine, which they tied to the sapling, and then
+unbound him from the tree, and drove him round it till he had drawn out
+the whole of his intestines. He was then beheaded, his head was stuck upon
+a pole, and his body left on the ground unburied.
+
+Thus ended the life of poor William Boyd, who, it was said, had every
+appearance of being an active and enterprizing officer, of the first
+talents. The other prisoner was (if I remember distinctly) only beheaded
+and left near Boyd.
+
+This tragedy being finished, our Indians again held a short council on the
+expediency of giving Sullivan battle, if he should continue to advance,
+and finally came to the conclusion that they were not strong enough to
+drive him, nor to prevent his taking possession of their fields: but that
+if it was possible they would escape with their own lives, preserve their
+families, and leave their possessions to be overrun by the invading army.
+
+The women and children were then sent on still further towards Buffalo, to
+a large creek that was called by the Indians Catawba, accompanied by a
+part of the Indians, while the remainder secreted themselves in the woods
+back of Beard's Town, to watch the movements of the army.
+
+At that time I had three children who went with me on foot, one who rode
+on horse back, and one whom I carried on my back.
+
+Our corn was good that year; a part of which we had gathered and secured
+for winter.
+
+In one or two days after the skirmish at Connissius lake, Sullivan and his
+army arrived at Genesee river, where they destroyed every article of the
+food kind that they could lay their hands on. A pan of our corn they
+burnt, and threw the remainder into the river. They burnt our houses,
+killed what few cattle and horses they could find, destroyed our fruit
+trees, and left nothing but the bare soil and timber. But the Indians had
+eloped and were not to be found.
+
+Having crossed and recrossed the river, and finished the work of
+destruction, the army marched off to the east. Our Indians saw them move
+off, but suspecting that it was Sullivan's intention to watch our return,
+and then to take us by surprize, resolved that the main body of our tribe
+should hunt where we then were, till Sullivan had gone so far that there
+would be no danger of his returning to molest us.
+
+This being agreed to, we hunted continually till the Indians concluded
+that there could be no risk in our once more taking possession of our
+lands. Accordingly we all returned; but what were our feelings when we
+found that there was not a mouthful of any kind of sustenance left, not
+even enough to keep a child one day from perishing with hunger.
+
+The weather by this time had become cold and stormy; and as we were
+destitute of houses and food too, I immediately resolved to take my
+children and look out for myself, without delay. With this intention I
+took two of my little ones on my back, bade the other three follow, and
+the same night arrived on the Gardow flats, where I have ever since
+resided.
+
+At that time, two negroes, who had run away from their masters sometime
+before, were the only inhabitants of those flats. They lived in a small
+cabin and had planted and raised a large field of corn, which they had not
+yet harvested. As they were in want of help to secure their crop, I hired
+to them to husk corn till the whole was harvested.
+
+I have laughed a thousand times to myself when I have thought of the good
+old negro, who hired me, who fearing that I should get taken or injured by
+the Indians, stood by me constantly when I was husking, with a loaded gun
+in his hand, in order to keep off the enemy, and thereby lost as much
+labor of his own as he received from me, by paying good wages. I, however,
+was not displeased with his attention; for I knew that I should need all
+the corn that I could earn, even if I should husk the whole. I husked
+enough for them, to gain for myself, at every tenth string, one hundred
+strings of ears, which were equal to twenty-five bushels of shelled corn.
+This seasonable supply made my family comfortable for samp and cakes
+through the succeeding winter, which was the most severe that I have
+witnessed since my remembrance. The snow fell about five feet deep, and
+remained so for a long time, and the weather was extremely cold; so much
+so indeed, that almost all the game upon which the Indians depended for
+subsistence, perished, and reduced them almost to a state of starvation
+through that and three or four succeeding years. When the snow melted in
+the spring, deer were found dead upon the ground in vast numbers; and
+other animals, of every description, perished from the cold also, and were
+found dead, in multitudes. Many of our people barely escaped with their
+lives, and some actually died of hunger and freezing.
+
+But to return from this digression: Having been completely routed at
+Little Beard's Town, deprived of a house, and without the means of
+building one in season, after I had finished my husking, and having found
+from the short acquaintance which I had had with the negroes, that they
+were kind and friendly, I concluded, at their request, to take up my
+residence with them for a while in their cabin, till I should be able to
+provide a hut for myself. I lived more comfortable than I expected to
+through the winter, and the next season made a shelter for myself.
+
+The negroes continued on my flats two or three years after this, and then
+left them for a place that they expected would suit them much better. But
+as that land became my own in a few years, by virtue of a deed from the
+Chiefs of the Six Nations, I have lived there from that to the present
+time.
+
+My flats were cleared before I saw them; and it was the opinion of the
+oldest Indians that were at Genishau, at the time that I first went there,
+that all the flats on the Genesee river were improved before any of the
+Indian tribes ever saw them. I well remember that soon after I went to
+Little Beard's Town, the banks of Fall-Brook were washed off, which left a
+large number of human bones uncovered. The Indians then said that those
+were not the bones of Indians, because they had never heard of any of
+their dead being buried there; but that they were the bones of a race of
+men who a great many moons before, cleared that land and lived on the
+flats.
+
+The next summer after Sullivan's campaign, our Indians, highly incensed at
+the whites for the treatment they had received, and the sufferings which
+they had consequently endured, determined to obtain some redress by
+destroying their frontier settlements. Corn Planter, otherwise called John
+O'Bail, led the Indians, and an officer by the name of Johnston commanded
+the British in the expedition. The force was large, and so strongly bent
+upon revenge and vengeance, that seemingly nothing could avert its march,
+nor prevent its depredations. After leaving Genesee they marched directly
+to some of the head waters of the Susquehannah river, and Schoharie Creek,
+went down that creek to the Mohawk river, thence up that river to Fort
+Stanwix, and from thence came home. In their route they burnt a number of
+places; destroyed all the cattle and other property that fell in their
+way; killed a number of white people, and brought home a few prisoners.
+
+In that expedition, when they came to Fort Plain, on the Mohawk river,
+Corn Planter and a party of his Indians took old John O'Bail, a white man,
+and made him a prisoner. Old John O'Bail, in his younger days had
+frequently passed through the Indian settlements that lay between the
+Hudson and Fort Niagara, and in some of his excursions had become enamored
+with a squaw, by whom he had a son that was called Corn Planter.
+
+Corn Planter, was a chief of considerable eminence; and having been
+informed of his parentage and of the place of his father's residence, took
+the old man at this time, in order that he might make an introduction
+leisurely, and become acquainted with a man to whom, though a stranger, he
+was satisfied that he owed his existence.
+
+After he had taken the old man, his father, he led him as a prisoner ten
+or twelve miles up the river, and then stepped before him, faced about,
+and addressed him in the following terms:--
+
+"My name is John O'Bail, commonly called Corn Planter. I am your son! you
+are my father! You are now my prisoner, and subject to the customs of
+Indian warfare: but you shall not be harmed; you need not fear. I am a
+warrior! Many are the scalps which I have taken! Many prisoners I have
+tortured to death! I am your son! I am a warrior! I was anxious to see
+you, and to greet you in friendship. I went to your cabin and took you by
+force! But your life shall be spared. Indians love their friends and their
+kindred, and treat them with kindness. If now you choose to follow the
+fortune of your yellow son, and to live with our people, I will cherish
+your old age with plenty of venison, and you shall live easy: But if it is
+your choice to return to your fields and live with your white children, I
+will send a party of my trusty young men to conduct you back in safety. I
+respect you, my father; you have been friendly to Indians, and they are
+your friends."
+
+Old John chose to return. Corn Planter, as good as his word, ordered an
+escort to attend him home, which they did with the greatest care.
+
+Amongst the prisoners that were brought to Genesee, was William Newkirk, a
+man by the name of Price, and two negroes.
+
+Price lived a while with Little Beard, and afterwards with Jack Berry, an
+Indian. When he left Jack Berry he went to Niagara, where he now resides.
+
+Newkirk was brought to Beard's Town, and lived with Little Beard and at
+Fort Niagara about one year, and then enlisted under Butler, and went with
+him on an expedition to the Monongahela.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+Life of Ebenezer Allen, a Tory.--He comes to Gardow.--His intimacy with a
+Nanticoke Squaw.--She gives him a Cap.--Her Husband's jealousy.--Cruelty
+to his Wife.--Hiokatoo's Mandate.--Allen supports her.--Her Husband is
+received into favor.--Allen labors.--Purchases Goods.--Stops the Indian
+War.--His troubles with the Indians.--Marries a Squaw.--Is taken and
+carried to Quebec.--Acquitted.--Goes to Philadelphia.--Returns to Genesee
+with a Store of Goods, &c.--Goes to Farming.--Moves to Allen's
+Creek.--Builds Mills at Rochester.--Drowns a Dutchman.--Marries a white
+Wife.--Kills an old Man.--Gets a Concubine.--Moves to Mt. Morris.--
+Marries a third Wife and gets another Concubine.--Receives a tract of
+Land.--Sends his Children to other States, &c.--Disposes of his
+Land.--Moves to Grand River, where he dies.--His Cruelties.
+
+Sometime near the close of the revolutionary war, a white man by the name
+of Ebenezer Allen, left his people in the state of Pennsylvania on the
+account of some disaffection towards his countrymen, and came to the
+Genesee river, to reside with the Indians. He tarried at Genishau a few
+days, and came up to Gardow, where I then resided.--He was, apparently,
+without any business that would support him; but be soon became acquainted
+with my son Thomas, with whom he hunted for a long time, and made his home
+with him at my house; winter came on, and he continued his stay.
+
+When Allen came to my house, I had a white man living on my land, who had
+a Nanticoke squaw for his wife, with whom he had lived very peaceably; for
+he was a moderate man commonly, and she was a kind, gentle, cunning
+creature. It so happened that he had no hay for his cattle; so that in the
+winter he was obliged to drive them every day, perhaps half a mile from
+his house, to let them feed on rushes, which in those days were so
+numerous as to nearly cover the ground.
+
+Allen having frequently seen the squaw in the fall, took the opportunity
+when her husband was absent with his cows, daily to make her a visit; and
+in return for his kindnesses she made and gave him a red cap finished and
+decorated in the highest Indian style.
+
+The husband had for some considerable length of time felt a degree of
+jealousy that Allen was trespassing upon him with the consent of his
+squaw; but when he saw Allen dressed in so fine an Indian cap, and found
+that his dear Nanticoke had presented it to him, his doubts all left him,
+and he became so violently enraged that he caught her by the hair of her
+head, dragged her on the ground to my house, a distance of forty rods, and
+threw her in at the door. Hiokatoo, my husband, exasperated at the sight
+of so much inhumanity, hastily took down his old tomahawk, which for
+awhile had lain idle, shook it over the cuckold's head, and bade him jogo
+(i. e. go off.) The enraged husband, well knowing that he should feel a
+blow if he waited to hear the order repeated, instantly retreated, and
+went down the river to his cattle. We protected the poor Nanticoke woman,
+and gave her victuals; and Allen sympathized with her in her misfortunes
+till spring, when her husband came to her, acknowledged his former errors,
+and that he had abused her without a cause, promised a reformation, and
+she received him with every mark of a renewal of her affection. They went
+home lovingly, and soon after removed to Niagara.
+
+The same spring, Allen commenced working my flats, and continued to labor
+there till after the peace in 1783. He then went to Philadelphia on some
+business that detained him but a few days, and returned with a horse and
+some dry goods, which he carried to a place that is now called Mount
+Morris, where he built or bought a small house.
+
+The British and Indians on the Niagara frontier, dissatisfied with the
+treaty of peace, were determined, at all hazards, to continue their
+depredations upon the white settlements which lay between them and Albany.
+They actually made ready, and were about setting out on an expedition to
+that effect, when Allen (who by this time understood their customs of war)
+took a belt of wampum, which he had fraudulently procured, and carried it
+as a token of peace from the Indians to the commander of the nearest
+American military post.
+
+The Indians were soon answered by the American officer that the wampum was
+cordially accepted and, that a continuance of peace was ardently wished
+for. The Indians, at this, were chagrined and disappointed beyond measure;
+but as they held the wampum to be a sacred thing, they dared not to go
+against the import of its meaning, and immediately buried the hatchet as
+it respected the people of the United State; and smoked the pipe of peace.
+They, however, resolved to punish Allen for his officiousness in meddling
+with their national affairs, by presenting the sacred wampum without their
+knowledge, and went about devising means for his detection. A party was
+accordingly despatched from Fort Niagara to apprehend him; with orders to
+conduct him to that post for trial, or for safe keeping, till such time as
+his fate should be determined upon in a legal manner.
+
+The party came on; but before it arrived at Gardow, Allen got news of its
+approach, and fled for safety, leaving the horse and goods that he had
+brought from Philadelphia, an easy prey to his enemies. He had not been
+long absent when they arrived at Gardow, where they made diligent search
+for him till they were satisfied that they could not find him, and then
+seized the effects which he had left, and returned to Niagara. My son
+Thomas, went with them, with Allen's horse, and carried the goods.
+
+Allen, on finding that his enemies had gone, came back to my house, where
+he lived as before; but of his return they were soon notified at Niagara,
+and Nettles (who married Priscilla Ramsay) with a small party of Indians
+came on to take him. He, however, by some means found that they were near,
+and gave me his box of money and trinkets to keep safely, till he called
+for it, and again took to the woods.
+
+Nettles came on determined at all events to take him before he went back;
+and, in order to accomplish his design, he, with his Indians, hunted in
+the day time and lay by at night at my house, and in that way they
+practised for a number of days. Allen watched the motion of his pursuers,
+and every night after they had gone to rest, came home and got some food,
+and then returned to his retreat. It was in the fall, and the weather was
+cold and rainy, so that he suffered extremely. Some nights he sat in my
+chamber till nearly day-break, while his enemies were below, and when the
+time arrived I assisted him to escape unnoticed.
+
+Nettles at length abandoned the chase--went home, and Allen, all in
+tatters, came in. By running in the woods his clothing had become torn
+into rags, so that he was in a suffering condition, almost naked. Hiokatoo
+gave him a blanket, and a piece of broadcloth for a pair of trowsers.
+Allen made his trowsers himself, and then built a raft, on which he went
+down the river to his own place at Mount Morris.
+
+About that time he married a squaw, whose name was Sally.
+
+The Niagara people finding that he was at his own house, came and took him
+by surprize when he least expected them, and carried him to Niagara.
+Fortunately for him, it so happened that just as they arrived at the fort,
+a house took fire and his keepers all left him to save the building, if
+possible. Allen had supposed his doom to be nearly sealed; but finding
+himself at liberty he took to his heels, left his escort to put out the
+fire, and ran to Tonnawanta. There an Indian gave him some refreshment,
+and a good gun, with which he hastened on to Little Beard's Town, where he
+found his squaw. Not daring to risk himself at that place for fear of
+being given up, he made her but a short visit, and came immediately to
+Gardow.
+
+Just as he got to the top of the hill above the Gardow flats, he
+discovered a party of British soldiers and Indians in pursuit of him; and
+in fact they were so near that he was satisfied that they saw him, and
+concluded that it would be impossible for him to escape. The love of
+liberty, however, added to his natural swiftness, gave him sufficient
+strength to make his escape to his former castle of safety. His pursuers
+came immediately to my house, where they expected to have found him
+secreted, and under my protection. They told me where they had seen him
+but a few moments before, and that they were confident that it was within
+my power to put him into their hands. As I was perfectly clear of having
+had any hand in his escape, I told them plainly that I had not seen him
+since he was taken to Niagara, and that I could give them no information
+at all respecting him. Still unsatisfied, and doubting my veracity, they
+advised my Indian brother to use his influence to draw from me the secret
+of his concealment, which they had an idea that I considered of great
+importance, not only to him but to myself. I persisted in my ignorance of
+his situation, and finally they left me.
+
+Although I had not seen Allen, I knew his place of security, and was well
+aware that if I told them the place where he had formerly hid himself,
+they would have no difficulty in making him a prisoner.
+
+He came to my house in the night, and awoke me with the greatest caution,
+fearing that some of his enemies might be watching to take him at a time
+when, and in a place where it would be impossible for him to make his
+escape. I got up and assured him that he was then safe; but that his
+enemies would return early in the morning and search him out if it should
+be possible. Having given him some victuals, which he received thankfully,
+I told him to go, but to return the next night to a certain corner of the
+fence near my house where he would find a quantity of meal that I would
+have well prepared and deposited there for his use.
+
+Early the next morning, Nettles and his company came in while I was
+pounding the meal for Allen, and insisted upon my giving him up. I again
+told them that I did not know where he was, and that I could not, neither
+would I, tell them any thing about him. I well knew that Allen considered
+his life in my hands; and although it was my intention not to lie, I was
+fully determined to keep his situation a profound secret. They continued
+their labor and examined (as they supposed) every crevice, gully, tree and
+hollow log in the neighboring woods, and at last concluded that he had
+left the country, and gave him up for lost, and went home.
+
+At that time Allen lay in a secret place in the gulph a short distance
+above my flats, in a hole that he accidentally found in the rock near the
+river. At night he came and got the meal at the corner of the fence as I
+had directed him, and afterwards lived in the gulph two weeks. Each night
+he came to the pasture and milked one of my cows, without any other vessel
+in which to receive the milk than his hat, out of which he drank it. I
+supplied him with meal, but fearing to build a fire he was obliged to eat
+it raw and wash it down with the milk. Nettles having left our
+neighborhood, and Allen considering himself safe, left his little cave and
+came home. I gave him his box of money and trinkets, and he went to his
+own house at Mount Morris. It was generally considered by the Indians of
+our tribe, that Allen was an innocent man, and that the Niagara people
+were persecuting him without a just cause. Little Beard, then about to go
+to the eastward on public business, charged his Indians not to meddle with
+Allen, but to let him live amongst them peaceably, and enjoy himself with
+his family and property if he could. Having the protection of the chief,
+he felt himself safe, and let his situation be known to the whites from
+whom he suspected no harm. They, however, were more inimical than our
+Indians and were easily bribed by Nettles to assist in bringing him to
+justice. Nettles came on, and the whites, as they had agreed, gave poor
+Allen up to him. He was bound and carried to Niagara, where he was
+confined in prison through the winter. In the spring he was taken to
+Montreal or Quebec for trial, and was honorably acquitted. The crime for
+which he was tried was, for his having carried the wampum to the
+Americans, and thereby putting too sudden a stop to their war.
+
+From the place of his trial he went directly to Philadelphia, and
+purchased on credit, a boat load of goods which he brought by water to
+Conhocton, where he left them and came to Mount Morris for assistance to
+get them brought on. The Indians readily went with horses and brought them
+to his house, where he disposed of his dry goods; but not daring to let
+the Indians begin to drink strong liquor, for fear of the quarrels which
+would naturally follow, he sent his spirits to my place and we sold them.
+For his goods he received ginseng roots, principally, and a few skins.
+Ginseng at that time was plenty, and commanded a high price. We prepared
+the whole that he received for the market, expecting that he would carry
+them to Philadelphia. In that I was disappointed; for when he had disposed
+of, and got pay for all his goods, he took the ginseng and skins to
+Niagara, and there sold them and came home.
+
+Tired of dealing in goods, he planted a large field of corn on or near his
+own land, attended to it faithfully, and succeeded in raising a large
+crop, which he harvested, loaded into canoes and carried down the river to
+the mouth of Allen's Creek, then called by the Indians Gin-is-a-ga, where
+he unloaded it, built him a house, and lived with his family.
+
+The next season he planted corn at that place and built a grist and saw
+mill on Genesee Falls, now called Rochester.
+
+At the time Allen built the mills, he had an old German living with him by
+the name of Andrews, whom he sent in a canoe down the river with his mill
+irons. Allen went down at the same time; but before they got to the mills
+Allen threw the old man overboard and drowned him, as it was then
+generally believed, for he was never seen or heard of afterwards.
+
+In the course of the season in which Allen built his mills, he became
+acquainted with the daughter of a white man, who was moving to Niagara.
+She was handsome, and Allen soon got into her good graces, so that be
+married and took her home, to be a joint partner with Sally, the squaw,
+whom she had never heard of till she got home and found her in full
+possession; but it was too late for her to retrace the hasty steps she had
+taken, for her father had left her in the care of a tender husband and
+gone on. She, however, found that she enjoyed at least an equal half of
+her husband's affections, and made herself contented. Her father's name I
+have forgotten, but her's was Lucy.
+
+Allen was not contented with two wives, for in a short time after he had
+married Lucy he came up to my house, where he found a young woman who had
+an old husband with her. They had been on a long journey, and called at my
+place to recruit and rest themselves. She filled Allen's eye, and he
+accordingly fixed upon a plan to get her into his possession. He praised
+his situation, enumerated his advantages, and finally persuaded them to go
+home and tarry with him a few days at least, and partake of a part of his
+comforts. They accepted his generous invitation and went home with him.
+But they had been there but two or three days when Allen took the old
+gentleman out to view his flats; and as they were deliberately walking on
+the bank of the river, pushed him into the water. The old man, almost
+strangled, succeeded in getting out; but his fall and exertions had so
+powerful an effect upon his system that he died in two or three days, and
+left his young widow to the protection of his murderer. She lived with him
+about one year in a state of concubinage and then left him.
+
+How long Allen lived at Allen's Creek I am unable to state; but soon after
+the young widow left him, he removed to his old place at Mount Morris, and
+built a house, where he made Sally, his squaw, by whom he had two
+daughters, a slave to Lucy, by whom he had had one son; still, however, he
+considered Sally to be his wife.
+
+After Allen came to Mt. Morris at that time, he married a girl by the name
+of Morilla Gregory, whose father at the time lived on Genesee Flats. The
+ceremony being over, he took her home to live in common with his other
+wives; but his house was too small for his family; for Sally and Lucy,
+conceiving that their lawful privileges would be abridged if they received
+a partner, united their strength and whipped poor Morilla so cruelly that
+he was obliged to keep her in a small Indian house a short distance from
+his own, or lose her entirely. Morilla, before she left Mt. Morris, had
+four children.
+
+One of Morilla's sisters lived with Allen about a year after Morilla was
+married, and then quit him.
+
+A short time after they all got to living at Mt. Morris, Allen prevailed
+upon the Chiefs to give to his Indian children, a tract of land four miles
+square, where he then resided. The Chiefs gave them the land, but he so
+artfully contrived the conveyance, that he could apply it to his own use,
+and by alienating his right, destroy the claim of his children.
+
+Having secured the land, in that way, to himself, he sent his two Indian
+girls to Trenton, (N.J.) and his white son to Philadelphia, for the
+purpose of giving each of them a respectable English education.
+
+While his children were at school, he went to Philadelphia, and sold his
+right to the land which he had begged of the Indians for his children to
+Robert Morris. After that, he sent for his daughters to come home, which
+they did.
+
+Having disposed of the whole of his property on the Genesee river, he took
+his two white wives and their children, together with his effects, and
+removed to a Delaware town on the river De Trench, in Upper Canada. When
+he left Mt. Morris, Sally, his squaw, insisted upon going with him, and
+actually followed him, crying bitterly, and praying for his protection
+some two or three miles, till he absolutely bade her leave him, or he
+would punish her with severity.
+
+At length, finding her case hopeless, she returned to the Indians.
+
+At the great treaty at Big Tree, one of Allen's daughters claimed the land
+which he had sold to Morris. The claim was examined and decided against
+her in favor of Ogden, Trumbull, Rogers and others, who were the creditors
+of Robert Morris. Allen yet believed that his daughter had an indisputable
+right to the land in question, and got me to go with mother Farly, a half
+Indian woman, to assist him by interceding with Morris for it, and to urge
+the propriety of her claim. We went to Thomas Morris, and having stated to
+him our business, he told us plainly that he had no land to give away, and
+that as the title was good, he never would allow Allen, nor his heirs, one
+foot, or words to that effect. We returned to Allen the answer we had
+received, and he, conceiving all further attempts to be useless, went
+home.
+
+He died at the Delaware town, on the river De Trench, in the year 1814 or
+15, and left two white widows and one squaw, with a number of children, to
+lament his loss.
+
+By his last will he gave all his property to his last wife (Morilla,) and
+her children, without providing in the least for the support of Lucy, or
+any of the other members of his family. Lucy, soon after his death, went
+with her children down the Ohio river, to receive assistance from her
+friends.
+
+In the revolutionary war, Allen was a tory, and by that means became
+acquainted with our Indians, when they were in the neighborhood of his
+native place, desolating the settlements on the Susquehannah. In those
+predatory battles, he joined them, and (as I have often heard the Indians
+say,) for cruelty was not exceeded by any of his Indian comrades!
+
+At one time, when he was scouting with the Indians in the Susquehannah
+country, he entered a house very early in the morning, where he found a
+man, his wife, and one child, in bed. The man, as he entered the door,
+instantly sprang on the floor, for the purpose of defending himself and
+little family; but Allen dispatched him at one blow. He then cut off his
+head and threw it bleeding into the bed with the terrified woman; took the
+little infant from its mother's breast, and holding it by its legs, dashed
+its head against the jamb, and left the unhappy widow and mother to mourn
+alone over her murdered family. It has been said by some, that after he
+had killed the child, he opened the fire and buried it under the coals and
+embers: But of that I am not certain. I have often heard him speak of that
+transaction with a great degree of sorrow, and as the foulest crime he had
+ever committed--one for which I have no doubt he repented.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Mrs. Jemison has liberty to go to her Friends.--Chooses to stay.--Her
+Reasons, &c.--Her Indian Brother makes provision for her Settlement.--He
+goes to Grand River and dies.--Her Love for him, &c.--She is presented
+with the Gardow Reservation.--Is troubled by Speculators.--Description of
+the Soil, &c. of her Flats.--Indian notions of the ancient Inhabitants of
+this Country.
+
+Soon after the close of the revolutionary war, my Indian brother,
+Kau-jises-tau-ge-au (which being interpreted signifies Black Coals,)
+offered me my liberty, and told me that if it was my choice I might go to
+my friends.
+
+My son, Thomas, was anxious that I should go; and offered to go with me
+and assist me on the journey, by taking care of the younger children, and
+providing food as we travelled through the wilderness. But the Chiefs of
+our tribe, suspecting from his appearance, actions, and a few warlike
+exploits, that Thomas would be a great warrior, or a good counsellor,
+refused to let him leave them on any account whatever.
+
+To go myself, and leave him, was more than I felt able to do; for he had
+been kind to me, and was one on whom I placed great dependence. The Chiefs
+refusing to let him go, was one reason for my resolving to stay; but
+another, more powerful, if possible, was, that I had got a large family of
+Indian children, that I must take with me; and that if I should be so
+fortunate as to find my relatives, they would despise them, if not myself;
+and treat us as enemies; or, at least with a degree of cold indifference,
+which I thought I could not endure.
+
+Accordingly, after I had duly considered the matter, I told my brother
+that it was my choice to stay and spend the remainder of my days with my
+Indian friends, and live with my family as I had heretofore done. He
+appeared well pleased with my resolution, and informed me, that as that
+was my choice, I should have a piece of land that I could call my own,
+where I could live unmolested, and have something at my decease to leave
+for the benefit of my children.
+
+In a short time he made himself ready to go to Upper Canada; but before he
+left us, he told me that he would speak to some of the Chiefs at Buffalo,
+to attend the great Council, which he expected would convene in a few
+years at farthest, and convey to me such a tract of land as I should
+select. My brother left us, as he had proposed, and soon after died at
+Grand River.
+
+Kaujisestaugeau, was an excellent man, and ever treated me with kindness.
+Perhaps no one of his tribe at any time exceeded him in natural mildness
+of temper, and warmth and tenderness of affection. If he had taken my life
+at the time when the avarice of the old King inclined him to procure my
+emancipation, it would have been done with a pure heart and from good
+motives. He loved his friends; and was generally beloved. During the time
+that I lived in the family with him, he never offered the most trifling
+abuse; on the contrary, his whole conduct towards me was strictly
+honorable. I mourned his loss as that of a tender brother, and shall
+recollect him through life with emotions of friendship and gratitude.
+
+I lived undisturbed, without hearing a word on the subject of my land,
+till the great Council was held at Big Tree, in 1797, when Farmer's
+Brother, whose Indian name is Ho-na-ye-wus, sent for me to attend the
+council. When I got there, he told me that my brother had spoken to him to
+see that I had a piece of land reserved for my use; and that then was the
+time for me to receive it.--He requested that I would choose for myself
+and describe the bounds of a piece that would suit me. I accordingly told
+him the place of beginning, and then went round a tract that I judged
+would be sufficient for my purpose, (knowing that it would include the
+Gardow Flats,) by stating certain bounds with which I was acquainted.
+
+When the Council was opened, and the business afforded a proper
+opportunity, Farmer's Brother presented my claim, and rehearsed the
+request of my brother. Red Jacket, whose Indian name is Sagu-yu-what-hah,
+which interpreted, as Keeper-awake, opposed me or my claim with all his
+influence and eloquence. Farmer's Brother insisted upon the necessity,
+propriety and expediency of his proposition, and got the land granted. The
+deed was made and signed, securing to me the title to all the land I had
+described; under the same restrictions and regulations that other Indian
+lands are subject to.
+
+That land has ever since been known by the name of the Gardow Tract.
+
+Red Jacket not only opposed my claim at the Council, but he withheld my
+money two or three years, on the account of my lands having been granted
+without his consent. Parrish and Jones at length convinced him that it was
+the white people, and not the Indians who had given me the land, and
+compelled him to pay over all the money which he had retained on my
+account.
+
+My land derived its name, Gardow, from a hill that is within its limits,
+which is called in the Seneca language Kau-tam. Kautam when interpreted
+signifies up and down, or down and up, and is applied to a hill that you
+will ascend and descend in passing it; or to a valley. It has been said
+that Gardow was the name of my husband Hiokatoo, and that my land derived
+its name from him; that however was a mistake, for the old man always
+considered Gardow a nickname, and was uniformly offended when called by it.
+
+About three hundred acres of my land, when I first saw it, was open flats,
+lying on the Genesee River, which it is supposed was cleared by a race of
+inhabitants who preceded the first Indian settlements in this part of the
+country. The Indians are confident that many parts of this country were
+settled and for a number of years occupied by people of whom their fathers
+never had any tradition, as they never had seen them. Whence those people
+originated, and whither they went, I have never heard one of our oldest
+and wisest Indians pretend to guess. When I first came to Genishau, the
+bank of Fall Brook had just slid off and exposed a large number of human
+bones, which the Indians said were buried there long before their fathers
+ever saw the place; and that they did not know what kind of people they
+were. It however was and is believed by our people, that they were not
+Indians.
+
+My flats were extremely fertile; but needed more labor than my daughters
+and myself were able to perform, to produce a sufficient quantity of grain
+and other necessary productions of the earth, for the consumption of our
+family. The land had lain uncultivated so long that it was thickly covered
+with weeds of almost every description. In order that we might live more
+easy, Mr. Parrish, with the consent of the chiefs, gave me liberty to
+lease or my land to white people to till on shares. I accordingly let it
+out, and have continued to do so, which makes my task less burthensome,
+while at the same time I am more comfortably supplied with the means of
+support.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Happy situation of her Family.--Disagreement between her sons Thomas and
+John.--Her Advice to them, &c.--John kills Thomas;--Her
+Affliction.--Council. Decision of the Chiefs, &c.--Life of Thomas.--His
+Wives, Children; &c.--Cause of his Death, &c.
+
+I have frequently heard it asserted by white people, and can truly say
+from my own experience that the time at which parents take the most
+satisfaction and comfort with their families is when their children are
+young, incapable of providing for their own wants, and are about the
+fireside, where they can be daily observed and instructed.
+
+Few mothers, perhaps, have had less trouble with their children during
+their minority than myself. In general, my children were friendly to each
+other, and it was very seldom that I knew them to have the least
+difference or quarrel: so far, indeed, were they from rendering themselves
+or me uncomfortable, that I considered myself happy--more so than commonly
+falls to the lot of parents, especially to women.
+
+My happiness in this respect, however, was not without alloy; for my son
+Thomas, from some cause unknown to me, from the time he was a small lad,
+always called his brother John, a witch, which was the cause, as they grew
+towards manhood, of frequent and severe quarrels between them, and gave me
+much trouble and anxiety for their safety. After Thomas and John arrived
+to manhood, in addition to the former charge, John got two wives, with
+whom he lived till the time of his death. Although polygamy was tolerated
+in our tribe, Thomas considered it a violation of good and wholesome rules
+in society, and tending directly to destroy that friendly social
+intercourse and love, that ought to be the happy result of matrimony and
+chastity. Consequently, he frequently reprimanded John, by telling him
+that his conduct was beneath the dignity, and inconsistent with the
+principles of good Indians; indecent and unbecoming a gentleman; and, as
+he never could reconcile himself to it, he was frequently, almost
+constantly, when they were together, talking to him on the same subject.
+John always resented such reprimand, and reproof, with a great degree of
+passion, though they never quarrelled, unless Thomas was intoxicated.
+
+In his fits of drunkenness, Thomas seemed to lose all his natural reason,
+and to conduct like a wild or crazy man, without regard to relatives,
+decency or propriety. At such times he often threatened to take my life
+for having raised a witch, (as he called John,) and has gone so far as to
+raise his tomahawk to split my head. He, however, never struck me; but on
+John's account he struck Hiokatoo, and thereby excited in John a high
+degree of indignation, which was extinguished only by blood.
+
+For a number of years their difficulties, and consequent unhappiness,
+continued and rather increased, continually exciting in my breast the most
+fearful apprehensions, and greatest anxiety for their safety. With tears
+in my eyes, I advised them to become reconciled to each other, and to be
+friendly; told them the consequences of their continuing to cherish so
+much malignity and malice, that it would end in their destruction, the
+disgrace of their families, and bring me down to the grave. No one can
+conceive of the constant trouble that I daily endured on their account--on
+the account of my two oldest sons, whom I loved equally, and with all the
+feelings and affection of a tender mother, stimulated by an anxious
+concern for their fate. Parents, mothers especially, will love their
+children, though ever so unkind and disobedient. Their eyes of compassion,
+of real sentimental affection, will be involuntarily extended after them,
+in their greatest excesses of iniquity; and those fine filaments of
+consanguinity, which gently entwine themselves around the heart where
+filial love and parental care is equal, will be lengthened, and enlarged
+to cords seemingly of sufficient strength to reach and reclaim the
+wanderer. I know that such exercises are frequently unavailing; but,
+notwithstanding their ultimate failure, it still remains true, and ever
+will, that the love of a parent for a disobedient child, will increase,
+and grow more and more ardent, so long as a hope of its reformation is
+capable of stimulating a disappointed breast.
+
+My advice and expostulations with my sons were abortive; and year after
+year their disaffection for each other increased. At length, Thomas came
+to my house on the 1st day of July, 1811, in my absence, somewhat
+intoxicated, where he found John, with whom he immediately commenced a
+quarrel on their old subjects of difference.--John's anger became
+desperate. He caught Thomas by the hair of his head, dragged him out at
+the door and there killed him, by a blow which he gave him on the head
+with his tomahawk!
+
+I returned soon after, and found my son lifeless at the door, on the spot
+where he was killed! No one can judge of my feelings on seeing this
+mournful spectacle; and what greatly added to my distress, was the fact
+that he had fallen by the murderous hand of his brother! I felt my
+situation unsupportable. Having passed through various scenes of trouble
+of the most cruel and trying kind, I had hoped to spend my few remaining
+days in quietude, and to die in peace, surrounded by my family. This fatal
+event, however, seemed to be a stream of woe poured into my cup of
+afflictions, filling it even to overflowing, and blasting all my prospects.
+
+As soon as I had recovered a little from the shock which I felt at the
+sight of my departed son, and some of my neighbors had come in to assist
+in taking care of the corpse, I hired Shanks, an Indian, to go to Buffalo,
+and carry the sorrowful news of Thomas' death, to our friends at that
+place, and request the Chiefs to hold a Council, and dispose of John as
+they should think proper. Shanks set out on his errand immediately,--and
+John, fearing that he should be apprehended and punished for the crime he
+had committed, at the same time went off towards Caneadea.
+
+Thomas was decently interred in a style corresponding with his rank.
+
+The Chiefs soon assembled in council on the trial of John, and after
+having seriously examined the matter according to their laws, justified
+his conduct, and acquitted him. They considered Thomas to have been the
+first transgressor, and that for the abuses which he had offered, he had
+merited from John the treatment that he had received.
+
+John, on learning the decision of the council, returned to his family.
+
+Thomas (except when intoxicated, which was not frequent,) was a kind and
+tender child, willing to assist me in my labor, and to remove every
+obstacle to my comfort. His natural abilities were said to be of a
+superior cast, and he soared above the trifling subjects of revenge, which
+are common amongst Indians, as being far beneath his attention. In his
+childish and boyish days, his natural turn was to practise in the art of
+war, though he despised the cruelties that the warriors inflicted upon
+their subjugated enemies. He was manly in his deportment, courageous and,
+active; and commanded respect. Though he appeared well pleased with peace,
+he was cunning in Indian warfare, and succeeded to admiration in the
+execution of his plans.
+
+At the age of fourteen or fifteen years, he went into the war with manly
+fortitude, armed with a tomahawk and scalping knife; and when he returned,
+brought one white man a prisoner, whom he had taken with his own hands, on
+the west branch of the Susquehannah river. It so happened, that as he was
+looking out for his enemies, he discovered two men boiling sap in the
+woods. He watched them unperceived, till dark when he advanced with a
+noiseless step to where they were standing, caught one of them before they
+were apprized of danger, and conducted him to the camp. He was well
+treated while a prisoner, and redeemed at the close of the war.
+
+At the time Kaujisestaugeau gave me my liberty to go to my friends, Thomas
+was anxious to go with me; but as I have before observed, the Chiefs would
+not suffer him to leave them on the account of his courage and skill in
+war: expecting that they should need his assistance. He was a great
+Counsellor and a Chief when quite young; and in the last capacity, went
+two or three times to Philadelphia to assist in making treaties with the
+people of the states.
+
+Thomas had four wives, by whom he had eight children. Jacob Jemison, his
+second son by his last wife, who is at this time twenty-seven or
+twenty-eight years of age, went to Dartmouth college, in the spring of
+1816, for the purpose of receiving a good education, where it was said
+that he was an industrious scholar, and made great proficiency in the
+study of the different branches to which he attended. Having spent two
+years at that Institution, he returned in the winter of 1818, and is now
+at Buffalo; where I have understood that he contemplates commencing the
+study of medicine, as a profession.
+
+Thomas, at the time he was killed, was a few moons over fifty-two years
+old, and John was forty-eight. As he was naturally good natured, and
+possessed a friendly disposition, he would not have come to so untimely an
+end, had it not been far his intemperance. He fell a victim to the use of
+ardent spirits--a poison that will soon exterminate the Indian tribes in
+this part of the country, and leave their names without a root or branch.
+The thought is melancholy; but no arguments, no examples, however
+persuasive or impressive, are sufficient to deter an Indian for an hour
+from taking the potent draught, which he knows at the time will derange
+his faculties, reduce him to a level with the beasts, or deprive him of
+life!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+Death of Hiokatoo.--Biography.--His Birth--Education.--Goes against the
+Cherokees, &c.--Bloody Battle, &c.--His success and cruelties in the
+French War.--Battle at Fort Freeland.--Capts. Dougherty and Boon
+killed.--His Cruelties in the neighborhood of Cherry Valley, &c.--Indians
+remove their general Encampment.--In 1782, Col. Crawford is sent to
+destroy them, &c.--Is met by a Traitor,--Battle.--Crawford's Men
+surprized.--Irregular Retreat.--Crawford and Doct. Night
+taken.--Council.--Crawford Condemned and Burnt.--Aggravating
+Circumstances.--Night is sentenced to be Burnt.--Is Painted by
+Hiokatoo.--Is conducted off, &c.--His fortunate Escape.--Hiokatoo in the
+French War takes Col. Canton.--His Sentence.--Is bound on a wild Colt that
+runs loose three days.--Returns Alive.--Is made to run the Gauntlet.--Gets
+knocked down, &c.--Is Redeemed and sent Home.--Hiokatoo's Enmity to the
+Cherokees, &c.--His Height--Strength--Speed, &c.
+
+In the month of November 1811, my husband Hiokatoo, who had been sick four
+years of the consumption, died at the advanced age of one hundred and
+three years, as nearly as the time could be estimated. He was the last
+that remained to me of our family connection, or rather of my old friends
+with whom I was adopted, except a part of one family, which now lives at
+Tonewanta.
+
+Hiokatoo was buried decently, and had all the insignia of a veteran
+warrior buried with him; consisting of a war club, tomahawk and scalping
+knife, a powder-flask, flint, a piece of spunk, a small cake and a cup;
+and in his best clothing.
+
+Hiokatoo was an old man when I first saw him; but he was by no means
+enervated. During the term of nearly fifty years that I lived with him, I
+received, according to Indian customs, all the kindness and attention that
+was my due as his wife.--Although war was his trade from his youth till
+old age and decrepitude stopt his career, he uniformly treated me with
+tenderness, and never offered an insult.
+
+I have frequently heard him repeat the history of his life from his
+childhood; and when he came to that part which related to his actions, his
+bravery and his valor in war; when he spoke of the ambush, the combat, the
+spoiling of his enemies and the sacrifice of the victims, his nerves
+seemed strung with youthful ardor, the warmth of the able warrior seemed
+to animate his frame, and to produce the heated gestures which he had
+practised in middle age. He was a man of tender feelings to his friends,
+ready and willing to assist them in distress, yet, as a warrior, his
+cruelties to his enemies perhaps were unparalleled, and will not admit a
+word of palliation.
+
+Hiokatoo, was born in one of the tribes of the Six Nations that inhabited
+the banks of the Susquehannah; or, rather he belonged to a tribe of the
+Senecas that made, at the time of the great Indian treaty, a part of those
+nations. He was own cousin to Farmer's Brother, a Chief who has been
+justly celebrated for his worth. Their mothers were sisters, and it was
+through the influence of Farmer's Brother, that I became Hiokatoo's wife.
+
+In early life, Hiokatoo showed signs of thirst for blood, by attending
+only to the art of war, in the use of the tomahawk and scalping knife; and
+in practising cruelties upon every thing that chanced to fall into his
+hands, which was susceptible of pain. In that way he learned to use his
+implements of war effectually, and at the same time blunted all those fine
+feelings and tender sympathies that are naturally excited, by hearing or
+seeing, a fellow being in distress. He could inflict the most excruciating
+tortures upon his enemies, and prided himself upon his fortitude, in
+having performed the most barbarous ceremonies and tortures, without the
+least degree of pity or remorse. Thus qualified, when very young he was
+initiated into scenes of carnage, by being engaged in the wars that
+prevailed amongst the Indian tribes.
+
+In the year 1731, he was appointed a runner, to assist in collecting an
+army to go against the Cotawpes, Cherokees and other southern Indians. A
+large army was collected, and after a long and fatiguing march, met its
+enemies in what was then called the "low, dark and bloody lands," near the
+mouth of Red River, in what is now called the state of Kentucky.
+[Footnote: Those powerful armies met near the place that is now called
+Clarksville, which is situated at the fork where Red River joins the
+Cumberland, a few miles above the line between Kentucky and Tennessee.]
+The Cotawpes [Footnote: The Author acknowledges himself unacquainted, from
+Indian history, with a nation of this name; but as 90 years have elapsed
+since the date of this occurrence, it is highly probable that such a
+nation did exist, and that it was absolutely exterminated at that eventful
+period.] and their associates, had, by some means, been apprized of their
+approach, and lay in ambush to take them at once, when they should come
+within their reach, and destroy the whole army. The northern Indians, with
+their usual sagacity, discovered the situation of their enemies, rushed
+upon the ambuscade and massacred 1200 on the spot. The battle continued
+for two days and two nights, with the utmost severity, in which the
+northern Indians were victorious, and so far succeeded in destroying the
+Cotawpes that they at that time ceased to be a nation. The victors
+suffered an immense loss in killed; but gained the hunting ground, which
+was their grand object, though the Cherokees would not give it up in a
+treaty, or consent to make peace. Bows and arrows, at that time were in
+general use, though a few guns were employed.
+
+From that time he was engaged in a number of battles in which Indians only
+were engaged, and that made fighting his business, till the commencement
+of the French war. In those battles he took a number of Indians prisoners,
+whom he killed by tying them to trees and then setting small Indian boys
+to shooting at them with arrows, till death finished the misery of the
+sufferers; a process that frequently took two days for its completion!
+
+During the French war he was in every battle that was fought on the
+Susquehannah and Ohio rivers; and was so fortunate as never to have been
+taken prisoner.
+
+At Braddock's defeat he took two white prisoners, and burnt them alive in
+a fire of his own kindling.
+
+In 1777, he was in the battle at Fort Freeland, in Northumberland county,
+Penn. The fort contained a great number of women and children, and was
+defended only by a small garrison. The force that went against it
+consisted of 100 British regulars, commanded by a Col. McDonald, and 300
+Indians under Hiokatoo. After a short but bloody engagement, the fort was
+surrendered; the women and children were sent under an escort to the next
+fort below, and the men and boys taken off by a party of British to the
+general Indian encampment. As soon as the fort had capitulated and the
+firing had ceased, Hiokatoo with the help of a few Indians tomahawked
+every wounded American while earnestly begging with uplifted hands for
+quarters.
+
+The massacre was but just finished when Capts. Dougherty and Boon arrived
+with a reinforcement to assist the garrison. On their arriving in sight of
+the fort they saw that it had surrendered, and that an Indian was holding
+the flag. This so much inflamed Capt. Dougherty that he left his command,
+stept forward and shot the Indian at the first fire. Another took the
+flag, and had no sooner got it erected than Dougherty dropt him as he had
+the first. A third presumed to hold it, who was also shot down by
+Dougherty. Hiokatoo, exasperated at the sight of such bravery, sallied out
+with a party of his Indians, and killed Capts. Dougherty, Boon, and
+fourteen men, at the first fire. The remainder of the two companies
+escaped by taking to flight, and soon arrived at the fort which they had
+left but a few hours before.
+
+In an expedition that went out against Cherry Valley and the neighboring
+settlements, Captain David, a Mohawk Indian, was first, and Hiokatoo the
+second in command. The force consisted of several hundred Indians, who
+were determined on mischief, and the destruction of the whites. A
+continued series of wantonness and barbarity characterized their career,
+for they plundered and burnt every thing that came in their way, and
+killed a number of persons, among whom were several infants, whom Hiokatoo
+butchered or dashed upon the stones with his own hands. Besides the
+instances which have been mentioned, he was in a number of parties during
+the revolutionary war, where he ever acted a conspicuous part.
+
+The Indians having removed the seat of their depredations and war to the
+frontiers of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky and the neighboring territories,
+assembled a large force at Upper Sandusky, their place of general
+rendezvous, from whence they went out to the various places which they
+designed to sacrifice.
+
+Tired of the desolating scenes that were so often witnessed, and feeling a
+confidence that the savages might be subdued, and an end put to their
+crimes, the American government raised a regiment, consisting of 300
+volunteers, for the purpose of dislodging them from their cantonment and
+preventing further barbarities. Col. William Crawford and Lieut. Col.
+David Williamson, men who had been thoroughly tried and approved, were
+commissioned by Gen. Washington to take the command of a service that
+seemed all-important to the welfare of the country. In the month of July,
+1782, well-armed and provided with a sufficient quantity of provision,
+this regiment made an expeditious march through the wilderness to Upper
+Sandusky, where, as had been anticipated, they found the Indians assembled
+in full force at their encampment, prepared to receive an attack.
+
+As Col. Crawford and his brave band advanced, and when they had got within
+a short distance from the town, they were met by a white man, with a flag
+of truce from the Indians, who proposed to Col. Crawford that if he would
+surrender himself and his men to the Indians, their lives should be
+spared; but, that if they persisted in their undertaking, and attacked the
+town, they should all be massacred to a man.
+
+Crawford, while hearing the proposition, attentively surveyed its bearer,
+and recognized in his features one of his former schoolmates and
+companions, with whom he was perfectly acquainted, by the name of Simon
+Gurty. Gurty, but a short time before this, had been a soldier in the
+American army, in the same regiment with Crawford; but on the account of
+his not having received the promotion that he expected, he became
+disaffected--swore an eternal war with his countrymen, fled to the
+Indians, and joined them, as a leader well qualified to conduct them to
+where they could satiate their thirst for blood, upon the innocent,
+unoffending and defenceless settlers.
+
+Crawford sternly inquired of the traitor if his name was not Simon Gurty;
+and being answered in the affirmative, he informed him that he despised
+the offer which he had made; and that he would not surrender his army
+unless he should be compelled to do so, by a superior force.
+
+Gurty returned, and Crawford immediately commenced an engagement that
+lasted till night, without the appearance of victory on either side, when
+the firing ceased, and the combatants on both sides retired to take
+refreshment, and to rest through the night. Crawford encamped in the woods
+near half a mile from the town, where, after the centinels were placed,
+and each had taken his ration, they slept on their arms, that they might
+be instantly ready in case they should be attacked. The stillness of death
+hovered over the little army, and sleep relieved the whole, except the
+wakeful centinels who vigilantly attended to their duty.--But what was
+their surprise, when they found late in the night, that they were
+surrounded by the Indians on every side, except a narrow space between
+them and the town? Every man was under arms, and the officers instantly
+consulted each other on the best method of escaping; for they saw that to
+fight, would be useless, and that to surrender, would be death.
+
+Crawford proposed a retreat through the ranks of the enemy in an opposite
+direction from the town, as being the most sure course to take. Lt. Col.
+Williamson advised to march directly through the town, where there
+appeared to be no Indians, and the fires were yet burning.
+
+There was no time or place for debates: Col. Crawford, with sixty
+followers retreated on the route that he had proposed by attempting to
+rush through the enemy; but they had no sooner got amongst the Indians,
+than every man was killed or taken prisoner! Amongst the prisoners, were
+Col. Crawford, and Doct. Night, surgeon of the regiment.
+
+Lt. Col. Williamson, with the remainder of the regiment, together with the
+wounded, set out at the same time that Crawford did, went through the town
+without losing a man, and by the help of good guides arrived at their
+homes in safety.
+
+The next day after the engagement the Indians disposed of all their
+prisoners to the different tribes, except Col. Crawford and Doct. Night;
+but those unfortunate men were reserved for a more cruel destiny. A
+council was immediately held on Sandusky plains, consisting of all the
+Chiefs and warriors, ranged in their customary order, in a circular form;
+and Crawford and Night were brought forward and seated in the centre of
+the circle.
+
+The council being opened, the Chiefs began to examine Crawford on various
+subjects relative to the war. At length they enquired who conducted the
+military operations of the American army on the Ohio and Susquehannah
+rivers, during the year before; and who had led that army against them
+with so much skill and so uniform success? Crawford very honestly and
+without suspecting any harm from his reply promptly answered that he was
+the man who had led his countrymen to victory, who had driven the enemy
+from the settlements, and by that means had procured a great degree of
+happiness to many of his fellow-citizens. Upon hearing this, a Chief, who
+had lost a son in the year before, in a battle where Colonel Crawford
+commanded, left his station in the council, stepped to Crawford, blacked
+his face, and at the same time told him that the next day he should be
+burnt.
+
+The council was immediately dissolved on its hearing the sentence from the
+Chief, and the prisoners were taken off the ground, and kept in custody
+through the night. Crawford now viewed his fate as sealed; and despairing
+of ever returning to his home or his country, only dreaded the tediousness
+of death, as commonly inflicted by the savages, and earnestly hoped that
+he might be despatched at a single blow.
+
+Early the next morning, the Indians assembled at the place of execution,
+and Crawford was led to the post--the goal of savage torture, to which he
+was fastened. The post was a stick of timber placed firmly in the ground,
+having an arm framed in at the top, and extending some six or eight feet
+from it, like the arm of a sign post. A pile of wood containing about two
+cords, lay a few feet from the place where he stood, which he was informed
+was to be kindled into a fire that would burn him alive, as many had been
+burnt on the same spot, who had been much less deserving than himself.
+
+Gurty stood and supposedly looked on the preparations that were making for
+the funeral of one his former playmates; a hero by whose side he had
+fought; of a man whose valor had won laurels which, if he could have
+returned, would have been strewed upon his grave, by his grateful
+countrymen. Dreading the agony that he saw he was about to feel, Crawford
+used every argument which his perilous situation could suggest to prevail
+upon Gurty to ransom him at any price, and deliver him (as it was in his
+power,) from the savages, and their torments. Gurty heard his prayers, and
+expostulations, and saw his tears with indifference, and finally told the
+forsaken victim that he would not procure him a moment's respite, nor
+afford him the most trifling assistance.
+
+The Col. was then bound, stripped naked and tied by his wrists to the arm,
+which extended horizontally from the post, in such a manner that his arms
+were extended over his head, with his feet just standing upon the ground.
+This being done, the savages placed the wood in a circle around him at the
+distance of a few feet, in order that his misery might be protracted to
+the greatest length, and then kindled it in a number of places at the same
+time. The flames arose and the scorching heat became almost insupportable.
+Again he prayed to Gurty in all the anguish of his torment, to rescue him
+from the fire, or shoot him dead upon the spot. A demoniac smile suffused
+the countenance of Gurty, while he calmly replied to the dying suppliant,
+that he had no pity for his sufferings; but that he was then satisfying
+that spirit of revenge, which for a long time he had hoped to have an
+opportunity to wreak upon him. Nature now almost exhausted from the
+intensity of the heat, he settled down a little, when a squaw threw coals
+of fire and embers upon him, which made him groan most piteously, while
+the whole camp rung with exultation. During the execution they manifested
+all the exstacy of a complete triumph. Poor Crawford soon died and was
+entirely consumed.
+
+Thus ended the life of a patriot and hero, who had been an intimate with
+Gen. Washington, and who shared in an eminent degree the confidence of
+that great, good man, to whom, in the time of revolutionary perils, the
+sons of legitimate freedom looked with a degree of faith in his mental
+resources, unequalled in the history of the world.
+
+That tragedy being ended, Doct. Night was informed that on the next day he
+should be burnt in the same manner that his comrade Crawford had been, at
+Lower Sandusky. Hiokatoo, who out had been a leading chief in the battle
+with, and in the execution of Crawford, painted Doct. Night's face black,
+and then bound and gave him up to two able bodied Indians to conduct to
+the place of execution.
+
+They set off with him immediately, and travelled till towards evening,
+when they halted to encamp till morning. The afternoon had been very
+rainy, and the storm still continued, which rendered it very difficult for
+the Indians to kindle a fire. Night observing the difficulty under which
+they labored, made them to understand by signs, that if they would unbind
+him, he would assist them.--They, accordingly unbound him, and he soon
+succeeded in making a fire by the application of small dry stuff which he
+was at considerable trouble to procure. While the Indians were warming
+themselves, the Doct. continued to gather wood to last through the night,
+and in doing this, he found a club which he placed in a situation from
+whence he could take it conveniently whenever an opportunity should
+present itself in which he could use it effectually. The Indians continued
+warming, till at length the Doct. saw that they had placed themselves in a
+favorable position for the execution of his design, when, stimulated by
+the love of life, he cautiously took his club and at two blows knocked
+them both down. Determined to finish the work of death which he had so
+well begun, he drew one of their scalping knives, with which he beheaded
+and scalped them both! He then took a rifle, tomahawk, and some
+ammunition, and directed his course for home, where he arrived without
+having experienced any difficulty on his journey.
+
+The next morning, the Indians took the track of their victim and his
+attendants, to go to Lower Sandusky, and there execute the sentence which
+they had pronounced upon him. But what was their surprise and
+disappointment, when they arrived at the place of encampment, where they
+found their trusty friends scalped and decapitated, and that their
+prisoner had made his escape?--Chagrined beyond measure, they immediately
+separated, and went in every direction in pursuit of their prey; but after
+having spent a number of days unsuccessfully, they gave up the chase, and
+returned to their encampment. [Footnote: I have understood, (from
+unauthenticated sources however,) that soon after the revolutionary war,
+Doct. Night published a pamphlet, containing an account of the battle at
+Sandusky, and of his own sufferings. My information on this subject, was
+derived from a different quarter.
+
+The subject of this narrative in giving the account of her last husband,
+Hiokatoo, referred us to Mr. George Jemison, who, (as it will be noticed)
+lived on her land a number of years, and who had frequently heard the old
+Chief relate the story of his life; particularly that part which related
+to his military career. Mr. Jemison; on being enquired of, gave the
+foregoing account, partly from his own personal knowledge, and the
+remainder, from the account given by Hiokatoo.
+
+Mr. Jemison was in the battle, was personally acquainted with Col.
+Crawford, and one that escaped with Lt. Col. Williamson. We have no doubt
+of the truth of the statement, and have therefore inserted the whole
+account, as an addition to the historical facts which are daily coming
+into a state of preservation, in relation to the American Revolution.
+
+AUTHOR.]
+
+In the time of the French war, in an engagement that took place on the
+Ohio river, Hiokatoo took a British Col. by the name of Simon Canton, whom
+he carried to the Indian encampment. A council was held, and the Col. was
+sentenced to suffer death, by being tied on a wild colt, with his face
+towards its tail, and then having the colt turned loose to run where it
+pleased. He was accordingly tied on, and the colt let loose, agreeable to
+the sentence. The colt run two days, and then returned with its rider yet
+alive. The Indians, thinking that he would never die in that way, took him
+off, and made him run the gauntlet three times; but in the last race a
+squaw knocked him down, and he was supposed to have been dead. He,
+however, recovered, and was sold for fifty dollars to a Frenchman, who
+sent him as a prisoner to Detroit. On the return of the Frenchman to
+Detroit, the Col. besought him to ransom him, and give, or set him at
+liberty, with so much warmth, and promised with so much solemnity, to
+reward him as one of the best of benefactors, if he would let him go, that
+the Frenchman took his word, and sent him home to his family. The Col.
+remembered his promise, and in a short time sent his deliverer one hundred
+and fifty dollars, as a reward for his generosity.
+
+Since the commencement of the revolutionary war, Hiokatoo has been in
+seventeen campaigns, four of which were in the Cherokee war. He was so
+great an enemy to the Cherokees, and so fully determined upon their
+subjugation, that on his march to their country, he raised his own army
+for those four campaigns, and commanded it; and also superintended its
+subsistence. In one of those campaigns, which continued two whole years
+without intermission, he attacked his enemies on the Mobile, drove them to
+the country of the Creek Nation, where he continued to harrass them, till
+being tired of war, he returned to his family. He brought home a great
+number of scalps, which he had taken from the enemy, and ever seemed to
+possess an unconquerable will that the Cherokees might be utterly
+destroyed. Towards the close of his last fighting in that country, he took
+two squaws, whom he sold on his way home for money to defray the expense
+of his journey.
+
+Hiokatoo was about six feet four or five inches high, large boned, and
+rather inclined to leanness. He was very stout and active, for a man of
+his size, for it was said by himself and others, that he had never found
+an Indian who could keep up with him on a race, or throw him at wrestling.
+His eye was quick and penetrating; and his voice was of that harsh and
+powerful kind, which, amongst, Indians, always commands attention. His
+health had been uniformly good. He never was confined by sickness, till he
+was attacked with the consumption, four years before his death. And,
+although he had, from his earliest days, been inured to almost constant
+fatigue, and exposure to every inclemency of the weather, in the open air
+he seemed to lose the vigor of the prime of life only by the natural decay
+occasioned by old age.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+Her Troubles Renewed.--John's Jealousy towards his brother
+Jesse.--Circumstances attending the Murder of Jesse Jemison.--Her
+Grief.--His Funeral--Age--Filial Kindness, &c.
+
+Being now left a widow in my old age, to mourn the loss of a husband, who
+had treated me well and with whom I had raised five children, and having
+suffered the loss of an affectionate son, I fondly fostered the hope that
+my melancholy vicissitudes had ended, and that the remainder of my time
+would be characterized by nothing unpropitious. My children, dutiful and
+kind, lived near me, and apparently nothing obstructed our happiness.
+
+But a short time, however, elapsed after my husband's death, before my
+troubles were renewed with redoubled severity.
+
+John's hands having been once stained in the blood of a brother, it was
+not strange that after his acquital, every person of his acquaintance
+should shun him, from a fear of his repeating upon them the same ceremony
+that he had practised upon Thomas. My son Jesse, went to Mt. Morris, a few
+miles from home, on business, in the winter after the death of his father;
+and it so happened that his brother John was there, who requested Jesse to
+come home with him. Jesse, fearing that John would commence a quarrel with
+him on the way, declined the invitation, and tarried over night.
+
+From that time John conceived himself despised by Jesse, and was highly
+enraged at the treatment which he had received. Very little was said,
+however, and it all passed off, apparently, till sometime in the month of
+May, 1812, at which time Mr. Robert Whaley, who lived in the town of
+Castile, within four miles of me, came to my house early on Monday
+morning, to hire George Chongo, my son-in-law, and John and Jesse, to go
+that day and help him slide a quantity of boards from the top of the hill
+to the river, where he calculated to build a raft of them for market.
+
+They all concluded to go with Mr. Whaley, and made ready as soon as
+possible. But before they set out I charged them not to drink any whiskey;
+for I was confident that if they did, they would surely have a quarrel in
+consequence of it. They went and worked till almost night, when a quarrel
+ensued between Chongo and Jesse, in consequence of the whiskey that they
+had drank through the day, which terminated in a battle, and Chongo got
+whipped.
+
+When Jesse had got through with Chongo, he told Mr. Whaley that he would
+go home, and directly went off. He, however, went but a few rods before he
+stopped and lay down by the side of a log to wait, (as was supposed,) for
+company. John, as soon as Jesse was gone, went to Mr. Whaley with his
+knife in his hand and bade him jogo (i. e. be gone,) at the same time
+telling him that Jesse was a bad man. Mr. Whaley, seeing that his
+countenance was changed, and that he was determined upon something
+desperate, was alarmed for his own safety, and turned towards home,
+leaving Chongo on the ground drunk, near to where Jesse had lain, who by
+this time had got up, and was advancing towards John. Mr. Whaley was soon
+out of hearing of them; but some of his workmen staid till it was dark.
+Jesse came up to John, and said to him, you want more whiskey, and more
+fighting, and after a few words went at him, to try in the first place to
+get away his knife. In this he did not succeed, and they parted. By this
+time the night had come on, and it was dark. Again they clenched and at
+length in their struggle they both fell. John, having his knife in his
+hand, came under, and in that situation gave Jesse a fatal stab with his
+knife, and repeated the blows till Jesse cried out, brother, you have
+killed me, quit his hold and settled back upon the ground. Upon hearing
+this, John left him and came to Thomas' widow's house, told them that he
+had been fighting with their uncle, whom he had killed, and showed them
+his knife.
+
+Next morning as soon as it was light, Thomas' and John's children came and
+told me that Jesse was dead in the woods, and also informed me how he came
+by his death. John soon followed them and informed me himself of all that
+had taken place between him and his brother, and seemed to be somewhat
+sorrowful for his conduct. You can better imagine what my feelings were
+than I can describe them. My darling son, my youngest child, him on whom I
+depended, was dead; and I in my old age left destitute of a helping hand!
+
+As soon as it was consistent for me, I got Mr. George Jemison, (of whom I
+shall have occasion to speak,) to go with his sleigh to where Jesse was,
+and bring him home, a distance of 3 or 4 miles. My daughter Polly arrived
+at the fatal spot first: we got there soon after her; though I went the
+whole distance on foot. By this time, Chongo, (who was left on the ground
+drunk the night before,) had become sober and sensible of the great
+misfortune which had happened to our family.
+
+I was overcome with grief at the sight of my murdered son, and so far lost
+the command of myself as to be almost frantic; and those who were present
+were obliged to hold me from going near him.
+
+On examining the body it was found that it had received eighteen wounds so
+deep and large that it was believed that either of them would have proved
+mortal. The corpse was carried to my house, and kept till the Thursday
+following, when it was buried after the manner of burying white people.
+
+Jesse was twenty-seven or eight years old when he was killed. His temper
+had been uniformly very mild and friendly; and he was inclined to copy
+after the white people; both in his manners and dress. Although he was
+naturally temperate, he occasionally became intoxicated; but never was
+quarrelsome or mischievous. With the white people he was intimate, and
+learned from them their habits of industry, which he was fond of
+practising, especially when my comfort demanded his labor. As I have
+observed, it is the custom amongst the Indians, for the women to perform
+all the labor in, and out of doors, and I had the whole to do, with the
+help of my daughters, till Jesse arrived to a sufficient age to assist us.
+He was disposed to labor in the cornfield, to chop my wood, milk my cows,
+and attend to any kind of business that would make my task the lighter. On
+the account of his having been my youngest child, and so willing to help
+me, I am sensible that I loved him better than I did either of my other
+children. After he began to understand my situation, and the means of
+rendering it more easy, I never wanted for anything that was in his power
+to bestow; but since his death, as I have had all my labor to perform
+alone, I have constantly seen hard times.
+
+Jesse shunned the company of his brothers, and the Indians generally; and
+never attended their frolics; and it was supposed that this, together with
+my partiality for him, were the causes which excited in John so great a
+degree of envy, that nothing short of death would satisfy it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+Mrs. Jemison is informed that she has a Cousin in the Neighborhood, by the
+name of George Jemison.--His Poverty.--Her Kindness.--His
+Ingratitude.--Her Trouble from Land Speculation.--Her Cousin moves off.
+
+A year or two before the death of my husband, Capt. H. Jones sent me word
+that a cousin of mine was then living in Leicester, (a few miles from
+Gardow,) by the name of George Jemison, and as he was very poor, thought
+it advisable for me to go and see him, and take him home to live with me
+on my land. My Indian friends were pleased to hear that one of my
+relatives was so near, and also advised me to send for him and his family
+immediately. I accordingly had him and his family moved into one of my
+houses, in the month of March, 1810.
+
+He said that he was my father's brother's son--that his father did not
+leave Europe, till after the French war in America, and that when he did
+come over, he settled in Pennsylvania, where he died. George had no
+personal knowledge of my father; but from information, was confident that
+the relationship which he claimed between himself and me, actually
+existed. Although I had never before heard of my father having had but one
+brother, (him who was killed at Fort Necessity,) yet I knew that he might
+have had others, and, as the story of George carried with it a probability
+that it was true, I received him as a kinsman, and treated him with
+every degree of friendship which his situation demanded. [Footnote: Mrs.
+Jemison is now confident that George Jemison is not her cousin, and thinks
+that he claimed the relationship, only to gain assistance: But the old
+gentleman, who is now living, is certain that his and her father were
+brothers, as before stated.]
+
+I found that he was destitute of the means of subsistence, and in debt to
+the amount of seventy dollars, without the ability to pay one cent. He had
+no cow, and finally, was completely poor, I paid his debts to the amount
+of seventy-two dollars, and bought him a cow, for which I paid twenty
+dollars, and a sow and pigs, that I paid eight dollars for. I also paid
+sixteen dollars for pork that I gave him, and furnished him with other
+provisions and furniture; so that his family was comfortable. As he was
+destitute of a team, I furnished him with one, and also supplied him with
+tools for farming. In addition to all this, I let him have one of Thomas'
+cows, for two seasons.
+
+My only object in mentioning his poverty, and the articles with which I
+supplied him, is to show how ungrateful a person can be for favors, and
+how soon a kind benefactor will, to all appearance, be forgotten.
+
+Thus furnished with the necessary implements of husbandry, a good team,
+and as much land as he could till, he commenced farming on my flats, and
+for some time labored well. At length, however, he got an idea that if he
+could become the owner of a part of my reservation, he could live more
+easy, and certainly be more rich, and accordingly set himself about laying
+a plan to obtain it, in the easiest manner possible.
+
+I supported Jemison and his family eight years, and probably should have
+continued to have done so to this day, had it not been for the occurrence
+of the following circumstance.
+
+When he had lived with me some six or seven years, a friend of mine told
+me that as Jemison was my cousin, and very poor, I ought to give him a
+piece of land that he might have something whereon to live, that he would
+call his own. My friend and Jemison were then together at my house,
+prepared to complete a bargain. I asked how much land he wanted? Jemison
+said that he should be glad to receive his old field (as he called it)
+containing about fourteen acres, and a new one that contained twenty-six.
+
+I observed to them that as I was incapable of transacting business of that
+nature, I would wait till Mr. Thomas Clute, (a neighbor on whom I
+depended,) should return from Albany, before I should do any thing about
+it. To this Jemison replied that if I waited till Mr. Clute returned, he
+should not get the land at all, and appeared very anxious to have the
+business closed without delay. On my part, I felt disposed to give him
+some land, but knowing my ignorance of writing, feared to do it alone,
+lest they might include as much land they pleased, without my knowledge.
+
+They then read the deed which my friend had prepared before he came from
+home, describing a piece of land by certain bounds that were a specified
+number of chains and links from each other. Not understanding the length
+of a chain or link, I described the bounds of a piece of land that I
+intended Jemison should have, which they said was just the same that the
+deed contained and no more. I told them that the deed must not include a
+lot that was called the Steele place, and they assured me that it did not.
+Upon this, putting confidence in them both, I signed the deed to George
+Jemison, containing, and conveying to him as I supposed, forty acres of
+land. The deed being completed they charged me never to mention the
+bargain which I had then made to any person; because if I did, they said
+it would spoil the contract. The whole matter was afterwards disclosed;
+when it was found that that deed instead of containing only forty acres,
+contained four hundred, and that one half of it actually belonged to my
+friend, as it had been given to him by Jemison as a reward for his trouble
+in procuring the deed, in the fraudulent manner above mentioned.
+
+My friend, however, by the advice of some well disposed people, awhile
+afterwards gave up his claim; but Jemison held his till he sold it for a
+trifle to a gentleman in the south part of Genesee county.
+
+Sometime after the death of my son Thomas, one of his sons went to Jemison
+to get the cow that I had let him have two years; but Jemison refused to
+let her go, and struck the boy so violent a blow as to almost kill him.
+Jemison then run to Jellis Clute, Esq. to procure a warrant to take the
+boy; but Young King, an Indian Chief, went down to Squawky hill to Esq.
+Clute's, and settled the affair by Jemison's agreeing never to use that
+club again. Having satisfactorily found out the friendly disposition of my
+cousin towards me, I got him off my premises as soon as possible.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+Another Family Affliction.--Her son John's Occupation.--He goes to
+Buffalo--Returns.--Great Slide by him considered Ominous--Trouble, &c.--He
+goes to Squawky Hill--Quarrels--Is murdered by two Indians.--His
+Funeral--Mourners, &c.--His Disposition.--Ominous Dream.--Black Chief's
+Advice, &c.--His Widows and Family.--His Age.--His Murderers flee.--Her
+Advice to them.--They set out to leave their Country.--Their Uncle's
+Speech to them on parting.--They return.--Jack proposes to Doctor to kill
+each other.--Doctor's Speech in Reply.--Jack's Suicide.--Doctor's Death.
+
+Trouble seldom comes single. While George Jemison was busily engaged in
+his pursuit of wealth at my expence, another event of a much more serious
+nature occurred, which added greatly to my afflictions, and consequently
+destroyed, at least a part of the happiness that I had anticipated was
+laid up in the archives of Providence, to be dispensed on my old age.
+
+My son John, was a doctor, considerably celebrated amongst the Indians of
+various tribes, for his skill in curing their diseases, by the
+administration of roots and herbs, which he gathered in the forests, and
+other places where they had been planted by the hand of nature.
+
+In the month of April, or first of May, 1817, he was called upon to go to
+Buffalo, Cattaraugus and Allegany, to cure some who were sick. He went,
+and was absent about two months. When he returned, he observed the Great
+Slide of the bank of Genesee river, a short distance above my house, which
+had taken place during his absence; and conceiving that circumstance to be
+ominous of his own death, called at his sister Nancy's, told her that he
+should live but a few days, and wept bitterly at the near approach of his
+dissolution. Nancy endeavored to persuade him that his trouble was
+imaginary, and that he ought not to be affected by a fancy which was
+visionary. Her arguments were ineffectual, and afforded no alleviation to
+his mental sufferings. From his sister's, he went to his own house, where
+he stayed only two nights, and then went to Squawky Hill to procure money,
+with which to purchase flour for the use of his family.
+
+While at Squawky Hill he got into the company of two Squawky Hill Indians,
+whose names were Doctor and Jack, with whom he drank freely, and in the
+afternoon had a desperate quarrel, in which his opponents, (as it was
+afterwards understood,) agreed to kill him. The quarrel ended, and each
+appeared to be friendly. John bought some spirits, of which they all
+drank, and then set out for home. John and an Allegany Indian were on
+horseback, and Doctor and Jack were on foot. It was dark when they set
+out. They had not proceeded far, when Doctor and Jack commenced another
+quarrel with John, clenched and dragged him off his horse, and then with a
+stone gave him so severe a blow on his head, that some of his brains were
+discharged from the wound. The Allegany Indian, fearing that his turn
+would come next, fled for safety as fast as possible.
+
+John recovered a little from the shock he had received, and endeavored to
+get to an old hut that stood near; but they caught him, and with an axe
+cut his throat, and beat out his brains, so that when he was found the
+contents of his skull were lying on his arms.
+
+Some squaws, who heard the uproar, ran to find out the cause of it; but
+before they had time to offer their assistance, the murderers drove them
+into a house, and threatened to take their lives if they did not stay
+there, or if they made any noise.
+
+Next morning, Esq. Clute sent me word that John was dead, and also
+informed me of the means by which his life was taken. A number of people
+went from Gardow to where the body lay, and Doct. Levi Brundridge brought
+it up home, where the funeral was attended after the manner of the white
+people. Mr. Benjamin Luther, and Mr. William Wiles, preached a sermon, and
+performed the funeral services; and myself and family followed the corpse
+to the grave as mourners. I had now buried my three sons, who had been
+snatched from me by the hands of violence, when I least expected it.
+
+Although John had taken the life of his two brothers, and caused me
+unspeakable trouble and grief, his death made a solemn impression upon my
+mind, and seemed, in addition to my former misfortunes, enough to bring
+down my grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. Yet, on a second thought, I
+could not mourn for him as I had for my other sons, because I knew that
+his death was just, and what he had deserved for a long time, from the
+hand of justice.
+
+John's vices were so great and so aggravated, that I have nothing to say
+in his favor: yet, as a mother, I pitied him while he lived, and have ever
+felt a great degree of sorrow for him, because of his bad conduct.
+
+From his childhood, he carried something in his features indicative of an
+evil disposition, that would result in the perpetration of enormities of
+some kind; and it was the opinion and saying of Ebenezer Allen, that he
+would be a bad man, and be guilty of some crime deserving of death. There
+is no doubt but what the thoughts of murder rankled in his breast, and
+disturbed his mind even in his sleep; for he dreamed that he had killed
+Thomas for a trifling offence, and thereby forfeited his own life. Alarmed
+at the revelation, and fearing that he might in some unguarded moment
+destroy his brother, he went to the Black Chief, to whom he told the
+dream, and expressed his fears that the vision would be verified. Having
+related the dream, together with his feelings on the subject, he asked for
+the best advice that his old friend was capable of giving, to prevent so
+sad an event. The Black Chief, with his usual promptitude, told him, that
+from the nature of the dream, he was fearful that something serious would
+take place between him and Thomas; and advised him by all means to govern
+his temper, and avoid any quarrel which in future he might see arising,
+especially if Thomas was a party. John, however, did not keep the good
+counsel of the Chief; for soon after he killed Thomas, as I have related.
+
+John left two wives with whom he had lived at the same time, and raised
+nine children. His widows are now living at Caneadea with their father,
+and keep their children with, and near them. His children are tolerably
+white, and have got light colored hair. John died about the last day of
+June, 1817, aged 54 years.
+
+Doctor and Jack, having finished their murderous design, fled before they
+could be apprehended, and lay six weeks in the woods back of Canisteo.
+They then returned and sent me some wampum by Chongo, (my son-in-law,) and
+Sun-ge-waw (that is Big Kettle) expecting that I would pardon them, and
+suffer them to live as they had done with their tribe. I however, would
+not accept their wampum, but returned it with a request, that, rather than
+have them killed, they would run away and keep out of danger.
+
+On their receiving back the wampum, they took my advice, and prepared to
+leave their country and people immediately. Their relatives accompanied
+them a short distance on their journey, and when about to part, their old
+uncle, the Tall Chief, addressed them in the following pathetic and
+sentimental speech:
+
+"Friends, hear my voice!--When the Great Spirit made Indians, he made them
+all good, and gave them good corn-fields; good rivers, well stored with
+fish; good forests, filled with game and good bows and arrows. But very
+soon each wanted more than his share, and Indians quarrelled with Indians,
+and some were killed, and others were wounded. Then the Great Spirit made
+a very good word, and put it in every Indians breast, to tell us when we
+have done good, or when we have done bad; and that word has never told a
+lie.
+
+"Friends! whenever you have stole, or got drunk, or lied, that good word
+has told you that you were bad Indians, and made you afraid of good
+Indians; and made you ashamed and look down.
+
+"Friends! your crime is greater than all those:--you have killed an Indian
+in a time of peace; and made the wind hear his groans, and the earth drink
+his blood. You are bad Indians! Yes, you are very bad Indians; and what
+can you do? If you go into the woods to live alone, the ghost of John
+Jemison will follow you, crying, blood! blood! and will give you no peace!
+If you go to the land of your nation, there that ghost will attend you,
+and say to your relatives, see my murderers! If you plant, it will blast
+your corn; if you hunt, it will scare your game; and when you are asleep,
+its groans, and the sight of an avenging tomahawk, will awake you! What
+can you do? Deserving of death, you cannot live here; and to fly from your
+country, to leave all your relatives, and to abandon all that you have
+known to be pleasant and dear, must be keener than an arrow, more bitter
+than gall, more terrible than death! And how must we feel?--Your path will
+be muddy; the woods will be dark; the lightnings will glance down the
+trees by your side, and you will start at every sound! peace has left you,
+and you must be wretched.
+
+"Friends, hear me, and take my advice. Return with us to your homes. Offer
+to the Great Spirit your best wampum, and try to be good Indians! And, if
+those whom you have bereaved shall claim your lives as their only
+satisfaction, surrender them cheerfully, and die like good Indians. And--"
+Here Jack, highly incensed, interrupted the old man, and bade him stop
+speaking or he would take his life. Affrighted at the appearance of so
+much desperation, the company hastened towards home, and left Doctor and
+Jack to consult their own feelings.
+
+As soon as they were alone, Jack said to Doctor, "I had rather die here,
+than leave my country and friends! Put the muzzle of your rifle into my
+mouth, and I will put the muzzle of mine into yours, and at a given signal
+we will discharge them, and rid ourselves at once of all the troubles
+under which we now labor, and satisfy the claims which justice holds
+against us."
+
+Doctor heard the proposition, and after a moment's pause, made the
+following reply:--"I am as sensible as you can be of the unhappy situation
+in which we have placed ourselves. We are bad Indians. We have forfeited
+our lives, and must expect in some way to atone for our crime: but,
+because we are bad and miserable, shall we make ourselves worse? If we
+were now innocent, and in a calm reflecting moment should kill ourselves,
+that act would make us bad, and deprive us of our share of the good
+hunting in the land where our fathers have gone! What would Little Beard
+[Footnote: Little Bears was a Chief who died in 1806.] say to us on our
+arrival at his cabin? He would say, 'Bad Indians! Cowards! You were afraid
+to wait till we wanted your help! Go (Jogo) to where snakes will lie in
+your path; where the panthers will starve you, by devouring the venison;
+and where you will be naked and suffer with the cold! Jogo, (go,) none but
+the brave and good Indians live here!' I cannot think of performing an act
+that will add to my wretchedness. It is hard enough for me to suffer here,
+and have good hunting hereafter--worse to lose the whole."
+
+Upon this, Jack withdrew his proposal. They went on about two miles, and
+then turned about and came home. Guilty and uneasy, they lurked about
+Squawky Hill near a fortnight, and then went to Cattaraugus, and were gone
+six weeks. When they came back, Jack's wife earnestly requested him to
+remove his family to Tonnewonta; but he remonstrated against her project,
+and utterly declined going. His wife and family, however, tired of the
+tumult by which they were surrounded, packed up their effects in spite of
+what he could say, and went off.
+
+Jack deliberated a short time upon the proper course for himself to
+pursue, and finally, rather than leave his old home, he ate a large
+quantity of muskrat root, and died in 10 or 12 hours. His family being
+immediately notified of his death, returned to attend the burial, and is
+yet living at Squawky Hill.
+
+Nothing was ever done with Doctor, who continued to live quietly at
+Squawky Hill till sometime in the year 1819, when he died of Consumption.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+Micah Brooks, Esq. volunteers to get the Title to her Land confirmed to
+herself.--She is Naturalized.--Great Council of Chiefs, &c. in Sept.
+1823.--She Disposes of her Reservation.--Reserves a Tract 2 miles long,
+and 1 mile wide, &c.--The Consideration how Paid, &c.
+
+In 1816, Micah Brooks, Esq. of Bloomfield, Ontario county, was recommended
+to me (as it was said) by a Mr. Ingles, to be a man of candor, honesty and
+integrity, who would by no means cheat me out of a cent. Mr. Brooks soon
+after, came to my house and informed me that he was disposed to assist me
+in regard to my land, by procuring a legislative act that would invest me
+with full power to dispose of it for my own benefit, and give as ample a
+title as could be given by any citizen of the state. He observed that as
+it was then situated, it was of but little value, because it was not in my
+power to dispose of it, let my necessities be ever so great. He then
+proposed to take the agency of the business upon himself, and to get the
+title of one half of my reservation vested in me personally, upon the
+condition that, as a reward for his services, I would give him the other
+half.
+
+I sent for my son John, who on being consulted, objected to my going into
+any bargain with Mr. Brooks, without the advice and consent of Mr. Thomas
+Clute, who then lived on my land and near me. Mr. Clute was accordingly
+called on, to whom Mr. Brooks repeated his former statement, and added,
+that he would get an act passed in the Congress of the United States, that
+would invest me with all the rights and immunities of a citizen, so far as
+it respected my property. Mr. Clute, suspecting that some plan was in
+operation that would deprive me of my possessions, advised me to have
+nothing to say on the subject to Mr. Brooks, till I had seen Esquire
+Clute, of Squawky Hill. Soon after this Thomas Clute saw Esq. Clute, who
+informed him that the petition for my naturalization would be presented to
+the Legislature of this State, instead of being sent to Congress; and that
+the object would succeed to his and my satisfaction. Mr. Clute then
+observed to his brother, Esq. Clute, that as the sale of Indian lands,
+which had been reserved, belonged exclusively to the United States, an act
+of the Legislature of New-York could have no effect in securing to me a
+title to my reservation, or in depriving me of my property. They finally
+agreed that I should sign a petition to Congress, praying for my
+naturalization, and for the confirmation of the title of my land to me, my
+heirs, &c.
+
+Mr. Brooks came with the petition: I signed it, and it was witnessed by
+Thomas Clute, and two others, and then returned to Mr. Brooks, who
+presented it to the Legislature of this state at its session in the winter
+of 1816-17. On the 19th of April, 1817, an act was passed for my
+naturalization, and ratifying and confirming the title of my land,
+agreeable to the tenor of the petition, which act Mr. Brooks presented to
+me on the first day of May following.
+
+Thomas Clute having examined the law, told me that it would probably
+answer, though it was not according to the agreement made by Mr. Brooks,
+and Esq. Clute and himself, for me. I then executed to Micah Brooks and
+Jellis Clute, a deed of all my land lying east of the picket line on the
+Gardow reservation, containing about 7000 acres.
+
+It is proper in this place to observe, in relation to Mr. Thomas Clute,
+that my son John, a few months before his death, advised me to take him
+for my guardian, (as I had become old and incapable of managing my
+property,) and to compensate him for his trouble by giving him a lot of
+land on the west side of my reservation where he should choose it. I
+accordingly took my son's advice, and Mr. Clute has ever since been
+faithful and honest in all his advice and dealings with, and for, myself
+and family.
+
+In the month of August, 1817, Mr. Brooks and Esq. Clute again came to me
+with a request that I would give them a lease of the land which I had
+already deeded to them, together with the other part of my reservation,
+excepting and reserving to myself only about 4000 acres.
+
+At this time I informed Thomas Clute of what John had advised, and
+recommended me to do, and that I had consulted my daughters on the
+subject, who had approved of the measure. He readily agreed to assist me;
+whereupon I told him he was entitled to a lot of land, and might select as
+John had mentioned. He accordingly at that time took such a piece as he
+chose, and the same has ever since been reserved for him in all the land
+contracts which I have made.
+
+On the 24th of August, 1817, I leased to Micah Brooks and Jellis Clute,
+the whole of my original reservation, except 4000 acres, and Thomas
+Clute's lot. Finding their title still incomplete, on account of the
+United States government and Seneca Chiefs not having sanctioned my acts,
+they solicited me to renew the contract, and have the conveyance made to
+them in such a manner as that they should thereby be constituted sole
+proprietors of the soil.
+
+In the winter of 1822-3, I agreed with them, that if they would get the
+chiefs of our nation, and a United States Commissioner of Indian Lands, to
+meet in council at Moscow, Livingston county, N. Y. and there concur in my
+agreement, that I would sell to them all my right and title to the Gardow
+reservation, with the exception of a tract for my own benefit, two miles
+long, and one mile wide, lying on the river where I should choose it; and
+also reserving Thomas Clute's lot. This arrangement was agreed upon, and
+the council assembled at the place appointed, on the 3d or 4th day of
+September, 1823.
+
+That council consisted of Major Carrol, who had been appointed by the
+President to dispose of my lands, Judge Howell and N. Gorham, of
+Canandaigua, (who acted in concert with Maj. Carrol,) Jasper Parrish,
+Indian Agent, Horatio Jones, Interpreter, and a great number of Chiefs.
+
+The bargain was assented to unanimously, and a deed given to H. B. Gibson,
+Micah Brooks and Jellis Clute, of the whole Gardow tract, excepting the
+last mentioned reservations, which was signed by myself and upwards of
+twenty Chiefs.
+
+The land which I now own, is bounded as follows:--Beginning at the center
+of the Great Slide [Footnote: The Great Slide of the bank of Genesee river
+is a curiosity worthy of the attention of the traveller. In the month of
+May, 1817, a portion of land thickly covered with timber, situated at the
+upper end of the Gardow flats, on the west side of the river, all of a
+sudden gave way, and with a tremendous crash, slid into the bed of the
+river, which it so completely filled, that the stream formed a new passage
+on the east side of it, where it continues to run, without overflowing the
+slide. This slide, as it now lies, contains 22 acres, and has a
+considerable share of the timber that formerly covered it, still standing
+erect upon it, and growing.] and running west one mile, thence north two
+miles, thence east about one mile to Genesee river, thence south on the
+west bank of Genesee river to the place of beginning.
+
+In consideration of the above sale, the purchasers have bound themselves,
+their heirs, assigns, &c. to pay to me, my heirs or successors, three
+hundred dollars a year forever.
+
+Whenever the land which I have reserved, shall be sold, the income of it
+is to be equally divided amongst the members of the Seneca nation, without
+any reference to tribes or families.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+Conclusion.--Review of her Life.--Reflections on the loss of
+Liberty.--Care she took to preserve her Health.--Indians' abstemiousness
+in Drinking, after the French War.--Care of their Lives, &c.--General use
+of Spirits--Her natural Strength.--Purchase of her first Cow.--Means by
+which she has been supplied with Food.--Suspicions of her having been a
+Witch.--Her Constancy.--Number of Children.--Number Living.--Their
+Residence.--Closing Reflection.
+
+When I review my life, the privations that I have suffered, the hardships
+I have endured, the vicissitudes I have passed, and the complete
+revolution that I have experienced in my manner of living; when I consider
+my reduction from a civilized to a savage state, and the various steps by
+which that process has been effected, and that my life has been prolonged,
+and my health and reason spared, it seems a miracle that I am unable to
+account for, and is a tragical medley that I hope will never be repeated.
+
+The bare loss of liberty is but a mere trifle when compared with the
+circumstances that necessarily attend, and are inseparably connected with
+it. It is the recollection of what we once were, of the friends, the home,
+and the pleasures that we have left or lost; the anticipation of misery,
+the appearance of wretchedness, the anxiety for freedom, the hope of
+release, the devising of means of escaping, and the vigilance with which
+we watch our keepers, that constitute the nauseous dregs of the bitter cup
+of slavery. I am sensible, however, that no one can pass from a state of
+freedom to that of slavery, and in the last situation rest perfectly
+contented; but as every one knows that great exertions of the mind tend
+directly to debilitate the body, it will appear obvious that we ought,
+when confined, to exert all our faculties to promote our present comfort,
+and let future days provide their own sacrifices. In regard to ourselves,
+just as we feel, we are.
+
+For the preservation of my life to the present time I am indebted to an
+excellent constitution, with which I have been blessed in as great a
+degree as any other person. After I arrived to years of understanding, the
+care of my own health was one of my principal studies; and by avoiding
+exposures to wet and cold, by temperance in eating, abstaining from the
+use of spirits, and shunning the excesses to which I was frequently
+exposed, I effected my object beyond what I expected. I have never once
+been sick till within a year or two, only as I have related. Spirits and
+tobacco I have never used, and I have never once attended an Indian
+frolic. When I was taken prisoner, and for sometime after that, spirits
+was not known; and when it was first introduced, it was in small
+quantities, and used only by the Indians; so that it was a long time
+before the Indian women begun to even taste it.
+
+After the French war, for a number of years, it was the practice of the
+Indians of our tribe to send to Niagara and get two or three kegs of rum,
+(in all six or eight gallons,) and hold a frolic as long as it lasted.
+When the rum was brought to the town, all the Indians collected, and
+before a drop was drank, gave all their knives, tomahawks, guns, and other
+instruments of war, to one Indian, whose business it was to bury them in a
+private place, keep them concealed, and remain perfectly sober till the
+frolic was ended. Having thus divested themselves, they commenced
+drinking, and continued their frolic till every drop was consumed, If any
+of them became quarrelsome, or got to fighting, those who were sober
+enough bound them upon the ground, where they were obliged to lie till
+they got sober, and then were unbound. When the fumes of the spirits had
+left the company, the sober Indian returned to each the instruments with
+which they had entrusted him, and all went home satisfied. A frolic of
+that kind was held but once a year, and that at the time the Indians quit
+their hunting, and come in with their deer-skins.
+
+In those frolics the women never participated. Soon after the
+revolutionary war, however, spirits became common in our tribe, and has
+been used indiscriminately by both sexes; though there are not so frequent
+instances of intoxication amongst the squaws as amongst the Indians.
+
+To the introduction and use or that baneful article, which has made such
+devastation in our tribes, and threatens the extinction of our people,
+(the Indians,) I can with the greatest propriety impute the whole of my
+misfortune in losing my three sons. But as I have before observed, not
+even the love of life will restrain an Indian from sipping the poison that
+he knows will destroy him. The voice of nature, the rebukes of reason, the
+advice of parents, the expostulations of friends, and the numerous
+instances of sudden death, are all insufficient to reclaim an Indian, who
+has once experienced the exhilarating and inebriating effects of spirits,
+from seeking his grave in the bottom of his bottle!
+
+My strength has been great for a woman of my size, otherwise I must long
+ago have died under the burdens which I was obliged to carry. I learned to
+carry loads on my back, in a strap placed across my forehead, soon after
+my captivity; and continue to carry in the same way. Upwards of thirty
+years ago, with the help of my young children, I backed all the boards
+that were used about my house from Allen's mill at the outlet of Silver
+Lake, a distance of five miles. I have planted, hoed, and harvested corn
+every season but one since I was taken prisoner. Even this present fall
+(1823) I have husked my corn and backed it into the house.
+
+The first cow that I ever owned, I bought of a squaw sometime after the
+revolution. It had been stolen from the enemy. I had owned it but a few
+days when it fell into a hole, and almost died before we could get it out.
+After this, the squaw wanted to be recanted, but as I would not give up
+the cow, I gave her money enough to make, when added to the sum which I
+paid her at first, thirty-five dollars. Cows were plenty on the Ohio, when
+I lived there, and of good quality.
+
+For provisions I have never suffered since I came upon the flats; nor have
+I ever been in debt to any other hands than my own for the plenty that I
+have shared.
+
+My vices, that have been suspected, have been but few. It was believed for
+a long time, by some of our people, that I was a great witch; but they
+were unable to prove my guilt, and consequently I escaped the certain doom
+of those who are convicted of that crime, which, by Indians, is considered
+as heinous as murder. Some of my children had light brown hair, and
+tolerable fair skin, which used to make some say that I stole them; yet as
+I was ever conscious of my own constancy, I never thought that any one
+really believed that I was guilty of adultery.
+
+I have been the mother of eight children; three of whom are now living,
+and I have at this time thirty-nine grand children, and fourteen
+great-grand children, all living in the neighborhood of Genesee River, and
+at Buffalo.
+
+I live in my own house, and on my own land with my youngest daughter,
+Polly, who is married to George Chongo, and has three children.
+
+My daughter Nancy, who is married to Billy Green, lives about 80 rods
+south of my house, and has seven children.
+
+My other, daughter, Betsey, is married to John Green, has seven children,
+and resides 80 rods north of my house.
+
+Thus situated in the midst of my children, I expect I shall soon leave the
+world, and make room for the rising generation. I feel the weight of years
+with which I am loaded, and am sensible of my daily failure in seeing,
+hearing and strength; but my only anxiety is for my family. If my family
+will live happily, and I can be exempted from trouble while I have to
+stay, I feel as though I could lay down in peace a life that has been
+checked in almost every hour, with troubles of a deeper dye, than are
+commonly experienced by mortals.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+An account of the destruction of a part of the British Army, by the
+Indians, at a place called the Devil's Hole, on the Niagara River, in the
+year 1763.
+
+It is to be regretted that an event of so tragical a nature as the
+following, should have escaped the pens of American Historians, and have
+been suffered to slide down the current of time, to the verge of oblivion,
+without having been snatched almost from the vortex of forgetfulness, and
+placed on the faithful page, as a memorial of premeditated cruelties,
+which, in former times, were practised upon the white people, by the North
+American Savages.
+
+Modern History, perhaps, cannot furnish a parallel so atrocious in design
+and execution, as the one before us, and it may be questioned, even if the
+history of ancient times, when men fought hand to hand, and disgraced
+their nature by inventing engines of torture, can more than produce its
+equal.
+
+It will be observed in the preceding narrative, that the affair at the
+Devil's Hole is said to have happened in November, 1759. That Mrs. Jemison
+arrived at Genesee about that time, is rendered certain from a number of
+circumstances; and that a battle was fought on the Niagara in Nov. 1759,
+in which two prisoners and some oxen were taken, and brought to Genesee,
+as she has stated, is altogether probable. But it is equally certain that
+the event which is the subject of this article, did not take place till
+the year 1763.
+
+In the time of the French war, the neighborhood of Forts Niagara and
+Sclusser, (or Schlosser, as it was formerly written,) on the Niagara
+river, was a general battle-ground, and for this reason, Mrs. Jemison's
+memory ought not to be charged with treachery, for not having been able to
+distinguish accurately, after the lapse of sixty years, between the
+circumstances of one engagement and those of another. She resided on the
+Genesee at the time when the warriors of that tribe marched off to assist
+in laying the ambush at the Devil's Hole; and no one will doubt her having
+heard them rehearse the story of the event of that nefarious campaign,
+after they returned.
+
+Chronology and history concur in stating that Fort Niagara was taken from
+the French, by the British, and that Gen. Prideaux was killed on the 25th
+of July, 1759.
+
+Having obtained from Mrs. Jemison a kind of introduction to the story, I
+concluded that if it yet remained possible to procure a correct account of
+the circumstances which led to and attended that transaction, it would be
+highly gratifying to the American public, I accordingly directed a letter
+to Mr. Linus S. Everett, of Buffalo, whose ministerial labor, I well knew,
+frequently called him to Lewiston, requesting him to furnish me with a
+particular account of the destruction of the British, at the time and
+place before mentioned. He obligingly complied with my request, and gave
+me the result of his inquiries on that subject, in the following letter:--
+
+Copy of a letter from Mr. Linus S. Everett, dated Fort Sclusser, 29th
+December, 1823.
+
+_Respected and dear friend_,
+
+I hasten, with much pleasure, to comply with your request, in regard to
+the affair at the Devil's Hole. I have often wondered that no authentic
+account has ever been given of that bloody and tragical scene.
+
+I have made all the inquiries that appear to be of any use, and proceed to
+give you the result.
+
+At this place, (Fort Sclusser,) an old gentleman now resides, to whom I am
+indebted for the best account of the affair that can be easily obtained.
+His name is Jesse Ware--his age about 74. Although he was not a resident
+of this part of the country at the time of the event, yet from his
+intimate acquaintance with one of the survivors, he is able to give much
+information, which otherwise could not be obtained.
+
+The account that he gives is as follows:--In July, 1759, the British,
+under Sir William Johnston, took possession of Forts Niagara and Sclusser,
+which had before been in the hands of the French. At this time, the Seneca
+Indians, (which were a numerous and powerful nation,) were hostile to the
+British, and warmly allied to the French. These two posts, (viz.) Niagara
+and Sclusser, were of great importance to the British, on the account of
+affording the means of communication with the posts above, or on the upper
+lakes. In 1760, a contract was made between Sir William Johnston and a Mr.
+Stedman, to construct a portage road from Queenston landing to Fort
+Sclusser, a distance of eight miles, in order to facilitate the
+transportation of provision, ammunition, &c. from one place to the other.
+In conformity to this agreement, on the 20th of June, 1763, Stedman had
+completed his road, and appeared at Queenston Landing, (now Lewiston,)
+with twenty-five portage wagons, and one hundred horses and oxen, to
+transport to Fort Sclusser the king's stores.
+
+At this time Sir William Johnston was suspicious of the intentions of the
+Senecas; for after the surrender of the forts by the French, they had
+appeared uneasy and hostile. In order to prevent the teams, drivers and
+goods, receiving injury, he detached 300 troops to guard them across the
+portage. The teams, under this escort, started from Queenston
+landing--Stedman, who had the charge of the whole, was on horse back, and
+rode between the troops and teams; all the troops being in front. On a
+small hill near the Devil's Hole, at that time, was a redoubt of twelve
+men, which served as a kind of guard on ordinary occasions, against the
+depredations of the savages. "On the arrival of the troops and teams at
+the Devil's Hole," says a manuscript in the hands of my informant, "the
+sachems, chiefs and warriors of the Seneca Indians, sallied from the
+adjoining woods, by thousands, (where they had been concealed for some
+time before, for that nefarious purpose,) and falling upon the troops,
+teams and drivers, and the guard of twelve men before mentioned, they
+killed all the men but three on the spot, or by driving them, together
+with the teams, down the precipice, which was about seventy or eighty
+feet! The Indians seized Stedman's horse by the bridle, while he was on
+him, designing, no doubt, to make his sufferings more lasting than that of
+his companions: but while the bloody scene was acting, the attention of
+the Indian who held the horse of Stedman being arrested, he cut the reins
+of his bridle--clapped spurs to his horse, and rode over the dead and
+dying, into the adjacent woods, without receiving injury from the enemy's
+firing. Thus he escaped; and besides him two others--one a drummer, who
+fell among the trees, was caught by his drum strap, and escaped unhurt;
+the other, one who fell down the precipice and broke his thigh, but
+crawled to the landing or garrison down the river." The following
+September, the Indians gave Stedman a piece of land, as a reward for his
+bravery.
+
+With sentiments of respect, I remain, sir, your sincere friend,
+L. S. EVERETT.
+
+_Mr. J. E. Seaver_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A particular account of General Sullivan's Expedition against the Indians,
+in the western part of the State of New-York, in 1779.
+
+It has been thought expedient to publish in this volume, the following
+account of Gen. Sullivan's expedition, in addition to the facts related by
+Mrs. Jemison, of the barbarities which were perpetrated upon Lieut. Boyd,
+and two others, who were taken, and who formed a part of his army, etc. A
+detailed account of this expedition has never been in the hands of the
+public; and as it is now produced from a source deserving implicit credit,
+it is presumed that it will be received with satisfaction.
+
+John Salmon, Esq. to whom we are happy to acknowledge our indebtedness for
+the subjoined account, is an old gentleman of respectability and good
+standing in society; and is at this time a resident in the town of
+Groveland, Livingston county, New-York. He was a hero in the American war
+for independence; fought in the battles of his country under the
+celebrated Morgan; survived the blast of British oppression; and now, in
+the decline of life, sits under his own well earned vine and fig-tree,
+near the grave of his unfortunate countrymen, who fell gloriously, while
+fighting the ruthless savages, under the command of the gallant Boyd.
+
+In the autumn after the battle at Monmouth, (1778,) Morgan's riflemen, to
+which corps I belonged, marched to Schoharie, in this state of New-York,
+and there went into winter quarters. The company to which I was attached,
+was commanded by Capt. Michael Simpson; and Thomas Boyd, of Northumberland
+county, Pennsylvania, was our Lieutenant.
+
+In the following spring, our corps, together with the whole body of troops
+under the command of Gen. Clinton, to the amount of about 1500, embarked
+in boats at Schenectady, and ascended the Mohawk as far as German Flats.
+Thence we took a direction to Otsego lake, descended the Susquehanna, and
+without any remarkable occurrence, arrived at Tioga Point, where our
+troops united with an army of 1500 men under the command of Gen. Sullivan,
+who had marched through a part of New-Jersey, and had reached that place
+by the way of Wyoming, some days before us.
+
+That part of the army under Gen. Sullivan, had, on their arrival at Tioga
+Point, found the Indians in some force there, with whom they had had some
+unimportant skirmishes before our arrival. Upon the junction of these two
+bodies of troops, Gen. Sullivan assumed the command of the whole, and
+proceeded up the Tioga. When within a few miles of the place now called
+Newtown, we were met by a body of Indians, and a number of troops well
+known in those times by the name of Butler's Rangers, who had thrown up,
+hastily, a breastwork of logs, trees, &c. They were, however, easily
+driven from their works, with considerable loss on their part, and without
+any injury to our troops. The enemy fled with so much precipitation, that
+they left behind them some stores and camp equippage. They retreated but a
+short distance before they made a stand, and built another breastwork of
+considerable length, in the woods, near a small opening. Sullivan was soon
+apprized of their situation, divided his army, and attempted to surround,
+by sending one half to the right and the other to the left, with
+directions to meet on the opposite side of the enemies. In order to
+prevent their retreating, he directed bomb-shells to be thrown over them,
+which was done: but on the shells bursting, the Indians suspected that a
+powerful army had opened a heavy fire upon them on that side, and fled
+with the utmost precipitation through one wing of the surrounding army. A
+great number of the enemy were killed, and our army suffered considerably.
+
+The Indians having, in this manner, escaped, they went up the river to a
+place called the Narrows, where they were attacked by our men, who killed
+them in great numbers, so that the sides of the rocks next the river
+appeared as though blood had been poured on them by pailfulls. The Indians
+threw their dead into the river, and escaped the best way they could.
+
+From Newtown our army went directly to the head of the Seneca lake; thence
+down that lake to its mouth, where we found the Indian village at that
+place evacuated, except by a single inhabitant--a male child about seven
+or eight years of age, who was found asleep in one of the Indian huts. Its
+fate I have never ascertained. It was taken into the care of an officer of
+the army, who, on account of ill health, was not on duty, and who took the
+child with him, as I have since understood, to his residence on or near
+the North river.
+
+From the mouth of Seneca lake we proceeded, without the occurrence of any
+thing of importance, by the outlets of the Canandaigua, Honeoye, and
+Hemlock lakes, to the head of Connissius lake, where the army encamped on
+the ground that is now called Henderson's Flats.
+
+Soon after the army had encamped, at the dusk of the evening, a party of
+twenty-one men, under the command of Lieut. Boyd, was detached from the
+rifle corps, and sent out for the purpose of reconnoitering the ground
+near the Genesee river, at a place now called Williamsburg, at a distance
+from the camp of about seven miles, under the guidance of a faithful
+Indian pilot. That place was then the site of an Indian village, and it
+was apprehended that the Indians and Rangers might be there or in that
+vicinity in considerable force.
+
+On the arrival of the party at Williamsburg, they found that the Indian
+village had been recently deserted, as the fires in the huts were still
+burning. The night was so far spent when they got to their place of
+destination, that Lieutenant Boyd, considering the fatigue of his men,
+concluded to remain during the night near the village, and to send two men
+messengers with a report to the camp in the morning. Accordingly, a little
+before daybreak, he despatched two men to the main body of the army, with
+information that the enemy had not been discovered.
+
+After day-light, Lieut. Boyd cautiously crept from the place of his
+concealment, and upon getting a view of the village, discovered two
+Indians hovering about the settlement: one of whom was immediately shot
+and scalped by one of the riflemen, whose name was Murphy. Supposing that
+if there were Indians in that vicinity, or near the village, they would be
+instantly alarmed by this occurrence, Lieut. Boyd thought it most prudent
+to retire, and make the best of his way to the general encampment of our
+army. They accordingly set out and retraced the steps which they had taken
+the day before, till they were intercepted by the enemy.
+
+On their arriving within about one mile and a half of the main army, they
+were surprized by the sudden appearance of a body of Indians, to the
+amount of five hundred, under the command of the celebrated Brandt, and
+the same number of Rangers, commanded by the infamous Butler, who had
+secreted themselves in a ravine of considerable extent, which lay across
+the track that Lieut. Boyd had pursued.
+
+Upon discovering the enemy, and knowing that the only chance for escape
+was by breaking through their line, (one of the most desperate enterprizes
+ever undertaken,) Lieut. Boyd, after a few words of encouragement, led his
+men to the attempt. As extraordinary as it may seem, the first onset,
+though unsuccessful, was made without the loss of a man on the part of the
+heroic band, though several of the enemy were killed. Two attempts more
+were made, which were equally unsuccessful, and in which the whole party
+fell, except Lieut. Boyd, and eight others. Lieut. Boyd and a soldier by
+the name of Parker, were taken prisoners on the spot, a part of the
+remainder fled, and a part fell on the ground, apparently dead, and were
+overlooked by the Indians, who were too much engaged in pursuing the
+fugitives to notice those who fell.
+
+When Lieut. Boyd found himself a prisoner, he solicited an interview with
+Brandt, whom he well knew commanded the Indians. This Chief, who was at
+that moment near, immediately presented himself, when Lieut. Boyd, by one
+of those appeals which are known only by those who have been initiated and
+instructed in certain mysteries, and which never fail to bring succor to a
+"distressed brother," addressed him as the only source from which he could
+expect a respite from cruel punishment or death. The appeal was
+recognized, and Brandt immediately, and in the strongest language, assured
+him that his life should be spared.
+
+Lieut. Boyd, and his fellow-prisoner, Parker, were immediately conducted
+by a party of the Indians to the Indian village called Beard's Town, on
+the west side of Genesee river, in what is now called Leicester. After
+their arrival at Beard's Town, Brandt, their generous preserver, being
+called on service which required a few hours absence, left them in the
+care of the British Col. Butler, of the Rangers; who, as soon as Brandt
+had left them, commenced an interrogation, to obtain from the prisoners a
+statement of the number, situation and intentions of the army under Gen.
+Sullivan; and threatened them, in case they hesitated or prevaricated in
+their answers, to deliver them up immediately to be massacred by the
+Indians, who, in Brandt's absence, and with the encouragement of their
+more savage commander, Butler, were ready to commit the greatest
+cruelties. Relying, probably, on the promises which Brandt had made them,
+and which he undoubtedly meant to fulfil, they refused to give Butler the
+desired information. Butler, upon this, hastened to put his threat into
+execution. They were delivered to some of their most ferocious enemies,
+who, after having put them to very severe torture, killed them by severing
+their heads from their bodies.
+
+The main army, immediately after hearing of the situation of Lieut. Boyd's
+detachment, moved on towards Genesee river, and finding the bodies of
+those who were slain in Boyd's heroic attempt to penetrate through the
+enemy's line, buried them in what is now the town of Groveland, where the
+grave is to be seen at this day.
+
+Upon their arrival at the Genesee river, they crossed over, scoured the
+country for some distance on the river, burnt the Indian villages on the
+Genesee flats, and destroyed all their corn and other means of subsistence.
+
+The bodies of Lieut. Boyd and Parker were found and buried near the bank
+of Beard's creek, under a bunch of wild plum-trees, on the road, as it now
+runs, from Moscow to Geneseo. I was one of those who committed to the
+earth the remains of my friend and companion in arms, the gallant Boyd.
+
+Immediately after these events the army commenced its march back, by the
+same route that it came, to Tioga Point; thence down the Susquehanna to
+Wyoming; and thence across the country to Morristown, New-Jersey, where we
+went into winter quarters.
+
+Gen. Sullivan's bravery is unimpeachable. He was unacquainted, however,
+with fighting the Indians, and made use of the best means to keep them at
+such a distance that they could not be brought into an engagement. It was
+his practice, morning and evening, to have cannon fired in or near the
+camp, by which the Indians were notified of their speed in marching, and
+of his situation, and were enabled to make a seasonable retreat.
+
+The foregoing account, according to the best of my recollection is
+strictly correct.
+
+JOHN SALMON.
+
+Groveland, January 24, 1824.
+
+Esq. Salmon was formerly from Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, and was
+first Serjeant in Capt. Simpson's and Lieut. Boyd's company.
+
+Tradition of the Origin of the Seneca Nation.--Their Preservation from
+utter extinction.--The Means by which the People who preceded the Senecas
+were destroyed--and the Cause of the different Indian Languages.
+
+The tradition of the Seneca Indians, in regard to their origin, as we are
+assured by Capt. Horatio Jones, who was a prisoner five years amongst
+them, and for many years since has been an interpreter, and agent for the
+payment of their annuities, is that they broke out of the earth from a
+large mountain at the head of Canandaigua Lake, and that mountain they
+still venerate as the place of their birth; thence they derive their name,
+"Ge-nun-de-wah," [Footnote: This by some is spoken Ge-nun-de-wah-gauh.] or
+Great Hill, and are called "The Great Hill People," which is the true
+definition of the word Seneca.
+
+The great hill at the head of Canandaigua lake, from whence they sprung,
+is called Genundewah, and has for a long time past been the place where
+the Indians of that nation have met in council, to hold great talks, and
+to offer up prayers to the Great Spirit, on account of its having been
+their birth place; and also in consequence of the destruction of a serpent
+at that place, in ancient time, in a most miraculous manner, which
+threatened the destruction of the whole of the Senecas, and barely spared
+enough to commence replenishing the earth.
+
+The Indians say, says Capt. Jones, that the fort on the big hill, or
+Genundewah, near the head of Canandaigua lake, was surrounded by a
+monstrous serpent, whose head and tail came together at the gate. A long
+time it lay there, confounding the people with its breath. At length they
+attempted to make their escape, some with their hommany-blocks, and others
+with different implements of household furniture; and in marching out of
+the fort walked down the throat of the serpent. Two orphan children, who
+had escaped this general destruction by being left some time before on the
+outside of the fort, were informed by an oracle of the means by which they
+could get rid of their formidable enemy--which was, to take a small bow
+and a poisoned arrow, made of a kind of willow, and with that shoot the
+serpent under its scales. This they did, and the arrow proved effectual;
+for on its penetrating the skin, the serpent became sick, and extending
+itself rolled down the hill, destroying all the timber that was in its
+way, disgorging itself and breaking wind greatly as it went. At every
+motion, a human head was discharged, and rolled down the hill into the
+lake, where they lie at this day, in a petrified state, having the
+hardness and appearance of stones.
+
+To this day the Indians visit that sacred place, to mourn the loss of
+their friends, and to celebrate some rites that are peculiar to
+themselves. To the knowledge of white people there has been no timber on
+the great hill since it was first discovered by them, though it lay
+apparently in a state of nature for a great number of years, without
+cultivation. Stones in the shape of Indians' heads may be seen lying in
+the lake in great plenty, which are said to be the same that were
+deposited there at the death of the serpent.
+
+The Senecas have a tradition, that previous to, and for some time after,
+their origin at Genundewah, this country, especially about the lakes, was
+thickly inhabited by a race of civil, enterprizing and industrious people,
+who were totally destroyed by the great serpent, that afterwards
+surrounded the great hill fort, with the assistance of others of the same
+species; and that they (the Senecas) went into possession of the
+improvements that were left.
+
+In those days the Indians throughout the whole country, as the Senecas
+say, spoke one language; but having become considerably numerous, the
+before mentioned great serpent, by an unknown influence, confounded their
+language, so that they could not understand each other; which was the
+cause of their division into nations, as the Mohawks, Oneidas, &c. At that
+time, however, the Senecas retained their original language, and continued
+to occupy their mother hill, on which they fortified themselves against
+their enemies, and lived peaceably, till having offended the serpent,
+[Footnote: The pagans of the Senecas believe that all the little snakes
+were made of the blood of the great serpent, after it rolled into the
+lake.] they were cut off as before stated.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OF THEIR RELIGION--FEASTS--AND GREAT SACRIFICE.
+
+Perhaps no people are more exact observers of religious duties than those
+Indians among the Senecas, who are denominated pagans, in
+contradistinction from those, who, having renounced some of their former
+superstitious notions, have obtained the name of Christians. The
+traditionary faith of their fathers, having been orally transmitted to
+them from time immemorial, is implicitly believed, scrupulously adhered
+to, and rigidly practised. They are agreed in their sentiments--are all of
+one order, and have individual and public good, especially among
+themselves, for the great motive which excites them to attend to those
+moral virtues that are directed and explained by all their rules, and in
+all their ceremonies.
+
+Many years have elapsed since the introduction of Christian Missionaries
+among them, whom they have heard, and very generally understand the
+purport of the message they were sent to deliver. They say that it is
+highly probable that Jesus Christ came into the world in old times, to
+establish a religion that would promote the happiness of the white people,
+on the other side of the great water, (meaning the sea,) and that he died
+for the sins of his people, as the missionaries have informed them: But,
+they say that Jesus Christ had nothing to do with them, and that the
+Christian religion was not designed for their benefit; but rather, should
+they embrace it, they are confident it would make them worse, and
+consequently do them an injury. They say, also, that the Great Good Spirit
+gave them their religion; and that it is better adapted to their
+circumstances, situation and habits, and to the promotion of their present
+comfort and ultimate happiness, than any system that ever has or can be
+devised. They, however, believe, that the Christian religion is better
+calculated for the good of white people than theirs is; and wonder that
+those who have embraced it, do not attend more strictly to its precepts,
+and feel more engaged for its support and diffusion among themselves. At
+the present time, they are opposed to preachers or schoolmasters being
+sent or coming among them; and appear determined by all means to adhere to
+their ancient customs.
+
+They believe in a Great Good Spirit, (whom they call in the Seneca
+language Nau-wan-e-u,) as the Creator of the world, and of every good
+thing--that he made men, and all inoffensive animals; that he supplies men
+with all the comforts of life; and that he is particularly partial to the
+Indians, whom they say are his peculiar people. They also believe that he
+is pleased in giving them (the Indians) good gifts; and that he is highly
+gratified with their good conduct--that he abhors their vices, and that he
+is willing to punish them for their bad conduct, not only in this world,
+but in a future state of existence. His residence, they suppose, lies at a
+great distance from them, in a country that is perfectly pleasant, where
+plenty abounds, even to profusion. That there the soil is completely
+fertile, and the seasons so mild that the corn never fails to be
+good--that the deer, elk, buffalo, turkies, and other useful animals, are
+numerous, and that the forests are well calculated to facilitate their
+hunting them with success--that the streams are pure, and abound with
+fish: and that nothing is wanting, to render fruition complete. Over this
+territory they say Nauwaneu presides as an all-powerful king; and that
+without counsel he admits to his pleasures all whom he considers to be
+worthy of enjoying so great a state of blessedness.
+
+To this being they address prayers, offer sacrifices, give thanks for
+favors, and perform many acts of devotion and reverence.
+
+They likewise believe that Nauwaneu has a brother that is less powerful
+than himself, and who is opposed to him, and to every one that is or
+wishes to be good: that this bad Spirit made all evil things, snakes,
+wolves, catamounts, and all other poisonous or noxious animals and beasts
+of prey, except the bear, which, on the account of the excellence of its
+meat for food, and skin for clothing, they say was made by Nauwaneu.
+Besides all this they say he makes and sends them their diseases, bad
+weather and bad crops, and that he makes and supports witches. He owns a
+large country adjoining that of his brother, with whom he is continually
+at variance. His fields are unproductive; thick clouds intercept the rays
+of the sun, and consequently destructive frosts are frequent; game is very
+scarce, and not easily taken; ravenous beasts are numerous; reptiles of
+every poisoned tooth lie in the path of the traveller; streams are muddy,
+and hunger, nakedness and general misery, are severely felt by those who
+unfortunately become his tenants. He takes pleasure in afflicting the
+Indians here, and after their death receives all those into his dreary
+dominions, who in their life time have been so vile as to be rejected by
+Nauwaneu, under whose eye they are continued in an uncomfortable state
+forever. To this source of evil they offer some oblations to abate his
+vengeance, and render him propitious. They, however, believe him to be, in
+a degree, under subjection to his brother, and incapable of executing his
+plans only by his high permission.
+
+Public religious duties are attended to in the celebration of particular
+festivals and sacrifices, which are observed with circumspection and
+attended with decorum.
+
+In each year they have five feasts, or stated times for assembling in
+their tribes, and giving thanks to Nauwaneu, for the blessings which they
+have received from his kind and liberal and provident hand; and also to
+converse upon the best means of meriting a continuance of his favors. The
+first of these feasts is immediately after they have finished sugaring, at
+which time they give thanks for the favorable weather and great quantity
+of sap they have had, and for the sugar that they have been allowed to
+make for the benefit of their families. At this, as at all the succeeding
+feasts, the Chiefs arise singly, and address the audience in a kind of
+exhortation, in which they express their own thankfulness, urge the
+necessity and propriety of general gratitude, and point out the course
+which ought to be pursued by each individual, in order that Nauwaneu may
+continue to bless them, and that the evil spirit may be defeated.
+
+On these occasions the Chiefs describe a perfectly straight line, half an
+inch wide, and perhaps ten miles long, which they direct their people to
+travel upon by placing one foot before the other, with the heel of one
+foot to the toe of the other, and so on till they arrive at the end. The
+meaning of which is, that they must not turn aside to the right hand or to
+the left into the paths of vice, but keep straight ahead in the way of
+well doing, that will lead them to the paradise of Nauwaneu.
+
+The second feast is after planting; when they render thanks for the
+pleasantness of the season--for the good time they have had for preparing
+their ground and planting their corn; and are instructed by their Chiefs,
+by what means to merit a good harvest.
+
+When the green corn becomes fit for use, they hold their third, or green
+corn feast. Their fourth is celebrated after corn harvest; and the fifth
+at the close of their year, and is always celebrated at the time of the
+old moon in the last of January or first of February. This last deserves a
+particular description.
+
+The Indians having returned, from hunting, and having brought in all the
+venison and skins that they have taken, a committee is appointed, says
+Mrs. Jemison, consisting of from ten to twenty active men, to superintend
+the festivities of the great sacrifice and thanksgiving that is to be
+immediately celebrated. This being done, preparations are made at the
+council-house, or place of meeting, for the reception and accommodation of
+the whole tribe; and then the ceremonies are commenced, and the whole is
+conducted with a great degree of order and harmony, under the direction of
+the committee.
+
+Two white dogs, [Footnote: This was the practice in former times; but at
+present I am informed that only one dog is sacrificed.] without spot or
+blemish, are selected (if such can be found, and if not, two that have the
+fewest spots) from those belonging to the tribe, and killed near the door
+of the council-house, by being strangled. A wound on the animal or an
+effusion of blood, would spoil the victim, and render the sacrifice
+useless. The dogs are then painted red on their faces, edges of their
+ears, and on various parts of their bodies, and are curiously decorated
+with ribbons of different colors, and fine feathers, which are tied and
+fastened on in such a manner as to make the most elegant appearance. They
+are then hung on a post near the door of the council-house, at the height
+of twenty feet from the ground.
+
+This being done, the frolic is commenced by those who are present, while
+the committee run through the tribe or town, and hurry the people to
+assemble, by knocking on their houses. At this time the committee are
+naked, (wearing only a breech-clout,) and each carries a paddle, with
+which he takes up ashes and scatters them about the house in every
+direction. In the course of the ceremonies, all the fire is extinguished
+in every hut throughout the tribe, and new fire, struck from the flint on
+each hearth, is kindled, after having removed the whole of the ashes, old
+coals, &c. Having done this, and discharged one or two guns, they go on,
+and in this manner they proceed till they have visited every house in the
+tribe. This finishes the business of the first day.
+
+On the second day the committee dance, go through the town with bear-skin
+on their legs, and at every time they start they fire a gun. They also beg
+through the tribe, each carrying a basket in which to receive whatever may
+be bestowed. The alms consist of Indian tobacco, and other articles that
+are used for incense at the sacrifice. Each manager at this time carries a
+dried tortoise or turtle shell, containing a few beans, which he
+frequently rubs on the walls of the houses, both inside and out. This kind
+of manoeuvering by the committee continues two or three days, during which
+time the people at the council-house recreate themselves by dancing.
+
+On the fourth or fifth day the committee make false faces of husks, in
+which they run about, making a frightful but ludicrous appearance. In this
+dress, (still wearing the bear-skin,) they run to the council-house,
+smearing themselves with dirt, and bedaub every one who refuses to
+contribute something towards filling the baskets of incense, which they
+continue to carry, soliciting alms. During all this time they collect the
+evil spirit, or drive it off entirely, for the present, and also
+concentrate within themselves all the sins of their tribe, however
+numerous or heinous.
+
+On the eighth or ninth day, the committee having received all the sin, as
+before observed, into their own bodies, they take down the dogs, and after
+having transfused the whole of it into one of their own number, he, by a
+peculiar slight of hand, or kind of magic, works it all out of himself
+into the dogs. The dogs, thus loaded with all the sins of the people, are
+placed upon a pile of wood that is directly set on fire. Here they are
+burnt, together with the sins with which they were loaded, surrounded by
+the multitude, who throw incense of tobacco or the like into the fire, the
+scent of which they say, goes up to Nauwaneu, to whom it is pleasant and
+acceptable.
+
+This feast continues nine days, [Footnote: At present, as I have been
+informed, this feast is not commonly held more than from five to seven
+days. In former times, and till within a few years, nine days were
+particularly observed.] and during that time the Chiefs review the
+national affairs of the year past; agree upon the best plan to be pursued
+through the next year, and attend to all internal regulations.
+
+On the last day, the whole company partake of an elegant dinner,
+consisting of meat, corn and beans, boiled together in large kettles, and
+stirred till the whole is completely mixed and soft. This mess is devoured
+without much ceremony--some eat with a spoon, by dipping out of the
+kettles; others serve themselves in small dippers; some in one way, and
+some in another, till the whole is consumed. After this they perform the
+war dance, the peace dance, and smoke the pipe of peace; and then, free
+from iniquity, each repairs to his place of abode, prepared to commence
+the business of a new year. In this feast, temperance is observed, and
+commonly, order prevails in a greater degree than would naturally be
+expected.
+
+They are fond of the company of spectators who are disposed to be decent,
+and treat them politely in their way; but having been frequently imposed
+upon by the whites, they treat them generally with indifference.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OF THEIR DANCES.
+
+Of these, two only will be noticed. The war dance is said to have
+originated about the time that the Six Nations, or Northern Indians,
+commenced the old war with the Cherokees and other Southern Indian
+Nations, about one hundred years ago.
+
+When a tribe, or number of tribes of the Six Nations, had assembled for
+the purpose of going to battle with their enemies, the Chiefs sung this
+song, and accompanied the music with dancing, and gestures that
+corresponded with the sentiments expressed, as a kind of stimulant to
+increase their courage, and anxiety to march forward to the place of
+carnage.
+
+Those days having passed away, the Indians at this day sing the 'war
+song,' to commemorate the achievements of their fathers, and as a kind of
+amusement. When they perform it, they arm themselves with a war-club,
+tomahawk and knife, and commence singing with firm voice, and a stern,
+resolute countenance: but before they get through they exhibit in their
+features and actions the most shocking appearance of anger, fury and
+vengeance, that can be imagined: No exhibition of the kind can be more
+terrifying to a stranger.
+
+The song requires a number of repetitions in the tune, and has a chorus
+that is sung at the end of each verse. I have not presumed to arrange it
+in metre; but the following is the substance: "We are assembled in the
+habiliments of war, and will go in quest of our enemies. We will march to
+their land and spoil their possessions. We will take their women and
+children, and lead them into captivity. The warriors shall fall by our
+war-clubs--we will give them no quarter. Our tomahawks we will dip in
+their brains! with our scalping knives we will scalp them." At each period
+comes on the chorus, which consists of one monosyllable only, that is
+sounded a number of times, and articulated like a faint, stifled groan.
+This word is "eh," and signifies "we will," or "we will go," or "we will
+do." While singing, they perform the ceremony of killing and scalping,
+with a great degree of dexterity.
+
+The peace dance is performed to a tune without words, by both sexes. The
+Indians stand erect in one place, and strike the floor with the heel and
+toes of one foot, and then of the other, (the heels and toes all the while
+nearly level,) without changing their position in the least. The squaws at
+the same time perform it by keeping the feet close together, and without
+raising them from the ground, move a short distance to the right, and then
+to the left, by first moving their toes and then their heels. This dance
+is beautiful, and is generally attended with decency.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OF THEIR GOVERNMENT.
+
+Their government is an oligarchy of a mixed nature; and is administered by
+Chiefs, a part of whose offices are hereditary, and a part elective. The
+nation is divided into tribes, and each tribe commonly has two Chiefs. One
+of these inherits his office from his father. He superintends all civil
+affairs in the tribe; attends the national council, of which he is a
+member; assents to all conveyances of land, and is consulted on every
+subject of importance. The other is elected by the tribe, and can be
+removed at the pleasure of his constituents for malconduct. He also is a
+member of the national council: but his principal business is to
+superintend the military concerns of his tribe, and in war to lead his
+warriors to battle. He acts in concert with the other Chief, and their
+word is implicitly relied on, as the law by which they must be governed.
+That which they prohibit, is not meddled with. The Indian laws are few,
+and easily expounded. Their business of a public nature is transacted in
+council, where every decision is final. They meet in general council once
+a year, and sometimes oftener. The administration of their government is
+not attended with expense. They have no national revenue, and consequently
+have no taxes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE EXTENT AND NUMBER OF THE SIX NATIONS.
+
+The Six Nations in the state of New-York are located upon several
+reservations, from the Oneida Lake to the Cattaraugus and Allegany rivers.
+
+A part of those nations live on the Sandusky, in the state of Ohio,
+viz--380 Cayugas, 300 Senecas, 64 Mohawks, 64 Oneidas, and 80 Onondagas.
+The bulk of the Mohawks are on Grand River, Upper Canada, together with
+some Senecas, Tuscaroras, Cayugas, Oneidas, and Onondagas.
+
+In the state of New-York there are 5000, and in the state of Ohio 688, as
+we are assured by Capt. Horatio Jones, agent for paying their annuities,
+making in the whole, in both states, 5688.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OF THEIR COURTSHIPS, &c.
+
+When an Indian sees a squaw whom he fancies, he sends a present to her
+mother or parents, who on receiving it consult with his parents, his
+friends, and each other, on the propriety and expediency of the proposed
+connexion. If it is not agreeable, the present is returned; but if it is,
+the lover is informed of his good fortune, and immediately goes to live
+with her, or takes her to a hut of his own preparing.
+
+Polygamy is practised in a few instances, and is not prohibited.
+
+Divorces are frequent. If a difficulty of importance arises between a
+married couple, they agree to separate. They divide their property and
+children; the squaw takes the girls, the Indian the boys, and both are at
+liberty to marry again.
+
+They have no marriage ceremony, nor form of divorcement, other than what
+has been mentioned.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OF FAMILY GOVERNMENT.
+
+In their families, parents are very mild, and the mother superintends the
+children. The word of the Indian father, however, is law, and must be
+obeyed by the whole that are under his authority.
+
+One thing respecting the Indian women is worthy of attention, and perhaps
+of imitation, although it is now a days considered beneath the dignity of
+the ladies, especially those who are the most refined; and that is, they
+are under a becoming subjection to their husbands. It is a rule,
+inculcated in all the Indian tribes, and practised throughout their
+generations, that a squaw shall not walk before her Indian, nor pretend to
+take the lead in his business. And for this reason we never can see a
+party on the march to or from hunting and the like, in which the squaws
+are not directly in the rear of their partners.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OF THEIR FUNERALS.
+
+The deceased having been laid out in his best clothing, is put into a
+coffin of boards or bark, and with him is deposited, in every instance, a
+small cup and a cake. Generally two or three candles are also put into the
+coffin, and in a few instances, at the burial of a great man, all his
+implements of war are buried by the side of the body. The coffin is then
+closed and carried to the grave. On its being let down, the person who
+takes the lead of the solemn transaction, or a Chief, addresses the dead
+in a short speech, in which he charges him not to be troubled about
+himself in his new situation, nor on his journey, and not to trouble his
+friends, wife or children, whom he has left. Tells him that if he meets
+with strangers on his way, he must inform them what tribe he belongs to,
+who his relatives are, the situation in which he left them, and that
+having done this, he must keep on till he arrives at the good fields in
+the country of Nauwaneu. That when he arrives there he will see all his
+ancestors and personal friends that have gone before him; who, together
+with all the Chiefs of celebrity, will receive him joyfully, and furnish
+him with every article of perpetual happiness.
+
+The grave is now filled and left till evening, when some of the nearest
+relatives of the dead build a fire at the head of it, near which they set
+till morning. In this way they continue to practise nine successive
+nights, when, believing that their departed friend has arrived at the end
+of his journey, they discontinue their attention. During this time the
+relatives of the dead are not allowed to dance.
+
+Formerly, frolics were held, after the expiration of nine days, for the
+dead, at which all the squaws got drunk, and those were the only occasions
+on which they were intoxicated: but lately those are discontinued, and
+squaws feel no delicacy in getting inebriated.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OF THEIR CREDULITY.
+
+As ignorance is the parent of credulity, it is not a thing to be wondered
+at that the Indians should possess it in a great degree, and even suffer
+themselves to be dictated and governed by it in many of the most important
+transactions of their lives.
+
+They place great confidence in dreams, attach some sign to every uncommon
+circumstance, and believe in charms, spirits, and many supernatural things
+that never existed, only in minds enslaved to ignorance and tradition: but
+in no instance is their credulity so conspicuous, as in their unalterable
+belief in witches.
+
+They believe there are many of these, and that next to the author of evil,
+they are the greatest scourge to their people. The term witch, by them, is
+used both in the masculine and feminine gender, and denotes a person to
+whom the evil deity has delegated power to inflict diseases, cause death,
+blast corn, bring bad weather, and in short to cause almost any calamity
+to which they are liable. With this impression, and believing that it is
+their actual duty to destroy, as far as lies in their power, every source
+of unhappiness, it has been a custom among them from time immemorial, to
+destroy every one that they could convict of so heinous a crime; and in
+fact there is no reprieve from the sentence.
+
+Mrs. Jemison informed us that more or less who had been charged with being
+witches, had been executed in almost every year since she has lived on the
+Genesee. Many, on being suspected, made their escape: while others, before
+they were aware of being implicated, have been apprehended and brought to
+trial. She says that a number of years ago, an Indian chased a squaw, near
+Beard's Town, and caught her; but on the account of her great strength she
+got away. The Indian, vexed and disappointed, went home, and the next day
+reported that he saw her have fire in her mouth, and that she was a witch.
+Upon this she was apprehended and killed immediately. She was Big-tree's
+cousin, Mrs. Jemison says she was present at the execution. She also saw
+one other killed and thrown into the river.
+
+Col. Jeremiah Smith, of Leicester, near Beard's Town, saw an Indian killed
+by his five brothers, who struck him on the head with their tomahawks at
+one time. He was charged with being a witch, because of his having been
+fortunate enough, when on a hunting party, to kill a number of deer, while
+his comrades failed of taking any.
+
+Col. Smith also saw a squaw, who had been convicted of being a witch,
+killed by having small green whips burnt till they were red hot, but not
+quite coaled, and thrust down her throat. From such trifling causes
+thousands have lost their lives, and notwithstanding the means that are
+used for their reformation, the pagans will not suffer "a witch to live."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OF THE MANNER OF FARMING, AS PRACTISED BY THE INDIAN WOMEN.
+
+It is well known that the squaws have all the labor of the field to
+perform, and almost every other kind of hard service, which, in civil
+society, is performed by the men. In order to expedite their business, and
+at the same time enjoy each other's company, they all work together in one
+field, or at whatever job they may have on hand. In the spring they choose
+an old active squaw to be their driver and overseer when at labor, for the
+ensuing year. She accepts the honor, and they consider themselves bound to
+obey her.
+
+When the time for planting arrives, and the soil is prepared, the squaws
+are assembled in the morning, and conducted into a field, where each
+plants one row. They then go into the next field, plant once across, and
+so on till they have gone through the tribe. If any remains to be planted,
+they again commence where they did at first, (in the same field,) and so
+keep on till the whole is finished. By this rule they perform their labor
+of every kind, and every jealousy of one having done more or less than
+another, is effectually avoided.
+
+Each squaw cuts her own wood; but it is all brought to the house under the
+direction of the overseer--each bringing one back load.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OF THEIR METHOD OF COMPUTING TIME, AND KEEPING THEIR RECORDS.
+
+This is done by moons and winters: a moon is a month, and the time from
+the end of one winter to that of another, a year.
+
+From sunset till sunrise, they say that the sun is asleep. In the old of
+the moon, when it does not shine in the night, they say it is dead. They
+rejoice greatly at the sight of the new moon.
+
+In order to commemorate great events, and preserve the chronology of them,
+the war Chief in each tribe keeps a war post. This post is a peeled stick
+of timber, 10 or 12 feet high, that is erected in the town. For a campaign
+they make, or rather the Chief makes, a perpendicular red mark, about
+three inches long and half an inch wide; on the opposite side from this,
+for a scalp, they make a red cross, thus, +; on another side, for a
+prisoner taken, they make a red cross in this manner, X', with a head or
+dot, and by placing such significant hireoglyphics in so conspicuous a
+situation, they are enabled to ascertain with great certainty the time and
+circumstances of past events.
+
+Hiokatoo had a war-post, on which was recorded his military exploits, and
+other things that he tho't worth preserving.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ANECDOTES.
+
+Hiokatoo used to say that when he was a young man, there lived in the same
+tribe with him an old Indian warrior, who was a great counsellor, by the
+name of Buck-in-je-hil-lish. Buckinjehillish having, with great fatigue,
+attended the council when it was deliberating upon war, declared that none
+but the ignorant made war, but that the wise men and the warriors had to
+do the fighting. This speech exasperated his countrymen to such a degree
+that he was apprehended and tried for being a witch, on the account of his
+having lived to so advanced an age; and because he could not show some
+reason why he had not died before, he was sentenced to be tomahawked by a
+boy on the spot, which was accordingly done.
+
+In the last war, (1814,) an Indian who had been on fatigue, called at a
+commissary's and begged some bread. He was sent for a pail of water before
+he received it, and while he was absent an officer told the commissary to
+put a piece of money into the bread, and observe the event. He did so. The
+Indian took the bread and went off: but on the next day having ate his
+bread and found the money, he came to the commissary and gave him the
+same, as the officer had anticipated.
+
+Little Beard, a celebrated Indian Chief, having arrived to a very advanced
+age, died at his town on the Genesee river about the first of June, 1806,
+and was buried after the manner of burying chiefs. In his life time he had
+been quite arbitrary, and had made some enemies whom he hated, probably,
+and was not loved by them. The grave, however, deprives envy of its
+malignity, and revenge of its keenness.
+
+Little Beard had been dead but a few days when the great eclipse of the
+sun took place, on the sixteenth of June, which excited in the Indians a
+great degree of astonishment; for as they were ignorant of astronomy, they
+were totally unqualified to account for so extraordinary a phenomenon. The
+crisis was alarming, and something effectual must he done, without delay,
+to remove, if possible, the cause of such coldness and darkness, which it
+was expected would increase. They accordingly ran together in the three
+towns near the Genesee river, and after a short consultation agreed that
+Little Beard, on the account of some old grudge which he yet cherished
+towards them, had placed himself between them and the sun, in order that
+their corn might not grow, and so reduce them to a state of starvation.
+Having thus found the cause, the next thing was to remove it, which could
+only be done the use of powder and ball. Upon this, every gun and rifle
+was loaded, and a firing commenced, that continued without cessation till
+the old fellow left his seat, and the obscurity was entirely removed, to
+the great joy of the ingenious and fortunate Indians.
+
+In the month of February, 1824, Corn Planter, a learned pagan Chief at
+Tonnewonta, died of common sickness. He had received a liberal education,
+and was held in high estimation in his town and tribe, by both parties;
+but the pagans more particularly mourned his loss deeply, and seemed
+entirely unreconciled. They imputed his death to witchcraft, and charged
+an Indian by the name of Prompit, with the crime.
+
+Mr. Prompit is a Christian Indian, of the Tuscarora nation, who has lived
+at Tonnewonta a number of years, where he has built a saw-mill himself,
+which he owns, and is considered a decent, respectable man.
+
+About two weeks after the death of Corn Planter, Mr. Prompit happened in
+company where the author was present, and immediately begun to converse
+upon that subject. He said that the old fashioned Indians called him a
+witch--believed that he had killed Corn Planter, and had said that they
+would kill him. But, said he, all good people know that I am not a witch,
+and that I am clear of the charge. Likely enough they will kill me; but if
+they do, my hands are clean, my conscience is clear, and I shall go up to
+God. I will not run nor hide from them, and they may kill me if they
+choose to--I am innocent. When Jesus Christ's enemies, said he, wanted to
+kill him, he did not run away from them, but let them kill him; and why
+should I run away from my enemies?
+
+How the affair will terminate, we are unable to decide.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DESCRIPTION OF GENESEE RIVER AND ITS BANKS, FROM MOUNT MORRIS TO THE UPPER
+FALLS.
+
+From Mount Morris the banks of the Genesee are from two to four hundred
+feet in height, with narrow flats on one side of the river or the other,
+till you arrive at the tract called Gardow, or Cross Hills. Here you come
+to Mrs. Jemison's flats, which are two miles and a quarter long, and from
+eighty to one hundred and twenty rods wide, lying mostly on the west side
+of the river.
+
+Near the upper end of these flats is the Great Slide. Directly above this,
+the banks (still retaining their before mentioned height) approach so near
+each other as to admit of but thirty acres of flat on one side of the
+river only, and above this the perpendicular rock comes down to the water.
+
+From Gardow you ascend the river five miles to the lower falls, which are
+ninety-three feet perpendicular. These falls are twenty rods wide, and
+have the greatest channel on the east side. From Wolf creek to these falls
+the banks are covered with elegant white and Norway pine.
+
+Above the lower falls the banks for about two miles are of perpendicular
+rock, and retain their height of between two and four hundred feet. Having
+travelled this distance you reach the middle falls, which are an
+uninterrupted sheet of water fifteen rods wide, and one hundred and ten
+feet in perpendicular height. This natural curiosity is not exceeded by
+any thing of the kind in the western country, except the cataract at
+Niagara.
+
+From the middle falls the banks gradually rise, till you ascend the river
+half a mile, when you come to the upper falls, which are somewhat rolling,
+66 feet, in the shape of a harrow. Above this the banks are of moderate
+height. The timber from the lower to the upper falls is principally pine.
+Just above the middle falls a saw-mill was erected this season (1823) by
+Messrs. Ziba Hurd and Alva Palmer.
+
+
+HUNTING ANECDOTE.
+
+In November, 1822, Capt. Stephen Rolph and Mr. Alva Palmer drove a deer
+into Genesee river, a short distance above the middle falls, where the
+banks were so steep and the current so impetuous, that it could not regain
+the shore, and consequently was precipitated over the falls, one hundred
+and ten feet, into the gulph below. The hunters ran along the bank below
+the falls, to watch the fate of the animal, expecting it would be dashed
+in pieces. But to their great astonishment it came up alive, and by
+swimming across a small eddy, reached the bank almost under the falls; and
+as it stood in that situation, Capt. Ralph, who was on the top of the
+bank, shot it. This being done, the next thing to be considered was, how
+to get their prize. The rock being perpendicular, upwards of one hundred
+feet, would not admit of their climbing down to it, and there was no way,
+apparently, for them to get at it, short of going down the river two
+miles, to the lower falls, and then by creeping between the water and the
+precipice, they might possibly reach their game. This process would be too
+tedious. At length Mr. Palmer proposed to Capt. Rolph and Mr. Heman
+Merwin, who had joined them, that if they would make a windlas and fasten
+it to a couple of saplings that stood near, and then procure some ropes,
+he would be let down and get the deer. The apparatus was prepared; the
+rope was tied round Palmer's body, and he was let down. On arriving at the
+bottom he unloosed himself, fastened the rope round the deer, which they
+drew up, and then threw down the rope, in which he fastened himself, and
+was drawn up, without having sustained any injury. From the top to the
+bottom of the rock, where he was let down, was exactly one hundred and
+twenty feet.
+
+
+
+
+FINIS
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Narrative of the Life of
+Mrs. Mary Jemison, by James E. Seaver
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF MRS. MARY JEMISON ***
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+++ b/old/jemsn10.zip