History, Manners & Customs of Indian Nations (Pennsylvania and the Neighboring States). John Heckewelder
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Colden, in his “History of the Five Nations,”12 informs us, page 34, that this took place in the year 1664; and in page 36, gives us full proof of this alliance, by the following account—He says: “The Five Nations being now amply supplied by the English with fire-arms and ammunition, gave full swing to their warlike genius, and soon resolved to revenge the affronts they had at any time received from the Indian nations that lived at a greater distance from them. The nearest nations, as they were attacked, commonly fled to those that were further off, and the Five Nations pursued them. This, together with the desire they had of conquering, or ambition of making all the nations around them their tributaries, or to make them acknowledge the Five Nations to be so far their masters, as to be absolutely directed by them in all affairs of peace and war with their neighbours, made them overrun great part of North America. They carried their arms as far south as Carolina; to the northward of New England; and as far west as the river Mississippi; over a vast country, which extends twelve hundred miles in length, from north to south, and about six hundred miles in breadth; where they entirely destroyed many nations, of whom there are now no accounts remaining among the English,” &c.
To what a number of important questions would not the above statement give rise? But I will confine myself to a few, and enquire first, for what purpose the Five Nations were armed, and so “amply supplied with ammunition?” and secondly, what use did they make of those arms? The Delawares and Mohicans believed that the white people, first the Dutch and then the English, did all that was in their power to make the Mengwe a great people, so that they might rule over them and all other nations, and “that they had done what they wanted them to do,” &c. For an answer to the second question, we have only to believe what Colden himself tells us, of what the same Mengwe or Iroquois did, after having received arms and ammunition from the English, which it clearly appears they could not have done before. Now, if we even were willing to admit that they had only gone off, “to revenge the affronts they had at any time received from the Indian Nations,” yet, we would be willing to know, of what nature those affronts had been; otherwise we might conclude, that they were no other than that those nations had refused “to become tributary to them; would not submit to their mandates, nor have them for their masters;” and therefore had beaten them off, when they came into their country for the purpose of bringing them under subjection, and perhaps also paid them a visit in return, after they had murdered some of their people.
If we were permitted to omit the words, “revenge the affronts they had received from other nations,” &c., we need not one moment be at a loss to know precisely what they went out for, as the historian himself tells us, that they, soon after receiving fire-arms and ammunition, “gave full swing to their warlike genius, and went off with a desire of conquering nations—of making all those around them their tributaries, and compelling them all to acknowledge the Five Nations to be their masters, and to be absolutely directed by them, in all affairs of peace and war.” We then know with certainty, what the object was for which they took the field.
We are here also told, of the vast tract of country over which the Six Nations had carried their arms, subduing, and even “so destroying many nations, that no account of them was now remaining with the English!”
In reply to this I might bring forward some sayings and assertions of the Delawares and Mohicans, which would not comport with the above story, nor apply to the great name the Six Nations have given themselves, which, as Colden tells us, is Ongwe-honwe, and signifies “men surpassing all others, superior to the rest of mankind:” but my object here is merely to discuss the fact, whether, previous to the white people’s coming into the country, and while unsupplied with fire-arms, hatchets, &c., those Iroquois had done such wonders among nations as they report; or, whether all this was done since that time, and in consequence of their being put into possession of those destructive weapons which they had not before; for how are we to judge, and decide on the comparative bravery of two different nations, without knowing whether or not the combatants were placed on an equal footing with regard to the weapons they used against each other?
I might ask the simple question, whether the Dutch, and afterwards the English, have favoured their “brethren,” the Delawares, Mohicans, and other tribes connected with them, who lived between them and the Six Nations, and on the land which they wanted to have, in the same manner that they have favoured their enemies?
Colden, in his Introduction to the History of the Five Nations, page 3, says: “I have been told by old men in New England, who remembered the time when the Mohawks made war on their Indians,” (meaning here the Mohicans, or River Indians, as they often were called,) “that as soon as a single Mohawk was discovered in the country, their Indians raised a cry, from hill to hill, a Mohawk! a Mohawk! upon which they all fled, like sheep before wolves, without attempting to make the least resistance, whatever odds were on their side,” and that, “the poor New England Indians immediately ran to the Christian houses, and the Mohawks often pursued them so closely, that they entered along with them, and knocked their brains out in the presence of the people of the house,” &c.
This is indeed a lamentable story! It might be asked, How could the white people, whom those very Mohicans had hospitably welcomed, and permitted to live with them on their land, suffer an enemy to come into the country to destroy their benefactors, without making any opposition? Why did these Indians suffer this? Why did they not with spirit meet this enemy?
The answer to this last question will be found in their traditional history of the great meeting at Nordman’s Kill, where they were expressly told, after they had consented to bury the hatchet, wherewith they warred against the Six Nations, “That whatsoever nation, (meaning the Mohicans and Delawares) should dig up the hatchet again, on them would the white people fall and take revenge!”
Thus, then, arms were put into the hands of the Six Nations, and with them the Dutch, and afterwards the English, sided; but the Delawares and Mohicans were compelled to remain unarmed, for fear of being cut up by the white people, who had taken part with their enemies. May we not conclude, that these poor New England Indians were placed between two fires?
We do not, I believe, find that in the then middle colonies, the Mohawks, or any of the Five Nations, had ventured so far in their hostile conduct against the Delawares, as they had done to the Mohicans of New England, though the alliance between the Dutch and the Five Nations, and afterwards between the English and the latter, was much against both, and indeed more against the Delawares than the Mohicans: yet, by turning to treaties and councils, held with these nations between the years 1740 and 1760, in Pennsylvania,13 we find much insolent language, which the Iroquois were, I will say, permitted, but which, the people concerned say, they were “bid or hired to make against the Delawares, for the purpose of stopping their mouths, preventing them from stating their complaints and grievances, and asking redress from the colonial government.”
The result of such high toned language, as that which was made use of to the Delawares, by the Six Nations, at a council held at the proprietors, in July, 1742, and at other times afterwards,14 might easily have been foretold. For although now, these defenceless people had to submit to such gross insults, instead of seeing their grievances redressed, yet they were not ignorant of the manner in which they one day might take revenge, the door to the French, who were enemies to the English, being always open to them; they had but to go “on one side” (as they expressed themselves) to be out of the way of the Iroquois, and they could obtain from the possessors of Canada, and Louisiana, all that they wanted, fire-arms, hatchets, scalping-knives, ammunition, &c. They did so, and withdrew to the Ohio country, whither they were followed by others from time to time, and by the time the French war broke out, they were in perfect readiness, and joining the enemies of Britain, they murdered great numbers of the defenceless inhabitants of Pennsylvania, laid the whole frontier waste, and spread terror and misery far and wide by the outrages they committed; I have been myself a witness to those scenes, and to the distresses of hundreds of poor people, only in this one quarter.
A work, entitled: “An Enquiry into the Causes of the Alienation of the Delaware and Shawanese Indians from the British Interest,” written by Charles Thompson,15 Esq., and printed in London, in 1759, which some time since fell into my hands, well merits to be read with attention, on account of the correctness of