pease him, and it was upon that occasion that the Indian chief delivered himself of those eloquent expressions that have attained such a world-wide celebrity. He walked into the woods with Gibson, who had been sent to visit him, and, seating himself upon a log, "burst into tears," and gave utterance to his feelings in these words, as they were written down and reported at the time :

"I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked, and he clothed him not? During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his camp, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as I passed, and said, 'Logan is the friend of the white man!' I had even thought to have lived with you, but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it. I have killed many. I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace; but do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life.

Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one!"

The subsequent history of this renowned warrior is soon told. He led a wandering, intemperate life for several years, and took part in the wars at the west in 1779 and 1780. He is described as having become melancholy and wretched in the extreme, and as being deprived of the full use of his reason by the pernicious habit of indulging in strong drink. He came to his death in the latter year under singular circumstances. He had, as he supposed, killed his wife during a fit of intoxication, and fled from Detroit, where he had been present at an Indian council,

66

to evade the punishment awarded by the native code. On his way towards Sandusky, he fell in with a large party of Indians, among whom was a relative of his, named Todkah-dohs, and whom he took to be the one appointed to avenge the murder. According to Mr. Mayer's account, rashly bursting forth into frantic passion, he exclaimed, that the whole party should fall beneath his weapons. Tod-kah-dohs, seeing their danger, and observing that Logan was well armed, told his companions that their only safety was in getting the advantage of the desperate man by prompt action. Whilst leaping from his horse, to execute his dreadful threat, Tod-kah-dohs levelled a shotgun within a few feet of the savage, and killed him on the spot."

It may well be supposed the whole of the Iroquois tribe should have been roused to indignation by the occurrence which we have described, and in which some of their own brethren had borne so conspicuous a part. We are told that this was the case with all of them except the Oneidas, and that disaffection towards the colonies had become general among the western tribes.

CHAPTER IV.

HISTORY OF BRANT CONTINUED: CONNECTION OF THE SIX NATIONS WITH THE WAR OF THE American REVOLUTION.

In the year 1775, when difficulties between the American colonies and the old country were rife, and the prospect of a long and desperate contention kept the minds of all in fear and anxiety, it was felt to be necessary on the part of the Americans, and politic on the part of the English, to use every endeavor to secure the services of the Six

Nations. The remembrance of their noble patron, Sir William Johnson, caused the Mohawks and many others of the confederacy to adhere firmly to his son-in-law and successor, Guy Johnson, and when he fled westward to the lakes, to avoid the danger of capture by the Americans, Brant and the principal warriors of the tribe accompanied him. A great meeting was held by them, to discuss the policy which they should pursue; after which, Johnson and his chiefs proceeded to Montreal, followed by a strong body of Indian warriors. Sir Guy Carleton encouraged the Iroquois sachems to accept commissions under the king, and, what with his promises, their attachment to the Johnson family, and the remembrance of old pledges, they were thoroughly confirmed in their purpose of taking a decided stand in favor of the royal cause.

The efforts of the Americans proved less successful. By the aid of a Mr. Kirkland, missionary to the Oneidas, the favor of that tribe was greatly conciliated. His efforts were assisted by the influence of the Indians of Stockbridge, a town in western Massachusetts. These were the remains of various celebrated tribes which had long ceased to maintain a separate national existence. The principal portion of them were descendants of the ancient Moheakannuk, Mohicans, or River Indians, who dwelt on the banks of the Hudson in the early times of American colonization; but with them were associated many of the Narragansetts and Pequots, from Rhode Island and Connecticut. They were entirely under the influence of the Americans, and favorable to their cause.

A very touching incident of private history, connected with this collection of dismembered tribes after their removal westward, has been immortalized in the beautiful poetical legend by Bryant, entitled "Monument Mountain." The mountain stands in Great Barrington, (western Massachusetts,) overlooking the rich and picturesque valley of

the Housatonic. The following note is appended to the poem. "Until within a few years past, small parties of that tribe used to arrive, from their settlement, in the western part of the state of New York, on visits to Stockbridge, the place of their nativity and former residence. A young woman, belonging to one of these parties, related to a friend of the author the story on which the poem of Monument Mountain is founded. An Indian girl had formed an attachment for her cousin, which, according to the customs of the tribe, was unlawful. She was, in consequence, seized with a deep melancholy, and resolved to destroy herself. In company with a female friend, she repaired to the mountain, decked out for the occasion in all her ornaments, and after passing the day on the summit, in singing, with her companion, the traditional songs of her nation, she threw herself headlong from the rock, and was killed."

Here the friends sat them down,

And sang all day old songs of love and death,

And decked the poor wan victim's hair with flowers,
And prayed that safe and swift might be her way
To the calm world of sunshine, where no grief
Makes the heart heavy, and the eyelids red."

A conical pile of stones marks the spot where she was buried, on the southern slope of the mountain.

The regular successor to old king Hendric, among the Mohawks, was Little Abraham, a chief well disposed to'wards the Americans, and who remained in the Mohawk valley when Johnson and his followers fled to Canada. He appears to have possessed but little authority during the subsequent difficulties, and Brant, by a sort of universal consent among those in the English interest, obtained the position of principal chief. He was commissioned as a captain in the British army, and, in the fall of 1775,

sailed to England, to hold personal conference with the officers of government.

He was an object of much curiosity at London, and attracted the attention of persons of high rank and great celebrity. His court dress was a brilliant equipment modelled upon the fashions of his own race; but ordinarily he appeared in the usual citizen's dress of the time.

Confirmed in his loyalty to the English crown, Brant returned to America in the ensuing spring. He was secretly landed at some spot near New York, and made the best of his way to Canada. The journey was fraught with danger to such a traveller, through a disturbed and excited community, but the native sagacity and watchfulness of the Indian enabled our chief to avoid them.

Brant was gladly received, and the services of his warlike Mohawks were promptly called into requisition. He led his people at the affair of "the Cedars," which terminated so disastrously for the American interests. We cannot minutely follow his movements, nor those of the several Iroquois tribes, for a considerable period subsequent to these events. Those were stirring times, and in the momentous detail of the birth of American independence, it is not always easy to follow out any private history.

Colonel Stone, in his life of Brant, gives us the following speech, as coming, at the beginning of the ensuing year, from the chiefs of the Oneidas to Colonel Elmore, commandant at fort Schuyler. He does not attempt to explain the full import of it:

"FORT SCHUYLER, Jan. 19th, 1777. "Speech of the Oneida Chiefs to Colonel Elmore. "BROTHER: We are sent here by the Oneida chiefs, in conjunction with the Onondagas. They arrived at our village yesterday. They gave us the melancholy news that the grand council-fire at Onondaga was extinguished. We have lost, out of their town, by death, ninety, among