titudes, some ludicrous enough, others having the head of some kind of 2mal, as those of a duck, turkey, bear, fox, wolf, buck, &c., and again those kind of creatures are represented having the human head. These designs are not ill executed; the outlines bold, free and well proportioned. The pillars supporting the front or piazza of the council-house of the square are ingeniously formed in the likeness of vast speckled serpente, ascending upwards; the Öttasses being of the Snake tribe." In the fourth book of this work mention has been made of the great highways in Florida. Mr. Bartram mentions them, but not in a very particular manner, upon the St. John's River. As his sentiments seem to be those of a man of intelligence, I will offer here his concluding remarks upon the Indian antiquities of the country he visited. “I deem it necessary to observe, as my opinion, that none of them that I have seen discover the least signs of the arts, sciences, or architecture of the Europeans or other inhabitants of the old world, yet evidently betray every sign or mark of the most distant antiquity." The above remark is cited to show how different different people make up their minds upon the same subject; it shows how futile it is for us to spend time in speculating upon such matters. And, as I have before observed, it is time enough to build theories after facts have been collected. It can add nothing to our stock of knowledge respecting our antiquities, to talk or write forever about Nebuchadnezzar and the lost tribes of Jews; but if the time which has been spent in this manner had been devoted to some useful pursuit, some useful object would have been attained. As the matter now stands, one object, nevertheless, is clearly attained, namely, that of misleading or confounding the understandings of many uninformed people. I am led to make these observations to put the unwary upon their guard. In the preceding chapter I have given various accounts of, or accounts from various authors, who imagine that a colony of Welsh came to America 7 or 800 years ago. It is as truly astonishing as any thing we meet with to observe how many persons had found proofs of the existence of tribes of Welsh Indians, about the same period. As a case exactly in point with that mentioned at the beginning of the last paragraph, I offer what Mr. Brackenridge says upon this matter. "That no Welsh nation exists," he observes, " at present, on this continent, is beyond a doubt. Dr. Barton has taken great pains to ascertain the languages spoken by those tribes east of the Mississippi, and the Welsh finds no place amongst them; since the cession of Louisiana, the tribes west of the Mississippi have been sufficiently known; we have had intercourse with them all, but no Welsh are yet found. In the year 1798, a young Welshman of the name of Evans ascended the Missouri, in company with Makey, and remained two years in that country; he spoke both the ancient and modern Welsh, and addressed himself to every nation between that river and New Spain, but found no Welshmen." This, it would seem, is conclusive enough. Mr. Peck, in his "Gazetteer of Illinois," has aimed so happy a stroke at the writers on our antiquity, that, had I met with his rod before I had made the previous remarks, I should most certainly have made use of it. I shall nevertheless use it. After saying something upon the antiquities of Illinois, he proceeds: "Of one thing the writer is satisfied, that very imperfect and incorrect data have been relied upon, and very erroneous conclusions drawn, upon western antiquities. Whoever has time and patience, and is in other respects qualified to explore this field of science, and will use his spade and eyes together, and restrain his imagination from running riot amongst mounds, fortifications, horseshoes, medals, and whole cabinets of relics of the olden time,' will find very little more than the indications of rude savages, the ancestors of the present race of Indians." END OF BOOK FIRST. BOOK II. BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF THE NORTHERN OR NEW ENGLAND INDIANS. ""Tis good to muse on nations passed away Forever from the land we call our own." YAMOYDEN CHAPTER L Conduct of the early voyagers towards the Indians-Some account of the individ uals Donacona-Agona-Tasquantum, or Squanto-Dehamda-SkettwarroesAssacumet-Manida-Pechmo-Monopet-Pekenimne-Sakaweston-Epanow Manawet-Wanape-Coneconam. THE first voyagers to a country were anxious to confirm the truth of their accounts, and therefore took from their newly-discovered lands whatever seemed best suited to that object. The inhabitants of America carried off by Europeans were not, perhaps, in any instance, taken away by voyagers merely for this object, but that they might, in time, learn from them the value of the country from whence they took them. Besides those forcibly carried away, there were many, doubtless, who went through overpersuasion, and ignorance both of the distance and usage they should meet with in a land of strangers; which was not always as it should have been, and hence such as were ill used, if they ever returned to their own country, were prepared to be revenged on any strangers of the same color, that chanced to come among them. In the first voyage of Columbus to America, he took along with him, on his return to Spain, a considerable number of Indians; how many we do not know; but several died on their passage, and seven were presented to the king. Vincente Yañez Pinzon, a captain under Columbus, kidnapped four natives, whom he intended to sell in Spain for slaves; but Columbus took them from him, and restored them to their friends. In this first voyage to the islands of the new world, the blood of several Indians was shed by the hostile arms of the Spaniards.* There were three natives presented to Henry VII. by Sebastian Cabot, in 1502, which he had taken from Newfoundland. What were their names, or what became of them, we are not informed; but from the notice of historians, we learn that, when found, "they were clothed with the skins of beasts, and lived on raw flesh; but after two years, [residence in England,] were seen in the king's court clothed like Englishmen, and could not be discerned from Englishmen." These were the first Indians ever seen in England. They My present concern not being with the Indians of South America, I beg leave to refer the reader to a little work lately published, entitled THE OLD INDIAN CHRONICLE, in which all the prominent facts concerning the atrocities of the Spaniards towards them will be found stated. Rapin's Hist. England, i. 685. ed. fol. See also Purchas, 738. This is upon the authority of Berkely. Instead of England, however, he says Europe; but, by saying the six, which Columbus had before taken from St. Salvador, made their escape, he shows his superficial knowledge of those affairs. Hear Herrera:— "En suitte de cela, [that is, after Columbus had replied to the king's letter about a second voyage,] il [Columbus] partit pour aller à Barcelone auec sept Indiens, parce que les autres estoient morts en chemin. Il fit porter aueque luy des perroquets verds, et de were brought to the English court"in their country habit," and "spoke a lan guage never heard before out of their own country."* The French discovered the river St. Lawrence in 1508, and the captain of the ship who made the discovery, carried several natives to Paris, which were the first ever seen in France. What were their names, or even how any they were in number, is not set down in the accounts of this voyage. The name of this captain was Thomas Aubert. John Verazzini, in the service of Francis I., in 1524, sailed along the American coast, and landed in several places. At one place, which we judge to be some part of the coast of Connecticut, "20 of his men landed, and went about two leagues up into the country. The inhabitants fled before them, but they caught an old woman who had hid herself in the high grass, with a young woman about 18 years of age. The old woman carried a child on her back, and had, besides, two little boys with her. The young woman, too, carried three children of her own sex. Seeing themselves discovered, they began to shriek, and the old one gave them to understand, by signs, that the men were fled to the woods. They offered her something to eat, which she accepted, but the maiden refused it. This girl, who was tall and well shaped, they were desirous of taking along with them, but as she made a violent outcry, they contented themselves with taking a boy away with them."‡ The name of NEW FRANCE was given to North America in this voyage. In another voyage here, Verazzini was killed, and, as some say, eaten by the Indians. In the year 1576, Capt. Martin, afterwards Sir Martin, Frobisher sailed from England for the discovery of a north-west passage; "the only thing of the world," says a writer of his voyage, "that was left yet vndone." After the usual vicissitudes attending such an undertaking, at this early period of Eng lish navigation, he discovered a strait which has ever since borne his name. About 60 miles within that strait, he went on shore to make discovery of the country, and was suddenly attacked by the natives, "who had stolen secretly behinde the rockes ;" and though he "bent himselfe to his halberd," he narrowly escaped with his life. Hence there was a well-grounded suspicion in all future communications with the Indians in this region; yet, after considerable intercourse, Frobisher's men became less wary, and five of them, going on shore from a boat, were surprised and carried off, and never heard of again. After this "the subtile traitours were so wary, as they would after that never come within our men's danger." Notwithstanding, Frobisher found means to entice some of them alongside of his ship, and after considerable manu@evering, one of them had his fears so far overcome by the alluring sound of a cow-bell, that he came so near in his canoe, to obtain one of them, that "the captain, being ready provided, let the bell fall, and caught the man fast, and plucked him with maine force, boat and all," into his ship. Whereupon this savage finding himself in captivity, "for very choler and disdaine he bit his tongue in twaine within his mouth: notwithstanding he died not thereof, but liued vntil he came in England, and then he died of cold which he had taken at sea." The next year (1577) Frobisher made another voyage to the same coasts of America, and on some excursion on land he was attacked and wounded by the Indians. In York Sound he attacked a party, and killed five or six of them, and shortly after took two women prisoners. Such were the impressions given and received between the Europeans and Indians in that early day of American history. This was indeed a comparatively barbarous age. Few of the early voyagers were better than demi-savages; for they measured the conduct of the Indians by their own scale of justice; in which might was too often taken for right. But we of this age- what will be said of us by generations to come, - by rouges, et d'autres choses dignes d'admiration qui n'auoient iamais esté veurs en Espagne." Hist. des Indes Occident. i. 102. Ed. 1660, 3 tomes, 4to. See also Harris, Voyages, ii. 15. ed. 1764. 2 v. fol.; Robertson, America, i. 94. ed. 1778, 4to. Berkely's Naval Hist. Brit. 268. ed. 1756, fol. and Harris, Voyages, ii. 191. † Forster, 432. Ibid. 434, 435. |