close air, and heated rooms, must necessarily produce.

The presents made to these adventurous warriors were judiciously adapted to their taste and customs. They consisted of showy habits, of which all these people are very fond, and arms made purposely in the form of those used in their own country. It was the fortune of the writer of these memoirs, more than thirty years after, to see that great warrior and faithful ally of the British crown the redoubted King Hendrick, then sovereign of the Five Nations, splendidly arrayed in a suit of light blue, made in an antique mode, and trimmed with broad silver lace; which was probably an heirloom, in the family, presented to his father by his good ally, and sister, the female king of England.1

1 King Hendrick, born 1680, killed 1755 at the battle of Lake George, as is well known, was not sovereign of the Five Nations, but was a chief of the Mohawk nation, who had been invested with the title of king, an unusual term for a leader among the Indians. Possibly it was another warrior similarly accoutered that Mrs. Grant saw at a later day; for although King Hendrick returned with such a costume, and his portrait was painted in it in England during his visit, he had been a short time dead when Mrs. Grant arrived in the country.

King Hendrick.

I cannot exactly say how long Colonel Schuyler and his companions staid in England, but think they were nearly a year absent.1 In those primeval days of the settlement, when our present rapid modes of transmitting intelligence were unknown, in a country so detached and inland as that at Albany, the return of these interesting travellers was like the first lighting of lamps in a city.

1 These sachems or chiefs were all of the Mohawk nation, representing all of the Five Nations. They sailed for England in December, 1709, and had their first audience of Queen Anne on the 19th of the following April. On their stormy passage across the Atlantic one of them died, whence Mrs. Grant speaks of them as four in number. They left England on board a man-of-war, May 8, and arrived in Boston, Mass., July 15, 1710.

Chapter IV

COLONEL SCHUYLER AND THE SACHEMS- LITERARY ACQUISITIONS MANNERS OF THE SETTLERS

HIS sagacious and intelligent patriot thus brought to the foot of the British throne, the high spirited rulers of the boundless wild, who, alike heedless of the power and splendor of distant monarchs, were accustomed to say, with Fingal, "sufficient for me is the desart, with all deer and woods." It may easily be supposed that such a mind as Philip's was equally fitted to acquire and communicate intelligence. He who had conversed with Addison, Marlborough, and Godolphin, who had gratified the curiosity of Oxford and Bolingbroke, of Arbuthnot and of Gay, with accounts of nature in her pristine garb, and of her children in their primitive simplicity; he who could do all this, no doubt received ample returns of various information from those best qualified to give it, and was besides a diligent observer. Here he improved a taste for literature, native to him, for it had not yet taken root in this uncultivated soil. He brought home the Spectator and the tragedy of Cato, Windsor Forest, Young's poem on the Last Day, and in short all the works then published of that constel

lation of wits which distinguished the last female reign. Nay more, and better, he brought Paradise Lost; which in after-times afforded such delight to some branches of his family, that to them

"Paradise, indeed, seemed opened in the wild."

But to return to our sachems, from whom we have too long digressed: when they arrived at Albany, they did not, as might be expected, hasten home to communicate their discoveries, or display their acquisitions. They summoned a congress there, not only of the elders of their own nation, but the chiefs of all those with whom they were in alliance. This solemn meeting was held in the Dutch church. In the present depressed and diminished state of these once powerful tribes, so few traces of their wonted energy remain, that it could scarce be credited, were I able to relate with what bold and flowing eloquence they clothed their conceptions; powerful reasoning, emphatic language, and graceful action, added force to their arguments, while they persuaded their adherents to renounce all connection with the tribes under the French influence; and form a lasting league, offensive and defensive, with that great queen whose mild majesty had so deeply impressed them: and the mighty people whose kindness had gratified, and whose power had astonished them, whose populous cities swarmed with arts and commerce, and in whose floating castles they had rode safely over the ocean.

VOL. I. - 5

I have seen a volume of the speeches of these Mohawks preserved by Colonel Schuyler; they were literally translated, so that the native idiom was preserved; which instead of appearing uncouth, seemed to add to their strength and sublimity.

When Colonel Schuyler returned from England, about the year 1709, his niece Catalina,' the subject of this narrative, was about seven years old; he had a daughter and sons, yet this child was early distinguished above the rest for docility, a great desire of knowledge, and an even and pleasing temper; this her uncle early observed. It was at that time very difficult to procure the means of instruction in those inland districts; female education of consequence was conducted on a very limited scale; girls learnt needlework (in which they were indeed both skilful and ingenious) from their mothers and aunts; they were taught too at that period to read, in Dutch, the Bible and a few Calvinist tracts of the

1 Catalina was the youngest daughter of Capt. Johannes Schuyler, born March 5, 1704. Capt. Johannes was the youngest son of Philip Pietersen, and is noted for having led a successful expedition into Canada in 1690, at the age of 22. He was mayor of Albany 1703-6, and died July 27, 1747. His house on State Street, corner of South Pearl, built 1667, when recently taken down, was the oldest house in Albany. Catalyntje, as she was called, married Cornelis Cuyler, who was for a long time alderman of the second ward, and was mayor in 1742, to 1746, instead of Cornelis Schuyler, as is mentioned in some of the printed tables of the mayors. She was the younger sister of Madame Schuyler, the heroine of this work, who was Margaretta, born January 12, 1701. Papers bearing her signature are in existence, in which she signed her name Margrita, and tradition corroborates her identity as the daughter of Johannes Schuyler,