The Mohawk Valley, its legends and its history

Preface

THE Mohawk Valley, with its stirring scenes connected with the French and Indian wars and the War of the Revolution, has been sadly neglected by historians and writers of fiction. Yet within its borders have been enacted tragic events and heroic endeavors that helped materially in crowning with victory the efforts and sacrifices of the patriots of the Revolution.

There is no section of pleasant valley-land, of lake-and forest-dotted wilderness, of rushing streams and cultivated fields, east of the Mississippi, that surpasses in its wealth of scenery this bit of the Empire State. It is natural that such a land should be rich in romance both legendary and historical. From Schenectady to Rome, every town has its romantic story of the early wars; every bit of woodland has its wealth of prehistoric legend. The book, after all, is only a written record of oft-told tales. But such tales hitherto were widely scattered. Some are familiar to every American boy who has read TJic Last of the MoJiicans and its companion stories ; some may be heard from the lips of gray-haired citizens of many villages, who retell the tales their grandfathers told them of frontier fights and Indian massacres; and the musty archives of every Valley town have their own story of war and sacrifice and the struggles of early border life.

This work deals with the period embraced between the years 1609 and 1780. Many characters of national interest figure prominently in the book, and its illustrations have been vi Preface

carefully selected so that the reader may not only read of, but see, the more notable landmarks that remain.

In compiling this work I have become indebted to many individuals and many publications for information received, and take this opportunity to gratefully acknowledge assistance from the following-named persons and documents:

Augustus C. Buell, W. M. Beauchamp, A. N. Ruttenber, John Fiske, Prof. E. N. Horsford, Gen. John S. Clark, Gilbert Wemple, A. R. Grider, Hon. Stephen Sanford, Cyrus B. Chase, Washington Frothingham, Rev. W. E. Grififis, W. L. Stone's Life of Sir Williavi JoJinson, Beers's History of Montgomery, B. J. 'Lossmgs Field-Book of the Revolution, Colonial History of Nezv York, Documentary History of Neiv York, Francis Parkman, Gen. James Grant Wilson, Prof. Jonathan Pearson's Schenectady Patent ; J. Wynne, S. J. ; David Hutchison, Library of Congress; Reuben Gold Thwaites' Jesuit Relations ; Victor Hugo Paltsits, Lenox Library; New York State Library, F. W. Halsey, and a large number of friends that want of space will not permit me to enumerate.

W. Max Reid.

Amsterdam, N. Y.

Oct. 21, I go I.

Contents

I — The Mythical City of Norumbega

II — The Mohawks

Ill— Journal of Arent Van Curler

Chapter I The Mythical City of Norumbega

IT may seem strange to readers of a book that purports to be a history of the Mohawk Valley, that the author should go so wide afield as to connect it with a mysterious country a thousand miles away and whose exact locality is unknown to this day. Undoubtedly the mythical city of Norumbega, together with the equally mythical Northwest Passage to India, was an incentive to early navigators, to visit the shores of the New World and to explore its eastern coast. Mystery and the marvellous is even now, at the beginning of the twentieth century, attractive to the majority of mankind, but how much more so in the sixteenth century, with the imagination quickened by the discoveries of the Spaniards under Cortez and Pizarro and the wonderful treasures secured in Mexico and Peru.

That the northeast coast of America was visited by Breton (1504) and Basque fishermen, in search of fish for the Catholic countries of Europe, before the discovery and naming of the St. Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534-5, is a matter of history, and that they should have made temporary homes on the shores near their fishing grounds seems natural, and that, in some cases, it became necessary to protect their camps by rude forts, more or less strong, seems reasonable. We are therefore inclined to believe that there may be some truth in the traditionary French (Breton) fort, said to have been located on an island near Albany, many years before the voyages of Henry Hudson.

The land, river, and city of Norumbega seems to have been known to nearly all of the early navigators of the Atlantic, and the incentive for many a quest by Verrazano in 1524, Alleforce under Roberval in 1543, Thevet in 1556, and Champlain in 1603-14.

And is it a wonder, when such a story as the following was told and believed:

An Englishman had left a record of having seen a city bearing the name of Norumbega, and the city was three-quarters of a mile long.

This man, David Ingram, a sailor, had been set on shore by Sir John Hawkins in 1568, at Tampico, on the Gulf of Mexico, with some hundred and twenty others in stress for food. He had wandered all the way across the country, visiting many large Indian towns, and coming at length, in 1569, to the banks of the Norumbega. He sailed from the harbor of St. Mary's (one of the earlier names for Boston Bay) a few hours distant from the Norumbega he visited, and ultimately got back to England, where he again met and was kindly received by Sir John Hawkins. He told a story that surpasses belief. He had seen monarchs borne on golden chairs, and houses with pillars of crystal and silver. He had visited tlie dwelling of an Indian chief where he saw a quart of pearls; and afterwards increased it to a peck of pearls. He was brought in audience before Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the kinsman of Sir Walter Raleigh. Thevet who had been at Norumbega, on the banks of what he pronounced " one of the most beautiful rivers in all the world," was present and confirmed Ingram in part.'

Whittier, in his poem " Norumbega," makes the weary

'From monograph by Prof. E. N. Horsford, who claimed to have found the site of Norumbega City, on the banks of the Charles River at Weston, near Boston, and that the Charles was the Norumbega River.

The Mythical City of Norumbega 3

Christian Knight who is dying in his fruitless search for the mythical city, "at shut of day," see a vision like a pipe dream. " I see, he said, " the domes and spires of Norumbega town " — " What sounds are these but chants and holy hymns " — " It is a chapel bell that fills the air with its low tones " — " The Christ be praised — He sits for me a blessed cross in sight" — " I fain would look before I die on Norum.- bega's walls,"

Pierre Biard, Lescarbot, and other Jesuits, repeatedly speak of Norumbega as being on the Pentegoet or Penobscot River. In fact. La Saussaye, when he sailed from Port Royal (now Annapolis, Nova Scotia), intended to establish the settlement of St. Sauveur on the Norumbega or Penobscot, at the place now known as Bangor, Maine, but finally settled on Mount Desert Island.

Champlain sailed up the Penobscot in his search for the city of Norumbega, and his map of 1613 shows the name of Norumbega on the Penobscot in the vicinity of Bangor.

The map of Ortelius, 1570, and Solis's map of 1598, shows the country of the Montagnes Indians east of Norumbega. (The country of the Montagnes was between Three Rivers and the Saguenay, in the province of Quebec.) If these maps are correct, it would make the Penobscot the Norumbega River.

John Fiske, in his very excellent book called Tlic Dutch and Quaker Colonies of America, by very ingenious reasoning, and with the help of Maiollo's map of Verrazano's discoveries, 1527, Gastaldi's map of 1550, and Mercator's Duisburg map of 1569, claims that the Hudson was the Norumbega, and that Manhattan Island was the site of the city and that it was located on the border of the collect or pond now marked by the gloomy prison called the Tombs. He suggests that the name may be a corruption of Anormee Berge, which he says means Grand Scarp in sixteenth-century French, and was appHed to the Hudson River by Verrazzano, who describes it as a very broad river running between small steep hills, evidently referring to the Palisades. Fiske says: " What better epithet than Grand Scarp could be applied to those majestic cliffs. It is clear that for a quarter of a century or more after the voyage of Verrazzano (1524) the Hudson River was visited by French fur traders, and that they had block-houses on Manhattan Island and at Albany." This was at least a half-century before the voyage of Henry Hudson and the renaming of the Hudson River.

If the Hudson River was the Norumbega, and if a city three-quarters of a mile long, with domes and spires and pillars of crystal and silver existed, it must have been known to the Aborigines of the Mohawk Valley, but, so far, we have been unable to find any traditionary evidence of the mythical city having been located within ths^ bounds of New York State.

We do not expect, however, to find evidence among the Mohawks, because they are known to have been located at Hochelaga (Montreal) in 1535, and the lower Mohawk Valley was then occupied by tribes of the Algonquin nation, probably the Mohicans, the Abinakas, or the Andastes.

Chapter II The Mohawks

THE earliest record of the Mohawk Indians, whose aboriginal name, as given by the Jesuit priest, Jean Brebeuf, was Agnierrhonons, contracted to Agniers, " the people of the flint," later called Mahaqua by the Algonquins, Maquas by the Dutch, and Mohawk by the English, is derived from Jacques Cartier's account of his voyage up the St. Lawrence to Hochelaga (Montreal), in 1535.

From their traditions, they were driven out of Canada by the Algonquins, probably during the latter part of the sixteenth century, because the large village that Cartier visited in 1535 was deserted and destroyed when Champlain visited this spot in 1608.

It is probable that they made their way direct to the Mohawk Valley, but, being numerically weak, chose for new homes secluded spots deep in the forest, four or five miles from the Mohawk River, to build their palisaded castles, one of which, but recently discovered, I visited in the month of July, 1899. At that season of the year we find men all over the country attacked with a desire for a little relaxation from business or the regular routine of life, and a longing to flee from urban surroundings and spend a season in the fields and forests away from the abode of men, and, with gun and line, provide their daily food. We are apt to call it sport, but is it not, rather, the " old Adam " that is asserting itself, an inmate longing to return to the primitive condition of man and battle awhile with nature for our own sustenance ? It is true that we like to take some of the luxuries of life with us when we go into the forests, but the greatest pleasure of it all is the freedom from care and the feeling that we are providing for our wants with our own hands and by our own exertions. Our thoughts are apt to revert to the time when the hardy pioneer was obliged to live as we are living, with the addition of a great deal of hard work and suffering thrown in. And then we think perhaps of the aborigines. Their mode of life and apparent freedom from cares has a charm for us for the time being, and we imagine we would like to adopt their customs and be forever free from the requirements of society and the fear of protested notes and overdue bills payable, and the uncertainty of bills receivable. But this longing lasts only a short season, and education asserts itself and we are glad to get back to the old treadmill, thankful if we can but bring with us renewed health and strength for our battle with " the world, the flesh, and the devil."

Our sojourn in the northern forests, however, lacks one element of the life of the Aborigines; and that is the constant watchfulness against savage enemies and the necessity of selecting for a home some secluded spot which nature and their rude art could make into a fortress.

I have in mind such a spot which has lately been discovered by accident after having been abandoned for three or four centuries. In the year 1892. George W. Chapin, a woodman residing between Fonda and Johnstown, returning to his home from the latter place through a lonely wood on the bank of the Cayudutta Creek, observed a hole in the ground that had lately been made by a woodchuck. Examining the earth thrown out by the nimble feet of the rodent, he observed a fragment of pottery, which, upon examination, was found to be a piece of decorated earthenware of Indian manufacture.

The Mohawks 9

The discovery having been communicated to the late A. G. Richmond, W. M. Beauchamp of the New York State Museum, and others, excavations were made which estabhshed the fact that the site of an ancient Indian fort, hitherto not known or suspected, had been discovered. Many interesting articles of Indian manufacture have been unearthed, some of which have been illustrated by \V. M. Beauchamp in the New York State Museum Bulletins, and the spot described by Robert M. Hartley in the Popular Science Ncivs, June, 1896.

Within a few weeks I made three visits to this interesting spot with various friends, and must confess that it has a great charm to me; but although the articles brought away were numerous, they were of small value when compared with those secured by earlier visitors. I wish to thank Mr. Charles Gardiner of Johnstown for his explicit instructions how to find the place. He said: " Get off at the station of Sammonsville; walk up the track about a quarter of a mile, or until you come to an old stump field; pass through the stump field and the woods adjoining, until you come to a ravine; cross the ravine, and there you are."

My first visit was made with Myron W. Reid for a companion, but when we arrived at the stump field, he was so charmed by the liquid, jingling notes of numerous bobolinks, that he deserted me for the time being and left me to pursue my quest alone. Thanks to Mr. Gardiner's instructions, the place was found without any trouble. Subsequent visits were made, and each time resulted in interesting discoveries. (I wish to say, however, that previous investigators, undoubtedly were just as succcessful or perhaps more so than I was.)

The site of this ancient Indian fort is located on a high, broad point of land, between two ravines, which grow deeper as they approach the bed of the Cayudutta Creek, that flows by its western boundary. Both ravines run in a southerly lo The Mohawk Valley

direction and through the easterly ravine flows a small permanent stream. The approach to the high ground of the Indian village from the Cayudutta Creek seems to have been through the latter ravine, which becomes a narrow, slaty gorge as it approaches the flats of the Cayudutta Valley, and owing to the dense growth of small trees and underbrush the entrance is not easily seen from the creek below. The gorge itself is quite picturesque, and its present condition suggests a possible method of defence used by the Indians, large trees having been felled and thrown into the bed of the creek, forming a rude breastwork. Even in the present condition of the huge rotten trunks they present an obstacle not easily overcome by the investigator. As you enter the gorge from below, you encounter a series of slaty ledges, over whose moss-covered surface the stream trickles slowly, making a series of slimy steps extending upward for twenty or thirty feet, or to the level of the higher ground of the forest. On the west side of the gorge these slaty steps have , been worn smooth and rounded by countless footsteps, up to a point about ten feet from the entrance, where a trail is seen ascending the side of the hill to the plateau above. As the trail or path approaches the top, it is worn in some places from four to six inches deep along the edge of the hill, showing that the place had been occupied for a considerable space of time by a numerous population.

The plateau itself extends north to a considerable distance and is well covered with trees of large size and the rotten trunks of many monarchs of the forest. The place suggests seclusion, and its stillness is almost oppressive. The only evidence of life observable was the scurry of a solitar}/ partridge chick and the dismal croak of 2i pater fautilias crow, evidently solicitous for the safety of his little family in the top of one of the tall pines. Take it all in all, I would not recommend it

The Mohawks ii

as a very desirable place for a Sunday-school picnic. This spot has undoubtedly been visited by a number of " diggers," as is seen by the upturned black earth, plentifully sprinkled with small fragments of fresh-water clam-shells and occasional bits of pottery.

It is evident that this spot was once an Indian fortification, as the line of the palisade is seen stretching across the plateau from ravine to ravine. Although I was unable to secure many relics of intrinsic value, my search was quite successful and resulted in unearthing a stone axe, a broken stone pestle, a few bone tools, and flint implements, together with forty fragments of as many decorated vessels of Indian pottery. One of the most interesting articles that have been unearthed is a brass or copper bead, about six inches long. This was found by Mr. A. G. Richmond a few years ago, and is valued from the fact that it enables archaeologists to fix the probable date of the occupation of this secluded spot by the q^

Indians. As this is the only article found there that would indicate that the occupants had ever come in contact with white men, it must have been occupied previous to 1609, and subsequent to the discovery of the river St. Lawrence, in 1535. Many archaeologists are of the opinion that the Iroquois were the people whom Jacques Cartier met at Hochelaga (Montreal) and Stadacone (Quebec) on the occasion of his ascent of the St. Lawrence in 1535, and they advance the theory that they were driven out of Canada between that time and 1609, when Champlain found a new people at Stadacone (Quebec) and Hochelaga (Montreal) entirely deserted.

W. M. Beauchamp, in a recent communication, says: "I should date the Mohawk Fort (Cayudutta) a little before 1600, and think they had these long brass beads from the French, they are much alike and unquestionably European. We are to remember, however, that the Iroquois had villages as far down as Quebec in 1535, and seem to have often visited the mouth of the river where vessels often touched."

Parkman says: " In the vocabulary of the language appended to the journal of Cartier's second voyage, Canada is set down as a word for town or village. It bears the same meaning in the Mohawk tongue." " The language of Stadacone, or Quebec, when Cartier visited it, was apparently a dialect of the Iroquois." You will probably remember that Cartier's first voyage was made in 1534, at which time he struck the mainland at Gaspe, opposite the island of Anticosta, and that he kidnapped two young Indians. These young savages returned with him in 1535, acting as interpreters, and are said to have been a part of a war party from Hochelaga, speaking a different language from the Indians of Gaspe, at which place they were found by Cartier. There was also a tradition among the Agnies (Mohawks) that their ancestors were once settled in Quebec, and relics found at Montreal correspond with articles found in Iroquois burial-places in western New York. Therefore we think it is safe to assume that the Cayudutta fort was probably one of the earliest settlements of the Iroquois (Mohawks) in the valley of the Mohawk and a place of great historic interest from the prehistoric character of the relics found there.

Parkman, in his Pioneers of France in the N'ezv IVorld, says:

"When America was first made known to Europe, the part assumed by France on the borders of that new world was peculiar, and is little recognized. While the Spaniard roamed sea and land, burning for achievement, red-hot with bigotry and avarice, and while England, with soberer steps and a less dazzling result, followed in the path of discovery and gold hunting, it was from France that those barbarous shores first learned to serve the ends of peaceful commercial industry.

A French writer, however, advances a more ambitious

The Mohawks 13

claim. In the year 1488, four years before the first voyage of Columbus, America, he maintains, was found by a Frenchman. Cousin, a navigator of Dieppe, being at sea off the African coast, was forced westward, it is said, by winds and currents, to within sight of an unknown shore, where he presently descried the mouth of a great river. On board his ship was one Pinzon, whose conduct became so mutinous that, on his return to Dieppe, he made complaint to the magistracy, who thereupon dismissed the offender from the maritime service of the town. Pinzon went to Spain, became known to Columbus, told him of his discovery, and joined him on his voyage in 1492.

In the year 1535 Jacques Cartier, a Frenchman, sailed from the ancient town of St. Malo, France, and entered the bay of St. Lawrence, as Cartier named it, in August or September of the same year. Having with him the two Indian lads captured in his former visit to these shores, he found them of great assistance in communicating with the natives. They are supposed to have spoken the Mohawk dialect. It is said that the Indian name for the St. Lawrence River was Hochelaga, and that the present site of Quebec was called Stadacona, whose king's name was Donnacona. Cartier says that the country below Stadacona (Quebec) was called Saguenay, and that above, Hochelaga. At Stadacona, Cartier was told of a large Indian town, many days' journey above, which was called Hochelaga, and had given the name to the river and country also. Passing up the river with a small galleon and two open boats and about fifty sailors, on the 2d of October, 1535, they reached the mysterious Hochelaga. Their landing was made just below the present quays of Montreal, and thronging the shores were a thousand or more Indians awaiting the strangers. The next morning they were conducted to the Indians' town, Iving under the shadow of the mountain which Cartier named Mont Royal — Montreal; "hence the name of the busy city which now holds the site of the vanished Hochelaga."

A later writer, Lescarbot, insists that the country on both sides of the St. Lawrence, from Hochelaga to its mouth, was called Canada. The derivation of the name Canada is undoubtedly Indian, and not Spanish, and it is a singular fact that in the vocabulary of the language of Hochelaga appended to the journal of Cartier's second voyage, Canada is set down as meaning town or village, and that it bears the same meaning in the Mohawk, and both languages are dialects of the Iroquois.

Quoting still from Parkman's notes: " That the Indians of Hochelaga belonged to the Huron-Iroquois family of tribes is evident from the af^nities of their language and from the construction of their houses and defensive works. This was identical with the construction universal, or nearly so, among the Huron-Iroquois tribes." It is said that in i860 a quantity of Indian remains were dug up at Montreal that evidently belonged to the Iroquois and not to the Algonquin type. There is said to be a tradition among the Agniers (Mohawks), one of the five nations of the Iroquois, that their ancestors were once settled at Quebec. A tradition recorded by Colden in his history of the Five Nations (Iroquois), that they were formerly settled near Montreal, is of interest. The tradition declares that they were driven thence by ihe Adirondacks, which was the distinctive name of the tribes of the Algonquins located in Canada.

It is said that when Champlain, in 1603, passed up the St. Lawrence, sixty-eight years after Cartier's visit, " Hochelaga and its savage population had vanished, and in their place were a few wandering Algonquins of different tongues and lineage."

Champlain, in 1609, met them again on the shores of Lake Champlain, called by the natives Iroquois Lake. Champlain's

THE ROCKY WALLS OF THE CANAJOHAKIE

The Mohawks 17

account of the meeting is so interesting that I will transcribe it in his own words:

At nightfall we embarked in our canoes to continue our journey, and as we advanced very softly and noiselessly, we encountered a party of Iroquois, on the twenty-ninth of the month (July, 1609), about ten o'clock at night, at a point off a cape which juts into the lake on the west side. They and we began to shout, each seizing his arms. We withdrew towards the water and the Iroquois repaired on shore and arranged all their canoes, the one beside the other, and began to hew down trees with villainous axes, which they sometimes got in war, and others of stone, and fortified themselves securely.

Our party, likewise, kept their canoes arranged, the one alongside the other, tied to poles so as not to run adrift, in order to fight all together, should need be. We were on the water about an arrow shot from their barricade.

When they were armed and in order, they sent two canoes from the fleet, which consisted of twenty-four canoes and sixty savages, to know if their enemies wished to fight, who answered they desired nothing else; but that just then there was not much light, and that we must wait for day to distinguish each other, and they would give us battle at sunrise. This was agreed to by our party. Meanwhile the whole night was spent in dancing and singing, as well on one side as on the other, mingled with an infinitude of insults and other taunts such as the little courage they had; how powerless their resistance against our arms, and that when day would break they should experience this to their ruin. Ours, likewise, did not fail in repartee, telling them they should witness the effect of arms they had never seen before, and a multitude of speeches as is usual at a siege of a town. After the one and the other had sung, danced, and parliamented enough, day broke. My three companions and I were always concealed for fear the enemy should see us preparing our arms as best we could, being, however, separated, each in one of the canoes belonging to the savage Montagnaes.

After being equipped with light armor, we took each an arquebus and went ashore. I saw the enemy leave their barricade; they were about 200 men, of strong and robust appearance, who were coming slowly towards us, with a gravity and assurance which greatly pleased me, led on by three chiefs. Ouis were marching in similar order, and told us that those who bore three lofty plumes were the chiefs, and that there were but three, and they were to be recognized by those plumes, which were considerable larger than those of their companions, and that I must do all I could to kill them. I promised to do what I could, and that I was sorry they could not clearly understand me, so as to give them the order and plan of attacking their enemies, as we should undoubtedly defeat them all; but there was no help for that; that I was very glad to encourage them and to manifest to them my good will when we should be engaged.

The moment we landed they began to run about two hundred paces toward their enemies, who stood firm, and had not yet perceived my companions, who went into the bush with some savages. Ours commenced calling me in a loud voice, and making way for me opened in two, and placed me at their head, marching about twenty paces in advance, until I was within thirty paces of the enemy. The moment they saw me, they halted, gazing at me and I at them. When I saw them preparing to shoot at us, I raised my arquebus, and aiming directly at one of the three chiefs, two of them fell to the ground by this shot and one of their companions received a wound of which he died afterwards. I had put four balls in my arquebus. Ours on witnessing a shot so favorable for them, set up such tremendous shouts that thunder could not have been heard; and yet there was no lack of arrows on one side and the other.

The Iroquois were greatly astonished seeing two men killed so instantaneously, notwithstanding they were provided with arrowproof armor, woven with cotton thread and wood; this frightened them very much. Whilst I was reloading, one of my companions in the bush fired a shot which so astonished them anew, seeing their chiefs slain, they lost courage, took to flight and abandoned the field and their fort, hiding themselves in the depths of the forest, whither pursuing them, I killed some others. Our savages also killed several of them and took ten or twelve prisoners. The rest carried off the wounded. Fifteen or sixteen of ours were wounded by arrows; they were promptly cured.