The Empire state in three centuries

Preface

N writing these pages the author has had in view the aim to please and satisfy, not antiquarians or specialists in historic lore, but busy men in all trades, pursuits, and professions, who have an interest and pride in their State, and wish to have in their hands a story of its annals in readable form. Thus the facts and events most worth knowing have been selected, and grouped in such a way as best to hold the attention and impress the memory.

We have attempted to equalize the treatment of every part of the State, and not to make prominent any one portion at the expense of the others. Still some may complain that too much " history " has been made of the territory " below the Harlem Kiver." It will have to be conceded, however, by these critics, that, as population by civilized men first occurred in this vicinity, naturally earlier times would find events for record to be happening mainly there. Before the wilderness of middle, northern, and western New York was peopled by the whites, not much can be discovered that will '' point a moral or adorn a tale."

Just before we went to press, appeared Prof. John Fiske's two volumes on " The Dutch and Quaker Colonies." We were startled to read in his pages a circumstantial account of a French fort, or village, or city, called Norumbega, on the tongue of land jutting out into the now non-existent Collect Pond, on ^ranhattan Island. It seemed at first as if we would have to rewrite one of our chapters. Rut as we read this passage with greater care, we came to the conclusion that the argumentation

IV PREFACE.

was more ingenious and fascinating' (as are all Professor Fiske's writings) than convincinji'. lie builds his argument with too much confidence on the maps of ancient explorers. The bewildering and amazing inaccuracies of these maps, even under Professor Fiske's handling, with a little touch of special pleading in it, do not furnish a sufficient argument for setting aside what seems to be a hard fact — that Henry Hudson was the first European explorer to sail up the river named after him, and to set his eves on the beautiful island called Mannahatta by the Indians, and Manhattan by the Dutch and English.

CHAPTER I. The Beginnings of Empire (to 1625) 1

The Title " Empire State," How Acquired ? — Supremacy the Promise of Geologic Times — New York the Seat of P^mpire under Barbaric Indian Kule — The League of the Iroquois, or Five Nations — Status of Civilization among the American Aborigines — Tribes of Indians in New York — Champlain, the French Explorer, Enters Its Territory — Hudson and the " Half-Moon " — The News in Holland — Christiaensen and Block — The New Netherland Company — Treaty of Tawasentha; Its Significance — The Dutch West India Company Sends the Walloon Families — Fort Orange, now Albany.

CHAPTER II. The Four Dutch Directors (1626-1C64) 29

Regular Colonial Government Established — Director-General Peter Minuit — Purchase of Manhattan Island — Life in the Settlement — The Patroonsliips — Van Rensselaer's Tract near Fort Orange — -Director Walter Van Twiller — Encroachments of the English — Van Twiller Removed — Director William Kieft — Charter of 1640 — Colonists in Westchester County, Long Island, and Fort Orange — Indian Wars — Director Peter Stuyvesant — New Amsterdam Becomes a City — Schenectady and Kingston (Rondout) Founded — The English Townships on Long Island — Surrender of New Netherland — Review of the Colonial Policy of the West India Company.

CHAPTER in.

The Change to British Dominion (1GG4-1G82) 62

Previous Career of (lovernor Nicolls — Province Named New York — War between England and Holland — The " Duke's Laws " — Troubles on Long Island — Changes at New York — Boundary Questions — The French in the Mohawk Country — Nicolls Asks to Be Relieved; His Death in Solebay Battle — Francis Lovelace, Governor — Small Progress at New York — A Postal Route — Recapture of New York by the Dutch — Governor Anthony Colve — Retransfer of New York to England — Edmund Andros, Governor — Improvements at New York — Conference with Indians at Utica — Robert Livingston and the Schuyler Family — Troubles about New Jersey — Andros Recalled.

vi , TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Chapter IV. Page

The Granting of a Popular Assembly (1683-1001) \y^

Governor Thomas Dongan — Instructed to Grant a Popular Assembly — It Meets and Passes the "Charter of Liberties "—Courts and Naturalization— New York Divided into Counties — New York City Charter — Condition of New York at this Time — Albany Ineorporated as a City — Villages near the Esopus — Duke of York Becomes James II. — The Assembly Abolished — Dongan and Indian Affairs — His Relations with the French — Recalled and Late*!- Career — The " Dominion " of New England, New York, and New Jersey — Sir Edmond Andros, (iovernor-General — Tiie English Revolution of 1688— Effect in New York — The Leisler Troubles — Schenectady Massacre — First Colonial Congress — Arrival of Governor Sloughter — Trial and Execution of Leisler— The Assembly Called Again— Sudden Death of Governor Sloughter.

CHAPTER V. The Konndino- Out of the First Century (1G92-1708) 131

Governor Benjamin Fletcher — Secret and Open Instructions — Efforts to {Establish a State Church — Introduction of Printing — Prompt Aid to Northern Settlements — Fletcher Recalled — The Earl of Bellomont Succeeds

Him His View of the Leisler Episode — Leisler and Milborne Rehabilitated —

Piracy's Subtle Temptations — Captain Kidd — Land Grants L"p the State — P^lectioneering for Assemblies — Death of Bellomont — Nanfan's ad interim Term— Lord Cornbury Sent to Govern New York — His Conduct at Jamaica, L. I. — Peter Schuyler, or Quider, the Friend of the Indians — Prolestant Missions among the Mohawks — The " French Scare " at New York — Cornbury's Shameless Thefts — Action of the Assembly Thereupon — Cornbury's Recall — The Rounding Out of the First Century.

CHAI'TER VI.

Early Intimations of Independence (1709-1728) 1(12

Importance of Events — Lord John Lovelace Appointed Governor — A Disagreeable Voyage — Assembly and Governor Meet — How the "Contest" Began — Death of Lord Lovelace — Governor Hunter's Remarkable Career — The Coming of the Palatines — Settlements Along the Hudson — Palatines on the Mohawk River — The Canadian Campaigns — Schuyler Takes Five Sachems to England— The Assembly under Hunter — William Burnet, (Governor- — His Cultured Tastes — Marriage in New York — Commerce and Revenue of the Day — The "French Trade" Stopped — The Six Nations — Fort Oswego Erected — The Long Assembly — ^Opposition to Burnet — Removed to Massachusetts — Death.

CHAPTER VII. The Press in Conflict with the Covernment (1728-1743) 193

Under the Four Georges — James Montgomerie, Governor — Commerce and Life at the Port of New York — The Population of the Province in 1731 — Death of Montgomerie — Rip Van Dam, Acting (iovernor — William Cosby,

TABLE OF CONTENTS. Vll

Governor — His Greed for Money — A Suit-at-law and the Men Engaged in It — Cosby's Arbitrary Acts — The Gazette and Journal Newspapers — Attacks on the Governor in the Latter — The Publisher Arrested for Libel — The Zenger Trial — -Triumph for the Freedom of the Press — ^Cosby and tlie Assembly — Cosby's Death — George Clarke, Lieutenant-Governor — Advances Made by the Assembly — Various Incidents— Clarke Returns to England.

Chapter VIII. Page

The Assembly Keeps Up the Contest (1743-1755) 223

Governor George Clinton a Sailor — Relations with James De Lancey — Dr. Cadwallader Golden — Admiral Warren and the Capture of Louisbourg — Indians During the War — Destruction of Saratoga — Aggressions of the French — Missionaries among the Indians of New York — William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs — The Assembly and Its Contentions with Governor Clinton — Tragic Effect of Its Attitude on (lovernor Sir Danvers Osborn — The Albany Congress and Its Plan of Union — The Province at the Middle of the Eighteenth Century— New York City — The Interior Counties — Albany and Its Ways of Living — Schenectady and the Settlements Westward.

CHAPTER IX. War against Canada and Kevolt at Home (1755-1775) 254

De Lancey Acts as Governor — Sir Charles Hardy Succeeds Osborn — Columbia (King's) College — De Lancey's Death — Colden Becomes Lieutenant- Governor — The French and Indian War — Braddock's Defeat — Nova Scotians in New York — Battle of Lake (xeorge — Campaigns iu Western New York — Fort William Henry and Attempts against Crown Point — End of the War and New York's Sufferings — A Succession of (iovernors — The Stamp Act Troubles — Verging toward Revolution — William Tryon, Last Colonial Governor — The Assembly in the Final Contest — Tryon's Last Acts and Dwindling Authority.

CHAPTER X. New York the Battleground of the Revolution (1775-1783) . . 28()

The War Transferred from New England to New York — Tieonderoga and Crown Point — The Invasion of Canada — General Richard Montgomery — New York City the Next Point of Attack — Battle of Long Island — Manhattan Island in the Hands of the Enemy — The Burgoyne Campaign — St. Leger on the Mohawk — Oriskany — Clinton on the Hudson — Kingston Burned — Battles of Saratoga and Burgoyne's Surrender — Cherry Valley and Retaliatory Campaigns — Colonel Marinus Willett — The Treason of Arnold — Importance of West Point — Stony Point Captured and Retaken — Andr^ Meets Arnold at Haverstraw — Andre's Arrest at Tarrytown — Execution at Tappan — Surrender of Cornwallis — The Army at Newburg — Evacuation of New York City.

Vm TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Chapter XI. Page

The State and the Union (1775-1788) 340

The Civil llistoiy of the State Goes On amid War — Provincial Congress — A Constitntiou Needed for the State — Conventions at Kingston — Governor George Clinton — A Crovernnient Needed for the Conntry — Weakness and Perils of the Confederation — Alexander Hamilton — The Constitntional Convention at Philadelphia, 1787 — New York Yields Land for Pnblic Domain — The Federalist — Convention to Ratify the Federal Constitution at Ponghkeepsie — New York Adopts It as P^leventh State, July 26, 1788 — Celebrations at New York, on Long Island, at Albany.

CHAPTER XII. A ClmngQ of Capitals (1789-1800) 363

New York Capital of the United States — Inauguration of Washington — Hamilton in the Cabinet — Washington and Congress Leave New York — Governor Clinton Still in Power — Provisions for Education — An Early " Counting Out " — John Jay Elected (Governor — Abolition of Slavery in New York — Albany Becomes Capital of the State — Significance of the Change — General Condition of the State; New York City — Staten Island and Long Island — Towns along the Hudson — The City of Hudson — The Country North and West of Albany — Union College at Schenectady — The Middle West and the Far West — Massachusetts Sells New York Lands — The " Holland Purchase," and Buffalo in 1798— The City of Albany— The End of the Second Century.

CHAPTER XIII. Political Ferments Following Independence (1801-180(1) . . . 387

Political Agitations Inseparable from Free Government — Party Violence Makes Patriots Antagonists — Presidential Deadlock of 1801 — Aaron Burr vs. Thomas Jefferson — Thirty-seven Ballots in Congress — Governor Jay Retires from Public Life — -George Clinton Again Governor in 1801 — Tlie Council of Appointment— Spoils System Inaugurated in New York — Constitutional Convention of 1801 — Morgan i^ewis, Governor — Burr Challenges Hamilton to a Duel — Burr's Subsequent Career — Establishment of the Military Academy at West Point.

Supi^lement to Chapter V 408

ILLUSTRATIONS ON STEEL.

Headquarters of General Washington at Tappan. . .Frontispiece

Henry Hudson. Face Page IG

Peter Stu^vesant

Sir Edmund Andros

Philip Schuyler

Ivichard Montgomery

Marinus Willett

Alexander Hamilton

Morgan Lewis

Robert Livingston

Stephen Van Rensselaer

George Clinton

De Witt Clinton

Henry White

John Jay

William Walton

John Cruger

James Kent

Rufus King :

Daniel D. Tompkins

Washiniiton Irviuii"

ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT.

ki "

ii u u u u u

U ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii ii

PAGE.

The " Half-Moon "

Samuel D. Champlain 7

Manhattan Island in 1609 11

First View of New Amsterdam 15

West India Company House 19

The Figurative :\rap 23

Seal of New Netherland 27

Schuvler Arms 28

X LiaX OF ILLUSTKATIONS.

PAGE

The Ship " New Netherlcand " 31

The First Warehouse 35

Purchase of ^[anhattan Island 39

David Pietersen De Vries 43

The Church at Flatlands 47

Earliest Map of New York (Mt.y 51

The Governor's House and the Church, 1(542. 55

Cit}' Tavern, New Amsterdam 59

De Peyster Arms 61

The Damen House 04

Canal on Broad Street, New York City 68

Seal of New Amsterdam 72

Adriaen Y-du der Donck's Map 76

New Amsterdam in 1656 80

The Water Gate 84

The West India Company's House 8S

Van Eensselaer Arms 92

Stuyvesant Tearin^j, NicoUs's Letter 94

New Y^ork in 1664 102

The De Sille House 106

The Kip House 110

Stuy vesant's Grave 114

New York in 1673 118

Cornelius Evertsen , 122

The Andros Double Seal 126

Robert Livingston 130

Clinton Arms 133

Cornelius Steenwyck's House 135

Cornelius Steenwyck 130

The Strand, now Whitehall Street, New York 143

Dr. Gerardus Beekman 147

The City Hall and Dock, New York (My 151

Thomas Dongan 155

Don'jnn Charter Seal 159

LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS. XI

PAGE.

r'^erry between New York and Brooklyn 160

Livinostou Arms 1 Gl

The Donj^au House 1G4

Seal of Dutchess County 168

Seal of New York, 1668 171

Peter Schuyler 175

The Albany Seal, 16S6 179

The Philipse Manor House 183

Facsimile Leisler Letter 187

Jacob Leisler's Kesidence 190

Leisler's Autograph and Seal. 192

Lord Bellomont 195

Site of the Mills Building 199

Jeremias Xnn Rensselaer 203

View of New York City 207

Jacob Leisler's Tomb 211

City Hall, New York City, 1700 215

Lewis Morris 219

De Lancey Arras 222

Rip ^^an Dam 224

riiili]) Livingston 228

Richard Lovelace 232

William Burnet 236

William Smith 240

Early Slave Market, New York City 244

Cadwallader Colden 248

Viscount Cornbury 252

Gallatin Arms 253

Augustus Jay 257

King of the Maquas 261

Emperor of the Six Nations 265

King of the River Nations. . , 269

Samuel Vetch 273

Gilbert Burnet 277

View of New York City, in 1732 280

Xll LIST OF ILLUSTIIATIOXS.

TAGE.

P()])l)le\s Plan of New York {'ity and Environs, 1733 283

D()n<;an Anns 285

Andrew Hamilton 289"

View of New York City, 1T4(; 293

The Beverly Kobinson House 297

The Van Cortlandt Mansion 301

The Sir Danvers Osborn Letter 305

Sir Danvers Osborn 309

Columbia College, 1758 313

Oswego, in 17G0 317

Red Jacket 321

Joseph Brant 325

Sir Henry Clinton 329

The Walton House. 333

Robert INIonckton 337

Beekman Arms , 339

Sir Charles Hardy 343

William Pitt 347

Burns's Coffee House 351

Broad Street and City Hall, New York City 358

Philipse Arms 361

George Washington 362

The Nathan Hale Letter 365

Lord Dunmore 367

Exploit of Marinus Willett 371

Seal of New York State, 1777 375

News of Lexington 379

Marinus Willett's Residence 383

Cardiner Arms. 386

Israel Putnam 388

Alexander McDougall 392

Benedict Arnold 396

King George III 400

Old Blue Bell Tavern 404

Hicks Arms 407

Chapter I. The Beginnings Of Empire

iMONG the members of the Union constituting the Ee-

public of the United States of America, the title of

Empire State has long been accorded to New York.

Perhaps it can be traced to no less a source than the

hand of Washington himself, Avheu, acknowledging the receipt

of tlie Freedom of New York City, in December, 1784, he alluded

to our State as " at present the seat of the Empire."

No longer the political center as in the days of the Continental Congress and the beginning of Federal Government, she has attained Empire in another sense, AA^hich the accidents and intrigues of politics can neA^er take aAA^ay from her. Yet though she leads the Union to-day in population, in Avealth, in commerce, perhai^s, also, in manufactures and industries of many sorts, her people can not claiin all the credit of this circumstance for themselves. It is due, also, largely to circumstances over which they had no control. Tliey simply found a matchless combination of natural features of immense benefit to them, if disposed to improve them diligently.

The situation of her metropolis at the mouth of the Hudson was not more favorable to its becoming the Queen of American Commerce than the entire configuration of the interior of the State Avas calculated to give later populations a great advantage in the race for commercial and industrial supremacy upon which the Thirteen Colonies started Avhen they had become independent States, and liad begun to bid for the business of the Avorld as

Z THE EMl'lUE STATE IX THREE CENTL'KIES.

one of the family of nations. Her many great rivers, flowing in every direction, attended by convenient valleys, and making passageways throngli mountain ranges, otherwise forbidding or insurmountable, have always made New York the natural, inviting, inevitable highway of traftic between the North and the South, between the farther West and the seabordering East, at every stage in the evolution of trade, from the rudest forms of it in primitive days to the highly complicated character and vast volume it has assumed in our day of steam and electricity.

It has become abundantly manifest by the event that Empire in the sense of supremacy over her sister States, in many particulars attaches to New York. It is interesting, therefore, to note also the curious promise of precedence that may be read in the records of periods far antedating human history. In the dim regions of a geologic past, incalculably distant, we behold the territory of New York rising to the surface of the almost universal waters, to become " land " as distinguished from " sea," before that of any other portion of the Union. This constitutes the rocks of Noav York, as some one has aptly said, '" the Old Testament of geology," at least on this side of the Atlantic.

When Azoic Time, with its lifeless, or perhaps only comparativel}' lifeless, rocks had i^assed away, and Paleozoic Time began to write its records of ancient and vanished forms of life in layers of stone, the most primitive forms of all made up the Silurian Age, or Age of Mollusks, and the Devonian Age, or Age of Fishes. Beginning at a distance in time whose figures would make us dizzy, the lowest (or earliest) American division of the Silurian Age is called the " Potsdam Period," because the sandstone rocks found at Potsdam, in St. Lawrence County, are traced to that early date in the earth's history. So other divisions in primordial age are the Trenton Period, named so after the rocks about Trenton Falls, north of Utica; the Hudson Period, unmistakably derived from a New York locality; as is also the Niagara Period, whose rocks have been revealed to the eve bv the erosions of the mai>nificent cataract.

TtrE EMPIRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES.

The rocks of the next period, the Saliua, are those of the saltbearing beds of Central New York, near Syracuse; while the latest division of this long ago age, the Lower Helderberg Period, reveals its rocks in the Helderberg Mountains, not far south of Albany. As we go up the scale of time through the next later or Devonian Age, we come across the names of Oriskany, famous in Revolutionary annals, and of the " Schoharie grit " in the Corniferous Period; Hamilton, Chemung, and Catskill Periods again remind us of well known localities within the borders of the Empire State, where rocks tell the story of the building up of the continent.

And what is the story these names tell? What is the meaning of this nomenclature in geology? As we read , >.

these names Ave seem to "^ iff^'it / 1 ^

- ,J— . LJ mix see the huge continent

lying beneath the circum-

incumbent ocean, lifting

its Titanic shoulder above

the watery surface. A little farther northward,

where now we call the

country Canada, even

Azoic time had not been able to suppress the rising land. The nucleus of Nortli America must be traced here. But when Life Time first succeeded Lifeless Time, a point of the Republic near the St. Lawrence came also to the surface near Potsdam.

The good work begun extended southward toward Utica, then westward to the upper Hudson; next as a pioneer toward the western horizon arose a bit of New York along the Niagara, followed ux) by the intervening territory around in the neighborhood of the salty lake near S^^racuse, and with an excursion toward the high ground below Albany at the end of the Silurian Age. The Devonian Age saw still more complete resurrections from the sea for New York State, until the Catskill Mountains

HALF-MOON.

4: THE EMPIRE STATE IN THUEE CENTURIES.

had polcetl their lofty promontories above the water, and at the cdose of the Age of Fishes the i)ortion of the State above the Highhinds of the llndsoii had prettv nearl^^ emerged as i)ermanent hind. The bui'sting of tlie llighhmds barrier, and the How of the Hudson to the ocean as now, came later. "The raising of New York State out of water, at the close of the Devonian," remarks Professor Dana, '' suggests that from that time the Hudson Yallej was a streain of fresh ^^'ater."

The valle}^ itself, and its continuation north as the Champlain Valley, date from the close of the lower Silurian. One more age intervened before we pass from the Paleozoic or Old-life Time, to the INIesozoic or INIiddle-life Time, and during this the Palisades along the lower Hudson were shot up as molten fire-rocks through the la3'ers of deposited or sand-rocks. Then when the Cenozoic or New-life Time had finally come, and animals, somewhat more like such as we know them now, and men, had come upon the scene, in the earliest or Glacial Epoch of this Time, it is sui)posed the action of the moving glaciers opened a way for the great fresh-water lake of the Hudson and Champlain valleys through the Highlands, changing the lake into a narrower, flowing river, holding a majestic course past the Palisades to the southwai'd sea.

Now, when was all this? Shall we compute the years and centuries? What will be the good of it. We shall neither be able to comprehend nor to remember. Take the quite recent Glacial Epoch when our noble Hudson became the delight which it now is to admiring tourists. Astronomical experts, putting their heads together with masters of geology, tell us that " the Glacial Epocli was coincident with the last period of high eccentricity of the earth's orbit." Noav astronomy has the data for measuring time, and it says that this period, when the earth's orbit was most eccentric, or least like a perfect circle, began 240,000 jeaiH ago, and ended 80,000 years ago. Start back, then, from this latest scene in the transformation of New York's most prominent geographical feature, at least 80,000 years ago, and imagine, if you

THE EMl'IRE STATE IN THREE CENTURIES. 5

can, how far back it must be to the Potsdam Period of the Silurian Age, in Paleozoic Time, when NeAV York, first of all the States of the Republic, appeared above the surface of the ocean and began its career as a part of the North American Continent. We need not calculate the precise date in geologic history when other portions of the Union came to the top, to be sure that the Empire State had precedence in this respect also by a considerable figure.

Another promise, or prophecy, of later conditions for New York, is to be found in the history of earliest human occupation of New York territory. In a past much less remote than the one we have been trying to calculate, but still much antedating discovery and settlement by civilized men, man in the savage or barbarous stage had already made the soil of New York the seat of Empire in a most remarkable and undeniable manner. Eor it was here that was formed and developed the " League of the Iroquois," or the confederacy of the " Five Nations."

" The immediate dominion of the Iroquois," says Bancroft, " stretched from the borders of Vermont to western New York ; from the lakes to the headwaters of the Ohio, the Susquehanna, and the Delaware. . . . Their political importance was increased by their conquests. Not only did they claim some supremacy in uftrthern New England as far as the Kennebec, and to the south as far as New Haven — the peninsula of Upper Canada was their hunting-field by right of war; they had exterminated or reduced the Erics, dwelling to the south of Lake Erie; . . . tliey had triumphantly invaded the tribes of the west as far as Illinois; their warriors had reached the soil of Kentucky and western Virginia." Surely a dominion so vast is a phenomenon worthy of study, especially wdien the seat of this Empire, as of a later one alluded to in Washington's letter, was clearly within the borders of the State of New York, where were the dwelling places, the villages, and council-fires of the Five Nations (afterward Six) who achieved so extended a supremacy over their fellow-natives.

Of the six great groups or families of Indians, tribes representing the Algonqnins and the Iroquois occupied the territory of the State of New York, as well as Canada, to the north of it. The Iroquois were originall}- only one nation, and but few in number at that. They lived near Montreal, on the north bank of the St. Lawrence Eiver, and they were in subjection to the tribe of the Adirondacs, a branch of the Algonquin family. They learned the art of husbandry, rude as it Avas in those days, from their masters. But as instruction of so useful a nature was offset by cruelty and oppression, the Iroquois finally rose in rebellion to the rule of the Adirondacs, seeking to throw it off. Failing in this, for in strange contrast with their later irresistible prowess, they were but a feeble folk then, they determined to escape their troubles by emigration. Thus they put their belongings in canoes, worked their way uj) the St. Lawrence Kiver till the shores widened into the blue lake of Ontario. They risked the perils of the deep, crossed the lake, and paddled their way up the Oswego Iviver into the interior of our x)resent State.

They now divided themselves into separate bands. One band went eastward and established its village at Ganegahaga, or Utica, becoming known later as the tribe of the Mohawks, often a S3nion3au in later days not only for the whole of the Five Nations, but for all that was savage and cruel among Indians. The tribes afterward distinguished as the Oneidas and the Onondagas remained one band for some years; then they broke up into two, one settling at Ganoalohale, east of Oneida Lake, the other in the Onondaga Valley. The later Cayugas and Senecas also were one band at first, then separated and developed each into an independent tribe, one near Cajaiga Lake, the other on the Seneca Kiver. At first the five tribes thus gradually formed out of the single Iroquois nation, remained divided. Not only was there no league as yet, in spite of this common family origin, but they were even hostile toward each other, and more than once entered upon the warpath with its attendant horrors of dei)redation and torture.

THE EMl'lRE STATE IN THKEE CENTUUIES.

But the pressure of eoniuiou euemies of the Algonquin race reminded them of the claims of brotherhood, and taught them tlie advantages of union. It is uncertain wlien tlie League of the Five Nations was first formed. Lewis Morgan puts it as early as between 1400 and 1450, while Tarkman gives as its date about a century before the Dutch came into contact with the Confederacy, or between 1510 and 1514. There did not fail to enter legendai'v or mythical elements into the account of its origin, as told by the Indians themselves. They attributed the scheme that had such tremendous and such lasting consequences to one Hayo-wentha, in whom we may, without much difficulty, recognize the more familiar figure of Hiawatha, immortalized by our Longfellow. At any rate, the league was formed, and for the purpose representatives of the five tribes met in council at the seat of the Onondagas, near Syracuse, the central tribe.

It is well to stop right here and get a good view of the iDeople we are dealing with. What

stage did they occui)y in the evolution of civilization? A word as to this is not only interesting in itself, as placing in the right light before us the nations of men who dwelt in America before ever it became the adopted " habitat " of imported races from Europe; but it will serve a useful j)urpose in making somewhat more credible tlie formation of this remarkable confederation among men whom we should hardl}^ have thought capable of it. It so happens that the most careful and jDainstaking historians of " Tlie League of the Iroquois," has also given in a later book " Ancient Society," what is considered as the most scientific analysis of the progress of civilization.

SAMUEL DE CflAMPLAIN.

Mr. Lewis H. Morgan divides the history of civilization into the three generally accepted stages of savagery, barbarism, and civilization proper. The stage of savagery he divides again into three steps or periods : the lower, when men subsist on nuts and fruits, requiring no skill or labor to obtain; the middle, when men have learned to catch fish, and the use of fire to cook them; the higher, when the bow and arrow have been invented, and men extend their range of provisions and their possibility of sustaining life for larger numbers by giving themselves to the muscular and mental exertions of the chase. All of the Indians on the American Continent had reached this higher or last step in the stage of savagery. It is said that some tribes in Australasia are as far back in this evolution as the middle or even lower periods, having no knowledge of the bow and arrow.