IT is related by -Aesop, that a forester once meeting with a lion, they travelled together for a time, and conversed amicably without much differing in opinion. At length a dispute happening to arise upon the question of superiority between their respective races, ''the former, in the absence of a better argument, pointed to a monument on which was sculptured in marble the statue of a man striding over the body of a vanquished lion. " If this," said the lion, " is all you have to say, let us be the sculptors, and you will see the lion striding over the man."
The moral of this fable should ever be borne in mind when contemplating the character of that brave and ill-used race of men, now melting away before the Anglo-Saxons like the snow beneath a vertical sun - the aboriginals of America. No Indian pen traces the history of their tribes and nations, or records the deeds of their warriors and chiefs-their prowess and their wrongs. Their spoilers have been their historians ; and although a reluctant assent has been awarded to some of the nobler traits of their nature, yet, without yielding a due allowance for the peculiarities of their situation, the Indian character has been presented, with singular uniformity, as being cold, cruel, morose, and revengeful, unrelieved by any of those varying traits and characteristics, those lights and shadows, which are admitted in respect to other people no less wild and uncivilized than they.
Without pausing to reflect that, even when most cruel, they have been practising the trade of war-always dreadful-as much in conformity to their own usages and laws as have their more civilized antagonists, the white historian has drawn them with the characteristics of demons. Forgetting that the second of the Hebrew monarchs did not scruple to saw his prisoners with saws, and harrow them with harrows of iron ; forgetful, likewise, of the scenes at Smithfield, under the direction of our own British ancestors, the historians of the poor, untutored Indians, almost with one accord, have denounced them as monsters sui generis- of unparalleled and unapproachable barbarity-as though the summary tomahawk were worse than the iron tortures of the harrow, and the torch of the Mohawk hotter than the fagots of Queen Mary.
Nor does it seem to have occurred to the " pale-faced" writers that the identical cruelties, the records and descriptions of which enter so largely into the composition of the earlier volumes of American history, were not barbarities in the estimation of those who practised them. The scalplock was an emblem of chivalry. Every warrior, in shaving his head for battle, was careful to leave the lock of defiance upon his crown, as for the bravado, " Take it if you can." The stake and the torture were identified with their rude notions of the power of endurance. They were inflicted upon captives of their own race as well as upon the whites ; and, with their own braves, these trials were courted, to enable the sufferer to exhibit the courage and fortitude with which they could be borne-the proud scorn with which all the pain that a foe might inflict could be endured.
If the moral of the fable is applicable to aboriginal history in general, it is equally so in regard to very many of their chiefs whose names have been forgotten, or only known to be detested. Peculiar circumstances have given prominence and fame of a certain description to some few of the forest chieftains : as in the instances of Powhatan in the South, the mighty Philip in the East, and the great Pondiac of the Northwest. But there have been many others, equal, perhaps, in courage, and skill, and energy to the distinguished chiefs just mentioned, whose names have been steeped in infamy in their preservation, because " the lions are no sculptors." They have been described as ruthless butchers of women and children, without one redeeming quality, save those of animal courage and indifference to pain ; while it is not unlikely that were the actual truth known, their characters, for all the high qualities of the soldier, might sustain an advantageous comparison with those of half the warriors of equal rank in Christendom. Of this class was a prominent subject of the present volumes, whose name was terrible in every American ear during the War of Independence, and was long afterward associated with everything bloody, ferocious, and hateful. It is even within our own day that the name of Brant would chill the young blood by its very sound, and cause the lisping child to cling closer to the knee of its mother. As the master-spirit of the Indians engaged in the British service during the war of the Revolution, not only were all the border massacres charged directly upon him, but upon his head fell the public maledictions for every individual atrocity which marked that sanguinary contest, whether committed by Indians, or Tones, or by the exasperated regular soldiery of the foe. In many instances great injustice was done to him : as in regard to the affair of Wyoming, in connexion with which his name has been used by every preceding annalist who has written upon the subject; while it has, moreover, for the same cause been consigned to infamy, deep and foul, in the deathless song of Campbell. In other cases, again, the Indians of the Six Nations, in common with their chief, were loaded with execrations for atrocities of which all were alike innocent, because the deeds recorded were never committed : it having been the policy of the public writers, and those in authority, not only to magnify actual occurrences, but sometimes, when these were wanting, to draw upon their imaginations for accounts of such deeds of ferocity and blood as might best serve to keep alive the strongest feelings of indignation against the parent-country, and likewise induce the people to take the field for revenge, if not driven thither by the nobler impulse of patriotism.
In the execution of this task, the author had supposed that the bulk of his labour would cease with the close of the war of the Revolution, or, at most, that some fifteen or twenty pages, sketching rapidly the latter years of the life of Thayendanegea, would be all that was necessary. Far otherwise was the fact. When the author came to examine the papers of Brant, nearly all of which were connected with his career subsequent to that contest, it was found that his life and actions had been intimately associated with the Indian and Canadian politics of more than twenty years after the treaty of peace ; that a succession of Indian congresses were held by the nations of the great lakes, in all which he was one of the master-spirits; that he was directly or indirectly engaged in the wars between the United States and Indians from 1789 to 1795, during which the bloody campaigns of Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne took place ; and that he acted an important part in the affair of the North-western posts, so long retained by Great Britain after the treaty of peace. This discovery compelled the writer to enter upon a new and altogether unexpected, field of research. Many difficulties were encountered in the composition of this branch of the work, arising from various causes and circumstances. The conflicting relations of the United States, the Indians, and the Canadians, together with the peculiar and sometimes apparently equivocal position in which the Mohawk chief-the subject of the biography-stood in regard to them all; the more than diplomatic caution with which the? British officers managed the double game which it suited their policy to play so long; the broken character of the written materials obtained By the author, and the necessity of supplying many links in the chain of events from circumstantial evidence and the unwritten records of Indian diplomacy, all combined to render the matters to be elucidated exceedingly complicated, intricate, and difficult of clear explanation. But, tangled as was the web, the author has endeavoured to unravel the materials, and weave them into a narrative of consistency and truth. The result of these labours is imbodied in the second part of the present work; and, unless the author has over-estimated both the interest and the importance of this portion of American history, the contribution now made will be most acceptable to the reader.
In addition to the matters here indicated, a pretty full account of the life of Brant, after the close of the Indian wars, is given, by no means barren either of incident or anecdote; and the whole is completed by some interesting particulars respecting the family of the chief, giving their personal history down to the present day.
Copyright © 1998, -- 2003. Berry Enterprises. All rights reserved. All items on the site are copyrighted. While we welcome you to use the information provided on this web site by copying it, or downloading it; this information is copyrighted and not to be reproduced for distribution, sale, or profit.