Chapter I: Part 1

Early Western Travels
1748–1846

Volume II

Early Western Travels
1748–1846
A Series of Annotated Reprints of some of the best and rarest
contemporary Volumes of Travel, descriptive of the Aborigines and Social
and Economic Conditions in the Middle and Far West, during the Period of
Early American Settlement

Edited with Notes, Introductions, Index, etc., by
Reuben Gold Thwaites

Editor of “The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents,” “Wisconsin
Historical Collections,” “Chronicles of Border Warfare,” “Hennepin’s New
Discovery,” etc.

Volume II
John Long’s Journal, 1768–1782

]

Cleveland, Ohio
The Arthur H. Clark Company
1904

COPYRIGHT 1904, BY
THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

=The Lakeside Press=
R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY
CHICAGO

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II

PREFACE. _The Editor_ 9
VOYAGES AND TRAVELS OF AN INDIAN INTERPRETER AND TRADER, describing
the Manners and Customs of the North American Indians; with an
Account of the Posts situated on the River Saint Laurence, Lake
Ontario, &c. April 10, 1768–Spring, 1782. _John Long_
Author’s Dedication 22
List of Subscribers 23
Author’s Preface 27
Voyages and Travels 33
Vocabulary
English-Esquimeaux 223
English-Iroquois, Algonkin, Chippeway 224
English-Algonkin, Chippeway 238
English-Mohegan, Shawanee 250
English-Mohegan, Algonkin, Chippeway 252
English-Iroquois 254
English-French 257
English-Chippeway 259
Chippeway-English 289
Familiar Phrases: English-Chippeway 317

ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME II

Facsimile (reduced) of original title-page 21 Map: “Sketch of the Western Countries of Canada, 1791.” _Facsimile of original_ 32

PREFACE

The second volume of our series of Early Western Travels is devoted to the reprint of John Long’s _Voyages and Travels of an Indian Interpreter and Trader_, originally published in London in 1791.

Concerning Long, but little is known further than what he himself relates in his book. Coming from England to North America in 1768, he passed nearly twenty years upon this continent, chiefly consorting with the Indians—learning their languages, wearing their garb, living their life. An expert woodsman, fur-trader, and explorer, he penetrated into regions north and west of Canada, that are still practically unexplored.

At first an articled clerk in Canada, he later was apprenticed to a Montreal fur merchant. Having displayed an adaptability for Indian philology, Long was sent to the neighboring mission colony at Caughnawaga, where he remained seven years, becoming an adept in the arts and occupations of savage life. His term of service having expired, the excitements of army life attracted him. The American Revolution had just broken out, and volunteering for service with the British he was detailed to lead Indian parties to hang upon the flanks of the invading American army—one of these expeditions captured the famous Ethan Allen. After a year and a half of this service, in which—dressed as an Indian, and scalping his prisoners in their fashion—he could scarcely be distinguished from a brave, Governor Guy Carleton appointed Long a midshipman in the navy. But when his vessel sailed for England, he left the sea in order to enter upon the more lucrative business of fur-trading.

In May, 1777, Long left Montreal for Mackinac, engaged as a bourgeois to lead a party of voyageurs into the far Northwest, and trade with the Indians on their own hunting grounds. The independent Canadian merchants of this period were endeavoring to maintain the old French connections with the Indians of the “upper country,” and at the same time to undermine the trade of the Hudson’s Bay Company, by intercepting the natives before they reached the posts of the latter. Long was assigned to the Nipigon district north and northeast of Lake Superior—a region early occupied by the French, and the scene of their hardy and audacious enterprises against the Hudson Bay trade.

Cameron[1] defines the limits of this region as follows: “Bounded on the south by Lake Superior, on the southwest and west, by the northwest road from Lake Superior to the lower end of Lake Ouinipique (Winnipeg); on the northwest and north by Hayes river and part of Hudson Bay; and on the northeast by Hudson Bay. Its greatest length from Pierre Rouge (Red Rock), at the entrance of Nipigon River, to the Lake of the Islands, on the Hayes river, is about three hundred and fifty leagues and its greatest breadth, from Trout Lake to Eagle Lake, is about one hundred and eighty leagues, but in most parts not over eighty leagues. The two-thirds at least of this country are nothing but rivers and lakes, some fifty leagues long; properly speaking, the whole country is nothing but water and islands.” Into this watery wilderness Long and his voyageurs pushed their way, literally subsisting on the country. The bourgeois’s chief qualification for the enterprise was his familiarity with the Indian life and language, and the fact that he had undergone the ceremony of adoption by one of the most noted chiefs of the Chippewa nation.

During the French régime, this country was noted for producing the largest number and best quality of furs in the Northwest;[2] but after the English occupation the district had been nearly abandoned, the difficulties of existence proving too great. Four out of eight traders starved to death in the region in one year, and it was avoided in favor of the better-provisioned Western districts. Cameron says that in 1785 the whole district produced but fifty-six packs of furs. We may judge from this of Long’s success as a trader; in the first year, he not only subsisted himself and a party of eight Canadians, during the “hardest winter ever remembered,” but rescued a brother trader from destruction by a murderous band of Indians, and brought out a cargo of a hundred and forty packs of furs all in good condition, valued between $25,000 and $30,000. For these services he received from his chiefs the salary of $750 a year, and a supply of Indian corn and “hard grease,” or tallow, as provision.[3]

At the end of his first year’s engagement, Long returned only to Pays Plat, a trading station on Lake Superior. Being there relieved of his furs, and supplied with fresh provisions, he set out August 15, 1778, for another winter in the “inlands,” whither, after many hardships and experiences with murderous Indians, he returned to Mackinac, and spent the following winter with the Chippewas near that fort.

In June, 1780, he joined a party of Canadians and Indians who were sent from Mackinac to Prairie du Chien to secure the deposits of furs at the latter place, and prevent them from falling into the hands of the emissaries of George Rogers Clark from the Illinois, and the Spaniards from St. Louis. After a march through Wisconsin, this undertaking was successfully accomplished—the furs that could not be saved being burned to keep them from the enemy.[4]

The following autumn, Long returned to Quebec never again to come to the “upper country.” He made one more successful trading expedition to unknown lands, by way of the Saguenay River and Lake St. John, penetrating the country east of Hudson Bay, and bringing back a rich cargo—in the very year that the Hudson’s Bay Company was pillaged by the French expedition of La Pérouse.

Long returned for a year to England, his mother-land being entirely strange to him after fifteen years’ absence. He was, therefore, glad to fit out a cargo for another venture in the Indian trade of Canada. But his good fortune seems now to have deserted him—debt, lack of employment, and other difficulties drove him from one place to another. In the spring of 1785 he was in New York, where he pushed the claim of a Huron Indian through Congress. A fur-trading expedition among the Iroquois failed, and the British commandant at Oswego confiscated his goods. Taking refuge among his Loyalist friends near Kingston, he received a grant of land for his services, but debt drove him from that; and after securing some assistance from the authorities, he returned to England in the fall of 1788,[5] there to write and publish the volume of his adventures.

He appears to have secured some patronage for this work, as is evidenced by the list of subscribers, and the dedication to Sir Joseph Banks. He also consulted the best available authorities on Indian traditions and Canadian history, and seems to have taken pains to verify his own experiences and observations, without slavishly following his authorities.[6] In his defense of the Hudson’s Bay Company, there is to be noted either a desire to secure its favor for future services, or pique in relation to the new North West Company, under some one of whose partners he had undoubtedly served. The book, which was published in 1791, attained considerable popularity. It was favorably reviewed in the _Monthly Review_ (June, 1792), and translated into both French and German. The French translation, made by J. B. L. J. Billecocq, with notes by the translator (but without the vocabularies, a fact deplored by French philologists),[7] appeared in 1794, and again in 1810. Two German translations were made, the first by B. Gottlob Hoffmann, issued in 1791; the second by G. Forster, published in Berlin the following year.

The interest of the work, aside from incidental historical references to expeditions in Canada and Wisconsin during the Revolution, the Loyalist settlements, and the retention of the Northern posts, lies in the author’s intimate knowledge of Indian life and customs, especially those of the more primitive and savage tribes of the North; and in the light he incidentally throws on the history of the fur-trade.[8]

It is anything but an engaging picture which Long paints of his Indian friends and companions—they are in the stage of downright savagery, debauched by contact with the dregs of civilization, learning its vices, appropriating its weapons, and dominating the whites by sheer force of numbers, and knowledge of the weakness and greed of the latter. A pleasant contrast is his account of the Canadian mission Indians; but even these proved their savagery during the American Revolution. Of their aboriginal customs, Long’s notices of totemism, religious rites and beliefs, courtship and marriage, social customs—games, dances, food, dwellings—habits of hunting, and physical and mental characteristics, are valuable because original and the result of immediate observation.

Scarcely less dark is the picture presented by Long, of the fur-trade and the traders. This was the period of unlicensed and almost ruinous competition between the great company at the North, and the independent merchants from Canada—the latter acting each for himself, with slight regard for the interest of the trade, the Indians, or the lesser employees.

The fur-trade under the French régime had been under strict surveillance. All traders were required to purchase a government license, and the products of their traffic were closely inspected. By the close of the French rule, even the lawless _coureurs de bois_—trading through the forest at will, and carrying their peltries to the English at Albany and Hudson Bay—had been quite largely suppressed, and brought into the service of the licensed traders.

After the conquest of New France, a period of cutthroat competition began. The English traders did not at first dare venture into the wilderness peopled with Indians faithful to the French; those who did, nearly paid the penalty with their lives (as witness Alexander Henry, at Mackinac). But after Pontiac’s War, and the gradual subsidence of Indian hostility, British traders from Montreal and Quebec began reaching out for this lucrative traffic, and a class of enterprising _entrepreneurs_ was developed, recruited chiefly from the ranks of Scotchmen. By them the fur-trade was pushed to its highest development, and the rivers, lakes, and fastnesses of the great Northwest discovered and explored in rapid succession. This work was done by such men as the Henrys, Ponds, Frobishers, Finlays, Camerons, McDonalds—and, greatest of all, Sir Alexander Mackenzie.

By 1780, they began to unite their fortunes, and a sixteen-share stock corporation was formed of the principal traders.[9] A conspiracy of the Indians in the same year, to massacre all the whites and pillage the posts, was discovered and averted; but by the following season a still more terrible scourge had begun. Smallpox appeared among the tribes in the Northwest, and spread so rapidly that hunting was but languidly carried on, and profits fell to the zero mark. To avert the chaos into which the trade seemed falling, the North West Company was established in 1783, for a term of five years. In 1787 its organization was perfected, and the corporate period of the Canadian fur-trade began; competitors were gradually bought out—union with the X Y Company occurring in 1805, and with the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821.

Long’s narrative, therefore, portrays conditions during the period of the free trader, responsible to no authority, exploiting the country and the natives for the largest immediate returns, without reference to the preservation of the hunting grounds or the protection of the hunters. The frightful debauchery of the Indians by means of traders’ rum, and the necessity for the use of laudanum to control their drunken excesses, are shown in full by Long in his simple narrative of events. The dangers, also, to which this system exposed the trader, are only too evident from his relation of the case of Mr. Shaw. As for the competition with the Hudson’s Bay Company, it is plain from Long’s narrative that the Canadian traders were encroaching on the hunting grounds of this great monopoly. The case of M. Jacques Santeron shows the possibility of dishonest men passing from one employ to the other.

As for the rest of the picture, Long presents the usual traits of the trader and interpreter—a certain rude honesty, taking the form of loyalty to his employer, a disregard of dangers, and small concern for hardships. His knowledge of wilderness life was intimate, but to this fact he alludes only in an incidental way. In acquaintance with Indian character, and power of influencing them in a crisis, he seems to have been superior to the ordinary trader. His vices were those of his class—slight regard for laws, either moral or military (witness the incident at Fort Mackinac), improvidence and wastefulness, restlessness, and dissatisfaction with the routine life of towns. His literary style, while discursive, is simple, and as clear as running water. What he wishes to say, he says plainly, leaving the reader as a rule to draw his own conclusions. There is an unvarnished, unflinching directness in his statements, conveying to the reader the impression that he is concealing nothing, doing nought for effect, but telling a straightforward story of travels and adventures. The book forms a contribution of note to this important class of literature, and will always be readable.

In the preparation of the notes, the Editor has had, as in the first volume of the series, the assistance of Dr. Louise Phelps Kellogg, of the Wisconsin Historical Library. He has also had helpful suggestions from Dr. James Bain, Jr., of the Toronto Public Library.

R. G. T.

MADISON, WIS., February, 1904.

LONG’S VOYAGES AND TRAVELS—1768–1782

Reprint of the original edition: London, 1791

_VOYAGES AND TRAVELS_
OF AN
INDIAN INTERPRETER AND TRADER,
DESCRIBING
_The Manners and Customs_
OF THE
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS;
WITH
_AN ACCOUNT OF THE POSTS_
SITUATED ON
THE RIVER SAINT LAURENCE, LAKE ONTARIO, &c.
TO WHICH IS ADDED,

A VOCABULARY
OF
The Chippeway Language.
_Names of Furs and Skins, in English and French._

A LIST OF WORDS
IN THE
IROQUOIS, MOHEGAN, SHAWANEE, AND ESQUIMEAUX TONGUES,
AND A TABLE, SHEWING
_The Analogy between the Algonkin and Chippeway Languages_.

BY J. LONG.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR; AND SOLD BY ROBSON, BOND-STREET; DEBRETT,
PICCADILLY; T. AND J. EGERTON, CHARING-CROSS; WHITE AND SON,
FLEET-STREET; SEWELL, CORNHILL; EDWARDS, PALL-MALL; AND MESSRS.
TAYLORS, HOLBORN, LONDON; FLETCHER, OXFORD; AND BULL, BATH.

M,DCC,XCI.

]

TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS, BAR^T. PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY,[10] &c. &c.
&c.

SIR,

I feel the highest satisfaction in being permitted to dedicate this work to one whose pursuits have ever been more peculiarly directed to objects of originality, and whose scientific researches have contributed so largely to the information and benefit of society.

The public are too well acquainted with your general knowledge in every branch of literature, to suspect that I hold the language of adulation. Should I attempt to do justice to a character so eminently distinguished, my feeble efforts could only be regarded as the grateful effusions of a mind proud of a patronage that can ensure an especial share of public notice and protection.

I have the honour to be, very respectfully,

SIR,
Your most obedient servant,
J. LONG.

_London,
February, 1791._

LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS

Addis, Mr. George. Annereau, Mr.

Banks, Sir Joseph, Bart. Beaufoy, Henry, Esq. M. P. Berens, Hermanus, Esq. Berens, Joseph, Esq. Boddam, Thomas, Esq. Bettesworth, Thomas, Esq. Baker, John, Esq. Baker, William, Esq. Baker, Miss. Batson, Robert, Esq. Baynes, Burdon, Esq. Blache, J. F. Esq. Belfour, John, Esq. Belfour, Mr. Okey. 3 copies. Belfour, Mr. J. D. Bird, William, Esq. Bird, Thomas, Esq. Bird, Michael, Esq. Barbe, St. Samuel, Esq. Barbe, St. John, Esq. Bingley, ——, jun. Esq. Bates, Mr. John. Birkley, Mr. John. Bowden, John, Esq. Brandon, Mr. Bull, Mr. J. Bath. Beilby, Mr. 6 copies.

Croft, the Rev. Herbert. Cornthwaite, the Rev. Mr. Chalmers, George, Esq. Culverden, William, Esq. Corsellis, Nicholas Cæsar, Esq. Coussmaker, John, Esq. Croix, N. D. St., Esq. Cleaver, Miss. Cotton, Thomas, Esq. Cotton, Bayes, Esq. Chandler, George, Esq. Coningham, William, Esq. Cope, Thomas, Esq. Cleugh, John, Esq. Clay, Felix, Esq. Clay, James, Esq. Clay, William, Esq. {iv} Clay, George, Esq. Cooper, Mr. Cooper, Mr. James. Corbet, ——, Esq. 2 copies.

Dawson, William, Esq.

Dalrymple, Alexander, Esq. Dicken, John, Esq.

Earle, James, Esq. Emes, William, Esq. Edwards, Charles, Esq. Etches, R. C., Esq. Eldridge, Thomas, Esq.

Fraser, Major. Finch, Thomas, Esq. Forbes, Thomas, Esq. Fayle, Benjamin, Esq. Faden, Mr. William. 6 copies. Fawler, Mrs. Forsteen, ——, Esq. Finch, Mr. John. Fletcher, Mr. James, Oxford.

Grote, George, Esq. Gould, Thomas, Esq. George, C. G., Esq. Goldthwaite, Thomas, Esq. George, Mr. Edward. Graft, Mr. James.

Hollingsworth, John, Esq. Hulse, Richard, Esq. Hulse, Edward, Esq. Howison, John, Esq. Lisbon. Hayward, Francis, Esq. 2 copies. Holden, Joseph, Esq. Haffey, John, Esq. Hill, Edward, Esq. Hussey, William Wheatley, Esq. Harper, Mrs. Hillier, Mr. Hale, Mr. Harry. 2 copies. Hill, Mr. John.

Jones, Edward, Esq. Jeudwine, Thomas, Esq. Justice, Mr. Richard. Jacks, Mr.

Knill, John, Esq. Kensington, Charles, Esq.

Long, Sir James Tylney, Bart. M.P. 7 copies. {v} Lake, Sir J. Winter, Bart. 4 cop. Langmore, William, Esq. Legg, Leaver, Esq. Long, Mrs. Locke, Miss. Locke, John, Esq. Lion, Thomas, Esq. Lane, Benjamin, Esq. Lang, Charles, Esq. Lightfoot, John, Esq.

Lonsdale, Mr.

Mulgrave, the Right Hon. Lord. Monsel, Lieutenant Colonel. Marsden, William, Esq. Morris, John, Esq. Martin, Captain. Man, Henry, Esq. 6 copies. Mukins, Francis, Esq. Malleson, John, Esq. Murray, Mr. J. 2 copies.

Nesbitt, Lieutenant Colonel. Nesbitt, Arnold, Esq. Nasmyth, Maxwell, Esq. Neave, Richard, Esq.

Prescott, George William, Esq. Pott, Rev. J. H. Archdeacon of St. Albans. Pott, Percival, Esq. Pott, E. H. Esq. Pott, Mrs. Powell, Baden, Esq. Powell, James, Esq. Powell, Thomas, Esq. Peck, Jasper, Esq. Pooley, John, Esq. Perry, John, Esq. Palmer, Peregrine, Esq. Pickwoad, Robert, Esq. Pickering, Thomas, Esq. Popplewell, Mr.

Roberts, John, Esq. Rennell, Major. Robertson, Captain. Ruspini, J. B., Esq. Rouse, Benjamin, Esq. Ross, G. W., Esq. 2 copies. Rutter, Miss. Row, William, Esq. Regail, Alexander, Esq. Reading Society, Hackney.

Scott, Thomas, Esq. M. P. {vi} Sneyd, Samuel, Esq. Symons, the Rev. Mr. Sheldon, John, Esq. Professor of Anatomy in the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and F. R. S. Shamier, ——, Esq. Stoe, Harry, Esq. Sedgwick, Harry, Esq. Stone, John Hurford, Esq. Surman, William, Esq. Smith, Haskett, Esq. Scafe, Mr. Richard. Scargill, Mr. James. Stable, Mr. William. Smith, Mr. Thomas.

Smith, Mr. J. Thomas.

Turner, Miss. Turner, Miss Jane. Tanner, N. Esq. Toulmin, William, Esq. Taylors, Messrs. 6 copies.

Vaston, Mrs. Vandriel, Mr. J. C.

Wegg, Samuel, Esq. Winter, John, Esq. Walker, John, Esq. Wilson, Stephen, Esq. Wilson, William, Esq. Wilcox, William, Esq. Wilcox, Edward, Esq. Wilcox, Mrs. Anne. Wickham, Lieut. Woolhead, Major, Esq. Wright, Mr. Thomas. Watson, Mr. William. White, Messrs. and Son. 6 copies.

Young, Mrs.

PREFACE

The reader will naturally expect some account of this work.

With regard to the historical part, I have endeavoured to explain the situation of the Posts, which, by Mr. Oswald’s Treaty, were stipulated to be surrendered to the Americans; and pointed out their convenience to Great Britain in a political and commercial point of view:[11] I have also given a description of the Five and Six Nation Indians; and endeavoured to shew the usefulness, as well as necessity, of a strict alliance with them as long as we retain any possessions in Canada.

With respect to the descriptions of lakes, rivers, &c. which lie beyond Lake Superior, from Lake Nipegon to Lake Arbitibis, I have given them as accurately as possible, either from my own knowledge, or the most authentic Indian accounts; and when it is considered that interpreters in the commercial line seldom have occasion for any geographical knowledge, the want of better information will be excused.

The Vocabulary which is subjoined, and on which I have bestowed some pains, it is hoped will not only afford information to such as may be desirous of attaining a knowledge of the Chippeway language, but prove useful to those who are already engaged in traffic with the Indians.

{viii} As the mode of spelling a language which has never been reduced to a grammatical system, must be arbitrary, and principally depend on the ear, I have endeavoured to use such letters as best agree with the English pronunciation; avoiding a multiplicity of consonants, which only perplex: and to enable the reader to speak so as to be understood by the natives, it is necessary to observe that _a_ is generally sounded broad; and _e_ final never pronounced but in monosyllables.

The following are the motives which induced me to make the Vocabulary in the Chippeway language so copious.

In the first place it is, strictly speaking, one of the mother tongues of North America, and universally spoken in council by the chiefs who reside about the great lakes, to the westward of the banks of the Mississippi, as far south as the Ohio, and as far north as Hudson’s Bay; notwithstanding many of the tribes, within the space of territory I have described, speak in common a different language.—This observation is confirmed by authors of established repute, and further proved by the concurrent testimony of the Indian interpreters.

Baron de Lahontan[12] asserts that the Algonkin is a mother tongue, and that it is in as much estimation in North America, as Greek and Latin in Europe: this being admitted, I am persuaded the Chippeway language possesses as much, if not greater merit, as it is in every respect better understood by the northwest Indians. But as the knowledge of both {ix} may not only be useful, but necessary, I have given a comparative table of about two hundred and sixty words in both tongues, that the reader may use either as he shall find it best understood by the tribes with whom he may have occasion to trade; though he will find, in a variety of instances, a perfect accordance.

The table of words in the Muhhekaneew, or Mohegan, and Shawanee tongues, are extracted from the Rev. Mr. Edwards’s publication, and are inserted to shew their analogy with the Chippeway language;[13] and, as he observes that the language of the Delawares in Pennsylvania, of the Penobscots on the borders of Nova Scotia, of the Indians of St. Francis, in Canada, of the Shawanees on the Ohio, and many other tribes of Savages radically agree, I judged the tables of analogy would not be unacceptable.

In the course of the historical part, several speeches in the Chippeway language are introduced: and at the end of the Vocabulary, a number of familiar phrases, which not only serve to shew the mode of speech, but give a better idea of the language than single words.

The numeral _payshik_, or one, is frequently used to express the articles _a_ and _the_; and _woke_ is the general word for the plural number, though not always used.

Mr. Carver’s Vocabulary will, in many instances, be found to differ from the Chippeway;[14] but when it is considered that though he calls it the Chippeway Vocabulary, in p. 414 of his work, he says “The Chippeway, or Algonkin,” which {x} evidently proves that he believes them the same language:—but with regard to the usefulness of the tongue, there is a perfect corroboration of sentiment; for he remarks that the Chippeway tongue appears to be the most prevailing of all the Indian languages.

It may not be amiss to observe, that the Chippeway tongue, as spoken by the servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company, is somewhat different, though not essentially so, and is called by them the _Home-Guard_ Language.

With regard to the Iroquois, or Mohawk tongue, which is peculiar to the Five and Six Nation Indians, it is not necessary in the fur-trade beyond Michillimakinac; and if it were, there are not wanting printed authorities sufficient to instruct:—this consideration has induced me to give only the numerals, and a few words in the language.

I have not any thing further to add, but a sincere wish that my labours may prove useful to the world; and that whatever defects may be found in the following work, the Public will look on them with candour; and will recollect that they are perusing, not the pages of a professed _Tourist_, but such observations as a commercial man flatters himself may be found acceptable to the merchant and the philosopher.

VOYAGES AND TRAVELS

Having engaged myself, at an early period of life, to go to North America, in the quality of an articled clerk, I left Gravesend on the 10th of April, 1768, on board the “Canada,” captain Smith, bound to Quebec and Montreal. We had a pleasant voyage, till we reached the coast of America, when the weather proving unfavourable, we were obliged to put into Newfoundland, where we stayed fourteen days. Nothing remarkable occurred here, except that a party went on shore to hunt, and one of them, Mr. Jordan, who was a passenger, bound to Montreal, finding himself much fatigued, remained in the woods; the rest returned on board in the evening, anxiously expecting their companion; but after four days painful solicitude, not being able to obtain any intelligence of him, we gave up all hopes of seeing him again; and as the snow was deep on the ground, and the wild animals numerous, we supposed him to be either frozen to death, or devoured by the beasts. Just as the captain proposed setting sail, an Indian came on board, to whom we endeavoured to communicate our distress. On this occasion, he seemed to understand us, and made signs of his intention to go in search of him; and being furnished with some rum by way of encouragement, he got into his canoe and paddled {2} ashore. The captain, with great humanity, deferred prosecuting the voyage for some time: but the Indian not returning, we left Newfoundland, and after a tedious passage of near eleven weeks, arrived at Quebec, the capital of Canada.

When the Spaniards (who first discovered this northern clime) sailed past Cape Rosiers at the entrance of the River St. Laurence, the mountains, now called the Mountains of Nôtre Dame, were covered with snow. Such a prospect, in the summer season, gave them a very unfavourable opinion of the country, and they were deterred from going up the river, supposing the land to be too barren to recompence their labours at present, or afford any future advantages; and the same impressions induced them to call it Capo di Nada, or Cape Nothing, by which name it is described in their charts, and from whence, by corruption of language, it has derived its present name of Canada.[15]

The River St. Laurence takes its rise from Lake Nipissin, northeast of Lake Superior, about the distance of 2000 miles from Quebec.[16] The breadth of it is 90 miles at the entrance, and it is navigable near 500 miles from the sea.

The Isle of Orleans, which is but a small distance from the city, is a beautiful spot of ground, about 20 miles in length, and six in breadth. The fertility of the soil makes it a useful and valuable garden, insomuch that it supplies the capital with vegetables and grain in great abundance. The opposite village of Beauport also charms the eye, and very much heightens the scene, which is rich, romantic, and magnificent.

{3} The Fall of Montmorenci particularly attracted my notice, as it is perhaps the most pleasing natural cascade in the world; and though its height and width are not to be compared in point of awful grandeur with the stupendous cataract of Niagara, it is sufficiently wonderful to shew the power of the great Architect of the Universe; and its effects are more pleasing than the latter; for while it produces wonder and pleasure in the highest degree, it does not strike the beholder with such tremendous ideas.

As our ship was bound to Montreal, as well as Quebec, and I was under the captain’s care and direction, he did not allow me to go on shore at the latter place; but in a few days, to my great joy, we arrived safe at Montreal, the place of our last destination.

Montreal, formerly called Ville Marie, has nothing remarkable in it at present; it was formerly famous for a great fair, which lasted near three months, and was resorted to by the Indians, who came from the distance of many hundreds of miles, to barter their peltry for English goods. It will give pleasure to the reader to be informed, that we received here the agreeable intelligence that Mr. Jordan was found in the woods, two days after our departure from Newfoundland, though with the loss of his feet, occasioned by the severity of the weather: he went afterwards in a vessel to Trois Riviéres, where he settled in an iron foundry.

Trois Riviéres,[17] is so called from the junction of three currents which empty themselves into the River St. Laurence. About a league from the town there is an iron foundry, which was erected by private {4} persons in the year 1737, and afterwards ceded to the King. At first cannon and mortars were cast there, but it is now principally used in the manufacture of stoves and kettles. The ore is taken at a small distance from the works. A river runs down from the foundry into the River St. Laurence, which enables the proprietors to send their manufactures round the country in boats upon very moderate terms.

This town, which is half way between Quebec and Montreal, had formerly a very considerable trade in peltry, and was the second mart in Canada; but in process of time the inhabitants of Montreal contrived to draw almost all the fur-trade to themselves; and though the residents in Trois Riviéres live by their commerce with the savages, and the manufacturing of birch canoes, yet the town has lost that rank and consequence which it formerly maintained; nevertheless, the advantage of the iron foundry makes them some amends, and they live, upon the whole, as happy as any people in Canada. The inhabitants of Trois Riviéres were formerly very much incommoded with fleas, which swarmed in great quantities, and which, Baron de Lahontan humorously observes, occasioned an inconvenient quickness in conversation.

On my arrival at Montreal, I was placed under the care of a very respectable merchant to learn the Indian trade, which is the chief support of the town. I soon acquired the names of every article of commerce in the Iroquois and French languages, and being at once prepossessed in favour of the savages, improved daily in their tongue, to the satisfaction of my employer, who approving my assiduity, and wishing me to be completely qualified in the Mohawk language to enable me to traffic with the Indians in his absence, sent me to a village called {5} Cahnuaga, or Cocknawaga, situated about nine miles from Montreal, on the south side of the River St. Laurence,[18] where I lived with a chief whose name was _Assenegethter_, until I was sufficiently instructed in the language, and then returned to my master’s store, to improve myself in French, which is not only universally spoken in Canada, but is absolutely necessary in the commercial intercourse with the natives, and without which it would be impossible to enjoy the society of the most respectable families, who are in general ignorant of the English language.

{6} _A Description of the Village and Inhabitants of_ CAHNUAGA, _or_
COCKNAWAGA, _who some years since separated from the_ MOHAWKS.

The Savages of this nation, who are called the praying Indians, from the circumstance of their chiefs wearing crucifixes, and going through the streets of Montreal with their beads, begging alms, separated long since from the Mohawk and River Indians, and for a considerable time after their separation, carried on an illicit trade between Albany and Montreal. The village contains about two hundred houses, which, though they are chiefly built of stone, have a mean and dirty appearance. The inhabitants amount to about eight hundred, and (what is contrary to the general observation on the population of the Indians) are continually increasing. It is considered as the most respectable of all the Indian villages, and the people are in a great degree civilized and industrious. They sow corn, and do not depend like other nations solely upon hunting for support; but at the same time, they are not fond of laborious work, conceiving it only suited to those who are less free, and retaining so much of their primeval valour and independence as to annex the idea of slavery to every domestic employment. Their hunting grounds are within the United States, at a considerable distance from the village, round Fort George, Ticonderoga, and Crown Point, where they kill beaver and deer, but not in such great abundance at present as they did formerly, the country being better inhabited, and the wild animals, from the present state of population, being obliged to seek a more distant {7} and secure retreat. The skins they obtain are generally brought down to Montreal, and either sold for money, or bartered for goods. It is not improbable, that in a few years there will not be many good hunters among them, as they are extravagantly fond of dress, and that too of the most expensive kind. Their fondness for this luxury, which the profits arising from the lands they let out to the Canadians enables them to indulge, contributes to make them more idle; and in proportion as their vanity increases, ease and indolence are the more eagerly courted and gratified, insomuch that hunting is in danger of being totally abandoned. Their religion is Catholic, and they have a French priest, or, as the Chippeway Indians term it, “_The Master of Life’s Man_,” who instructs them, and performs divine service in the Iroquois tongue. Their devotion impressed my mind too powerfully to suffer it to pass unnoticed, and induces me to observe that great praise is due to their pastors, who by unwearied assiduity, and their own exemplary lives and conversation, have converted a savage race of beings from Heathenism to Christianity, and by uniformity of conduct, continue to preserve both their religion and themselves in the esteem of their converts: An example worthy of imitation, and amounting to an incontrovertible proof that nature, in her most degenerate state, may be reclaimed by those who are sincere in their endeavours, gentle in their manners, and consistent in the general tenor of their behaviour. And it is to be expected, and certainly most ardently to be wished, that the savage temper among them may in time be more effectually subdued, their natural impetuosity softened and restrained, and their minds weaned from their unhappy attachment to the use of strong liquors; their indulgence in which is frequently attended with the most melancholy and fatal consequences.

{8} _Of the_ INDIANS _of the Five and Six Nations_.

I shall now give a particular account of the Indians of the Five and Six Nations, and the reasons why they are so called, in order to enable the reader to form an idea of their consequence in a political point of view, as well as their importance on account of the fur-trade; because the vicinity of the American territories from Georgia to New England, gives the United States a great command and influence from their situation, and renders them more to be dreaded than even the French were in the zenith of their American power, when it was universally known they had such an interest among the savages, as induced them to call the French their fathers, and of which so much yet remains, as to prompt them to retain a predilection in favour of the traders of the Gallic race who are settled among them.

In 1603, when the French settled in Canada, part of the Five Nations resided on the island of Montreal, and were at war with the Adirondacks (who lived on the Uttawa, or grand river leading to Michillimakinac);[19] these, considered the Five Nations as very insignificant opponents, and incapable of serious revenge, and they were held in as much derision as the Delawares, who were usually called old women, or the Shawanees (who lived on the Wabach River), who were obliged to wear petticoats for a considerable time, in contempt of their want of courage, and as a badge of their pusillanimity and degradation. But as no people can bear the imputation of cowardice or effeminacy as a {9} national character, the chiefs determined to rouse their young men, and stimulate them to retrieve, or establish, a reputation; and inspiring them with heroic notions, led them to war against the Satanas, or Shaounons, whom they subdued with great ease. This success revived their drooping spirits, and forgetting how often they had been defeated by the Adirondacks, [they] commenced hostilities against them; and availing themselves of the mean opinion their enemies entertained of their valour, gained the victory in several actions: and at last carried on a successful war against them even in their own country, obliging their former conquerors to abandon their native land, and seek refuge on the spot where Quebec is now situated.

Soon after the French arrived and had settled at Quebec, they formed an alliance with the Adirondacks against the Five Nations. The first engagement proved decisive in favour of the Adirondacks, owing entirely to the use of fire arms having been introduced among them by their new allies, which the Indians of the Five Nations had never before seen. This alliance, and the consequent defeat was far from subduing or disheartening the Five Nations, but rather seemed to inspire them with additional ardour, and what they were deficient in military skill and suitable weapons, they supplied by stratagem and courage. Although the French gained several advantages over them in the course of more than fifteen years, they at length were glad to bring the contest to a conclusion, by making a peace with them.

This shews that the Savages of the Five Nations are not easily to be conquered, and proves the necessity of preserving them in our interest, {10} as long as we shall deem it expedient, from policy, to keep possession of Canada. This being admitted, it is certain that no method will more effectually conduce to that end, than retaining such barriers in our hands as will enable us to afford them protection, and supply them with arms and ammunition, and other necessaries, in time of danger.

The Indians who lie to the north of Philadelphia, between the provinces of Pennsylvania and the Lakes, consist of three distinct leagues, of which the Senekas, Mohawks, and Onondagoes, who are called the fathers, compose the first; the Oneidoes, Cayugas, Tuscororas, Conoys and Nanticokes, which are one tribe, compose the second, and these two leagues constitute what is called the Six Nations. The third league is formed of the Wanamis, Chihokockis, or Delawares, the Mawhiccons, Munseys, and Wapingers, to which may be added the Mingoes. The Cowetas, or Creek Indians, are also united in friendship with them.[20]

Mr. Colden says, the nations who are joined together by a league or confederacy, like the United Provinces of Holland, are known by the names of Mohawks, Oneydoes, Onondagoes, Cayugas, and Senekas; that each of these nations is again divided into three tribes or families, who are distinguished by the names of the Tortoise, Bear, and Wolf; and that the Tuscororas, after the war they had with the people of Carolina, fled to the Five Nations, and incorporated with them, so that in fact they now consist of six, although they still retain the name of the Five Nations.[21] This union is of such long duration as to leave little or no traces of its origin.

{11} Baron Lahontan observes, that the Iroquois are in reality but one nation, divided into five districts; and which he distinguishes in the following manner:—The Tsonontouans, the Goyogans, the Onontagues, the Oneyouts, and the Agnies, who were all settled about thirty leagues from each other, near the great Lake Frontenac, now called Ontario.

The Mohawks, or Maquas, are the most warlike among the Five Nations, and consist of near seven hundred warriors. They are called by the French, Agnies, or Annies, and were originally settled on the French or grand River, leading to Michillimakinac, from whence they afterwards removed to the Mohawk River, near Schenectady, about sixteen miles from Albany, in the state of New York. Since the war in 1757 they have separated, and part of the nation is settled on the grand river, near Niagara, and the rest at the back of the bay of Quenty, or Kenty, about forty-eight miles above Cataraqui, the capital of the Loyalist settlements on the River St. Laurence.[22]

Cataraqui, or Fort Frontenac, is built near to the place where Lake Ontario discharges itself into the River St. Laurence. It was erected by Le Comte de Frontenac, governor general of Canada, to stop the incursions of the Iroquois, and divert the channel of the commerce in peltry, which that people carried on with the inhabitants of New York, and which they bartered for with the Savages by merchandize, at a cheaper rate than the French could supply them.

This fort was at first built of wood and turf, and surrounded with high pickets, but during the mission of Father Hennepin, it was faced {12} with stone, by the direction of the Sieur Cavelier de la Salle, and enlarged to a circuit of more than seven hundred yards. The bason in which it stands is capable of holding a number of vessels of considerable burthen. There is a small garrison at present, and a commanding officer, to examine all boats which pass either to the new settlements or the upper posts.[23]

The Oneidoes, or Oneyouts, the Onondagoes, Cayugas, Senekas, or Tsonontouans, and the Tuscororas, who live with the Oneidoes and Onondagoes, are settled about thirty leagues distant from each other, and none of them exceeding two hundred and fifty miles from the Mohawk River. All these nations express peace by the metaphor of a tree, whose top they say will reach the sun, and whose branches extend far abroad, not only that they may be seen at a great distance, but to afford them shelter and repose.

The Five Nations claim all the country south of the River St. Laurence to the Ohio, and down the Ohio to the Wabache, which lies to the westward of the state of Pennsylvania, near to the borders of Virginia; westerly, to the Lakes Ontario and Erie, and the River Miamis, and the eastern boundaries of Lake Champlain, and the United States.

The firmness of this league, the great extent of land it claims, the number of great warriors it produces, and the undaunted courage and skill which distinguish the members of it in their contests both with the Savages and European nations, all conspire to prove the good policy of an alliance with them; as it is an undoubted fact, that in case of a dispute with the Americans, the posts would make but a feeble resistance {13} without their exertions; and deprived of the forts, the fur-trade would soon be lost to this country.

I shall next consider the situation and utility of these barriers, in a commercial point of view, and endeavour to shew the propriety of keeping possession of the posts, notwithstanding by the treaty of peace with the United States, they were expressly stipulated to be given up; although it is not probable indeed that the Americans will be able to fulfil the treaty on their part, so as to entitle them to make a reasonable demand—I mean such a claim as government must absolutely admit.

The first post I shall notice is Oswegatche, on the River St. Laurence, about one hundred and fifty miles above Montreal, at the mouth of the Black River, where there are about an hundred Savages, who occasionally frequent it, and are called Oswegatche Indians, although they belong to the tribes of the Five Nations.[24] To this fort the inhabitants of New England may with ease transport goods, to supply the Mohawks, Cahnuagas, Connecedagas, St. Regis, and some straggling Messesawger Indians, who live near the Détroit,[25] at a smaller expence than they can possibly be obtained from the merchants at Quebec or Montreal, but particularly Rum, which is now become an essential requisite in every transaction with the Savages; for though they used formerly often to complain of the introduction of strong water by the traders (as appears by the language of their chiefs in council) to the prejudice of their young men, yet they have not now the resolution to refrain from the use of it;—on the contrary, it is become so familiar, and even necessary to them, that a drunken frolic is {14} looked upon as an indispensible requisite in a barter, and anticipated with extreme delight.

Carlton Island is higher up the river, and has greater conveniences annexed to it than Oswegatche, having an excellent harbour, with a strong fortification well garrisoned.[26] It affords excellent accommodation for shipping, and may be considered as the naval storehouse for supplying Niagara and the other posts. There are vessels of considerable bulk continually sailing from thence to Niagara, Oswego, &c.—There is also a commodore of the Lakes, whose residence is on the island.

Fort Oswego, on Lake Ontario, formerly called Lake Frontenac, is a good fortification, and capable of containing six hundred men. This post is particularly important, as it is the key to the United States, and commands the opening to the North, or Hudson’s River, protecting the trade with the Indians who live on the banks of the River St. Laurence, and the whole extent of the great sheet of water near which it stands, reckoned about eighty leagues in length, and in some places from twenty-five to thirty broad.[27]

When the English were in possession of the Colonies, Albany commanded the trade with the Indians; and it is well known that no place in America furnished such a quantity of furs and skins, not even the Hudson’s Bay settlements, whose utmost extent of trade is far inferior to the produce collected here. These furs and skins were procured from Canada, and brought to Fort Oswego by the Indians, who disposed of them to the agents sent there by the merchants of Albany. {15} Besides, Indian goods may be conveyed from Albany to Fort Oswego at a cheaper rate than from Montreal to the new settlements at Cataraqui and the head of the Bay of Kenty, and at less risk, because the stream of the Mohawk River is not so strong as that of the Cataraqui River, between the Lake and Montreal, and there are not so many falls of water.

Fort Niagara is on the same lake, where there is also a good garrison.[28] This lake takes its rise from Lake Erie, and after a course of fifteen leagues, empties itself into Lake Ontario. About four leagues before it enters the lake, it is intercepted by the great fall which is mentioned by various authors, who do not agree in opinion respecting its height; but from the most authentic accounts, joined to my own observations, I am inclined to coincide with the judgment of captain Pierie, who made an actual survey, and describes the height to be one hundred and forty-six feet, and the width one thousand and forty, which proves that the accounts of Father Hennepin and La Salle were erroneous, who both agree in calling the perpendicular height six hundred feet. The distance from Fort Niagara to Fort Stanwix[29] is about two hundred and eighty miles, through the Jenesee country, which I travelled with great ease in about eight days. This post therefore is of the most essential importance to protect the Indians who are in alliance with Great Britain, and to secure the valuable and undivided advantage of their trade.

The Détroit is so called from being a strait between Lake Erie, and Lake Huron, and commands the trade from the Ohio, Illinois, Mississippi, and the Upper Lakes, which post is resorted to by the Uttawas, {16} Hurons, Miamis, Ohio, Mississippi, Delaware, and Tuscorora Indians, besides the Messesawgas.[30]

These five posts are situated at the back of the three states of New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, and at a very small distance from the Loyalist settlements.

The last post is Michillimakinac, which is situated between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, upon an isthmus, about one hundred and thirty leagues long, and twenty-two wide, and is the last fortress towards the northwest. This point of land is on the north of the straits through which the Lake of the Ilinois, or Michigan, three hundred leagues in circumference, empties into Lake Huron, which is of equal extent. The strait is about three leagues long, and one broad, and half a league distant from the mouth of the Ilinois.[31]

This is perhaps the most material of all the barriers, and of the greatest importance to the commercial interest of this country, as it intercepts all the trade of the Indians of the upper country from Hudson’s Bay to Lake Superior, and affords protection to various tribes of Savages, who constantly resort to it to receive presents from the commanding officer, and from whence the traders, who go to the northwest, take their departure for the grand portage, or grand carrying place, which is nine miles in length, before they enter on the waters communicating with the northwest.[32]

Were the English to remain in possession of every part of Canada, except the posts, numberless doors would be left open for the Americans {17} to smuggle in their goods, and in process of time the illicit trade would supersede the necessity of the exportation of British goods from England to Canada, and the commercial benefits arising from the consumption of our manufactures would be entirely lost.—In that case, Canada would be of little service to England in a commercial point of view: How far it is worth the expence of retaining, politically considered, is not for me to discuss.[33]

{18} _Indian Scouts, and Manner of Scalping._

Having endeavoured to explain the nature and importance of the Five and Six Nation Indians, and described the situation of the posts, and the probable consequences of complying with the treaty, I shall return to my situation at Montreal.

Having stayed with my employer seven years, and not being willing to enter into a new agreement, I determined to pursue the bent of my inclinations; and being naturally of a roving disposition, which was increased by my frequent associations with the Savages, I entered a volunteer at the head of a party of Indians, thinking that my country might at some future period derive advantage from my more intimate knowledge of the country and its language.

My _entrée_ was in 1775, when a party of about thirty of the Americans, commanded by the famous Ethan Allen, appeared at Long Point, about two miles from Montreal, intending to plunder the town; they were however disappointed in their expectations by the good conduct of captain Crawford of the twenty-sixth regiment, who with about forty regulars and some volunteers sallied out and made the enemy retreat to a barn, where an engagement took place, in which major Carden, Mr. Paterson, a volunteer, and three privates were killed, and I was wounded in the foot; but on the arrival of a field piece, the enemy surrendered.[34]

{19} Being beloved by the Indians, and preferring active service with them to any other mode of life, I accompanied lieutenant Peter Johnson and lieutenant Walter Butler, with a few Mohawks, to attack the Americans at Isle au Noix, whom we defeated, taking a great many prisoners. During the engagement we lost two volunteers and three privates. In this action I received a wound in the head from the butt-end of a musket.[35]