them in all their treaties and alliances. One of these missionaries,
named Joncaire, had the same influence among liie Onondagas,
Cayugas, and Chitowoneaughgavvs, or Senecas, that Major Schuy-
ler possessed among the Mohawks.
In 1712 the Monacans, or Tuscaroras, were received and incor-
porated by the Agoneaseah as the sixth tribe. The Monacans were
from Virginia and North Carolina. The Agoneaseah received
them on a supposition that they were originally of the same stock,
because there was a similitude between their languages.
The cause of the INIonacan emigration was this : In the year
1711 or 1712, the Monacans entered into a plot with the Corees,
a neighboring tribe of North Carolina, to murder every person then
living in the infant colony of that state. Great address was shown
in the management of this affair. The Monacans and Corees sent
out many small parties by different roads, who entered the habita-
tions of the colonists under a well dissembled friendship ; and, at
the appointed time, they began an indiscriminate massacre. One
hundred and thirty-seven of the inhabitants were killed. Some,
however, escaping gave the alarm. The militia assembled, and
forces soon after arrived from South Carolina. These, with the
militia, invaded the states of the Corees and Monacans, and sub-
dued them. One thousand of the latter were killed and taken ; the
remainder were obliged to sue for peace, which was granted. The
greater part who had escaped the sword immediately thereafter
migrated to the north. The Monacans, we are assured by Capt.
John Smith, in his history of Virginia, had one thousand five hun-
dred warriors in the year 1607. "On the 20th of May, 1723,
eighty Nicariagas, besides women and children, joined the Agonea-
seah ; their country was on the north side of IMichilimackinack." —
See Smith's history of New-York. The Nicariagas, it is likely,
were of Huron extraction.
Although the Agoneaseah preserved peace with the French and
English, and Adirondacks, and other Indian tribes in the north, yet
they made frequent expeditions to the south, against the Catawbas,
STATE or NEW-YORK. 195
Cherokees, and others. They also made expeditions south-west-
wardly as far as the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. All the Indian
tribes to the south and south-west, as far as the countries of the
Catawbas, Cherokees, and Illinoise, were subdued, and compelled
to acknowledge their power. Traditionary accounts are preserved
to this day among the Agoneaseah, in relation to these expeditions.
"The confederacy of the Five Nations extended their conquests
as far south as Manhattan island, and had passed over to the west
end of Long Island, and subdued the Canarse Indians."
"There is a tradition among the Dutch, that at the time of the
first settlement of the island the Canarse tribe paid the Mohawks
an annual tribute of wampum and dried clams, and that they dis-
continued the payment of it on the persuasion of the whites, in con-
sequence of which a party of the conquerors came and destroyed
the whole tribe, except a few who happened to be from home." —
See a Sketch of the first settlement of Long Island, by the Hon,
Silas Wood, page 63.
In the same page Mr. Wood goes on and says, " Some writers
have supposed ihat the conquest of the Mohawks extended to the
whole Island, but tliere is no tradition to support it, and it is be-
lieved that the conquest never extended beyond the territory of the
Canarse Indians."
Between 1G64 and 1775, several bands of the Agoneaseah emi-
grated to Canada and other places. The Caughnawagas, Oswe-
gatchies, and Connasedagas, were mostly from the Mohawk canton.
These settled on the river St. Lawrence, at those places which
still bear their names. These emigrations followed the conversion
of those clans to Christianity.
The number of the Agoneaseah. — It \i impossible to ascertain
the number of inhab'tants in the Agoneasean commonwealth at any
one period. Little or no attention appears to have been given td
this subject by those who had correspondence with them, and who
had in some measure the meanl. That their numbers declined
after they had intercourse with the Dutch, English, and French,
cannot be disputed ; but in what ratio we are unable to say.
La Hontan says that each canton, or tribe of the Agoneasean
state contained fourteen thousand souls, which would have given
19G HISTORY OF THE
a population of seventy thousand to the nation ; he is evidently mis-
taken ; his round numLers, and his assigning an cqu;il populaiion to
each tribe, show that he wrote from hearsay. The opinion of Col.
Coursey, the Virginian agent, who had a conference with the Ago-
neasean chiefs at Albany, in the year 1G77, has some claims to
truth. He estimates the warriors at only one tliousand eight hun-
dred and fifty ; his data, however, on which he founds his estimate,
are vague. He gives to the Mohawks three hundred ; to the Onei-
das two hundred ; to the Onondagas three hundred and fifty ; and
to the Cayugas and Senecas one thousand. Coursey has undoubt-
edly underrated the Mohawks and Simecas ; the former were at the
head of the confederation, and were beyond all doubt the most nu-
merous ; the latter ranked next, and could not have fallen far under
as to numbers. The Mohawks had, probably, five times the num-
ber of warriors which he assigns to them. Lahontan, and Cour-
sey, especially the former, wrote from hearsay. We cannot, there-
fore, attach much weight to their accounts. In making these re-
marks we would not wish to be understood as derogating the merits
of Lahontan and Colonel Coursey. In other respects, the former
has furnished us with many facts in regard to the erratic tribes of
North America. To obtain the exact number of any of the Amer-
ican nations is very difficult, perhai)s impossible ; the population is in-
sulated, and scattered over a large extent of country, and is never
embodied. That of the Agoneaseah was thinly spread over thirty
or forty thousand square miles, and was never collected together ;
so that, from the very condition that it was in, no man could find out
with any degree of certainty the amount.
In 1768, when the confederacy had drawn near a dissolution,
there were two thousand nine hundred and seventy warriors, if re-
liance can be placed in a list made out of the tribes of several na-
tions by Hutchins, in which list the Agoneaseah are included. Four
years before Bouquet furnished a list, but it is incomplete. He
enumerates in part the same tribes that Hutchins does. We will
give statemi^nts from both lists. According to that of Hutchins,
the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, and Tus-
caroras, had two thousand one hundred and twenty warriors; and
the Caughnawagas, Oswegatchies, Conncsadagoes, Aughquagas,
STATE OF NEW-YORK.. 197
Mingos, and Cohiinnewagoes, eight hundred and fifty, making in all
two thousand nine hundred and seventy. The reader will recol-
lect that the Caughnawagas, and the other clans following them,
were either emigrants or war colonies from the Agoneasean state.
The list of Bouquet gives only one thousand five hundred and fifty
to the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, and Tus-
caroraS) which falls five hundred and seventy under that given by
Hutchins of the same tribes. In both instances the numbers are
beyond all doubt overrated. But taking the statement of Hutchins
for granted, the whole population of the Agoneasean nation could
not have exceeded twelve or fourteen thousand souls. The Asro-
neaseah, about the time the Dutch began to settle at New-York,
Albany, and Schenectady, were in their meridian, and were more
numerous than at subsequent periods. Their decline began with
the Dutch settlements, and has continued ever since. In a sub-
sequent chapter we intend to speak more fully in relation to their
probable population.
The Mohawks, and some of the other confederates joined the
English in the war between England and France, which was com-
menced in 1755, and ended in 17G3, as allies ; while the Senecas,
and others, joined the French in the same character. Hendrick,
the chief of the JMohawks, accompanied Sir William Johnson to the
head of lake George, near which he fell in an action between the
Anglo-Americans and the French. In the course of this war they
were very active. Few expeditions were undertaken but what they
accompanied, and did more injury to their employers than good.
As the French interest declined in Canada, those who had aided
that people abandoned them, and came over to the English. This
occurred at Niagara, and other places. The Cayugas and Sene-
cas turned the very arms which the French had given to them,
against them.
After the conquest of Canada, the Agoneaseah for the most part
remained at peace till 1776, when all the tribes except the Oneidas
took up the hatchet against the United States, being seduced by
the English agents to make common cause with England against
the American people, who had just shaken off the yoke. In the
early part of this year, a treaty had been negotiated with them at
198 HISTOriT OF THE
Herkimer, in which they engaged to observe a neutrality. Imme-
diately after, however, they commenced depredations again on the
frontiers of New- York. Agents were dispatched to them in order
to prevent a repetition. They made apologies and prou)ised to
adhere to the treaty ; but notwithstanding their promises, they shortly
after renewed their depredations with increased strength, activity,
and ferocity, Tlie treaty concluded in the early part of the year,
was at Fort Dayton in the town of Herkimer. General Schuyler
was the commissioner on the part of tlie United States. All the
leading men and head warriors of the Agoneaseah attended on the
occasion. Large presents were made to them in order to induce
them to remain neutral. In the management of this difficult and
delicate affair. General Schuyler acted witli the utmost prudence
and skill, but it was unavailing.
The Mohawks, who had hitherto resided on the Mohawk river,
broke up their settlen)ents at Fort Hunter, Canajoharie and Nowa-
daga, and retired to Canada. The Oneidas prefering peace to
war, and the amity of the United States to that of Great Britain,
upon the suggestion of the American government removed from the
banks of Onedia creek, and the contiguous parts to Schenectady,
where they continued to the peace concluded in 1783, being pro-
vided by government with the means of subsistence.
The Mohawks, Onondagas, Cauygas and Senecas, in the course
of the war made numerous inroads into the states of New- York and
Pennsvlvania, especially the former state, where, in conjunction
with the royalists they committed great devastations, burning the
frontier settlements, and murdering the inhabitants, or dragging them
into long and painful captivity. In July 1778, a large body of the
Agoneaseah in company with bands of the Lenni Lenape and
royalists, burst suddenly into the rich and flom-ishing settlement of
Wyoming in Pennsylvania, and laid it entirely waste, killing most
of the inhabitants. In this invasion the royalists surpassed the
Agoneaseah and Lenni Lenape in cruelty. The (ine settlement of
Miuisink in this state, shared the same fate soon after. Chemung
on Tioga river, and Oquasio in the county of Broome on the Sus-
quehanna, were the places whence these maraunding bands set out
in their destructive and bloody incursions. At these places they
STATE OF NEW- YORK. 199
collected provisions, arms and other munitions of war. From these
places, then remote from tiie frontiers and surrounded with woods,
and almost inaccessible to regular troops, the Agoneaseah, Lenni
Lenape and royalists, easily penetrated the Minisink, Schoharie
and Mohawk countries, and committed their depredations. All of
their advances, attacks and retreats, were rapid and almost simul-
taneous. Alarms scarcely preceded the irruptions, attacks, and
retreats. The settlement of Cherry Valley in the county of Otsego,
was destroyed the same year that, that of Slinisink was. Colonel
Brandt the chief of the Agoneaseah came up the valley from the
Susquehanna with four or five hundred men including royalists, and
laid the settlements entirely waste. No buildings escaped the con-
flagration except those under the guns of the fort. Several of the
inhabitants were murdered in cold blood; and among those were
women and children. A bare recital of the cruelties committed at
this place, makes humanity shudder. Women were ripped open
and quartered, and their mangled limbs suspended on the branches
of trees; smiling infants taken from the breasts of their mothers,
had their brains dashed out. The family of the late John Wells,
Esquire, were all murdered, and he would have shared the same
fate, had he not been at the grammar school in Schenectady. He
was then about nine years old.
William Buitler, an American partizan officer, towards the close
of the same year, marched from Schoharie with a small party
through the woods to Oquago, and destroyed the depot and Indian
towns. On his return, he laid the Indian villages on Unadilla
river waste.
To repress the inroads of the Agoneaseah, and to make them feel
all the horrors of an invasion ; General Sullivan was directed in the
year 1779, to march into their country with four thousand men.
Tioga point in Pennsylvania, at the confluence of the Susquehanna
and Tioga rivers, was fixed upon for the rendezvous of these
troops. General Sullivan proceeded up the Susquehanna with
three thousand men, where he was joined by General James Clin-
ton, who had come by the way of the Mohawk and Cherry
Valley to the outlet of Otsego lake, and thence by water down the
Susquehanna. Upon the junction of these troops, General Sul-
200 HISTORY OF THE
livan began his march up Tioga river, for the country of the Sene-
cas. Near Newtown in the country of Tioga, the enemy attempted
to oppose him but were defeated. After this they retreated,
abandoning every idea of farther resistance. Sullivan continued
his march along the Tioga, up to the C(»nliocton, and thence to
Genesee river. Then proceeding down that river, he laid all their
settlements waste, burning their habitations, and destroying their
corn. Eighteen towns and villages were burnt in a few days.
While General Sullivan was laying the Agoneasean settlements
waste on Tioga, Conhocton and Genesee rivers. Colonel Broad-
head marched from Pittsburg in Pennsylvania, with six or seven
hundred men, about two hundred miles u[) the Alleghany, and
destroyed the towns, villages, and cornfields, belonging to the Ago-
neaseah along that river. The Agoneasean settlements on that
river were mostly at Tunessassah, in the counties of Warren and
Mc Kean, in Pennsylvania and Cattaraugus in this state. Here
the Senecas and Cayugas had several towns and villages. The
reseservation now extends about thirty miles along the river Al-
leghany.
Previous to these expeditions, and in the month of April in the
same year. Colonel Van Schaick assisted by Liuetenant Colonel
Willet and Major Cochran, marched from fort Schuyler now Utica,
with five or six hundred men against the Onondagas, whom he sur-
prised and routed ; twelve were killed, and thirty-four made
prisoners. The houses and provisions of the Onondagas were
burnt, and the whole settlement wasted. Colonel Van Schaick
returned on the sixth day, having marched one hundred and sixty
miles through the woods, including egress and ingress, and without
the loss of a man.
Although these expeditions did not induce the Agoneaseah and
their dependents, the Lenni Lenape to come to'peace, and although
they did not afibrd perfect security to the frontier inhabitants, yet
they were attended with considerable advantages. The Agonea-
seah, though not conquered, were greatly intimidated. They were
less terrible, and (heir irruptions were less frequent, and less for-
midable than they had been.
8TATK OF NEW-YORK. 201
In the year 1780, the Agoneaseah and royalists under Sir John
Johnson and Colonel Brandt, invaded and partially devastated the
Mohawk and Schoharie countries. The enemy, in this invasion
quickly traversed the Slohawk and Schoharie valleys. Two ac-
tions were fought; the one at Palatine, and the other at Johnstown
in the county of Montgomery. In the former, the Americans under
Major Brown were defeated ; but in the latter, Colonel Willet kept
the field and compelled the enemy to retire.
The incursions which followed the preceding invasion were con-
fined to small parties, and though some individuals were usually
killed, yet they were not of so serious a nature. Still, however, the
border settlers were under almost daily alarms, and had to be con-
stantly on the watch. An end was put to these inroads by the
peace made in 1783, between Great Britain and the United
States.
Dissolution of the Agoneasean confederacy. — Since 1783, the
Agoneaseah do not appear to have acted in unison, The bonds
which had hitherto held them together became loosened, and the
several tribes acted separately in their public as well as their private
transactions. The same causes which had dissolved the compacts
of the hunting tribes on the coast, operated upon the Agoneaseah
and weakened them, and rendered them imbecile. But these
causes had not hitherto operated with such powerful effects, be-
cause they had been more remote, and had not fully penetrated
their domain. The Mohawk canton felt he first effects, because
it came into immediate contact when the Dutch settled at Albany
and Schenectady. Hence it declined, and was on the eve of a
dissolution at the commencement of the revolution. The latter
event accelerated it, by opening those avenues which the royal
government had been preparing, and at once completed their ruin.
In 1776, the Mohawks broke up their settlements at Icanderago,
Nowadaga, and other places on the banks of the Mohawk, and
withdrew to Canada. The lands which they held escheated to the
state. The lands which belonged to the Oneidas, Onondagas,
Cayugas, and Senecas, were the best in the state, and consequently
held out great inducements to emigrants. To obtain these lands
was an object of the utmost consideration. The value and im-
voi,. If. 26
202 HISTORY OF THE
portance of these lands, first became known to the officers and
soldiers composing the army of general Sullivan. Accordingly we
find that in the years 17S8 and 1789, agents were sent to the
Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayiiagas and Senecas, in order to obtain
cessions by purchase. These agents succeeded in making purchases
and getting cessions of large tracts for nominal sums. Immediately
after these purchases and cessions, large bodies of emigrants began
to pour into the country of the Agoneaseah. Improvements were
made and settlements formed on every side. The emigrations
continued to flow into their country. The game soon disappeared,
and the Agoneaseah were reduced to the necessity of cultivating
the ground for their subsistence, which they had constantly declined
doing before. The influx of strangere into their country, the loss
of their lands, and destruction of the game, dispirited them. Some
dispairing of living in the neighborhood of these strangers, retired
out of the state ; while those that remain have lost most of their
energy and martial spirit. Such^ is the condition of the Agonea-
seah who still reside in the state. The high character of the
nation has fled. That martial spirit which inspired them to deeds
of heroism has forsaken them. They are no longer dreaded by the
other hunting tribes, and by civilized man.
The Senecas have a chief called Red Jacket by our people.
He is represented to be a person of talents and eloquence. His
name in the Agoneasean tongue is Sog-goo-ya-wau-tau. He re-
sides near Buffalo in the county of Erie. His supremacy is in a
measure acknowledged by the other Agoneasean tribes. The
Cayugas and Senecas living on the Alleghany river have a chief
named Cornplanter, by our people, who ranks as we understand,
next to Sog-goo-ya-wau-ta. He is also represented to be talented
and eloquent. The Agoneaseah call him Ki-ant-whau-ka. These
chiefs have great influence over their countrymen, and command
respect among our citizens. They are far advanced in years.
Sog-goo-ya-wau-ta was presented with a medal by Washington.
CHAPTER Vri.
State of Society, ^'c. among the Agoneaseah.
Mutual wants and dependencies seem at first to have induced
men to enter into compacts, and to unite together in societies. The
Agoneaseah, as well as the other hunting nations of North America,
were beset with dangers and wants ; hence it became an object of
prime necessity for them to associate and unite, in order to avert
the one and surmount the other. Hence, we find that not only
the Agoneaseah, but all the other nations had made compacts and
formed unions. The compacts and unions were very nearly ahke
among all the tribes and nations, however widely they might have
been separated. These compacts and unions did not differ mate-
rially from diose of the Asiatic tribes similarly circumstanced, as
we shall hereafter show. In the infancy of society men are every
where very nearly alike, a consequence growing out of a parity of
wants, interests, and dangers.
The compact of the Agoneaseah was very simple ; they had no
nobility ; no congress ; no parliament; no president ; no king; nor
had they any magistrates. There was a perfect equality and liber-
ty among all the members of the nation ; assemblages were in the
tribes or cantons; every man had a voice in these assemblages;
age, valor, wisdom, and eloquence, alone gave weight and ascen-
dency. Their proceedings were commonly slow, deliberate, and
solemn. Every circumstance which they could foresee was taken
into serious consideration ; the probable good and evil, advantage,
and detriment of every measure, were investigated and weighed;
the prospects of success and disappointment were discussed and
weighed in their meetings ; the whole was a scene of consultation
and advice ; nothing was binding on the members; the advice, how-
ever, from its supposed wisdom and propriety, usually had the ef-
ficacy of a law enacted. Such seems to have been the proceed-
ings and deliberations among the individual tribes oi the confede-
204 HISTORY or THH
racy. The Agoncaseah, besides these assemblages in tribes, had
national assemblnges at Onondaga. These assemblages consisted
of the chiefs, distinguished warriors, and orators of the several tribes
cojnposing tiie nation. Onondaga, the ordinary place of meeting,
was considered to bo in the middle of the Agoneasean country ;
here all matters rela:ing to the internal and external concerns of the
naiion were brought, discussed, and settled. The assemblage, or
council as it was commonly called, had considerable weight and
respect.
According to Cusick, a tree of peace was planted at Onondaga.
The chiefs met and deliberated under it ; here they smoked the pipe
of peace in order to ratify their proceedings. A council fire was
kindled under the tree. Onondaga was considered the heart of the
country. Belts and strings of wampum were left as records of al-
liance and other acts. — See his sketches of the Six Nations.
The national council had the right of declaring war and making
peace, and of concluding treaties, and exercising all acts of sove-
reignty. But, notwithstanding these prerogatives, its deliberations
and resolves were not mandatory, unless sanctioned by the mem-
bers of the several cantons. They were only recommendatory,
since the members of the cantons might ratify, obey, or disannul
them at pleasure. The strength and power of the government
rested entirely in public sentiment. The chiefs were chosen from
among the most renowned warriors and huntsmen. They, how-
ever, had no power or authority to enforce their counsels or com-
pel their measures. They dwelt in the same kind of houses with
the rest of the people, and had the same kind of food, clothing,
and lodging. They had no badges, or marks of distinction ; no
ceremonies; no forms of induction into office were observed, or
were in use among them. In external appearance, and other cir-
cumstances, they were on a level with the rest of the nation. The
only thing which gave any weight or authority to their advice, or
their orders, was the opinion which the public entertained of their
wisdom, valor, and experience.
The Tartars usually elect their chiefs. On emergencies they
elect a grand chief, called a Khan, who commands several tribes.
In former times, whenever the confederacy was extensive, the