Chapter I: MUST finish this general outline, by saying something of that religion (3)

How much they seemed to enjoy that life which was so new to them! for they were the young broods first led forth to sport upon the waters. While the fixed attitude and lofty port of the large birds of prey, who were ranged upon the sandy shelf, formed an inverted picture in the same clear mirror, and were a pleasing contrast to the playful multitude around. These they never attempted to disturb, well aware of the facility of escape which their old retreats afforded them. Such of my readers as have had patience to follow me to this favourite isle, will be, ere now, as much bewildered, as I have often been myself on its luxuriant shores. To return to the southward, on the confines of what might then be called an interminable wild, rose two gently sloping eminences, about half a mile from the shore; from each of these a large brook descended, bending through the plain, and having their course marked by the shades of primeval trees and shrubs, left there to shelter the cattle when the ground was cleared. On these eminences, in the near neighbourhood, and in full view of the mansion at the Flats, were two large and well-built dwellings, inhabited by Colonel Schuyler’s two younger sons, Peter and Jeremiah. To the eldest was allotted the place inhabited by his father, which, from its lower situation and level surface, was called the Flats. There was a custom prevalent among the new settlers, something like that of gavelkind; they made a pretty equal division of lands among their younger sons; the eldest, by pre-eminence of birth, had a larger share, and generally succeeded to the domain inhabited by his father, with the slaves, cattle, and effects upon it.

This, in the present instance, was the lot of the eldest son of that family whose possessions I have been describing. His portion of land on the shore of the river, was scarcely equal in value to those of his brothers, to whose possessions, the brooks I have mentioned, formed a natural boundary, dividing them from each other, and from his. To him was allotted the costly furniture of the family, of which paintings, plate, and china constituted the valuable part, every thing else being merely plain and useful. They had also a large house in Albany, which they occupied occasionally.

I have neglected to describe, in its right place, the termination or back ground of the landscape I have such delight in recollecting. There the solemn and interminable forest was varied here and there by rising grounds, near streams where birch and hickory, maple and poplar, cheered the eye with a lighter green, through the prevailing shade of dusky pines. On the border of the wood, where the trees had been thinned for firing, was a broad shrubbery all along, which marked the edges of the wood, above the possessions of the brothers, as far as it extended.

This was formed of sumac, a shrub with leaves, continually changing colour through all the varieties, from blending green and yellow to orange tawney, and adorned with large lilac-shaped clusters of bright scarlet grains, covered with pungent dust of a sharp flavour, at once saline and acid. This the Indians use as salt to their food, and for the dyeing of different colours. The red glow, which was the general result of this natural border, had a fine effect, thrown out from the dusky shades which towered behind.

To the northward, a sandy tract, covered with low pines, formed a boundary betwixt the Flats and Stonehook, which lay further up the river.

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CHAP. XV.

Character of Philip Schuyler—His management of the Indians.

PHILIP SCHUYLER, who, on the death of his father, succeeded to the inheritance I have been describing, was a person of a mild, benevolent character, and of an excellent understanding, which had received more culture than was usual in that country. But whether he had returned to Europe, for the purpose of acquiring knowledge in the public seminaries there, or had been instructed by any of the French protestants, who were sometimes retained in the principal families for such purposes, I do not exactly know; but am led rather to suppose the latter, from the connexion which always subsisted between that class of people and the Schuyler family.

When the intimacy between this gentleman and the subject of these memoirs took place, she was a mere child; for the colonel, as he was soon after called, was ten years older than herself. This was singular there, where most men married under twenty. But his early years were occupied by momentous concerns; for, by this time, the public safety began to be endangered by the insidious wiles of the French Canadians, to whom our frontier settlers began to be formidable rivals in the fur trade, which the former wished to engross. In process of time, the Indians, criminally indulged with strong liquors by the most avaricious and unprincipled of the traders, began to have an insatiable desire for them, and the traders’ avidity for gain increased in the same proportion.

Occasional fraud on the one hand gave rise to occasional violence on the other. Mutual confidence decayed, and hostility betrayed itself, when intoxication laid open every thought. Some of our traders were, as the colonies alleged, treacherously killed, in violation of treaties solemnly concluded between them and the offending tribes.

The mediation and protection of the Mohawk tribes, were, as usual, appealed to. But these shrewd politicians saw evidently the value of their protection to an unwarlike people, who made no effort to defend themselves; and who, distant from the source of authority, and contributing nothing to the support of government, were in a great measure neglected. They began also to observe, that their new friends were extending their possessions on every side, and conscious of their wealth and increasing numbers, did not so assiduously cultivate the good will of their faithful allies as formerly. These nations, savage as we may imagine them, were as well skilled in the arts of negociation as the most polite Europeans. They waged perpetual war with each other about their hunting grounds—each tribe laying claim to some vast wild territory, destined for that purpose, and divided from other districts by boundaries which we should consider as merely ideal, but which they perfectly understood. Yet these were not so distinctly defined as to preclude all dispute—and a casual encroachment on this imaginary deer park, was a sufficient ground of hostility; and this, not for the value of the few deer or bears which might be killed, but that they thought their national honour violated by such an aggression. That system of revenge, which subsisted with equal force among them all, admitted of no sincere conciliation till the aggrieved party had obtained at least an equal number of scalps and prisoners for those that they had lost. This bloody reckoning was not easily adjusted. After a short and hollow truce, the remaining balance on either side afforded a pretext for new hostilities, and time to solicit new alliances, for which last purpose much art and much persuasive power of eloquence were employed.

But the grand mystery of Indian politics was the flattery, the stratagem, and address employed in detaching other tribes from the alliance of their enemies. There could not be a stronger proof of the restless and turbulent nature of ambition, than these artful negociations, the consequences of perpetual hostility, where one would think there was so little ground for quarrel; and that amongst a people, who, individually, were by no means quarrelsome or covetous, and seemed, in their private transactions with each other, impressed with a deep sense of moral rectitude; who reasoned soundly, reflected deeply, and acted in most cases consequentially. Property there was none, to afford a pretext for war, excepting a little possessed by the Mohawks, which they knew so well how to defend, that their boundaries were never violated—

“For their awe and their fear were upon all nations round about.”

Territory could not be the genuine subject of contention in these thinly peopled forests, where the ocean and the pole were the only limits of their otherwise boundless domain. The consequence attached to the authority of chiefs, who, as such, possessed no more property than others, and had not the power to command a single vassal for their own personal benefit, was not such as to be the object of those wars. Their chief privilege was that of being first in every dangerous enterprise. They were loved and honoured, but never, that I have heard of, traduced, envied, or removed from their painful pre-eminence.

The only way in which these wars can be accounted for, is, first, from the general depravity of our nature, and from a singularly deep feeling of injury, and a high sense of national honour. They were not the hasty out-breakings of savage fury, but were commenced in the most solemn and deliberate manner, and not without a prelude of remonstrances from the aggrieved party, and attempts to sooth and conciliate from the other. This digression must not be considered as altogether from the purpose. To return to the Indians, whose history has its use in illustrating that of mankind: they now became fully sensible of the importance they derived from the increased wealth and undefended state of the settlement. They discovered, too, that they held the balance between the interior settlements of France and England, which, though still distant from each other, were daily approximating.

The Mohawks, though always brave and always faithful, felt a very allowable repugnance to expose the lives of their warriors in defence of those who made no effort to defend themselves; who were neither protected by the arms of their sovereign, nor by their own courage. They came down to hold a solemn congress, at which the heads of the Schuyler and Cuyler families assisted; and where it was agreed that hostilities should be delayed for the present—the hostile nations pacified by concessions and presents, and means adopted to put the settlement into a state of defence against future aggressions.

On all such occasions, when previously satisfied with regard to the justice of the grounds of quarrel, the Mohawks promised their hearty co-operation. This they were the readier to do, as their young brother Philip, (for so they styled Colonel Schuyler,) offered not only to head such troops as might be raised for this purpose, but to engage his two brothers, who were well acquainted with the whole frontier territory, to serve on the same terms. This was a singular instance of public spirit in a young patriot, who was an entire stranger to the profession of arms, and whose sedate equanimity of character was adverse to every species of rashness or enthusiasm. Meantime, the provisions of the above-mentioned treaty could not be carried into effect, till they were ratified by the assembly at New-York, and approved by the governor. Of this there was little doubt; the difficulty was to raise and pay the troops. In the interim, while steps were taking to legalize this project, in 1719, the marriage between Colonel Schuyler and his cousin took place under the happiest auspices.

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CHAP. XVI.

Account of the three brothers.

COLONEL SCHUYLER and his two brothers, all possessed a superior degree of intellect, and uncommon external advantages. Peter, the only one remaining when I knew the family, was still a comely and dignified looking old gentleman, and I was told his brothers were at least equal to him in this respect. His youngest brother, Jeremiah, who was much beloved for a disposition, frank, cheerful, and generous to excess, had previously married a lady from New-York, with whom he obtained some fortune—a thing then singular in that country. This lady, whom, in her declining years, I knew very well, was the daughter of a wealthy and distinguished family of French protestants. She was lively, sensible, and well-informed.

Peter, the second, was married to a native of Albany. She died early, but left behind two children, and the reputation of much worth, and great attention to her conjugal and maternal duties. All these relations lived with each other, and with the new-married lady, in habits of the most cordial intimacy and perfect confidence. They seemed, indeed, actuated by one spirit—having in all things similar views and similar principles. Looking up to the colonel as the head of the family, whose worth and affluence reflected consequence upon them all, they never dreamt of envying either his superior manners, or his wife’s attainments, which they looked upon as a benefit and ornament to the whole.

Soon after their marriage they visited New-York, which they continued to do once a year, in the earlier period of their marriage, on account of their connexion in that city, and the pleasing and intelligent society that was always to be met with there, both on account of its being the seat of government, and the residence of the commander in chief on the continent, who was then necessarily invested with considerable power and privileges, and had, as well as the governor for the time being, a petty court assembled round him. At a very early period, a better style of manners, greater ease, frankness, and polish prevailed at New-York, than in any of the neighbouring provinces. There was, in particular, a Brigadier General Hunter, of whom I have heard Mrs. Schuyler talk a great deal, as coinciding with her uncle and husband successively, in their plans, either of defence or improvement. He, I think, was then governor—and was as acceptable to the Schuylers for his colloquial talents and friendly disposition, as estimable for his public spirit and application to business, in which respects he was not equalled by any of his successors. In his circle, the young couple were much distinguished. There were, too, among those leading families, the Livingstons and Rensselaers, friends connected with them both by blood and attachment. There was, also, another distinguished family, to whom they were allied, and with whom they lived in cordial intimacy; these were the De Laneys, of French descent, but by subsequent intermarriages, blended with the Dutch inhabitants. Of these there were many then in New-York, as will be hereafter explained; but as these conscientious exiles were persons allied in religion to the primitive settlers, and regular and industrious in their habits, they soon mingled with and became a part of that society, which was enlivened by their sprightly manners, and benefited by the useful arts they brought along with them. In this mixed society, which must have had attraction for young people of superior, and in some degree, cultivated intellect, this well-matched pair took great pleasure; and here, no doubt, was improved that liberality of mind and manners, which so much distinguished them from the less enlightened inhabitants of their native city. They were so much caressed in New-York, and found so many charms in the intelligent and comparatively polished society, of which they made a part, that they had at first some thoughts of residing there. These, however, soon gave way to the persuasions of the old colonel, with whom they principally resided till his death, which happened in 1721, two years after. This union was productive of all that felicity which might be expected to result from entire congeniality, not of sentiment only, but of original dispositions, attachments, and modes of living and thinking. He had been accustomed to consider her as a child with tender endearment. She had been used to look up to him from infancy, as the model of manly excellence, and they drew knowledge and virtue from the same fountain; in the mind of that respected parent whom they equally loved and revered.

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CHAP. XVII.

The house and rural economy of the Flats—Birds and insects.