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WALWORTH, AUTHOR OF " AN OLD WORLD, AS SEEN THROUGH YOUNG EYES.' t-S.: BUFFALO: PETER PAUL & BROTHER. 1893. ^ Copyright, iSgo, Bv Ellen H. Walworth. rr :?' PBTBR PAUL « BRO., PRINTBRS AND BINDERS, BUFFALO, N. Y. M ■' f8723r- > 'aSsi m '-1 THE REV. CLAHENCE A. WALWORTH, BECTOB OF 8T. MARY'S CBCBCB, ALBANY, N.Y., f?> ^ THIS VOLUME 19 MOST AFFECTIOXATKI.Y DEDICATED. PREFACE. The life and surroundings of '^Tlie Lily of the Mohawks/' as au undeveloped theme in literature, was first suggested to me by my uncle, the Rev. Clarence A. Walworth. My interest and enthusiasm were at once aroused. The thought of a mere Indian girl reared in the forest among barbarians, yet winning for herself such titles as "The Lily of the Mohawks" and "The Gene- yieve of New France," recurred to my mind again and again, until it led me to a fixed determination to explore so tempting a field of romance and archaeology. The fact that it lay amongst the hills and valleys of my native State, and was little known except to solitary scholars and laborious historians, incited me still more to the task. I became ambitious to gather from the records of two centurie« ago every detail relating in any way to my Indian heroine. While engaged in this work un- expected opportunities opened to gather exact informa- tion about her, and more especially concerning the localities connected with her early childhood, and her conversion and baptism in the Mohawk Valley. If this book, embodying the result of my researches, should fail to interest the reader, it will not be for any lack of enthusiasm on my part, or of kind encourage- ment and competent assistance from others. VI PHKKACE. Whon beginning the work my first call for advice won upon Dr. John Gilmary Shea, so well versed in Indian annals, as also in the general history of this country. I found him full of interest in my subject. Guided by the information received from him, and also by the directions of the Rev. R. S. Dewey, S. J., who has long been familiar with the missionary and Indian traditions of the Mohawk Valley, I went to Montreal and secured from the courteous kindness of Father Turgeon, S. J., rector of the Jesuit College there, the use of all the manuscrii>ts I desired. The Sisters of the Hotel Dieu furnished me with a room in their hospital, to which the good Rector allowed me to transport the entire Carton 0. This contained all the unprinted materials relating to my subject that belonged to the college library. There, at the Hotel Dieu, delightfully located with the sisters of an order whose history is closely bound up with that of Montreal, I copied at my leisure the manu- scripts most valuable to me. In Montreal, also, my good fortune gave me interviews with M. Cuoq, the distinguished philologist of St. Sulpice, whose Indian dictionaries and grammars I had already seen in my uncle's library. Much I owe besides to Soeur St. Henriette, librarian and keeper of the archives at the Villa Maria. It was on the boat which shoots the Lachine Rapids that I met Mr. Kale of Phila- delphia, the learned author of the *' Iroquois Book of Rites,'' and enjoyed a long conversation with him on matters of deep interest to us both and to my work. My first visit to the Iroquois Village at Caughnawaga, P. Q., occurred at this time. Here my uncle and I found 1^ t;l (.■^1 1 1 i i \ PREFACK. Vll -• ^ ^ J hospitable eatertainmcnt for several days at the Presby- tery of the church, presided over by the Rev. P6ro Burtin, 0. M. I. Besides the valuable information acquired from the library of books and manuscripts in his possession, I gathered much from the acquaintance then established with the Iroquois of the "Sault'*and in particular with their grand chief, Jos^^ph Williams. La Prairie was only nine miles disttint, with its scholarly cure, Pere Bourgeault, and his valuable collec- tion of ancient maps ; and about half way between Oaughnawaga and La Prairie lay the grave of Tekak- witha, with its tall cross looking over the rapids of the St. Lawrence. An author with a theme like mine in such localities and with such guides was, indeeu, in an enchanted land. In Albany I received valuable assistance and advice from Mr. Holmes and Mr. Howell, of the State Library, also from Mr. Melius, of the City Clerk's Office, and others. I have reserved for a most especial and grateful acknowledgment the name of Gen. John S. Clark, of Auburn, N. Y. My work is indebted to him for a treasure of information which he alone could give. In the knowledge of Iroquois localities in New York State, particularly those of two centuries ago, and the trails over which missionaries from Canada travelled so pain- fully to villages where they labored so hard and yet successfully., — ^he is the undoubted pioneer. Almost all we know in this branch of archaeology is owing to him. It was my privilege in company with my uncle, and with Gen. Clark for pilot, to spend a memorable week in • •• Vlll PRKFACK search of Indian localities along the Mohawk, frcm the mouth of Schoharie Greek to the farthest castle of the wolf clan opposite Fort Plain. We visited and verified, under the Oenerars direction, no less than eleven sites in this one week. An account of tho most important of these sites can be found in the o; atributions of Gen. Olark, as explanatory footnotes, to ** Early Chapters of Mohawk History." This work consists of translations into English of selected letters from the Relations Jesuitea. For these translations we are indebted to the lamented Dr. Hawley, late pastor of the First Presby- terian Ghurch in Auburn. Guided by the wise advice of General Clark, I was able afterwards to make other independent journeys, and familiarize myself with Indian trails passing near my native town, above all those fol- lowed by Tekakwitha in her escape to the ''Sault.'^ I owe to Gen. Clark's kindness the valuable map of Mohawk Castle Sites, to be found in this book and drawn expressly for it by his hand. Lastly, I recall with pleasure a conversation with the Rev. Felix Martin, S. J., a well known authority in Canadian and Indian archsBology. To this venerable author, the editor of the famous "Jesuit Relations,*' the biographer of Isaac Jogues, of Chomonot and of Tekak- witha, I owe a large debt of gratitude. His biography of her, entitled *'Une Vierge Iroquoise," is still in manuscript, never having been published. He "was the first to gather and keep together all the manuscripts extant giving cotemporary accounts of the Iroquois maiden. He laid a foundation of accumulated facts for others to build upon. I sought him out in Paris ir. 1885. 1. *< 0- ^ I'UEFACK. IX "4i and found him with some difficulty. The hiding place of this learned old man was in an obscure comer of the city. The schools of his order all broken up, separated from his companions, his books and his manuscripts, and from his old beloved home in the New France, which he would never see again, — how his eyes glistened when I came to nim from the western world, a child of the Hudson and Mohawk, to speak to him of Tekakwitha, bringing him even the latest news of archaaological discoveries in those vallejj! His face beamed with delight at every new detail. It plec;sed him much to know that Dr. Shea was, at that very time, translating into English his (Martin's) French Life of Jogues, and to learn that I was writing, and hoped soon to have published a full account of Eateri Tekakwitha for my own countrymen of the United States. He gave his blessing to me and to my work, a blessing which I prize most highly. His hearty approval is especially gratify- ing, since I have had occasion to use much of the material he had gathered for publication in French under his own name. Alas! scarcely had I recrossed the Atlantic, when the news of his death reached me. In conclusion, let me say : I am conscious of many defects in this work. Others may yet be found better able than I to do justice to my theme, but not any one, I think, who will come to the task more anxious to make known to all the whole truth of history concerning the rare and beautiful character of this lily of our forest. Albany, N. Y., January a, 1891. ! n A ( V co:j^tents. •■ (■ h * PAOB CHAPTEB I. Tekakwitha'8 Spring 1 II. The Mohawk Valley and the Mohawks at THE Time of Tekakwitha's Birth , . . 12 III. A Cradle-Song. — Captives Tortured.— Flight of the French from Onondaga. — Death in the Mohawk Lodges .... 26 IV Tekakwitha with her Aunts at Ganda- wague . . V. Tekakwitha's Uncle and Fort Orange, or THE Beginnings of Albany ..... 44 VI. An Army on Snow-Shoes ^2 VII. De Tracy burns the Mohawk Castles.— Fall of Tionnontogen 75 VIII. Tekakwitha's Christian Guests. — Rawen- NIIO ^^ IX. Caughnawaqa on the Mohawk. — Fathers Fremin and Pierron 96 X. The Mohegans attack the New Castle. — Battle of Kinaquariones. — The Feast of the Dead .... ^^^ XI. Will Tekakwitha Marry? .... 128 XII. The New Colony of Christian Indians on THE St. Lawrence. — The "Great Mo- hawk " goes to Canada 142 Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTEU : SOI XIII. Tekakwitha meets De Lamberville. — Imposing Ceremony in the Bark Chapel 152 XIV. Persecutions. — Heroic Calmness in a Mo- ment OF Peril. — Malice of Teka- kwitha's Aunt 163 XV, Hot Ashes plans Tekakwitha's Escape . 174 XVI. From the Old to the New Cauohnawaqa 183 XVII. At the Sault St. Louis 192 XVIII. The Huntug-Camp 206 XIX. Kateri's Friend, — Th^rese Tegaiaguenta 216 XX. Montreal and the Isle-aux-Herons, 1678 226 XXI. «♦ I am not any longer my own " . . . . 243 XXII. Kateri's Vow on Lady Day, and the St m- MER of 1679 253 XXIII. Kateri III. — Th^rese "consults the Black- gown. — Feast of the Purification. — The Bed of Thorns 260 XXIV. Kateri's Death. — "I will love thee in heaven!" — The Burial. — Her Grave AND Monument 270 XXV. The Memory and Influence of Kateri Tekakwitha after her Death. — Mod- ern Caughnawaga 285 conclcsion 233 APPENDIX. Notes, Topographical and Historical . • 4 • 301 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Tekakwitha'9 Spring The Mohawk Valley from Foxda, N.Y Map of Mohawk Castle-Sites, by General Claak Old Albany. —Dominie Schaats' House . . . . Site of Caughnawaga Castle, Fonda, N. Y. . . . Map showing the Migrations of the Mission Vil- lage OF the Sault Street Scene at Caughnawaga, in Canada . . . Modern Caughnawaga, P. Q. {from the Landing) . . PAflE xvi 6 38 52 103 194 279 299 . Il li: i^ii s ' THE LIFE AND TIMES OF KATERI TEKAKWITIIAJ CHAPTER I. tekakwitha's spring. IN the valley of the Mohawk, near the present great highways of the State of New York, is a quiet forest nook, where a clear, cold spring gurgles out from the tangled roots of a tree. Connected with this spring is the story of a short girl-life, pure, vigorous, sorrow- taught. It is written out in authentic documents ; while Nature, also, has kept a record of an Indian maiden's lodge beside the spring. There on the banks of the Mohawk River, at Caughnawaga, now called Fonda, in Montgomer County, dwelt the Lily of the Mohawks two centuries ago, when the State had neither shape nor name. She saw her people build a strong, new palisaded village there. She saw, though at rare intervals, the peaceful but adventurous traders of Fort 1 Pronounced Katf-e-re(f Tek-a-quee'-ta. Kateri is the Iroquois form of thfc Christian name Kather,.ie. The meaning of Tckakwitha is given in Chapter IV. For various ways of spelling the nurie, see Appendix, Note B. 2 KATEKI TEKAKWITHA. Oranj^e, niul the l)lackgow.:s of New France pass in and out on Iriendly eiiands. Moliegans came there also iii her day to lay siege to the village, but only to be met with fierce defiance and to be driven back. Marks of that very Indian fort can still be found at Fonda, where the Johnstown Railway now branches from the New York Central, and turns northward along the margin of the Cayudutta Creek. The smoke of the engine, as it leaves the town of Fonda, mounts to the le\'el of a plateau on which the Mohawk Castle ^ stood. The elevated land, or river terrace, at that point is singu- larly called the " Sand Flats." A rude fort of palisades, well equipped for defence, was completed about the year 1668 on a narrow tongue of this high terrace, between the Mohawk River and the creek. The approach to it is very steep ; but in one place a wagon-road winds up the hill to what is now a field on Veeder's farm. Here unmistakable signs of Indian occupation are to be found. A spring is close at hand in a cluir.p of trees. The castle at that spot was known as " Caughnawaga," meaning " At the Rapids," — a name still applied to the eastern part of the present town of Fonda. The Mohawk River runs swiftly as it passes this spot, and large stones obstruct its course. The spring at the castle site on the west side of the creek is Tekakwitha's spring; for there beside it she grew to maidenhood, behind the shelter of the palisades, and beneath the shadow of the overarching forest. If > The Indian forts or palisaded villages, called " castles " by the early Dutch settlers of New York State, were stoutly built of logs and bark, and were effectual barriers of defence until the artillery of the white men was brought to bear upon them. TEKAKWITHA'S Sl'HlNti. 8 Tekakwitha was the Lily of the Mohawks, and after- wards known as " La lioune Catherine." In the Mohawk Valley, the great artery of our na- tion's life, the tide of human travel now ebbs and ilows with ever-swelling force ; here the New York Central Itailway levels out its course of four broad tracks ; here the great canal bears heavy burdens east and west ; here the West Shore Railway skirts the southern terrace ; here the Mohawk liiver winds and ripples, smiling in an old-time, quiet way at these hurrying, crowded high- ways. They have wellnigh filled the generous road- way, cut through high plateaus and mountain spurs in ages past by this same placid river. That was in its younger, busier days. Now it idles on its way from side to side, among the flats or bottoms, with here and there a rapid, till at last it gathers force at far Cohoes for one great plunge before it joins the Hudson. Then the mingled waters of the two rivers sweep on past the stately Capitol, where once the Indian trading-post, Fort Orange, stood. From Albany, the broad-bosomed Hudson bears floating palaces and long lines of canal- boats strung together like great beads of wampum. Let its current move them southward, while we turn back to the valley whence these strings of wampum came. Let us follow up the windings of the Mohawk Eiver westward. At Schenectady it lingers among islands in pretty, narrow ways, where college boys can take their sweethearts rowing. Right playfully it kisses the feet of the old Dutch town in summer, and in winter its frozen bosom sounds with the merry thud of the skater's steel. Farther west the valley narrows, and on a height near Hoffman's Ferry, Mohawk and KATEUI TEKAKWITHA. (ill' m ' Mohegau fought their last fierce battle. Tekakwitha heard their war-whoop at the castle of Caughnawagu, just before the final conflict came ; but she never saw Fort Johnson, which is higher up the river. Old Fort Tohnson is too modern for our story. Amsterdam now looms up an important factor in the valley. Two cen- turies ago a joyous stream cascading down to meet the Mohawk was its only landmark. Tekakwitha knew the spot, however, and had good reason to remember it» as we shall see. Westward still, and up the valley from Fort Johnson, a broader gleam of water comes in sight. It is where the Schoharie River creeps in from the south between the dripping archways of a bridge, over which canal-boats pass. Here the Mohawk shows its teeth in a ridge of angry rapids ; and here we enter what was once the home country of its people, the fierce Mohawks. We are near the spot where brave Father Isaac Jogues, the discoverer of Lake George, was kiDed, in 1646. In the southwest angle of the Mohawk and Schoharie Rivers, on the upper terrace, higher than the modern hamlet of Auriesville, was the eastern castle of the Mohawks, known to Jogues as Ossemenon.^ Here three times the hero-hearted blackgown came ; first, a mangled, tortured captive, dragging out the weary months in slavery until the Dutchmen at Fort Orange ransomed him ; next, as an ambassador of peace, bearing presents, making treaties ; and lastly, as envoy of the 1 ^legapolensis, the Dutch dominie at Fort Orange, who befriended Jogues, the French Jesuit, in his captivity, writes the name of this Mo- hawk town or castle, Asserue or Asserne. It was just at the spot where a shrine has been recently erected to honor the memory of Isaac Joguea and of his companion Rene Goupil, both of whom were tomahawked in that vicinity by the Mohawks. : »: < a ti If TEKAKWITHAVS SPRING. 5 Prince of Peace, and wedded to his " spouse of blood," — for so Jogucs styled his Mohawk mission. Never wus a truer bridegroom, never stranger wedding rites. Bits of his flesh were cut off and devoured, while the savage high-priest cried, " Let us Sfco if this white flesh is the flesh of an otkon [spirit or devil.]" " I am but a man like yourselves," said Jogues, " though I fear not death nor your tortures." His head was placed on the north- ern palisade, looking toward the French frontier, and his body thrown into the stream ; but his blood an^ '^ > ^"^ 'A TKKAKWITIIAS Sl'KlNO. Ill u W(KmI near l>y, «jn tliu brow of a mviuo, tlieru is u row of hollow corn-jnts wliuru tlio Ciiu^'himwui^u itenplo stored tlioir charrctl corn. Low down in tlio fortilo river-iliits, southward from tliu ancient village-site, n sunburned farmer, owner of both hill and valley, still works with horses and with iron implements the very corn-lields that the st^uaws hoed with clumsy bone-tools. Tlii/j once castled height breaks abruptly on its eastern side to let the Cayudutta Creek wind through. It hur- ries by on its way to meet the Mohawk, and then lags through the flat, lost to sight just long enough to pass rcimd the skirts of the Ta-berg, or Tea Mountain. This in a grassy cone topped with pines, and so named by Dutch settlers who there in war-times made a tea from a wild plant. It partly blocks the entrance to the pretty Cayudutta valley, and separates it from the modern town of Fonda ; but the farmers' daughters and the village people who now live in sight of Fonda Court House know well the little valley of the Cayu- dutta. Any one of them can point out its brightest gem, the never-failing spring that issues from a set-back in the hill and so regular in shape as to suggest an am- phitheatre. This spring wells out from under an old stump hidden in a clump of trees, whose topmost branches are below the level of the castle site. Its waters rest a moment in a little shady pool, a round forest mirror; then brimming over, break away and wander down the steep descent to the creek. The path to the spring leads downward from the higher ground above it, known as the Sand Flats. The field where the castle stood is now often planted thick with grain ; but when this has been cut and the ground again 8 KATEHI TKKAKWITIIA. 1;:, ploughed, the Indian relics are readily found. At any season of the year, however, the limpid spring that has not ceased to How for centuries will serve to indicate the spot. Standing then, at the brink of this spring in the Mohawk Valley, let the reader cast a look backward, and over the intervening space of two hundred years, to the days of Tekakwitha, Let it be understood, how- ever, that while the imaginative faculty is thus to be called into play, it is not for the contemplation of an imaginative but of a real character. For whatever side lights may color the narrative, they are used to bring out, not to impair, the picture. Many details of time and place, of manners and customs, of dress and the arts of industry, will be woven into an actual scene, rather than given in a tedious enumeration. The scene about to be described and others which fol- low depicting the early life of Tekakwitha are not to be found actually recorded in so many words in the history of her life and times, yet they must have occurred ; for they are based on the known facts of her life as related in various official and private documents, together with such inferences only as may fiiirly and reasonably be drawn from those facts when brought under the strong light of contemporaneous records. Above the spring at Fonda, on the high plateau where is now the well-tilled farm, stood, two centuries ago, the log-built palisades of ancient Caughnawaga. In tall and close-set ranks they serve to hide from view and shield from ambush the long, low Indian houses, twenty-four in number. "Double stockadoed round, with four ports," as when the traveller Greenhalgh saw i T^:KAKWIT^A'S SPRING. the place in 1677, "and a bow-shot from the river," stands the strong Mohawk castle. The blackened stumps that now dot the sunny hillside of the Cayu- dutta change into the old-time, mighty forest, and pre- sent a scene that is full of life ; for down a well-worn footpath come the Indian girls to fill their jugs at the spring, — afterwards to be known as Tekakwithu's Spring. These dusky Caughnawaga maidens have the well- known Indian features strongly marked, — the high cheek bones, the dull red skin, and soft dark eyes ; but Tuka- kwitha shields ners with her blanket from the light. Un- like the rest, there is au air of thoughtfulness about her and a touch of mystery. Excessive shyness in the Lily of the Mohawks is strangely blended with a sympa- thetic nature ; and with a quiet force of character she leads their chatter, half unconsciously, to channels of her own choosing. " A manuscript of the time," says Shea, " describes the Indian maiden with her well-oiled and neatly parted hair descending in a long plait behind, while a fine che- mise was met at the waist by a neat and well-tvimmed petticoat reaching to the knee ; below this was the rich legging and then the well-fitted moccasin, the glory of an Iroquois belle. The neck was loaded with beads, while the crimson blanket enveloped the whole form." This, in general, is the costume of the meny group with Tekakwitha at the spring. The upper garment, however, is a kind of tunic or simple overdress ; nor can it be said that all are equally neat in their appear- ance. Some have their dark, straight hair tied loosely back and hanging down, or else with wampum braided 10 KATE lil TKK A K W ITII A. mi V ,i in it. A few are clo,:lietl iu tbreij^ni stuff, bought fiuiu the Dutch for beaver-skius aucl woiii in shapeless pieces hung about theui witli savaj'e carelessness. On tli \A 10 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. ^ Iroquois senate. Teu of these were always Cuniengas (or Mohawks), and fourteen were Ouondagas. These two nations and ' lie Senecas were called brothers ; while the intermediate Oneidas and Cayugas were always spoken of as nephews, because they were younger and less important nations, with fewer oyanders. Tekakwitha's father may have been one of the ten Mohawk oyanders, but there is more reason to believe that he belonged to a class of war-chiefs who took part only in councils of war. In 1656 these war-chiefs were very influential, for the Iroquois had set out on a wild career of conquest, the warlike Mohawks as usual taking the lead. The very same year that the little Mohawk- Algonquin was born in their land, they swept like a tornado over Isle Orleans, near Quebec. They carried off to their castles the last remnant of the Huron people, who, far from their own land, had gathered near the French guns for protection. These Hurons from the shores of Lake Huron belonged to the Iroquois stock, as distinguished from the Algonquin races. In very early times they had come down to the settlements on the St. Lawrence to trade with the French, and zealous Jesuit missionaries had accompanied them on their return to their own country. After great hardships these mission- aries had succeeded in making them Christians, when, as the final result of an old feud, these Huron-Iroquois, as they are often called, were driven from their homes in the Northwest by the Iroquois of the League, and wiped completely out of existence as a nation. Six of the Jesuits who dwelt among them, and whose strange isolated lives have furnished the theme for Parkman's glowing pages, were massacred, while others were cruelly THE MOHAWK VALLhi n tortured by the ubiquitous Moliawks during the periovi of ten short years that ehipsed between Jogues' last captivity and Teivuicwitha's birth. Could the father of the Mohawk Lily have reddened his hands in their blood ? It is more than likely ; for though Ondessouk or Jogues was tlie only one of these martyrs who had reached the Mohawk Valley, tliey were all slain by Mohawk braves, — Jogues, Daniel, Brebeuf, Lalemant, Oarnier, and Garreau ; nor is this a complete list of the victims. To use once more the words of John Gilmary Sliea, historian of these and their fellow pioneers, — "Fain would we pause to follow each in his labors, his trials, and his toils ; recount their dangers from the heathen Huron, the skidkiug Iroquois, the frozen river, hunger, cold, and accident; to show Gamier wrestling with the floating ice, through which he sank on an errand of mercy ; Cha- banel struggling on for ycais ou a mission from which every fdore of his nature shrunk with loatliing ; Chaumouot com- piling his grammar on the frozen earth ; or the heroic Brebeuf, paralyzed by a fall, with his collar-bone broken, creeping on his hands and feet along the road and sleeping unsheltered on the snow when the very trees were splitting with cold," and later, " as a martyr, one of the most glorious in our annals for the variety and atrocity of his torments." This last-mentioned blackgown, John de Brebeuf, called Echon by the Hurons, was a writer of valuable works oij the Indian language and customs. He be- longed to a noble family of Normandy ; and on account of his great natural courage and soldierly bearing, his agony was prolonged by the savages with fiendish inge- nuity, till finally, failing to wring a sigh of pain from 18 KATKIU TKKAKWITIIA. I'- ll;;'-' his lips, they "clove open his chest, took out his nohle heart, and devoured it," as a medicine to make them fearless-hearted. The fortitude of a brave man under torture was a spectacle as keenly appreciated by the Iroquois as were tlie gladiator fights and martyrdoms of old by the Komans. The women in this case, however, instc'ad of decreeing death by turning down their own thumbs, were granted the less fatal and less dainty privilege of sawing off the thumb of the victim, as in the case of Jogues at Ossernenon. Tiie human torches of Nero, who had the early Christians wrapped in straw and placed in his garden on the Palatine Hill, then set on fire to illuminate his evening revels, are vividly re- I called by the death of Brebeuf's companion, the delicate and gentle Gabriel Lalemant. He was wrapped in pieces of bark which were put in a blaze. His writhing frame and quivering flesh contrasted finely with the stoic endurance of Brebeuf, and the Iroquois kept him alive till morning, leaving his body at last a black and shapeless mass. Tiiese gifted men living and dying in the wilderness were not without devoted followers, as can well be imagined; and many of their converts, the Christian Hurons, a now conquered race, dwelt with their old foes in the Long House. With the capture of tliose of the Hurons who had taken refuge at Isle Orleans the long struggle ended between two branches of a great Indian family or stock, — the Huron-Iroquois and the Iroquois of the League. Once victorious, it was the policy of the Five Nations of the League to quit all enmity, and to give the vanquished a home in their THE MOHAWK VALLKY. 19 lie L'lll midst. Though tliu Ilurous lust thuir national exist- ence when thus adopted into the League, they did not lose their Christian faith. They clung to it in Hie midst of all the wild sui)erstitions of their coniiuerors. They exjdained it to others as well as they could, and they welcomed with glad hearts any blackgown who was brave enough to tread in the footsteps of Jogues. Such an one was Father Lenioyne, who canio and went five times among the Onondagas and the Mo- hawks between the years 1G53 and 1658, even while they were at war with his countrymen on the St. Law- rence. On a hurried visit to Fort Orange, the nearest colony of Europeans, he told the people there of the salt springs which are now a source of wealth at Syracuse ; but the worthy burghers were incredulous and put it down in their records as "a Jesuit lie." These early settlers of our State, in spite of such occasional indica- tions of prejudice, were a kind-hearted and a peace-lov- ing people, always ready to do friendly offices for men who, unlike their rivals the Canadian traders, seemed to value the souls of the Indians more than tiieir beaver-skins. They had already rescued two Jesuits, Jogues and Bressani, from captivity; and they after- wards sent Father Leraoyne a bottle of wine with which to say Mass at Onondaga. This last missionary the Indians now called Ondessonk, in memory of Jogues. He visited the Mohawks in 1656 to console the Huron exiles from Isle Orleans, and at the same time he reproached the Mohawk warriors for their cruelty. This, of course, was little to the taste of Tekakwitha's pagan father, who took care, no doubt, that the black- 20 KATEUI TKKAKWITIIA. If gown should have no intercourso witli his Algonquin wile, for in his opinion she wns already too fond of the French Christians. He did not wish her to have his tiny, new-born daughter signed with the ill-omened cross, and to hav: dried head of a bear, if that be tlie totem of his clan, fastened on head or shoulder, and with rattling deer- hoofs strapped to his knees, each warrior springs to his place, and the wild dance begins, accompanied by the beating of a drum. Wilder and wilder grow their an- tics, and more boastful the words of their chant, as they catch the spirit of the dance, till at last they seem the very incarnation of war. With all the vividness of Indian pantomime, they act out the scenes of battle before the eyes of the crouching women and children gatliered in silent awe to witness this great savage drama. At first the warriors seem to be creeping along the forest trail with every faculty alert ; and then with fearful whoops they whirl their tomahawks through the air at a senseless post, springing back as if in self- defence, falling again upon the imaginary foe, hacking with violence, and mingling shrieks with their victori- ous shouts, till in the flickering light of the fire and the weird shadows of surrounding objects, the assembled crowd, completely caiTied away by the vividness of the pantomime, see human victims falling beneath their strokes. During the progress of the annual war-dance at Gan- dawague a group of Indian boys stand gazing with wide-open eyes at the heroes of the Kanienke-ha-ka whose past and future deeds are thus pictured before them. With swelling hearts they listen to the wild refrain, "Wah-hee! Ho-lia!" that comes at intervals. Among the smallest of the group we have in view is Tekakwitha's little brother, and her father is taking part in the dance. His voice, as it leads a louder swell of the war-song, startles her from her baby dreams, and THE MOHAWK VALLEY. 23 she nestles close iu her mother's arms. Later she hears the same voice iu the lodge, — a tew brief words rolling from the tongue^ of the warrior in the low nmsical tones of the Mohawk language; and it only lulls her into sounder sleep. The dance is over, and the crowd scattered; but still we linger about to see what will happen next. A death-like silence reigns in the village. There is not one sentinel on watch. It would be well if they were more vigilant, but for the present they are safe. Their foes are far away, and the high palisade keeps off the prowling beasts. The darkness of night has closed over them. It is the hour for dreams, and dreams are the religion of the red-man. They are treasured up and told to the medicine-man or sorcerer, the influential being who is both priest and doctor in the village. When the excitement of the war-dance has subsided and the people are all sleeping soundly, this mysterious personage with stealthy tread may be seen to issue from the silent cluster of houses, and by the light of the moon he gathers his herbs and catches the uncanny creatures of the night with which to weave his spells. He knows that the young warriors will be coming to him for some inkling of their fate on the war-path, and besides he must supply a certain cure for their wounds. When he has found it for them he will gather them all in the public square at Gandawague, and after other exhibitions of his .skill will perhaps cut his own lip, and when the blood is flowing freely, will stanch it and cure it in a moment by applying his magic drug. It will be well for his fame if tliere 1 " The Mohawk lanfjMaj»e is on the tongue; the Wyandot is in the throat." — Scirooi.rnAFT'.s Red Race. \H 24 KATKKI TICK A K WITH A be not tlie keen eye of a French Jesuit in ilie crowd to watch him as lie quickly sucks the blood into his mouth. He knows that the warriors are easily duped by his cunning, and will probably buy his mixture. Happy in its ])ossession, they will fear no evil effects from their wounds. Their sweethearts too seek the sorcerer to have their fortunes told, and the old men and women come to him with their ailments. Even the orators are glad of a hint from his fertile brain ; and the oyander or matron of rank who is about to nominate a new chief may perhaps consult him. If her choice has been already made, however, it is no easy task to persuade her to change her mind. With the month of March comes the Dream-Feast, and then the medicine-man is in his glory. For three days the town is in a hubbub, given up to every freak of the imagination. All the dreams of its people, no matter how foolish and unreasonable, must be fulfilled in some way to the dreamer's satisfaction. The wiser heads among them have to tax their ingenuity to the utmost to prevent the worst excesses of this crazy celebration. The Christian Indians, above all, dreaded its coming ; for if the sorcerer's interpretation pointed in their direc- tion, they were sure to suffer. During the celebration of the Dream-Feast the Algonquin captive would not fail to hide herself and her children in the darkest corner she could find. She had a better chance to pass unnoticed, however, than the more numerous Huron Christians, who, like herself, had been captured by the Iroquois. Against these there was a growing enmity, encouraged no doubt by the sorcerers, who profited least of all by their presence among the people. Some THE MOHAWK VALLEY. 25 months after the time of the Dream-Feast the gatheriug storm burst over their heads. On the 3d of August, 1G57, the Hurous, who dwelt at Onondaga, were sud- denly massacred. The ])arty that had been advocating friendsliip with the French, and which had taken the lead in establishing the French colony at Onondaga, headed by Garacontid (" The Sun that advances "), were fust losing ground. The situation, even of the French colonists who were there, was becoming critical ; and in April, 1658, when Tekakwitha was in her second year, strange things happened in the Long House of the Five Nations. 26 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. CHAPTER III. n ] ,1 'i A CRADLE-SONG. — CAPTIVES TORTURED. — FLIGHT OF THE FRENCH FROM ONONDAGA. — DEATH IN THE MOHAWK LODGES. L ET the reader. look Teka- i imagination, kwitha's home at Gandawague on the Mohawk, as it appeared in the month of April, 1658, and learn if the news that is spreading from nation to nation ha» yet reached there. To find the lodge he wishes to enter, he will follow a woman who is passing along the- principal street of the village with an energetic step. The corners of a long blanket, that envelops her head and whole form, flap as if in a breeze from her own quick motion, for the air is quite stiU. It is early- spring-time. There are pools of frozen water here and there ; but the dogs of the village have chosen a sunny spot to gnaw at the bones they have found near the cabin of a fortunate hunter, who gave a feast the night before to his more needy neighbors. All shared in his good cheer. So long as there is food in the village, no one is allowed to go hungry. Such is the Indian law of hospitality. Tegonhatsihongo, who will be better known by and by under the name of Anastasia, gathers her blanket about her, and with the usual greeting, " Sago ! " she passes a matron at a neighboring doorway, who with- draws the heavy bear-skin curtain she has placed there for keeping out the cold, in order that she may see A CUADLE-SONG. 27 where to put away the snow-shoes, now no longer needed. She stores them high above her head among the poles that support the snug bark roof. The keen eye of Tegonhatsihongo notes at a glance what the matron is about ; and as she turns her head for a second look, one can see by the lines in her face that she is already on the downward slope of middle age. She passes on through an open space where a scaffold is prepared for the exhibition of any captives the warriors may chance to bring back from their raid on Montreal. Tegonhatsihongo scarcely notices these familiar prepara- tions for the torture, but directs her steps to the lodge of a chief opening on tlie square. She is about to visit her friend the Algonquin, whose brave is away on the war-path. The quiet ways of this younger woman have attracted her and won her friendship. As she lifts the hanging skin to enter, she pauses a moment. Surprised,, perhaps, and well pleased too to find the Algonquin in a merry mood, romping with her baby, now more than a year old, she stands and watches her. Catching the child from the clean-swept earthen floor, the mother holds it laughing and struggling in her lap, while she sings the Algonquin " Song of the Little Owl." ^ A pretty picture she makes, seated by the nearest fire of faggots, in the dim, smoky light of the long-house ; and these are the words of her cradle-song and their literal translation : — Ah wa nain ? Ah wa nain 1 Wa you was sa Eo pwasod. Who is this ? Who is this ? Giving eye-light On the top of my lodge. 1 Schoolcraft's Red Race. 26 KATEUI TKKAKWITHA. Here tlie youug molliur louks up, as if she really saw the eyes of the little wliite owl glaring I'roiu aiiioug the rustic rafters or througli the hole in the ruuf. The (lark eyes of the dark little baby, which follow the direc- tion of hers, are opening wide witli wonder at this sudden break from song to pantomime ; and now the Algoncjuin answers her own questiojis, assuming all at once the tone of the little screech-owl: — Kob kob kob, Niiu be e zbau. Kob kob kob, Nim be e zhau. Kitche ! kitche ! It is I, the little owl, Coming, coming. It is I, the little owl> Coming. Down ! dowu ! j-i With the last words, meaning " Dodge, baby, dodge ! " she springs towards the child, and down goes the little head. This is repeated with the utmost merriment on both sides, till their laughter is interrupted by the en- trance of Tegonhatsihongo, who seats herself near her friend, their talk soon taking a serious turn. Now for the first time the Algonquin notices that others in the same cabin are putting their heads together and talking in low voices. The very air seems full of mystery. The busy ones have dropped their accustomed occupations, and the idle ones have ceased their noisy talk and their games. All are wondering at the strange news from the Indian capital, telling of the unaccountable disap- pearance of the Frenchmen who formed the little colony at Onondaga. Mohawks who were there on a visit have returned with marvellous tales. The few facts of the history are soon known, but there is no end to the surmises that are afloat among the Iroquois. This is NEWS FROM ONONDAGA. 29 what they ai<' all talking about. This is wliat ha])penud. The French c ilonists whom wu have already nieiitioiKitl, lil'ty-three in number, had given a great feast at their small block fort on the east bank of Onondaga Ljike.* All the Onondagas and their guests from otiier nations who chanced to be there at the lime, were invited. Some of Tegonhatsihongo's friends from the Mohawk Valley were present among the rest, and knew all about it. They were completely carried away with admiration for their French hosts, who gave them a right royal feast. Wlien it was over they fell into slumber and dreamed strange dreams. Then, awaking when the sun was high, the bewildered guests went about half dazed. Some of them, straggling near the French enclosure, heard the dogs bark and a cock crow within. As the day wore on, they gathered into groups and wondered why the foreign inmates slept so long. None of them were to be seen going to work ; no voices were heard. Could they be at prayer or in secret council? No one an- swered when they knocked at the door. By afternoon there were strange whisperings and much misgiving among the Onondagas, till at last their curiosity out- grew their dread, and nerved a few to scale the palisade. With cautious step they entered, fearing some treacher- ous snare. The Frenchmen could not be asleep, they thought, for the noisy barking of the dog would almost ^ The site of this fort is still pointed out between Salina and Liver- pool, near the '* Jesuit's Spring," or " Well," as it is called. For a plan of the fort made by Judge Geddes in 1797, from remains of it then in existence, see Clark's "Onondaga," p. 147. See also "Relations, des Jdsnites," and translations of the same in the " Documentary His- tory of New York," vol. i., for a full account of the Onondaga Colony in 16.58. ao KATEKI TEKAKWITIIA. wake the dead. Could they have slain one another in the night ? No ; all was peaceful as they entered, — no signs ol" a struggle, aud tlie sunlight danced playfully in through utter vacancy. Every corner of tlie house and fort was searched ; no human being, dead or livin". was found, yet noisy and more noisy grew the barking of the fastened dog, and frightened chickens fluttered about. The Indians looked at one another, shuddering. What had happened? With guilty consciences they thought of their deep-laid treachery here brought to naught ; for as the Algonquin now learned from the talk in the long-house, they had planned to massacre the colony invited to their land from policy. Having sub- jugated their savage foes of the Cat nation, they were ready to turn their arms once more against the French. \ They had felt quite sure of their prey ; for even if warned, ' the colonists and missionaries could not have escaped, they thought, as the rivers were still frozen. Besides, it was out of the question to suppose tliey had gone by water, as ro boat was missing. Had they taken to the woods, they would soon have perished in the cold, hav- ing no guides, or else they would have fallen again into the hands of their enemies, who could easily track and overtake them in the forest. No trace of them, how- ever, was anywhere to be found. Never were the red men more completely baffled. Tegonhatsihongo and the others who talked it all over had two favorite explana- tions of the mystery, — either the Frenchmen had a magic power of walking on the lakes, or else strange creatures, seen by Onondagas in their dreams, had flown through the air bearing the pale-faces with them. While Tekakwitha's mother was still wondering at CAPTIVES TORTURED. 81 ;r in this unaccountable story, the Mohawk braves returned from tlieir raid on Montreal, and the people of the vil- latre were soon hurrying out with little iron rods, to take their stand on either side of the path that led up the hill to the principal opening in the palisade. There they were, ready to beat the prisoners as they approaclied, "running the gauntlet." Then the crowd eagerly watched the progress of the tortures on the scaffold, after which the prisoners were handed over, bound hand and foot, to the tender mercies of the chil- dren. These juvenile savages amused themselves by putting red-Hot coals on the naked flesh of the captives, and tormented them in every way their mischief-loving brains could devise. Thus early did the Warner's son begin his education. But this side of the Indian nature is too horrible to dwell on ; let it pass. At times the Iroquois were like incarnate devils ; and yet each tale of frightful cruelty that history preserves for us brings with it some re- deeming trait, some act of kindness or humanity done in the face of savage enmity. There were always a few among them ready like Pocahontas to avert the threat- ened blow or to relieve the sufferers whenever it was possible. One of these in days gone by had adminis- tered to Jogues ; and one of tliese in days now soon to oorae will prove to be our Tekakwitha. There is little more to say about her parents. Her mother may have learned from some of the captives brought to Gandawague from Canada the true ending of the French colony at Onondaga. At all events, the following explanation of their sudden disappearance iias been given by Ragueneau, who shared the fate of 32 KATEHI TEKAKWITIIA. the adventurous little band, letters : — He suys in one of his " To supply tlic want of canoes, wo hud built in secret two battcaux of a novel and excellent structure to pass the rapids ; tliese batteaux drew but very little water and carried considerable freight, fourteen or fifteen men each, amounting to fifteen or sixteen hnndred weight. We had moreover four Algonquin and four Iroquois canoes, which were to conjpose our little fleet of fifty-three Frenchmen. But the difficulty was to embark unporceived by the Iroquois, who constantly beset us. The batteaux, canoes, and all the equi- j)ago could not be conveyed without great noise, and yet without secrecy there was nothing to be expected, save a general massacre of all of us the moment it would be discov- ered that we entertained the least thought of withdrawing. On that account we invited all the savages in our neigh- borhood to a solemn feast, at which we employed all our industry, and spared neither the noise of drums nor instru- ments of music, to deceive them by harmless device. He who presided at this ceremony played his part with so much address and success that all were desirous to contribute to the public joy. Every one vied in uttering the most pier- cing cries, now of war, anon of rejoicing. The savages, through complaisance, sung and danced after the French fashion, and the French in the Indian style. To encourage them the more in this fine play, presents were distributed among those who acted best their parts and who made the greatest noise to drown that caused by about forty of our people outside who were engaged in removing all our equi- page. The embarkation being completed, the feast was con- cluded at a fixed time ; the guests retired, and sleep having soon overwhelmed them, we withdrew from our house by a back door and embarked with very little noise, without bid- FLIGHT OF THE FRENCH. 88 din<,' adieu to the Huvages, who wore acting cunning parts und were thinking to uniuso us to the hour of our nmssucro with I'liir appearances and evidences of good will. "Our httlc luke,^ on which we silently sailed in the dark- ness of the night, froze according as we advanced, and caused us to fvnr being stopt by the ice after having evaded the fires of the Iroquois. God, however, delivered us, and after having advanced all night and all the following day throuj^h frightful precipices and waterfalls, we arrived finally in the evening at the great Lake Ontario, twenty leagues from the place of our departure. This first day was the most danger- ous ; for had the Iroquois observed our departure, they would have intercepted us, and had they been ten or twelve it would have been easy for them to have thrown us into dis- order, the river being very narrow, and terminating after travelling ten leagues in a frightful precipice where we were obliged to land and carry our baggage and canoes during four hours, through unknown roads covered with a thick forest which could have served the enemy for a fort, whence at each step he could have struck and fired on us without being perceived. God's protection visibly accompanied us during the remainder of the road, in which we walked through perils which made us shudder after we escaped them, having at night no other bed except the snow after having passed entire days in the water and amid the ice. Ten days after our departure we found Lake Ontario, on which we floated, still frozen at its mouth. We were obliged to break the ice, axe in hand, to make an opening, to en- ter two days afterwards a rapid where our little fleet had well-nigh foundered. For having entered a great sault without knowing it, we found ourselves in the midst of breakers which, meeting a quantity of big rocks, threw up mountains of water and cast us on as many precipices as * Onondaga Lake. u KATEKI TEKAKWITHA. we gave strokes of paddles. Our butteaux, which drew suarcuiy halt' a fuut, were noon tilled with water, and all our people iu such coufusion that their cries mingled with the roar of the torreut presented to us the spectacle of a dread- ful wreck. It became imperative, however, to extricate ourselves, the violence of the current dragging us despite ourselves into the large rapids and through passes in which wo had never been. Terror redoubled at the sight of one of our canoes being engulfed in a breaker which barred the entire rapid, and which, notwithstanding, wius the course that all the others must keep. Three Frenchmen were drowned there; a fourth fortunately escaped, having held on to the caaoe and being saved at the foot of the sautt when at the point of letting go his hold, his strength being exhausted. . . . " The 3d of April we landed at Montreal in the beginning of the night." I' > I I This escape, so wonderful to the Indian mind and so successful, made a profound impression at Gandawague as among all the Mohawks, and produced most impor- tant results in the neighborhood of Tekakwitha's home, interrupting the work of the missionary there. Ondessonk or Lemoyne, the namesake of Jogues, who made a third visit to the Mohawk Valley in the fall of 1657, was no longer even tolerated by its people. He was held half a hostage, half a prisoner, at Tionnon- togen, during the time that the French colony were in peril at Onondaga, and was finally sent back to Canada. He left the Mohawk country for the last time, just after Onondaga was abandoned by the French. He reached his countrymen on the St. LawTence in May, 1658, to be greeted there with a glad welcome and many in- DEATH L\ THE MOHAWK LODGES. 35 quines from the newly arrived refugees from Onondaga, concerning his experiences among the Mohawk.s ; tliey were anxious to hear whetlier he had fared any butter than themselves. Not one blackgown was now left among the Five Na- tions of Iroquois. The Algonquin motlier at Gandii- wague had been unable to pre tit by their brief stay in the land, and her life grew ever sadder towards its close. She was finally laid low by a terrible disease, the small-pox, which spread like wild fire through the Mohawk nation in 1659 and 1660. Her brave, an ■early victim to this redman's plague, soon lay cold in death, and with aching heart she too bade good-by to the world, leaving her helpless children alone and struggling with the disease in a desolate lodge in a desolate land. Chaucheti^re relates what he learned long afterwards from Anastasia Tegonhatsihongo, — that in leaving her two little children the mother grieved at having to abandon them without baptism ; that she was a fervent Christian to the last, and that she met death with a prayer on her lips. 36 KATElil TEKAKWITIIA. CHAPTER IV. TEKAKWITIIA WITH HER AUNTS AT GANDAWAGUE. TEKAKWITHA'S brother shared the fate of lier parents. All three died within the space of a few days. Overshadowed by death and disease when she was only four years old, the little Indian child alone remained of the family. How she won her name is not known, though Indian names have always a meaning. They are never arbitrarily given. The word «' Tekakwitha," as M. Cuoq, the philologist, translates it, means " One who approaches moving something before her." Marcoux, the author of a complete Iro- quois dictionary, renders it, " One who puts things in order." ^ It has been suggested in reference to M. Cuoq's in* terpretation, that the name may have been given to her on account of a peculiar manner of walking caused by her imperfect sight ; for it is related that the small-pox so injured her eyes that for a long time she was obliged to shade them from a strong light. It is possible that in groping or feeling her way while a child, she may have lield out her hands in a way that suggested the pushing * So cited by Shea in his translation of Cha^le^•oix'8 "History of New France," vol. iv. For different ways oF spelling Tekakwitha'9 name, see Appendix, Note B, where the grammatical explanation of it by M. Cuoq is also given. UEU EAULY CHILDHOOD. 87 of something in front of her, and thus have received her name. On the other hand, the interpretation of M. Marcoux, as given by Shea, is thoroughly in kee|>- ing with her character. She indeed spent u great part of her life, as the record shows, in putting things in order. On the death of Tekakwitha's father, her uncle, ac- cording to the Indian laws of descent, would fall heir to the title of chief, after having been chosen by the matron or stirps of the family,^ and then didy elected by the men of the Turtle clan. Tekakwitha then be- came an inmate of her uncle's lodge, — which was quite natural, for indeed she was likely to prove a valuable acquisition to the household. This uncle was impover- ished, no doubt, by the plague and also by the custom of making presents. A chief is expected to dispense freely, and is generally poor in spite of his honors. But daughters were always highly prized by the Iroquois; as they grew up they were expected to do a large part of the household work ; and later, when wedded to some sturdy hunter, the lodge to which a young woman be- longed, claimed and received whatever her husband brought from the chase. So the aunts and the uncle of Tekakwitha acted quite as much from worldly wisdom as from humanity when they decided to give the young orphan a home. Forethought was mixed with their kindness, and perhaps also a bit of selfishness. They ^ Among the Iroquois descent was never reckoned through the male line, the stii-ps being always a woman. A chief, therefore, derived his title from his mother. To her family, not his father's, he belonged ; and back to her or to her mother at his death the title was referred, to be transmitted through her to some other descendant. 38 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. ... I. I' r. 1'. / fi!, 'I I I ! had no children of their own, but they adopted another young girl besides Tekakwitha, thus giving to their niece a sister somewhat older than herself. The home of this family, after the small-pox had spent its force and when the distress it caused had forced the Mo-- hawks to make a treaty of peace with the French, was at Gandawague,^ on a high point of land in the angle between Auries Creek and the Mohawk liiver. Here on the crest of the hill, in a wheat-field west of the creek, there still are signs of an Indian village, and just outside of the fence in a patch of woods Indian graves and corn-pits are to be seen. Well does the writer remember a bright summer day when that vil- lage site where Tekakwitha must have spent her early childhood was visited and examined for traces of Iro- quois occupation. Three of us had driven over from the spring and castle-site of Caughnawaga at Fonda to the west side of Auries Creek. Leaving our carriage, we mounted the steep bank of the stream, eager to find the exact site of Gandawague, to which the people of Osser- nenon moved before they crossed the river to Caughna- waga. We stood at last on the hard-won summit, and there lay the landscape in its tranquil beauty, — the Mohawk Valley, the river, a wheat-field against a dark wood, and off in the distance the court-house of Fonda, and dim Caughnawaga, all bathed in a glory of sun- shine. Nearer at hand and toward the east, a little white steeple gleamed through the trees, marking the site of the modern village of Auriesville. We stood high above it, on the upper river terrace, where old Gandawague had once been ; and though the rude Indian 1 See General Clark's map herewith printed. h^ HEr* EARLY CHILDHOOD. 39 castle at that spot had long ago been trampled out of existence, v;e seemed to see it rise again from the aslies of its ancient hearthfires. Then, looking off' toward the Schoharie, in our mind's eye we plainly saw on the broad, grassy plateau the still older village of Osserne- non, with its high palisade, that once upheld the ghastly head of the martyred Jogues. The scene was before us in all its details. The past had become like the present that day ; and what was then present, all blended with sunshine that blotted out the tragic and left the heroic parts of the picture, has since become past. Those glorious hours at the castle-sites near Auriesville, so rich in awakened thought, contagious enthusiasm, and newly acquired information, are only a memory now ; and mention is made of them here in the hope that others may feel a stir of interest in their hearts, and be roused to visit the Mohawk Valley, and the places so closely linked to the names of Jogues and Tekakwitha, — Ossernenon, where the shrine is built ; Gandawague, on the bank of Auries Creek ; and Caughnawaga,^ live miles farther up the river. Tekakwitha was only a little girl when she lived at Gandawague. It could hardly have been a large castle, on such a small bit of high land. They had little need at this time of a large castle, for many had died of the small-pox. The old Dutch records of the time relate that the Turtles, or people of the lower castle, were building a new palisade, in the latter part of the year 1659, — a task which would necessarily accom- 1 The castle of Caughnawaga at Fonda was also called Gandawague, long after its removal from Auries Creek. But it prevents confusion to give it always its more distinctive name of Caughnawaga. 40 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. 11 *l!< :/;. i ! \ pany a removal from Ossernenon ; and they asked the Dutchmen, their neighbors, to help them. The friend- ship of these settlers for the Mohawks was put to rather a queer test when they proposed that the Dutch should not only furnish them with horses, but should drive them themselves, and drag the heavy logs up the hill for the palisade.* They were not used to such work ; and it better became the settlers to do it, they thought, than Mohawk warriors ! Some Dutchmen of Fort Orange were at the Turtle Castle on an embassy when this unpleasant proposal was made to them, and they thus shirked it. " Do you not see we are tired ? " they said. " We have travelled far through the forest. Our men are few and weary ; be- sides you have no roads. Our horses could never get up there. You must excuse us, our friends, and man- age to do it without us. See, as a token of friendship, we have brought you fifty new hatchets." Then, giving the Indians knick-knacks and weapons, they bade them farewell and departed, journeying back in haste to their homes on the Hudson. Thus the Indians were left to finish their own pali- sade, or stockade, whichever one may choose to call it ; and the uncle of Tekakwitha doubtless worked with the rest. When it was finished, it stood and protected them well for six uneventful years ; that is to say, they were uneventful for Indians, though during the whole of that period they were making and breaking treaties of peace with the French, and were warring with other tribes. During this time, while the fighting was all carried on at a distance from the Mohawk castles, Teka- 1 See Ajtpendix, Note A, Letter of June 29, 1885. ;ii:i ■-piiii! I !■• Wii : 1 HER EAULY CHILDHOOD. 41 kwitha lived in the greatest seclusion. She was cared lor and taught by her aunts, in one of the cabins closed in by the palisade. She was learning the arts of the Indians, doing the daily work, and shrinking from all observation. This unsociable habit of hers (for so it must have seemed to her neighbors) was due in part to her own disposition, — modest, shy, and reserved, — but more than all, perhaps, to the fact that the small-pox had injured her eyesight. As she could not endure much light, she remained indoors, and when forced to go out, her eyes were shaded by her blanket. Little by little she grew to love a life of quiet and silence. Be- sides, she showed a wonderful aptness for learning to make all the curious bark utensils and wooden things that were used in the village. Much to her aunts' sat- isfaction, she had an industrious spirit. This they took care to encourage, as it made her very useful. These aunts were exceedingly vain ; and a child of less sense than the young Tekakwitha would soon have been spoiled by their foolishness. Chauchetifere b .3 told us quaintly, in old-fashioned French, " what she did during the first years of her age." We cannot do better here than to follow his account, translating it almost word for word : — " The natural inclination which girls have to appear well, makes them esteem very much whatever adorns the body ; and that is why the young savages from seven to eight years of age are silly, and have a great love for porcelaine (wampum). The mothers are even more foolish, for they sometimes spend a great deal of time in combing and dress- ing the hair of their daughters ; they take cai j that their 42 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. ]■! i I ears shall be pierced, and commence to pierce them from th& cradle ; they put paint on their faces, and fairly cover them with beads when they have occasion to go to the dance. " Those into whose hands Tegakoiiita fell when her mother died, resolved to have her marry very soon, and with this ob- ject they brought her up in all these little vanities ; but th& little Tegakoiiita, who was not yet a Christian, in truth, nor baptized, had a natural indifference for all these things. She was like a tree without flowers and without fruit ; but this little wild olive was budding so well into leaf that it prom- ised some day to bear beautiful fruit ; or a heaven covered with the darkness of paganism, but a heaven indeed, for she was far removed from the corruption of the savages, — shfr was sweet, patient, chaste, and innocent. Sage comme une Jille frani^aue. bien Hevee, — As good as a French girl well brought up, — this is the testimony that has been given by those who knew her from a very young age, and who in using this expression gave in a few words a beautiful panegyria of Catherine Tegakoiiita. Anastasia Tegonhatsihongo said of her that 'she had no faults.' '* Her occupation was to carry little bundles of wood with her mother, that is to say, her aunt, the matron of th& lodge, to put wood on the fire when the mother told her^ to go for water when those in the cabin had need of it ;. and when they gave her no further commands she amused herself with her little jewels, — I mean she dressed herself up in the fashion of the other young girls of her age, just to pass the time. She would put a necklace about her throat ; she would put bracelets of beads on her arms, rings on her fingers, and ear-rings in her ears. She made the ribbons and bands which the savages make with the skins of eels, which they redden, and render suitable for binding up their hain She wore large and beautiful girdles, which they call wam> pum belts." i ' UER EARLY CHILDHOOD. 43 [These decorations not only adorn the person, but they also show the rank of the maiden who wears them.*] " There was a sort of child-mari iage in vogue among the Iroquois. Certain agreements of theirs were called marriage, which amounted to nothing more than a bond of friendship between the parents, rendered more firm by giving away a child, who was often still in the cradle ; thus they married a girl to a little boy. This was done at a time when Tega- koUita was still very small ; she was given to a child. The little girl was only about eight years old ; the boy was hardly older than herself. They were both of the same humor, both very good children ; and the little boy troubled himself na more about the marriage than did the girl." It was a mere formality; but it shows how early Tekakwitha's relatives began to think of establishing her in life. * See Cholenec, who mentions this fact in the " Lettres ^difiantes," translated by Kip in his work entitled " Early Jesuit Missions." What is said concerning child-marriage is from Chaucheti^re's manuscript. 44 KATKRI TEKAKWnilA. CHAPTER V. TEKAKWITHA'S uncle and F0I{T orange ; OR THE BEGINNINGS OF ALBANY. mils :! CHOLENEC, the more concise of the two contempo- rary biographeis of Kateri Tekakwitha, in speak- ing of her early life says : " She found herself an orphan under the care of her aunts, and in the power of an uncle wlw was the leading wan in the settlement.'* This brief expression gives us an intimation both of the character and the rank of Tekakvvitha's formidable Mohawk uncle. He was stern, unbending, fierce ; and like many an- other chief reared in the Long House, was proudly tena- cious of the customs of his race. He was often on the worst of terms with the French blackgowns because they interfered with the beliefs and manners of his people ; but always on the best of terms with the Dutch traders, who, in exchange for the rich furs brought in so plentifully to Fort Orange, supplied the Mohawks of Oandawague (or, as the Dutch wrote it, Kaghnuwage) with muskets, iron tomahawks, pipes, tobacco, copper kettles, scissors, duffels, strouds for blankets, and more than all, the keenly relished, comforting " fire water." The influx of liquor to the Iroquois castles led to reck- less debauches, fast following in the track of the small- pox, which stalked with unchecked violence through the Long House in 1660. During the course of the follow- TIIK IJKCilNNINGS OF ALBANY. 45 inf,' year an important trnnsnction took ])lace betwi'j'ii the white settlers on tlie Hudson anil the Indians ah)ng the Mohawk, or Ma<[uaas Kill. " A certain parcel of land," to use the words of the old deed, "called in Dutch the Groote Vlachte (Clreat Flatt), lying behind Fort Orange, between the same and the Mohawk coun- try," was sold by Mohawk chiefs — Cautuiiuo (who.so mark was a liear) ; Aiadane, a Turtle ; Sunareetsie, a Wolf; and Sodachdrasse — to Sieur Arent van Corlaer, July 27, 16G1. "A grant under the provincial seal was issued in the following year, but the land was not surveyed or divided until 1664." The Indian name of the Great Flatt was Schonowe, and the new village of white settlers which soon sprang up on the south bank of the Mohawk was called Schenectady by the Dutch and English ; though the French, who did not for some time learn of its existence, first knew this little outpost of Fort Orange by the name of Corlaer,^ the earliest settler. This founding of Schenectady was an event of deep interest to the Mohawks of Gandawague. It brought the dwellings of the white race closer than ever before to their own stronghold, almost in fact to the very door of the Kanonsionni, or People of the Long House. The settlers began at once to rear their wonderful wooden palaces, for such they must have seemed to the simple children of the forest. The wild banks of the Maquaas 1 Corlaer, or Van Curler, a brave and worthy man, was the most influential settler at Schenectady, and on excellent terms with the Mo- hawk Indians. He had visited them in 1642, on purpose to secure, if possible, the ransom of Father Jogues, and had manifested great sym- pathy for him in his captivity. 46 KATKUI TEKAKWITIIA. ;i H If 111 Kill had hitherto shown no prouder architecture than the long bark houses of the Mohawks, which nevertheless were much in advance of the wigwams or tents of tlie roving Algoncjuin tribes. The Indians of Gandawague must have hastened down in their canoes to watch the building of Sclienectady, and listened with interest and curiosity to the strange buzz of the newly erected saw- mill. These vere already familiar sights and sounds, however, to Tekakwitha's uncle, for he had long been in the habit of trading with the Dutch and knew their ways. He often journeyed as far as their trading-house ^t Fort Orange. Let us follow in the footsteps of this Mohawk chief as he starts once again on the trail that leads eastward from Gandawague with fura he has been hoarding for some new purchase. Let us pass hurriedly on beyond the new abode of his friend Corlaer, and we «hall then see the sights that greet him as he ap- proaches the homes of the traders who dwell beside the Hudson, — or Cahotatea, as the chief of the Turtle Castle would call the great North River in nis own language. He has other Indians of his nation with him. These Mohawks, says the first Dutch dominie, in the account he gives of them, have good features, with black hair and eyes, and they are well proportioned ; they go naked in summer, and in winter they hang loosely about them a deer's., bear's, or panther's skin, or else they sew small skins together into a square piece, or buy two and a half ells of duffels from the Dutchmen. Some of them wear shoes and stockings of deer's skins; others of plaited corn-leaves. Their hair is left growing on one side of the head only, or else worn like a cock's comb or hog's bristles standing up in a streak from forehead to II THE BKGINNINUS OF ALBANY. 47 neck ; some of them leave queer little locks growing here und there. Their facea ure puinted red uad blue, 80 that they "look like the devil himself," continues the worthy Megupolensis. They carry a basket of bear's grease with which they smear their heads, and in trav- elling they take with them a maize-kettle and a wooden spoon and bowl When it is meal-time they get fire very quickly by rubbing pieces of wood together ; and they cook and devour their fish and venison without the preliminary cleaning and preparing considered ne- cessary among civilized folks. When they feel pain they say, " Ugh 1 the devil bites," and when they wish to compliment their own nation they say, " Really the Mohawks are very cunning devils." They make no of- ferings to their good genius or national god, Tharonya- wagon ; but they worship the demon Otkon or Aireskoi, praying in this way, "Forgive us for not eating our enemies ! " and in hot weather, " I thank thee, Devil, I thank thee, Oomke, for the cool breeze." They laugli at the Dutch prayers, the dominie tells us, and also at the sermon. They call the Christians of Fort Orange cloth-makers (assi/reoni) and iron-workers (charistooni). These uncouth traveller from Gandawague, among whom is the uncle of Tekakwitha, are fast nearing the homes of these same cloth-makers and iron-workers. Let lis hasten to overtake them, and find our way with them into the settlement of Rensselaerwyck. You who dwell in New York State and you who travel through it, come with us now to visit old Fort Orange and the little town of Beverwyck ! You above all who love to trace your lineage to the staid old Dutchmen of New Netherlands, come I Let us see the homes of these 48 KATERl TEKAKVVITHA. |<- Ij:' J'; ' I*- grandsires whose names appear so often in the records and ancient annals of our oldest chartered city. Come, too, you sons of English colonists, and see the flag of England float strangely in the Hudson liiver breezes while they are still loaded with the cumbrous sounds of the Low Dutch language ! We will stay and see the laws of Enj^land put an end to queer old wordy wars be- tween the stately Dutch patroon Van Rensselaer and Peter JStuyvesant, the doughty old Director-general, last and greatest of the four Dutch governors, — the one called " Wooden Leg " by Indians, and " Hard-headed Pete '^ by Dutchmen ; though the poets say he had a silvei' leg, and the artists love to paint him with a gallant flourish as he stumped it down the street beside some pretty, quaintly dressed colonial belle. His were the days of knee-breeches and gigantic silver buckles, of ruffles and queues, of broad, short petticoats bedecked with mighty- pockets, and of scissors and keys that hung from the belt, — the days of demure tea-parties and hilarious coasting-parties, of negro slaves and of sugar-loaf hats. As for weapons of war, the muskets they carried were strange and clumsy arras, w'^^h long, portable rests and " two fathoms of match," which the soldier must needs have with him, besides the heavy armor and the queer tackle for ammunition. No wonder that the wearers of such gear dreaded wars with the nimble savages ! Rip Van Winkle, after sleeping twenty years, awoke to painful changes ; he was sadly out of date. It would surely then be cruel, even if we had the power, to wake old Peter Stuyvesant and the people of his day from full two hundred years of slumber in our graveyards just to criticise their dress and talk. Let us rather go THE BEGINNINGS OF ALBANY. 41) to sleep ourselves and dream about them. Take a good strong dose of uua.ssorted, crude, colonial history inter- spersed with annals, and the necessary drowsiness will surely follow. Have you tried it ? Are you sure the spell is not upon you now, having stopped 'to look at Stuyvesant, and heard the dominie describe the Mo- hawks ? The smoke of pipes and chimneys is at hand, for here we are at old Fort Orange in the times of Teka- kwitha. Let us look about, before the power to do it fails us out of very sleepiness. We find ourselves within a wall of stockadoes. The chief and his friends from Kaghnuwage are undoing their packs of furs near the northern gate of the town. We stand in Albany, at the corner of Broadway and State Street, — but no I those names are not yet in vogue. We are in Bever- wyck, at the point where the long, rambling Handelaer Street, running parallel with Hudson's Eiver, crosses the broad, short Joncaer Street, which climbs some little dis- tance up the hill. Before us is the old Dutch church. It stands by itself, at the intersection of the two streets, fronting south. It is a low, square, plain stone build- ing, with a four-sided roof rising to a central summit surmounted by a small cupola or belfry containing the famous little bell just sent over from Holland by the Dutch West India Company; on this belfry is upreared a saucy little weathercock. The south porch or vesti- bule is approached by a large stone step before the principal door. If the church were not locked, we might take a look inside at the carved oaken pulpit with its queer little bracket for the dominie's hour- glass. The burghers subscribed twenty-five beaver- skins to buy that pulpit, and a splendid one it was, 4 n 60 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. ■'il It soon came sailing over the sea in a plump Dutch ship. The patrons of the colony finding the beaver- skins much damaged when the package was opened at Amsterdam had added seventy-five guilders themselves towards the purchase, besides presenting the bell out- right. When Dominie Megapolensis first arrived in the colony, " nine benches " were enough to seat the whole congregation ^ but that was a generation ago. Now it has increased; and the church, which was then a wooden structure near the old fort by the river, has been rebuilt. The Van Rensselaers, the Wendels, the Schuylers, and the Van der Blaas have the leading pews ; they have already sent to Europe for stained glass windows bla- zoned with their family arms. Having seen the church, let us walk up Joncaer (State) Street to the dominie's. We pass through the market-place, which is out in the middle of the open, grassy space, on a line with the church. We stop a moment to look at the house of Anneke Janse, the heiress, and then move on to Parrell (Pearl) Street. There, on the northeast corner of Parrell and Joncaer Streets, gable end foremost, stands the com- fortable abode of Dominie Schaats, which is the pride and envy of the town. Every part of this, the first brick house in the New World, is said to have been imported from Holland, — bricks, woodwork, tiles, and also the ornamental irons with which it is profusely adorned, — all expressly for the use of the Rev. Gideon Schaets (or Schaats), who came over in 1652. The materials of the house arrived simultaneously with the bell and pulpit in 1657.^ 1 See Annals of Albany, vol. i. p. 288. The dominie's house here mentioned has since given place to the shop which is on the north- THE BEGINNINGS OF ALBANY. 51 From Schaats' house we see, instead of a solitary " old eliu-tree " on the opposite corner, many trees of differ- ent kinds, one in front of each of the straggling houses on either siae of Joncaer Street; and by the age of the tree one can tell pretty well the order in which the •different settlers anived and began to domesticate themselves. This was no sooner done than the inevi- table shade-tree was planted to overshadow the dwelling, and beneath this tree they bring the cow each evening to be milked. Around every house is a garden with a well ; and the stoop at the front door is supplied with wooden seats or benches. There old and young gather in tlie evening when the day's work is over. The upper half of the front door remains open all day in summer, while the lower half bars out the stray chickens and dogs. It is opened now and then, how- ever, to let the children in and out.'and once in a while a buxom vrouw leans out to chat with a passer-by, or perhaps to scold the little ones or to bid them beware of straying near the trading-house for fear of encounter- ing a tipsy Indian. This trading-house is outside the wall of stockadoes, or upright posts, encircling the town. The traders of Beverwyck are all obliged "to ride their cast comer of Pearl and State Streets. The house used by Megapolen- sis, who was at Beverwyck from 1642 to 1649, and who concealed Father Jogiies from the Indians, was where Shield's tobacco-factory now stands, close to the site of old Fort Orange, and a little south of it. It was built entirely of oak, and was purchased on the arrival of Mewapolensis for a hundred and twenty dollars. The patroon's first dominie wearied of his frontier work at Fort Orange, and went to live at New Amsterdam in 1649. Dominie Schaats was appointed to succeed him in the ministry of the church at Beverwyck, where he officiated from 1652 to 1683. 52 KATEUI TEKAKWITIIA. V stockadoes," — that is to say, to furnish the pine posts, thirteen feet long and one foot in diameter, for repairing the wooden wall. This duty falls alike on every in- habitant, at the command of the burgomasters and schepens. They are furthermore bound to take turns in drawing firewood to the trading-house for the use of the Indians when they come there from the Maquaas country loaded with packs of furs. Above Dominie Schaats' house and on the same side of Joncaer Street is the Corps de Garde, a small block fort where a few soldiers are stationed. There the pro- gress of our walk is checked by the stout wall of stocka- does. One of the six gates or openings, however, is near at hand, leading out on to the road to Schenectady. We wish to see more of the place, and are at a loss, to find our way ; so we accept the kindly offered guidance of a little Schuyler lad, named Pieter, who stands talk- ing to one of the soldiers. Already in his boyish days this public-spirited Albanian takes an active interest in the military defence of the place. He knows where all the cannon are placed, and can tell us how they propose to improve the fort and barracks on Joncaer Street. He takes us out by the Parrell Street gate to a road lead- ing southward toward the hamlet of Bethlehem. After the boy has shown us the mills on the Bever Kill (Buttermilk Creek) from which the village of Bever- wyck was named, he takes us down to old Fort Orange by the river-side.^ It has been a snug little fort in its ^ Fort O.ange stood on Broadway, close to the modern steamboat landing of the " People's Line." A bi-centennial tablet, surrounded with iron pickets, marks its northeast bastion. It extended back (acrosa the freight-tracks that now mar its site) to Church Street. Slli OLD ALBANY. -DOMINIE SCHAATS' HOUSE. {Corner of Joncaer ami Pcirrell t>treets). 4 t L 1 1 THE BEGINNINGS OF ALBANY. 53 day, built of logs with four bastions, each mounted by- two guns for throwing stones, while in the enclosure stands a large cannon on wheels close to the old trad- ing-house of the West India Company. Since the new one has been built, this is used as the vice-director's house. It is twenty-six feet long, two stories high, con- structed of boards one inch thick, with a roof in the form of a pavilion covered with old shingles. The space on the second floor is one undivided room di- rectly under the roof without a chinmey, to which ac- cess can be had by a straight ladder through a trap- door.^ Here the magistrates administer justice. This is for the time being the court-house of Beverwyck. Fort Orange at the time of our visit is falling to de- cay; Fort Willemstadt, on the contrary, the military post at the head of Joncaer Street, is increasing in importance. Near Fort Orange is the great pasture or common where the cows of the burghers are grazing, and there, a short distance below the fort, we see the ferry-boat travelling slowly across the river to Green- bosch. We have caught sight of several deer and wild turkeys on the outskirts of the town, and we have passed several patriarchal " negers " (as the magistrates of Fort Orange spell the word) ; and here comes the special prop- erty of Pete Schuyler in the shape of a black boy of his own age, who is followed by a troop of sturdy children, some of whom are the brothers and sisters of our young guide. There, to be sure, are Guysbert, and Gertrude (who is destined to wed Stephanus van Cortland) Alida (who will add to her own name of Schuyler the name of 1 See O'Callaghan's History of New Netherland, vol. ii. 54 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. m Van Rensselaer and afterwards Livingston) ; * while tod- dling after these juvenile belles of Fort Orange come Brant and Arent, their brothers, and still there are others to come. These are the numerous children of Philip Pieterseu Schuyler, who came over in 1650, and of his fair vrouw Margritta van Slichtenhorst. This good couple were married with great formality before Dominie Schaats arrived, by Anton! de Hooges, the sec- retary of the colony, whose nose has been immortalized in the Highlands of the Hudson. Their son Pieter, our little guide, is to be the first mayor of the city of Al- bany ; while the distinguished Philip of a later date will carry the name of Schuyler to a height of glory that will linger round the shaft of the Saratoga monument at Schuylerville for ages to come, and make it glow with an added beauty! But while our thoughts are thus running away with us from Fort Orange, a farmer, Tennis van Vechten, com- ing from Greenbosch with supplies for the Beverwyck market, offers the children a ride into the town, which they accept with a shout. This rouses us from our rev- erie, and we follow the merry load as they jog along the country road from Fort Orange to the nearest gate in the stockade (about where the street now called Hudson Avenue crosses Handelaer Street, or Broadway). With a crack of the farmer's whip they drive rapidly down into a sort of ravine, cross the Rutten Kill ^ on a bridge. »li il * Alida mnrrieti Robeh Livingston, who was " secretary of Albany " under Pieter Schuyler, the first mayor ; she was the great-grandmother of Robert R. Livingston, the first Chancellor of New York State. 2 This creek, with its ravine, has entirely disappeared in the grading of the modem street. • THE BEGINNINGS OF ALBANY. 55 and ascend the opposite slope. The farmer soon passes the door of the Dutch lieformed Church, wliere our ramble began, and turning into Joncaer Street pulls up his horses at the market-place. The children scamper back across the Rutten Kill to the Schuyler store on Handelaer Street, opposite Beaver Street, and pass on down to the grassy river-side behind it, where a sloop is moored. Their father is there overseeing the men who are loading it with beaver-skins and other goods. The day's work is nearly over. The sunlight is fading from the hill-tops across the river. All will soon go in to supper. If we were not too tired we might in a few moments walk the whole length of Handelaer Street towards the north gate. In that case we would have a peep now and th^n through the half-open curtains of the scattered houses ; for see ! they are beginning to light up for the evening meal. In passing along we would probably startle the dogs from their kennels in the gardens, and hasten the farewells of the lovers who linger on the front stoops in the gathering dusk. Then issuing by the north gate (where Steuben Street comes into Broadway), we might go by moonlight to the Patroon's house, between which and Beverwyck are corn-fields where the burghers grow corn for their slaves and also for their horses, pigs, and poultry. We would then be not far from the Patroon's mills, where all the settlers are in duty bound to go, and not elsewhere, to have their sawing and grinding done. These mills are on the Fifth, or Patroon's Kill, counting from the Nor- man's Kill near Kenwood. We must not leave the neighborhood of Fort Orange and Beverwyck until we have been to a trading-house 66 katp:ui tekakwitha. •ill just outside of the stockade (Peiuberton's was used for such a purpose at one time, aud also the Glenu House). There we shall have an opportunity to listen to some such conversation as the following between a Dutch trader and an Indian.^ Let us suppose that the trader on this occasion is one of the enterprising burghers whom we encountered during our walk on Joncaer Street, and the Indian a Mohawk warrior in the company of Tekakwitha's uncle, who, as we have seen, travelled from Gandawague for the purpose of bartering his furs at Beverwyck. " Indian. Brother, I am come to trade with you ; but I forewarn you to be more moderate in your demands than formerly. " Trader. Why, brother, are not my goods of equal value with those you had last year 1 ** Indian. Perhaps they are ; but mine are more valua- ble because more scarce. The Great Spirit, who has with- held from you strength and ability to provide food aud clothing for yourselves, has given you cunning and art to make guns and provide scaura (rum), and by speaking smooth words to simple men, when they have swallowed madness, you have by little and little purchased their hunting-grounds aud made them corn-lands. Thus the beavers grow more scarce, and deer fly farther back ; yet after I have reserved skins for my mantle and the clothing of my wife, I will ex- change the rest. " Trader. Be it so, brother ; I came not to wrong you, or take your furs against your will. It is true that the beavers 1 The iialogue here given is from Mrs. Grant's " Memoirs of an Americnn L.^(ly." Mrs. Grant describes a later periocl of Albany his- tory ; but the way of trading with the Indians was about the same in her day as at the time of Tekakwitha. 1 J TIIK UKGl^NINGS Oh' ALBANY. 67 tiro fewer and you go further for them. Come, brother, let utt deal fair first and smoke friendly afterwards. Your last gun eust fifty beaver-skins ; you shall have this for fort} ; and you shall give marten and raccoon skins in the same proportion for powder and shot. *^ Indian. \Vell» brother, that is equal. Now, for two silver bracelets, with long pendent ear-rings of the same, 43uch as you sold to Cardarani in the sturgeon month lust jear, — how much will you demand? " Trader. The skins of two deer for the bracelets and those of two fawns for the ear-rings. " Indian. That is a great deal ; but wampum grows scarce, and silver never rusts. Here are the skins. " Trader. Do you buy any more 1 Here are knives, hatchets, and beads of all colors. ^^ Indian. I will have a knife and a hatchet, but must not take more. The rest of the skins will be little enough to clothe the women and children, and buy wampimi. Your beads are of no value ; no warrior who has slain a wolf will wear them.* " Trailer. Here are many things good for you which you have not skins to buy; here is a looking-glass, and here is a brass-kettle in which your woman may boil her maize, her beans, and above all her maple sugar. Here are silver brooches, and here are pistols for your youths. " Indian. The skins I can spare will not purchase them. ^^ Trader. Your will determines, brother; but next year you will want nothing but powder and shot, having already purchased your gun and ornaments. If you will purchase * " The Indians have a great contempt, comparatively, for the b-iads "we send thum, which they consider as only fit for those plebeians who cannot by their exertions win anytliing better. They estimate them, compared with their own wampum, as we do pearls compared with ^ste." 68 KATEKI TEKAKWITHA. m: \ from mo a blanket tu wrap around you, a shirt and blue Stroud for under-gurmonts for yourself and your woman, and tho same for leggings, this will pass the time, and save you the great trouble of dressing the skins, making tho thready etc., for your clothing, which will give you more Hshing and hunting time in tho sturgeon and bear months. " Indian. But the custom of my fathers ! " Trader. You will not break tho custom of your fathers, by being thus clad for a single year. They did not refuse- those things which were never offered to them. " Indian. For this year, brother, I will exolmngo my skins ;. in the next I shall provide ajjparel more befitting a \viirrior» One pack alone I will reserve to dress for a future ocean' , The summer must not find a warrior idle. " Tho terms being adjusted and tho bargain concluded^ the trader thus shows his gratitude for liberal dealing. " Trader. Corhier has forbid bringing scaura to steal away tho wisdom of the warrior, but wo white men are weak and cold ; we bring kegs for ourselves, lest death arise from the swamps. Wo will not sell scaura ; but you shall taste some of ours in return for tho venison with which you have feasted us. "Indian, Brother, wo will drink moderately. " A bottle was then given to the warrior by way of a. present, which he was advised to keep long, but found it irresistible. He soon returned with the reserved pack of skins, earnestly urging the trader to give him beads, silver brooches, and above all scaura, to their full amount. This^ with affected reluctance at parting with the private stocky was at last yielded. The warriors now, after giving loose for a while to frantic mirth, began the war-whoop, and made the woods resound with infuriate bowlings. ... A long and deep sleep succeeded, from which they awoke in a state of dejection and chagrin such as no Indian had felt under any THE BEGINNINGS OF ALBANY 69 other circumstauccs. Thoy folt as Milton (IchcHIks Adinn aud Evo to bavo duno after their truiiHgruttHtuii." The news of a massacre of whito settlers ut l^^opus (Kingston), by tho Kiver Indians or Mohegans, June 7, 1G63, when Tekakwitha was seven years old, Ciiiihed great excitement both at Gandawague and at liover- wyck. Fort Orange was put in a thorougli state of defence, the treaty with tiie Mohawks was renewed, and three pieces of artillery, loaned by Van Reussalaer for the protection of lieverwyck, " were placed on the church." " Nevertheless so great was the alarm that the out-settlers fled for protection to tho fort called Cralo, erected on the Patroon's farm at Greenbush, where they held night and day regular watch." A year later, in 16G4, at the time when the juvenile betrothal of Tekakwitha, already mentioned, took place at Gandawague, — that having occurred, as we are told,when she was eight years old, — an entirely new order of things was brought about in the Dutch colony. The new settlement of Arent van Corlaer at Schenec- tady, the house where her uncle traded at Fort Orange, and the hamlet of Beverwyck, together with the whole of the New Netherlands, passed over into the hands of the English. Henceforth, instead of appealing to their High Mightinesses the Lords States General of Holland for redress of grievances, the settlers of the State of New York were to bow to the decisions of his Majesty King Charles II., who then sat securely on the throne of Eng- land, four years having elapsed since the downfall of the Conimon wealth. This change in the colony from Dutch to English rule was accomplished quietly and peaceably, to the great 60 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. I'! "iir n:. disgust and indignation of the warlike governor, Peter Stuyvesunt, who was ready to buckle ou his lieavy armor, take up his sword, and fight the " malignant English," were they as ten to one. But the settlers were matter-of-fact farmers and traders, lovers of peace, caring little for glory and not overnmch for their far- away fatherland. So long as their commercial, domestic, and religious rights were respected, they were willing enough to do homage to King Charles. So in 1664, New Amsterdam, into whose harbor, said a boastful in- habitant, as many as fifteen vessels were known to have anchored in the course of one year, became New York, taking its name from the title of the king's brother, afterward James II. Beverwyck, which had grown up under the guns of Fort Orange, was henceforth to be called Albany ; and an English govern ur took the reins of colonial government from the hands of Peter Stuy- vesant. The British flag floated gayly over fort and vessel, and before many years had passed it was found necessary to employ an English schoolmaster in Albany, and later to build an English church ^ on Joncaer Street. When young Pieter Schuyler was still learning his lessons in Dutch at Fort Orange, and the little Teka- kwitha was stringing her wampum beads at Ganda- wague, — while her uncle journeyed frequently back and forth from the Mohawk castle to the trading-post on the 1 This first English church was not far from the spot where St. Peter's Episcopal Church, on State Street, now ujirears its beautiful square tower with projecting gargoyles. The original structure, how- ever, stood otit in the centre of the street, while the site of the present church was occupied by the earthworks and buildings of the second fort. THE BEGINNINGS UF ALBANY. 61 Hudson, stopping sometimes at Sclienectiuly to see liis friend Corlaer, and taking Lis family with him now and tlien to fish at the mouth of the Xorman's Kill (near the place called Tawaseutha*), — unsuspected pre- parations for a surprise were ^oing forward iu Canada. A war-cloud was gatheriu^ in the north, soon to break with terrible effect on the three Mohawk castles, and to startle the Governor of the Province of New York into a protest against the advance of armed troops of King Louis XIV. of France into tlie colonial dominions of his Majesty Charles II. of England. These dominions had been so recently acquired b} the English King that the French at Quebec thought they still belonged to the States General of Holland. 1 See Appendix, Note C. 62 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. CHAPTER VI. m I AN ARMY ON SNOW-SHOES. THE year IGGG was, indeed, an eventful one. It opened with a heavy snow-storm, and others fol- lowed until the whole Mohawk Valley was covered with a deptli of feathery whiteness. At its eastern end a dark pool lay at the foot of Cohoes Falls, where the frosty spray of the roaring cataract glistened on every tiny bush, and the black cliffs on either side frowned from under their snowy caps at the silent meeting of two frozen rivers ; off to the west, at the distant Mo- hawk castle of Tionnontogen, the " Nose " lay frost- bitten at a sudden turn of the valley, its long, stiff point thrust down into the ice, and fastened there as if held in a vice. Throughout the length of the glitter- ing, smooth depression between these two points, the jVIohawk seemed to be fast asleep beneath its thick mantle of snow. In tlie wliole valley there was only one hamlet of quiet Dutchmen, who had settled themselves at Cor- laer (or Schenectady), while in the great bend were nestled the snug bark huts of the Indians with their surrounding palisades. A chain of Mohawk castles lay on the south side of tlie river, linked togetlierby a single trail, — a nan'ow footpath through the snow along the lower terrace, which is now occupied by the West Shore Railway. Tliis trail connected the lodges of the three ! AN AUMY ON SNOW-SHOES. 68 great Mohawk clans, — the Bears of Anda^'oron in the centre, with the Turtles of (landa\vaj,nie and the Wolves of Tionnoutogen on either side. Then it extended east- ward through dreary solitudes to Schenectady and, on the other hand, far westward tlirough lonely passes to the castles of the Oneidas ; thence on to the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and, la.st of all, to the Senecas. How cold and yet how secure tho.se Iroquois Indians of the Five Nations felt in their fastnesses ! For hundreds of miles to the north and to the south of them lay the all-cover- ing snow, unmarked by other human fo(jtpri!its than their own in search of game. The lands of their Algon- quin foes, though bordering their own domain, were long journeys off. The Dutch settlers at Schenectady iind Albany were right within their grasp, should they choose to distress them ; but they had solemnly pledged their friendship to them in the Tawasentha Valley (" At the Place of many Dead "), and they meant to keep their word. The French, however, they delighted to torment. The settlements at Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal were separated from the Five Nations by the great path- less Adirondack wilderness of mountains and forest, and yet two ways were open by which they might reach the French. One of their war-paths led from Onondaga Lake along the Oswego River and Lake Ontario ; then through the Thousand Islands and down the rapids of the St. Lawrence River. Tlie reverse of this route was taken by the venturesome French colonists who, as we have seen, endeavored to make a t^ettlement in the heart of the Iroquois country about the time of Tekakwitha's birth. Their hairbreadth escape from Onondaga soon nfter by the same route put an end to all thought of set- 64 KATERI TKKAKWITHA. W tling what the French considered a part of New France. Tliis was the region now known as Onondaga County^ which the Onondaga Indians themselves have claimed from prehistoric times as their birthright, and hold yet under the name of the Onondaga Reservation ;. and here, now, in the heart of this great State, in spite of the encroacliments of two hundred years of civilization^ in spite of the teachings of Christianity all about them, in spite of the covetous longings of many a white man, they still keep a foothold, and maincain the practice of their old pagan rites and customs. The great western route through the Oswego and St. Lawrence rivers to Canada, belonging by first right to these Ououdagas, was travelled many times dur- ing Tekakwitha's childhood by the Onondaga states- man Garaconti^. He frequently restored captives to the French at Quebec, and tried often but in vain to keep peace between them and his own race. The second and more direct of the two great war- paths to Canada was the route of the Mohawks. No wonder the Caniengas tormented the French settle- ments on the St. Lawrence. Starting from their cas- tles in the Mohawk Valley, and taking any one of tliree or more trails that crossed or skirted our present Saratoga County, they had but to strike Lake George, follow the lake to its outlet, traverse the length of Lake Champlain, and thence pass through the Richelieu, Sorel, or Iroquois River (it was known by all these names)» and they were ready to destroy the grain, and tomahawk or take captive the wives and children of the Canadian settlers. . The French had built ll-.ree forts on this Richelieu (or Iroquois) River to check their inroads, — - AN ARMY ON SNOW-SHOES. 65 Fort liichelieu, Fort St. Louis, and Fort St. Thdrfese, — and were now only waiting till spring opened to erect a fourth, to be called Fort St. Anne, on an island at the northern end of Lake Cliaiuplain. Samuel de Champlain, the first Frenchman who set foot on New Yctrk soil, was chiefly responsible for the long-continued wars between his countrymen and the Iroquois, he having fired without provocation on a band of Iroquois warriors, probably Mohawks, when he first sailed into the lake which bears his name. By re- peated outrages on the Canadian frontier the Mohawks had amply revenged themselves for that first affront ; and by the end of the year 1665 they had goaded the French into a determination to brave unheard of risks and frightful sufferings, that they might punish their savage enemies in a manner that M'ould for once and all humiliate and subdue them. Thus it was that on the 9th of January, 1666, a heroic army composed of three hundred regular French troops of the regiment Carignan-Sali^res, veterans who had seen service in Turkey in the wars of Louis XIV., together with two hundred hahitans, or hardy volunteers from the Canadian colony, all under the command of M. da Courselle, Governor of Canad,a, were fairly started on a march from Quebec to the Mohawk castles. They intended to push on without delay to their destination through snow and ice, over rivers and lakes, by the great Mohawk route. It had been travelled hitherto only by Indians, captives, and a few missionaries, with now and then perhaps a solitary adventurer; rarely, indeed, by any even of these in the depth of winter. This army of De Oourselle's was the very first of a great 00 KATKIII TKKAKWITIIA. .'i:' succcfssidii (»r pahsl'ncc. urniics tliiit liiivc vouw. Iran piii^^ ov(!r tli(! siiiiK! VDwUt dmiiij,' llio lust two ccntiiiics. U' Jlurj^oyne's iiinicli lo tlio SaiaUi^'ii liiiUle-lic^M was tlio liKist ruinous of ill! these, I)(! ( 'oiirselle's iiianli to the Alohawk was certainly the lirst and tli(! most hiiioic; in ita slnij^f^'lc! with unpamlhiliMl (lilliculties. "This march eould not but lie tedious, every ono havin^f snow-shous on Ins feet, to the use of which nono were uecuslonnMl ; and all, not excejitin^f the onietirs or even M. do ('ourselle himself, Ix'in;^ loaded each with from twenty-live to thirty pounds of biscuit, clothing', and other nec(!ssaries." ^ it did, inde(!d, r(!(iuire a Frrnck courage to undertake such tin exjiedition. " Many had, as early as the third day, parts of tluj body I'rozen, and were so benumbed by the cold that they had to bo carried to the; place where they were to jiass the night." The 2r»th of .January was especially severe, and many soldiers wcjre oV)liged to be taken back to the settlements, " of whom some had the legs cut by the ice, and others the hands or the arms or other ])arts of the body altogether frozen." The ranks were filled up awiin at Forts St. Loui-s and St. Ther&.se, on the Uiche- lieu River, wluire the trooi)s assembled on tlu; 30th of the same month ; and being still five hundred strong, they ])uslied liravely on over the snow that lay so level and smooth on the frozeti ])osom of Lake Cham- plain. Here the rout(i lay ])lainly before thc^n, and they were counting on Algonquin guides to show them the way to the Mohawk ca.stles after they got to the 1 See OTallaRliaii's " Docuinentfiry History of \e\v York," vol. i. for iiapers relating to this expedition of (Governor ile Cour.selle to the Alohawk Hiver. AN AUMY ON SNOW-SIKjK.S. 67 r' lit! ill (IK! mo or iih snutlicrn oiicl of I^ukn Si. Siicrament (Like (icoiijc). Tliu fjiKJW was " Imnl IVozoii, tliou^^h in iiio.st places four lootu (loop ; iiiid hesiiluH usin^ Indiuii snow-shoes, which hath the very lorm of a Uackett tyed to each lo(»te, wlierel)y the body and feet are ktipt from siidcin^' into the snow, . . . the (Jovernor caused alight sledges to ho made in good number, and laying provisions upon them drew them over the snow with mastive doggs." The shivering tro(»ps wrapped their blankets tightly round them as they lay down to sleep on the snow at the foot (;f Mount jhsliance, or threaded the narrow val- ley leading to Lakedeorge. Tho awkward soldier strid- ing ov(!r tho snow fumbles with frost-bitten fingers in his knajjsack for the last of his biscuits. As ono might have foretold, he has stepped on the snow-shoo of his comrade, and botli go ])lunging head-foremost into tln3 snow. Tho dogs jogging on beside them, unchecked for a moment, run wildly on, barking aloud and scattering tho load of the toboggan to which they are attached. Tho articles are rescued piecemeal by IIkj S(jldi(!rs all along tho lino. There is no time to stop, liowever, — they must march on or starve; so, giving thciir fallen comrades momitntary help to set them on their fe(it again, they are left to fall into lino as best tln-y may and just in time to bring up tho rear. As the army passes over Like G(;org(j, in tho shadow of Hlack Mountain, how eagerly De Courselle looks back at his staggering column of men ! Were he in a less serious mood, he miglit be inclined to smih; at the efforts of the gallant troops of the regiment Carignan- Saliferes to maintain an orderly march on tho unac- customed snow-shoes ; but the anxious commander has i 68 KATEUI TEKAKWITIIA. It ;' ' \H other thoughts than these. Where are his Algonquin guides ? Have the rascals failed him ? Calling the Jesuit chaplain, Father liaffuix, to his side, a consulta- tion ensues. They are already nearing the future site of Fort William Henry, and there the trails divide. They scan the shores of the lake and search the islands, but neither Algonquin friend nor Iroquois foe is in sight. They know that if they march on until they reach the Hudson and follow it down, they will find the Dutch at Fort Orange, but that is not their object. They long for a chance to strike a decisive blow at the Mohawk castles. If they can once convince the Mo- hawks that they are not secure in their forest homes from the armies of France nor the strong revengeful arm of Onnontio,* a treaty will afterwards be of some value. The Jesuit Father who talks with De Courselle dreams already of a mission established among them as the result of that future treaty. With ardent enthu- siasm he sees in anticipation an army of Jesuits march to a spiritual attack on the citadel of Satan upreared in the Iroquois country. His heart thrills at the thought of rcacliing the spot where Isaac Jogues was martyred. Father Lemoyne, the second Ondessonk, has died since then. The Onondagas tliat very year sent presents to Quebec to wipe away the tears shed for his death, thus expressing their sorrow and their admiration for his character. Father Raffeix cheers with zealous words tlie drooping spirits of the soldiers, tlien kneels amid the snows of Lake St. Sacrament, and in the true spirit of his order, prays in his heart for a share in the glorious work of continuing Ondessonk's mission. 1 A nnmc wliicli the Indians giive to the Governor of Canada. li, AN AKMY ON SNOW-SHOES. 69 The army of De Courselle at the southern end of Lake George was uncertain wliich trail to follow. At the Turtle Castle on the Mohawk the Indians had no knowl- edge of the march of their enemies, else there would have been great alarm at Gandawague ; for all the ablest warriors of the three castles, in company with the Oneidas, were making war on the tribe called Wara- pum-makers. Only boys and helpless old men were left in the lodges with the women. They knew noth- ing of De Courselle and his army so near at hand, but, like their Dutch neighbors at Schenectady, were ear- nestly fighting their nearer and more pitiless foe the bitter winter. All the fuel near their lodges had been burned long ago ; and now they are searching the snow- drifts for fagots and branches fallen from the trees. The cold is intense. The wind that whistles through the palisades of the Turtle village is the same sharp blast that is pinching De Courselle's army. At Gandawague, outside of the palisade is a little girl on snow-shoes, only nine years old, who with imperfect sight is groping her way through the blinding storm. The snow is drifting wildly about. The one whom she ealls mother is only an aunt, and the aunt is cold and cross to-day. She sits by the dying embers there in the lodge of tlie absent chief, and by turns she shivers and scolds. The other women beside her are equally cheerless. The little niece, who has missed the kindly look she knows well how to win from her Mohawk uncle by welcome services when he is there in the lodge, has taken it into her head this comfortless da}* to sur- prise her cross old aunts and her adopted sister. So she has quietly tied on her snow-shoes and ventured i1 1 70 KATEUI TKKAKVVITIIA. § out. Sho is in the forest, alone, searching for fagots. On her forehead is a burden-strap, made from lilanients of bass-wood bark, the ends twisted into a kind of Indian rope. With it she fastens the fagots together, bearing them on her back. Her liands are tingling with cold ; but she plunges them deep into the smjw in an effort to break the larger twigs, while she hurries on to increase her load. She is happier now in the howl- ing storm than sho was in tlie pent lodge, and smiles, as she thinks of the blazing fire she will make to warm the feet and thaw the heart of her morose old aunt. Ah ! Tekakwitha, that grim old squaw is training you» without knowing it, for heroic things. lint after all, the aunt is not a neglectful guardian. After a while she misses the child, and questions all in the lodge ; then peers out into the storm and shrinks back, shud- dering. Has she indeed allowed Tekakwitha to wander out and perish in the cold ? In that case what will she be able to say to the uncle when he returns ; what will become of her own plans for the girl? As time goes on, there comes a faint scuffling at the door ; the heavy curtain is lifted a little and falls again. No one has. entered. Hurrying to the door, the old squaw thrusts, the curtain afiide, and there she beholds the child stag- gering under her load of wood, stiff and helpless from the cold. Leaving the fagots at the door, she lifts her gently in her arms and takes her to the fire, which ia soon blazing brightly, fed by the new supply of wood quickly thrown upon it. But the glow of the fire, round which they all gather, is not half so cheering to the heart of the frostbitten child as the glow of love she has awakened in the lodge by her sweet unselfish AN AUMY ON SNOW-SHOES. 71 S' care fur their comfort. This once, at least, they give Iter the wannest seat, and till lier bowl brimful with the freshly maile sagamite ; then tht.*y (question her about her walk, and wonder how she escaped Ijein^' buried in the snow. Tekakwitha smiles with happy content, and answers their questions with a ready wit. l?he makes tliem laugh us she tells them a merry story of how the north-wind slapped her in the face and bound iier fast to the liickory-tree against which she stumbled in the storm. In her heart she is saying all the time, as she watches the cheery light of the fire, " I will do it again." Iiut where is J!)e Courselle now and his army on snow-shoes ? We left them at the southern end of Lake George. There they took the trail that met the Hudson at its great bend to the southward near CUenn's Falls. Then after crossing the river they followed a straight trail leading a little west of south, and passed between Saratovj'a Lake and Owl Pond or Lake Lonely. Next they followed up the valleys of Kayaderosseras Creek and the Mourning Kill to Ballston Lake ; but there, happily for Tekakwitha's people, they made a mistake.* Instead of taking the trail that branched off to the west at the northern end of Ballston Lake, and led di- rectly to the Mohawk castles, they followed the straight trail southward ; so instead of surprising the Mohawks, they themselves were indeed surprised to find that it brought them to a hamlet, not of Indians, but of Dutch- men, — not subjects of Holland at all, but colonists sub- ject to England. They were greatly bewildered. We * These facts are to be found in a note by Gen. J. S. Clark, given in the Appendix, Note D, •' Mohawk Trails." il IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) 1.0 if >^ 1^ '"" i22 IfflBBI 1.1 1.25 US '"I4IIU4 Photografiiic Sciences Corporation 23 WIST MAIN STMET WnSTCR.N.Y. 145S0 (716)«73-4S03 \ \ \ ^ /'^ >. V^. 4^.>. ^. \ if:^ ^ %o 72 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. are told ia an old London document* that M. Courselle encamped — de , . it- '■ "upon the 9* of February within 2 myles of a small village called Schonectado, lying in the woods beyond fort Albany in ye territoryes of his Koyall highness, and 3 dayes march from the iirst castle of the Mohaukts. ** The French suposed they were then come to their de- signed place, and the rather because y* evening they did ran- counter w"" a party of the Mohaukes who made appearance of retreating from the French, whereupon a party of GO of their best Fuzileers after them, but that small party drew Hhe French into an ambuscade of neare 200 Mohaukes planted behind trees, (who taking their advantage as it fell into their hands) at one volley slew eleuen French men whereof one was a Lieuten* wounded divors others, the french party made an honorable retreit to their body, w** was marching after them close at hand, w*" gave the Mohawkes tyme and opportunity to march oflF w"* the loss of only 3 slaine upon the plaice and 6 wounded, the report whereof was soone brought to Schonecktade by those In- dians, with the heads of 4 of the fFrench to the Commissary of the Village who immediately despatched the newes to Fort Albany, from whence the next day 3 of the principle inhabitants were sent to Monsier Coursell the Govenio' of Canada to inquire of his intention to bring such a body of armed men into the dominions of his Ma*** of Great Brittaine, w^ut acquainting the Govemo' of these parts w*" his de- signes. The Govemo' reply** that he came to seeke out and destroy his ennemyes the Mohaukes without intention of visiting their plantations, or else to molest any of his Ma"** * See O'Callaghan's "Documentary History," vol. i., from which are quoted all the passages here given referring to De Courselles and De Tracy's expeditions. AN ARMY CN SNOW-SHOES. 73 subjects, aud that [he] had not heard of the redr ^ng those parts to his Mu"** obedience, but desired timt hco and his soldiers might bee supphed with provisions for their money, and that his wounded men might be sucourcd, and taken care for in Albany; To all which the Emissaryes freely consented and made a small but acceptable present of v^ine and provisions to him, further offering the best accommo- dations y' poore vijlage afforded, w*'' was civilly refus'd, in regard there was not accommodacon for his soldyers, with whom he had marcht and campt under the blew canopye of the heavens full six weekes, but hee prudently foresaw a greater inconvenience if hee brought his weary and half «tarv'd people within the smell of a chimney comer, whom hee now could keepe from stragling or running away, not knowing whither to runu for feare of y' Indians ; The next day Monsieur Corsell sent his men to the village where they were carefully drest and sent to Albany, being seaven in number, the Dutch bores carryed to the camp such pro- visions as they had, and were too well payd for it ; Espe- cially peaz and bread, of w*'' a good quantity was bought ; y* Mohaukes were all gone to their Castles, with resolution to fight it out against the ffrench, who being refresht and supplyed w*" the aforesaid provisions made a shew of march- ing towards the Mohaukes Castles, but with faces about and great sylence and dilligence retum'd towards Cannada. . . . Those who observed the words and countenance of Monsieur Coursell, saw him disturbed in minde that the king was Master of these parts of the Country, saying that the king of England did graspe at all America. . . . Two prisoners taken by the Mohaukes in the retreate tell them y* this summer another attempt will be made upon their country, with a greater force and supplyes of men, the truth or success of which I shall not now discourse upon, having given the trew relation of what past from ye 29"' December to the 12* of February." 14 KATERI TEKAKWITUA. Another and larger force did attack the Mohawk castles in the year 1666, as hinted at in the lines just quoted, but not until late in the autumn ; and at that time Tekakwitha was disturbed and distressed far more than she had been by the misdirected march of the " army on snow-shoes." D£ TRACY fiUR^S TU£ MOHAWK CASTLES. 75 CHAPTEK VII. DE TRACY BURNS THE MOHAWK CASTLES. — FALL OE TIONNONTOGElt IN the summer following De Courselle's expedition, ten deputies from the nations of the Iroquois League met at Quebec, and signed a treaty of peace. In addition to strange pictures which were the marks of the Indian chiefs, the document bears the signature of Daniel de Courselle, Governor of Canada, and that of " Lord de Tracy, member of his Majesty's Councils and Lieutenant-General of his armies both in the Islands and mainland of South and North America." The treaty is also signed by the Jesuits, Le Mercier and Chaumouot, as interpreters of the Iroquois and Huron languages. It states that the orator and chief, called Soenres, announced " the object of the Embassy by ten ^alks expressed by as many presents," and also that he brought letters from the officers of New Netherland. The substance of his harangue was that the Indians wanted peace, and they asked that blackgowns might be sent to teach them. They promised to listen to their preaching and to adore the God of the French. They also offered to trade with the Canadians by way of Lake St Sacrament, and assured them of a welcome in their lodges. What more could be desired ? But, alas ! scarcely were the ambassadors two or three days' jour- KATERI TEKAKWITHA. ney from Quebec, when news came of tlie surprisal by the Mohawks of some Frenchmen belouginj,' to Fort St. Anne who had gone to the chase, and of the murder of a captain in the Carignan regiment. The time for peace had not yet come. The Mohawks liad not been fairly represented in the embassy ; they were far from being awed by the fruitless march of De Courselle to the Mohawk Valley. The French had yet to strike the decisive blow. M. de Tracy resolved, " despite his advanced age, to lead in person against these Barbarians an army composed of six hundred sol- diers drafted from all the companies, and of six hundred habitans of the country," to which were added one hun- dred Huron aiid Algonquin savages. This was mor than twice the number of the original army of De Courselle, who, still bent on victory, determined to accompany this second expedition. The general rendezvous was at Fort St. Anne, newly built, as had been planned, on an island in Lake Champlain. On the 3d of October, 1666, all were ready to start. Three hundred vessels were there to bear them over the placid bosom of the lake, whose wooded shores were now aglow with October coloring. The vessels were light batteaux and bark canoes, which could be carried from lake to lake and from stream to stream. There was great difficulty at the carries, how- ever, with two small cannon which they took with them for the purpose of forcing the Iroquois fortifications. Grown wiser by experience, they also made sure of their guides. The expedition moved forward as secretly and noiselessly as possible through Lake Champlain and then Lako George; but the quick eye of an Iroquois DE TRACY BURNS THE MOHAWK CASTLES. 77 ;1 I : hunter, Iiigb ou a mountain, espied the fleet of butteaux on the lake, and bounding through the forest to the first, or Turtle, castle on the Mohawk, his cry of alarm start- led the people of Gandawague, and Tekakwitha among the rest, from their accustomed occup'^tions. Hastily gathering together their treasures, they fled at once to Andagoron, the Castle of the Bears. Thence, after spreading the alarm through the outlying hamlets and holding a hurried consultation, they all retired to Tion- nontogen, the third, or Castle of the Wolves, hidden be- hind the Nose. There they stored an abundant supply of grain, and prepared to defend themselves. This cas- tle of Tionnontogen was the strongest of their fortifica- tions. It had a triple palisade. The spot where it stood can easily be found at the present day. One has but to leave the West Shore Railway at Spraker's Basin, — a small station on the south side of the Mohawk River, just east of Canajoharie and Palatine Bridge, — then follow a road which winds up the hill to a farm a few rods distant, which was owned in 1885 by Mitchell Like the other village-sites, already described, it is on high ground, or the upper-river terrace. Near the farm- house is a large spring, surrounded by shade-trees, in the centre of a meadow. It is now frequented principally \ by thirst.y cows ; but it was once the chief water-supply of the Mohawk castle. Behind the house is a perfectly level plateau ; from it the land descends on its northern side by steep terraces to the Mohawk, and to the west it sinks rapidly into a picturesque ravine, where straw- berries, wintergreen berries, rare ferns, and little pink flowers grow in abundance. Flat Creek flows through the ravine. On this plateau many iron hatchets and 1^ h ;i I! rs KATERI TEKAKWITHA. .Luei. wagor -loads of Indian relics of various kinds have been found.* There the castle of Tionnontogen stood at the time of De Tracy's expedition. The view up the river at that point is extensive and beautiful ; but in the oppo- site direction, or down the river, a sharp turn of the valley shuts out frt m sight the narrow opening or pass between the Nose and the other similar mountain on tlie south side of the river, whi ^'^, as one travels round the bend, seems to approach and finally to overlap it. The name of the castle was significant, — Tionnontogen, or " Two Mountains approaching." Where else could it possibly have been in the whole valley but right there by the Nose ? Their friends, the Oneidas, lay to the •westward of them, and their enemies mostly to the east- ward ; it was but natural, then, that they should build their principal fort tar enough up the river to bring it behind the overlapping mountains. In order to reach Tionnontogen the army of De Tracy had to come through that narrow pass. The people who were lying in wait at the castle, though on high ground, would not there- fore be able to see their enemies approaching till they had rounded the Nose, and were close upon them. After disembarking at the head of the lake, De Tracy led his army, by way of an Indian trail, southeasterly about nine miles to Glenn's Falls,^ where he crossed the Hudson, thence passing south of Moreau Pond and east 1 The most interesting of these are in the collection of Mr. Frey, of Palatine Bridge. ' The march of De Tracy as here given was traced out by General €lark from a copy which he has of a map relating to the expeditions of De Tracy and De Courselle. The original map is preserved in the Paris archives. t: I *: DE TRACY BURNS THE MOHAWK CASTLES. 79 been ■of Mount McGregor, through Doe's Corners, near Stiles Hill, and then near Glen Mitchell to Saratoga Springs, following substantially the present highway along the base of the ridge of hills south of Mount McGregor. From Saratoga the expedition passed near Ballston, and thence slightly curving seems to have proceeded in a very direct course to the Mohawk castles, which lay off to the westward. One of the trails leading in that direction struck the Mohawk Biver at Kinaquariones, or Hoffman's Ferry, and another at Amsterdam. From this latter point, a short march up the Mohawk Valley brought De Tracy to Gandawague. One after another, he captured the deserted towns of the Mohawks without striking a single blow. First Gandawague, then Andagoron, — both on the south side of the river, — with possibly one •or more smaller towns, fell into his hands ; and on he wen '> to Tionnontogen, marching proudly up the valley with his two cannon, brought with such difficulty from Canada, and his Algonquin allies, who had faithfully guided him into the very heart of the Mohawk country, -and his brave army of twelve hundred picked men, armed cap-a-pie in all the panoply of civilized warfare. Never before was anything like it seen in that wild region. Only three or four hundred Mohawk warriors, all told, were gathered behind the palisades of Tionnon- togen to oppose him. There was no time to summon their allies, the Oneidas, to their assistance. The move- ments of the French had been too rapid. They had only time to crowd together the women and children into their strongest fortress of defence, and there await the result, whatever it might be. J Could the Mohawks soon forget the ruin that the 80 KATEUI TEKAKWITHA. French soldiers wrought on their way from Gandawague ? Even the child Tekukwitha must have been stirred with a feeling of indignation and a cruel sense of wrong, as that foreign army came nearer and nearer to her place of refuge, moving steadily on through her own fair valley, with a march like the march of fate, — destroying all that came in its way, wreaking its vengeance on c^tu- field and cabin, in baffled fury at finding no foe to slay. With ever increasing horror and anxious bewilderment, she \7atched and waited with her people in the castle of Tionnontogen. He uncle and all the Canienga warriors had staked everything they possessed on its defence. They had stored their provisions for the winter carefully away inside of its stout palisade. It was, as already mentioned, a triple palisade, twenty feet in height, and flanked by four bastions ; that is to say, there were three distinct rows of upright posts encircling the town.^ The main or central wall of thick-set overlapping pali- sadoes had an inner and an outer platform, or scaffolding, near the top, running all the way round. These plat- forms, being nineteen or twenty feet above the ground, extended horizontally 'from the central to the inner and outer walls of palisadoes. The latter were higher, and not so compact as the central wall. These outside palisadoes, reaching almost to a man's height above the platform, were set short spaces apart, and covered near the top with a solid surfat e of thick bark. This protected the warriors when they stood high on the outer platform to fire their guns and aim their arrows at the enemy over the top of this bark breastwork. Just behind them, on the inner and adjoining platform, were numerous bark 1 See Appendix, Note E, " Indian Defensive Works." i* FALL OF TIONNONTOGEN. 81 tanks containing an abundant supply of water to l)e used in extinguishing any tire that might be started at the base of the palisade. This was the form of attack they most dreaded. To make the approach more diflicult, they also dug trenches between the walls of pulisa- does, and especially on the outer side, heaping up tlie earth at the base of the fortifications. Then, too, be- fore the enemy could get at the palisade at all, they had to break through a low bark fence which stood some distance outside of the triple wall, built there for the purpose of breaking the force of an attack. If the foe succeeded in starting a fire at the base of the main wall, a flood of water was poured down at once through holes in the high platform by the warriors who were defend- ing the castle. In cases of this kind the women assisted by keeping up the supply of water. Such were the methods of defence in use at Tionnontogen in 1666. They had proved effectual against all the efforts of savage foes. But let us see if they prove equally so against the skilful manoeuvres of De Tracy's civilized army, now close at hand ? Tekakwitha's uncle may have had his doubts as to this ; but nevertheless the bark tanks were well filled, and all was made ready to give the foe a defiant reception. The warriors were in fighting gear, and hourly waiting the attack. It was just at this time that several Indian captives of other tribes held by these Mohawks were brought out to be tortured and burned with solemn rites in the pul »- lie square of Tionnontogen ; thus they hoped to propiti- ate their war-god, AireskoL Tekakwitha would not on any account show herself during this ceremony, as she never had the cruel spirit which the savage women 6 3 f% 82 KATEUI TEKAKWITHA. often showed. Cliaucheti^re tells us that she could not endure to see harm done to any one, and that she thought it a sin to go to see a man burned. This heatiien rite was scarcely over, when the women and children were suddenly withdrawn from Tiunnouto- gen Castle ; a council of war, it seems, had changed the plans of the braves. Those who could not fi':'ht were hurried off to the higher hills behind tlie fortified plateau, and concealed in the woods ; the warriors alone remained in the town. As the advancing army of De Tracy came within reach of their bullets and arrows, they kept up a sharp fire from the palisade ; but they no sooner saw the French soldiers deliberately pause, plant their cannon, and prepare to attack their wooden castle in regular form, than the utter hopelessness of the contest dawned fully upon them. "Without waiting to receive the opening fire of the French cannon, they quickly deserted their primitive fortifications, leaving behind them a few helpless old men who did not wish to move and the half-roasted victims of the demon's sacrifice. De Tracy lost no time in taking possession of this last stronghold of the Oanienga nation, with- out loss of life he and his army entered Tionnontogen Castle in triumph. The child Tekakwitha, concealed in the forest near at hand, must have heard the solemn swell of the Te Deum as it rose with one accord, full, rich, and clear, from the ranks of the conquering army. Never before had she heard that strange, sweet chorus of sound. The Mohawk Valley had often echoed with the war-whoop and the shriek of the tortured captive ; it had rung at times with the harvest-song, and had ■ -:m FALL OP TIONNONTOOKN. 88 caught up tlie wailing chant of the League over many a dead chiefs body. But the solemn music of the Tc Deum which now reached her ears wus unlike any of these, and the tall cross that the soldiers of France raised over the ashes of Aireskoi's fire in the public si^uare of Tionnontogen cast unfamiliar shadows on the long Mohawk cabins clustered silent and empty within the triple wall. Father Rafl'eix, the chaplain, said Mass there, thinking perhaps of Isaac Jogues, and praying for the heathen Indians who were hiding in the forest. He did not then know how soon the rustic chapel of St. Mary of the Mohawks would be standing there with open door to welcome them to prayer. While this first Mass was being said at Tionnontogen, the Mohawk warriors, moody and sullen, were gathered near their families. A low and mournful wail from the women -called the attention of all to the blazing palisades of Tionnontogen. The crackling fire kindled by their ene- mies lit up with a lurid glare the now retiring army of De Tracy, for he speedily retraced his steps, and was soon hidden from view behind the mountains at the Nose. As he moved on down the valley whence he <:ame, the armor of his twelve hundred men flashed back again and again the blaze of a ruined Mohawk town ; all their castles were burned. At the " Fort of Andaraque," — to use the words of an old document (probably meaning Gandawague), — De Tracy paused on the 17th of October to take solemn possession of the conquered country in the name of the King of France. In token thereof, he planted another cross, «nd near it a post, to which he affixed the arms of Tx)uis XIV. Tekakwitha, with her aunts and her mother's 84 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. 5:1' U I friend Tegonhatsiliongo, must have seen these emblems at the door of the smoking palisade when they went back to find what was left of their blackened lodges on the bank of Auries Creek. De Tracy, the gray-haired conqueror, now returned to Canada ; and the unhappy Mohawks, in straggling bands, sought out their desolated homes, — secure in life and limb, to be sure, but bereft of all provisions for the winter. No golden ears of corn hung, as usual, from their lodge-poles. They had no furs, no beans, no nut- oil. They were forced to live in temporary huts, and to wait in hunger and cold for the coming of the spring- time. Thus, in sorrow and destitution, Tekakwitha passed a dreary winter among the ruins of Gandawague, doing her best as usual to put things in order. During this time 'ihe lived on what roots and berries could be found, and a scant allowance of the game her uncle caught Spring came at last ; and a busy one it was for the houseless Mohawks. With the genial warmth that quickly followed, there came also a strange, new gleam of light to the young Tekakwitha. TEKAKWITHA'S CHRISTIAN GUESTS. 85 4 CHAPTEll VIII. TEKAKWITHA'S CHRISTIAN GUESTS. — RAWENNIIO. THE year 1667 found Mohawks, Oneidas, Onon- dagas, Cayugas, and Senecas at peace with the Canadian settlers. This blessed peace crowned with suc- cess

people were clearing new corn-fields on the north side of the Mohawk, and choosing new sites for their castles. Tionnontogen, the capital, claiming their first share of attention, was hastily rebuilt higher up the river and still on the south side, being now a quarter of a laague from its old site. The populations of Gandawague and Andagoron were divided ; some remained at the old half-ruined castles, and others moved across the river aa rapidly as they could build cabins for themselves. This they began, to do " after the bark would peel ; " ^ that is^ as soon as the season was far enough advanced for them to make use of that all-important material, in the use of which they were so expert. The task of building a palisaded Indian castle was slow and tedious, — the work of many long months, with their primitive methods. While they were in this transition state, the Mohawk deputies, having agreed on the terms of pea<3e, returned from Quebec. They left that city in July, 1667, accom- panied by three Jesuit Fathers. The story of the Jesuit Father and his work crowds the pages of our early history. Wherever the red man plaj -s an important part, there close at hand is the black- gown with his crucifix and his works on the Indian lan- guage, — becoming a linguist that he may make known to the Indian, whatever his tribe, the " good tidings of great joy ; " using the artist's brush that he may in some way represent to his neophytes the Christ ; even taxing his ingenuity in the invention of games by means of which to hold the attention of the savages and teach them the simplest laws of morality ; striving always to lead them step by step to a better understanding of * See Appendix, Note A, Letter of June 29, 1 885. TEKAKWITHA'S CHRISTIAN GUESTS. 87 the duties of a Christian life. Such were the meu uow on their way to the Mohawk from Quebec. Earnest, zealous, with a firm determination to over- come all the obstacles before them in their si)iritual combat with the demons of paganism, came the three Fathers, Fremin, Bruyas, and Pierron, with the Mohawk deputies. They had been chosen by the French author- ities from the ever ready ranks of Jesuit volunteers, wbo never lost an opportunity to gain the ear of the red man. Already they had acquired some knowledge of the language; Father Fremin, of the three, understood it best. Then, too, it was well known by all that the presence of French blackgowns in the Iroquois country, sent by the Governor of Canada, would be in itself a guarantee of peace. They were made the bearers of presents to insure them a welcome in the Mohawk lodges. On their journey to the castles they were delayed for a time by reports that the forest was alive with Mohegan war-parties ; but when, in course of time, they did fall in with a band of warriors, it turned out to be a scouting-party of Mohawks, who, alarmed by the long absence of their deputies, began to suspect/ another French invasion. They were therefore well pleased to see the missionaries, and willingly led them from the vicinity of Lake George to the northern bank of the Mohawk. There they crossed the river in canoes, prob- ably from the place now occupied by the De Graff house. Above them, on the crest of a hill, stood all that was left of Gandawague, the Turtle Castle, where Teka- kwitha and her uncle the chief still dwelt. They had not yet moved to the new site " at the Rapids," near Fonda. The three French guests of the nation were 88 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. conducted up the steep ascent to the town wich great formality and many ceremonies of welcome, not with the strokes of iron rods and the bitter taunts with which some of these same old men and women when in their prime had received Father Jogues at their former castle of Ossernenon, a little more than twenty years before. But why were not Fathers Fremin, Bruyas, and Pierron at once conducted up the valley to be welcomed by the Bears, and thence on to the westward to be lodged in state by the Wolves at Tionnontogen, the capital, as had invariably been the custom of the Caniengas in receiving distinguished guests, or even important captives ? The answer that history gives is simple enough. The Fathers " happened to arrive at a time when these people are accustomed to plunge into all kinds of debauchery, and found no one, therefore, in a fit state to receive them." A drunken riot of several days' duration was going on within the newly built palisades of Tionnontogen. The Mohawks had chosen to celebrate in that way their returning prosperity. So the Fathers were detained three days in the lodge of Tekakwitha's uncle at the Turtle Castle. Chaucheti^re and Cholenec, and all who have written of Tekakwitha find in this seemingly simple incident only one of many mystic links that make up the chain of her Christian life, — a sure effect of a potent cause, — the all-d'^nquer- ing love of the Spirit of God reaching toward its spirit- child, though clothed in the humble fortn of an Indian girl. Unknown, and therefore as yet unloved by her, the Great Father and Source of our spirit natures saw " His own image and likeness " expanding pure and fair in the untaught soul of Tekakwitha. All-knowing, all- TEKAKWITHA'S CUUISTIAN GUESTS. 89 powerful, planning the course of events without effort, He chose the surest way and tlie aptest time to make Him- self known, thus securing at once the answer of love that was destined to lift and shield from all blemish this wondrous opening "Lily." He sent His messengers into the Mohawk Valley when Tekakwitha alone of her nation was ready and. fit to receive them. Hers, then, was the privilege of lodging and entertaining them. At that time the Iroquois were thorough pagans, and practised a species of devil-worship. They believed in Tharonya wagon, the " Holder of the Heavens," a good genius of the Kanonsionni, who bestowed on them their hunting-grounds and fisheries, — a harmless deity, to whom they were grateful in a vague way for past favors ; but they do not seem to have worshipped him with any fonnality. They reserved their sacrifices and solemn rites for Aireskoi, a demon of war, whom they greatly feared. Hiawatha, the " Wampum -Seeker," * though sometimes confused with Tharonyawagon, was undoubt- edly a real personage. He was one of the founders of the Iroquois League of Nations, which is called to this day the " Great Peace." He is said to have lived about fifty years, as nearly as can be reckoned, before the earliest white settlers came to America. His aspirations and his teachings prepared the Iroquois to some extent for the reception of Christian idea'>, but the original teachings of Hiawatha seem to have been very soon / S * Or " Peace-Maker," as wampum was the emblem and token of peace. For an interesting account of Hiawatha, or Hayenwatlia, as founder of the League, and for other rare and vahmble information con- cerning the people of the Five Nations, see Hale's Iroquois Book of Hites. 90 KATERI TKKAKWITHA. •111 ill; distorted and strangely mingled with myths. The League of Naticus which he labored to establish, with the grand idea of eventually uniting all mc^ in a common bond of brotherhood and peace, became on the contrary, in the hands of the Iroquois chiefs who followed him, a great engine of war, crushing all tribes that refused to come under its laws. Just enough of its original spirit remained to cause the Iroquois thoroughly to incorpor- ate and make one with themselves the captives of all those peoples whose separate existence they destroyed. Tharonya wagon, Aireskoi, and Hiawatha were all familiar words in the ears of the Mohawk girl. But Rawenuiio, the true God, * was still unknown to her. Charlevoix, the learned author of the " History of New France," who wrote an account of Kateri Tekakwitha about the year 1732, after mentioning the fact that " as soon as she was able to work she undertook the entire charge of the household," continues thus : — "The first knowledge she received of Chribtianity wa& given her by the Jesuit missionaries who were sent to the Iroquois nations by M. de Tracy. They passed on their way through the town where she lived, and lodged in her cabin. She was charged with their entertainment, of which she acquitted herself in a mjinner which surprised them. She had herself been struck at the sight of them, and felt in her heart strange sentiments. . . . The fervor and recollected- ness of these Jesuit Fathers at their prayers inspired her 1 See M. Cuoq's Lexique de la Langue Iroquoise. This word " Rawenniio," also written " Hawenn3riu," came into use when Chris- tianity was first preached among the Iroquois. It is still used by them to designate the "Great Spirit," or " Father of all Men." The last part of the word, " niio " or "nyiu" (Cod), is said to be derived from the French word " Dieu." TEKAKWrrUA'8 CHUISTIAN GUESTS. 91 with the desire to pray with them ; this desire she expressed to them ; indeed they quickly divined it from her actions, and instructed her in the great truths of Christianity as well as their short stay in the town permitted, and quitted her with a regret fully reciprocated on her part." There are those, as we have said, who believe that the prayer of Tekakwitha's dying mother had guided the steps of these missionaries straight to the lodge of her child, and left them there three days to be waited on and cared for by the shy but capable little Mohawk housekeeper, the niece of the chief at Gandawague. His people, as we already know, were away on a de- bauch at Tionnontogen, — a revel too disgraceful for the admission of guests whom they wished to honor. The Mohawks must have been hard pushed indeed when they handed over the envoys of the Canadian Gov- ernor whom they were anxious just then to conciliate, to the care of a mere child, even though she were high in rank; but Tekakwitha's uncle knew she could be trusted to do her part well. How well she did it Cho- lenec tells us in the following words : — " She was charged with the task of lodging the mission- aries and attending to their wants. The modesty and sweet- ness with which she acquitted herself of this duty touched her new guests ; while she on her part was struck with their affable manners, their regularity in prayer, and the other exercises into which they divided the day." Had they remained longer in the village, she would probably have asked for baptism. As it was, she stole silently out of the lodge in the dusk of evening to bring water for the simple Indian 92 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. repast she was preparing for her guests, and all the while her thought was alive with God, — the God she had never known, the God of the pale-face and of the Mohawk as well (for this much they had told her in their broken utterance of her own language) ; he was the God, ' 0, of their Mohegan enemies. Here, indeed, was a new idea to the Mohawk girl. She had heard her people mention the God of the French, no doubt, and had wondered if he were kind like Tharoiiyawagon or cruel like Aireskoi ; but this God whom the black- gowns told her of, was not their Lord and " Master of Life " any more than hers. He was the God of all men, whether they worshipped him or not, — of pale-face and redskin, of Mohawk and Mohegan. He loved them all with a father's love, — alas! Tekakwitha knew what that meant, if only from observation and from the very lack of it in her own life. This Eawenniio, this true God, was everywhere ; he could hear the whispered prayer of the blackgown there in the lodge, and he could speak to her inmost heart even if she were quite alone in the forest. How she was stirred at the thought I " Will he speak to me now ? " she said. " Does he know I am thinking of him ? " She stopped at the foot of a great tree, poising her jug on her shoulder, and listened with innocent simplicity. " God of the blackgown ! God of my mother I Rawenniio ! " was the cry of her heart, — " speak to me, here in the forest, — speak to me, if it is true what the blackgown says ! " Lifting her hand and her eyes, she looked up through the branches of the giant tree, far beyond what her dim eyes saw, far as her simple thought could reach ; and though Teka- kwitha heard no audible voice in the forest answering ;:i RAWENNIIO. 98 to her new-found cry, there was a dim but rapturous hope in her heart, cheering with happy omen her bud- ding faith and her growing love for something more than the world of Tharonyawagon could give her, — something more than fruitful corn-fields, sunshine on the running water of the Mohawks, a strong, true brave to love her, and the Happy Hunting-Grounds beyond. Thev could not be much fairer, after all, than were the hunting-grounds of her nation at Saratoga, where Father Jogues had cut a cross deep iuto the bark of a tree, and had almost perished with hunger because he would not eat the meat that was offered to Aireskoi. Teka- kwitha was not long in choosing between Aireskoi and Eawenniio. While her mind was dwelling on such thoughts as these, she must have sought out the ravine near the Turtle Village where Isaac Jogues had buried his friend Rdnd Goupil. This young martyr was killed, as we have said, for making the sign of the cross on an Indian child. She may have knelt to pray on the very spot where Jogues himself was tomahawked at the door of the Bear Chiefs deserted lodge. There she could ask Eawenniio most fervently for strength of will to follow the gleam of light that beckoned to her. The Mohawks of Gandawague had not forgotten these places so near at hand, nor how it had all happened. The Fathers Fremin, Bruyas, and Pierron, during their stay in the lodge with Tekakwitha, thought often of Jogues, and must have mentioned his name in her presence, as they afterwards did in their journal ; * then, to be sure, Te- ^ See "Early Chapters of Mohawk History," no. xv., by Dr. Hawley, of the Cayuga County Historical Society, printed in the •* Auburn ? ^ CO I 94 KATEUI TEKAKWITHA. 91^ <^„ gonhatsihongo would kuow of the murdered blackgown, so Tekakwitha could not fail to learn his story. She probably knew it already, but she tliought of it now as she never had done before. Surely that first of the blackgowns who came to their village had something important to tell them. Why else had he laid down his life by coming among them a second and even a third time after his cruel captivity ? Why else had he exerted himself to learn their language ? The voice of Ondessonk's blood cried out to her from the ground, and besought her to hear what these others said who came to her now with his name on their lips, and the name of a greater than he, — of the One who was nailed to a cross, whose image they carried. A host of questions rose to her lips when she saw them again, but she had neither time nor courage to utter them. Only three days, and the blackgowns were gone. Tekakwitha was left alone once more with her aunts and her uncle, who had received these guests not from love, but policy. During their short visit an alarming incident had oc- curred. A band of Mohegans, dashing down upon the village, had scalped a wretched squaw at the very gates. *' Fremin was one of the first to hasten to her, eager to save a soul where life was in so great peril; but she spurned his offers. Four times she turned away in scorn ; " but the patient zeal of the missionary won her at last, and she died a Christian. There was another squaw in the town who had asked for baptism, an Iroquois woman of rank. We are not Advertiser," and also to be issued in book form. These "Early Chap- ters" consist chiefly of translations from the Jesuit "Relations," with valuable notes and comments. UAWENNIIU. told whether this was Tegoiihatsihongo, or soinu other, though we know that she did in time become a Citris- tian. To test this woman's sincerity, Father Fremiu ^ve her the thankless, unpopular task of calling to prayer, with a little bell, the Huron and Algonquin ■captives at Gaudawague, who were already Christians. She did not shrink from this ordeal, but still her bap- tism was deferred till the missionaries should finish their embassy and return again to the town. In the mean time she wearied of their prolonged delay, and fol- lowed them to Tionnoutogen, gaining from them there the necessary instruction for receiving the sacrament. The young Tekakwitha, on the contrary, either through natural timidity or by the express command of hev uncle (we know not which, most likely both), waited with sealed lips for eight long years. During all that time she gave no sign or token, that has ever been re- corded, of a wish to become a Christian ; and yet the missionaries thenceforth were at work continuously in one or another of the Mohawk villages. Let us, then, follow the hurrying course of events in which the life of Tekakwitha was involved during these eight years of dim but dawning light, not forgetting that the seed which the Fathers had scattered in passing lay hidden yet treasured deep in the innermost heart of the Mo- iiawk maiden. 5 ^ 3 96 KATERI TKKAKWITHA. CHAPTEli IX. * V]\' i CAUr,l!\AWAGA ON THE MOHAWK. — FATHERS FKEMJN AND PIEKHON. AFTER Tekakwitha had lodged Fathers Fremiii, Hruyas, and Tierron for three days at Ganda- wugue, on the bank of Auries Creek, they went to the castle of Tionuontogen, which it must be remembered hud been hastily rebuilt some little distance west of its former site near the Nose, though still on the south side of the river. There, when the pagan festival and debauchery was over, a grand public reception of these ambassadors took place. The people of all the Mohawk villages were assembled for the occasion, Tekakwitha probably among them. In due time, after a most cere- monious welcome, Fremin rose to address them. To render his speech to the nation more impressive, he set up in tlieir midst a great pole forty or fifty feet in height, from the top of which a wampum belt was sus- ])ended. He then declared, on the part of Onnontio, that in like manner would hang the first Iroquois who should come to kill a Frenchman or any one of their allies. At this all the Mohawks — men, women, and children — bowed their heads in silent awe, not venturing to look at such an extraordinary gift, nor to speak, until the most ac- complished of their orators, having recovered his senses, rose and went through all imaginable mimicries to show * I: I FATHERS FREMIN AND PIERRON. 97 his astonishment. As if ignorant of its meaning, he gesticulated and declaimed in the liveliest manner, though a man of more than sixty years of ago. Then discovering its true significance, he seized his throat " with both hands in a frightful way, grasping it tightly to represent and at the same time impress upon the multitude about him the horror of this kind of death. After he had spoken, and at length, with a surprising eloquence, exhibiting flashes of wit by no means com- mon, he flnished," as the leading ambassador-priest tells us, "by delivering up the captives we demanded, and giving us the choice of the place where we would build our chapel, in the erection of which they proposed to go to work with all despatch. They, moreover, deliv- ered up to us a Frenchman whom they had held cap- tive for some time, and promised us the liberty of twelve Algonquins, partly of the nation of the Nez Percys, partly of that of the Outaouacs [Ottawas]." Thus at Tionnontogen the labors of Father Freniin began. He was left quite alone among the Mohawks for nearly a year, at the mission of St. Mary's as it was henceforth called. He struggled earnestly during that time to maintain peace and establish Christianity. His companion, Bruyas (whose Mohawk dictionary is ex- ceedingly valuable to students of the Indian language)^ soon went west to the Oneidas, among whom, little by little, he learned the Oneida dialect. Pierron, on the other hand, after a short stay with Fremin, bent his steps eastward to Schenectady. He visited the English and Dutch at Albany to renew the friendly intercourse of former days ; and then this messenger of peace in the early part of the year 1668, travelled back over tha 7 :o - i WP««R«i 98 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. great Mohawk war-trail, leading northward. He re- turned to Quebec to report to Governor de Courselle the progress of the embassy. Freniin, left entirely to his own devices in tlie Mo- hawk Valley, gathered together the captive Christian Hurons, and then went steadily on, preaching, teaching, and baptizing. Once when the young warriors were torturing an Ottawa captive and preparing to burn him, contrary to the articles of peace, the Father by frantic efforts succeeded in saving him ; but it was only by dint of rushing through the streets of the village with cries, threats, and entreaties. They could not withstand his zeal. He scattered the assembled crowd. He called down the vengeance of Rawenniio and Onnoutio upon their castle of Tionnontogen, if they persisted in thus breaking the peace. The older men, roused at last by liis words and actions, put a stop to the outrage. The unhappy victim was rescued from a fiery death, but he fell into a lingering fever brought on by the fright and the sufierings he had endured. In course of time he died, but it was not till he had been fully instructed and baptized by the courageous Father, who thus had the gratification of saving both body and soul. On the 7th of October, 1668, Pierron returned from his journey to Quebec, and again passed through the lower Mohawk villages on his way to the bark chapel of St. Mary's, which had been erected at Tionnontogen during his absence. If Tekakwitha saw her former guest at that time, it was only as one among a group of Mohawk villagers who watched the missionary as he passed through the streets of the Turtle Castle. He was hurrying on to meet and to replace Father Fremin. FATHERS FREMIN AND PIERRON. 99 This spirited aud eloquent founder of the mission now went westward beyond Bruyas at Oneida, in order to make a missionary opening among the Senecas, who also desired a blackgown. This left Father Pierron alone in his turn in charge of the Mohawk mission. His graphic letters to his superiors in Canada during the next few years give many a vivid picture of what was transpiring at that time in the valley. He was something of an artist. Before he succeeded in mastering the language, he spent much of his time in painting. He found that his pictures stimulated the curiosity of the Mohawks. In their efforts to get at the meaning of them ana to explain them to one another, they learned, without realizing it, the very things he wanted to teach them; while he, by listen- ing to their explanations, quickly acquired their lan- guage. As the blackgown's pictures were much talked about in the Mohawk villages at this time, and must have influenced the minds of Tekakwitha and her rela- tives, it will be worth while to give Pierrou's descrip- tion of one of his own productions. "Among these representations I have made," he says, "there is one contrasting a good with a miserable death. What led me to make this was that I saw the old men and the old women would stop their ears with their fingers the moment I began to speak to them of God, and would say to me, 'I do not hear.' I have therefore repre- sented on one side of my picture a Christian who dies a saintly death, with the hands joined as of one holding the cross and his rosary; then his soul is carried by an angel to heaven and the blessed spirits appear awaiting it. On the other side, I have put, lower down, a woman 100 KATERI TEKAKW.TTHA. \ broken with age, who is dying, and unwilling to listen to a missionary Father who points her to paradise ; she holds both ears closed with her fingers ; but a demon from hell seizes her arms and hands, and himself puts, his fingers in the ears of the dying woman. Her soul is carried by three demons; and en angel who comes out of a cloud, sword in hand, hurls them into the bottomless pit This representation," he continues, " ha» furnished me an occasion to speak of the immortality of our souls, and of the good and the bad of the other life; and when they once cateh the import of my picture, no one presumes to say any more, ' I do not hear.' " The " Relation " of the same year ^ tells us that Father Pierron accompanied this saintly skill with severe labors making regularly each month a visitation of the seven, large villages, over a space of seven and a half leagues in extent, in order that no infant or adult sick person should die without receiving baptism. Father Boniface now arrived at Quebec from France, and was immediately selected to go to the Mohawk Valley to second Pierron's zeal We learn further, from the " Relation," that a bitter strife was then in progress : " The war [between the Iroquois and the nine nations of the Loups] humbles them by the loss of their people ; but by preventing their permanent stay in one place, it also multiplies obstacles to the conversion of the warriors, who divide up into numerous bands to go singly against the enemy. The Agniers [Mohawks] and the Loups [Mohegans] have brought the war even close to \ > An English translation of this " Relation " is given in the " Early Chaptere of Mohawk History," by Dr. Hawley. »:■ FATHERS FB^JldlN AND PI£RRON. 101 New Orange ; and when taken captive they bum and eat one another." The Mohegaus and their allies had certain advantages over the Mohawks. They were more numer- ous; then, too, '^hey were a roving people, difficult to attack, whereas the Mohawks lived in villages and had permanent homes. These last, in order to uefend them- selves, took care thoroughly to fortify the castles they were then building on the north side of the Mohawk River. As they seem to have had seven villages at this time, which is an unusual number, it is probable that they either had not entirely abandoned their old sites, or else had recently added sevoral villages of captives. It was while affairs '.'.ere still in this unsettled con- dition that TekakwitLd went to live on the north bank of the Mohawk Eiver, near the Cayudutta Creek at Caughnawaga, or Fonda, a few miles west of her earlier home. The French writers continued for some time after this to call the new castle of the Turtles on the north bank by its old name of Gandawague ; ^ to prevent confu- sion, however, we will henceforth call it Caughnawaga, meaning "At the Rapids." That name still clings to a part of the present town of Fonda. The rapids of the Mohawk still ripple there as of old under the sharp-cut hill where, as proved by relics and historic references, the once famous castle stood. The Indians who went forth later from this Caughnawaga in the Mohawk Valley to Canada, carried with them the familiar word. Settling down beside the great rapids of the St. Lawrence River, the sound of rushing water boomed louder than before in their ears, and the name Caughnawaga grew into his- tory there, as wjU as here. But there it is still a * See Appendix, Note B. 15 •If WPVOT /" 102 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. V.\ "H: living name, and is passed from mouth to mouth as the well-known home of half the Canienga race; for Caughnawaga in Canada holds to-day that part of the Mohawk nation which in the wranglings of the white men — that is to say, the old French and Indian wars — sided with the French. Brantford, also in Canada^ contains the other half of the same nation, — the de- scendants of Sir William Johnson's Mohawk followers^ who were stanch friends of the English. To us Amer- icans, falling heir to their lands, these Mohawks have left no living trace of themselves, though some of their brothers, the Onondagas and Senecas, still dwell in our midst. The Mohawks have gone from us, indeed, le iving us only a memory, all inwrought in a thick array of Indian .lames. Let us try at least to understand and to preserve these names, in honor of the brave race that once peopled our hills and valleys, our forests and streams. In the Mohawk Valley, side by side with the name of Fonda, which comes to us from the days of the early white settlers, there lingers the still older name of Caughnawaga, which is dusky with the shadows of twe hundred years, and even more. The mere name in par- tial use there at the present day has served to throw some light on the hill and the spring near the Cayudutta, — enough, at least, to have called to our minds a vision of Mohawk girls with their water-jugs, and to point in a misty way to the almost forgotten home of the Lily of the Mohawks. It is owing, however, to long, careful, critical research, and not to surmise, that the haze of many years has been cleared away at last from the actual site of Caughnawaga Castle. The map of Gen. John S. Clark (page 38) gives its position relative to other ^««v li e >« ? •^ ft 'Ji ■4 J i-. H rf) ^ < %i U t *< o ^ < ^ > B ^ x: < «i^ 55 ■=( O *« t3 •^ u - «> o i. ^ CO 05 ■^ S o qS "«? "^ » •e: ^w ^ ^ s i;|'f^ FATHERS FREMIN AND PIERRON. 103 o < "^ < o s «J 6; a !^ Mohawk villages. Tlie plan here given, which was drawn by Rev. C. A. Walworth, shows more especially where this Indian fortress stood in reference to Fonda, on what are now called the " Sand Flats," west of the Cayudutta Creek. The spring which supplied the Mohawks with water is seen, distinctly marked in its cove, half-way down the hill from the castle, towards the Cayudutta. With this plan before us it is needless here to repeat the details of this locality already given in the chapter entitled " Tekakwitha's Spring." In our open- ing pages we journeyed all the way up the Mohawk Val- ley from Albany, with here and there a passing glimpse at the scenery, till we reached the castle site at Fonda, which was then fully described. Since that time we have travelled together through the highways and in the byways of history over about thirteen years of Teka- kwitha's life. Here we are again at Caughnawaga ; and now that we are following up the course of events in regular order from the birth of Tekakwitha, we find that she also has but recently arrived here, having just come to her new home from Gandawague. She can scarcely be called a child any longer, since she takes upon her- self so much of the household care, and yet she is quite young. Her life is a busy one. She has taken an active part with the women of her family and their neighbors in building the new bark house which they occupy within the enclosure of palisades at Caughnawaga. Now, at last, they are quite comfortable. This is the way the Mohawks were accustomed to build their permanent lodges. They first took saplings, ind planted two rows of them firmly in the ground. Then they bent the tops of them over across the inter- CO 'A 9t( 104 KATEBI T£KAKWITUA. I ! In II i> vening space, and tied them together. The shape of the house when finished was not unlike the top of an am« bulance wagon. These arched ribs were supported and held in place by poles put in horizontally across the house, near the top. The whole was then neatly covered with square, overlapping pieces of bark, held in place by poles that were tied down over them. The holes in the roof for chimneys and windows were not forgotten, nor the loose pieces of bark to pull over them in case of rain. The Jesuits often found these cabins smoky and dark, — a severe test of thtir patience when engaged in literary pursuits, or even in reading their breviaries ; but for the Mohawks, who had no such tastes, they were good enough. When the house was finished on which Tekakwitha worked with her aunts and her neighbors, it made a secure shelter for a score of families, all lodged under the same roof and all on one floor. That floor was the bare ground. When the dwelling was fitted up into compartments on either side, with spaces down the centre for fires alternating with spaces for family gather- ings at meal-time ; when the matrons had assigned to each and every member of the household certain lodge- seats ; when mats of rushes had been prepared, and robes of skins were in their places for bed-clothes ob bunks along the sides of the house; when plenty ot dried corn and smoked meat hung from the ridge-poles of the roof for instant use; when the heavy wooden mortar and pestle were made and stood ready for pound- ing the corn ; when nice little dishes of bark and wooden bowls were at hand, while tucked away in corners were baskets of wampum beads all ready to fATUERS FREMIN AND PIERRON. 105 be strung into belts at the proper time, — when all these things were in order, then at lust, after the move fi-om Gandawague on Auries Creek, Tekakwitha felt free to rest and breathe easily. Then she might glance leisurely at the patch of sunlight i'alling on the floor of the lodge through the doorway at the far end, and decide in her own mind how much time she had before the next meal was to be prepared. Per- haps she would go out to take a look at the strong new palisade that her uncle and the warriors had planned so carefully for defence against the dreaded Mohegans ; or she may have preferred to sit quietly by the spring for a while in the beautiful little cove. Being so near the castle, it was comparatively safe from the lurking enemy, who might attack them at any time. Wentworth Greenhalgh, an Englishman, who went from Albany to Caughnawaga in 1677, thus describes the castle : " Cahaniaga is double stockadoed round ; has four forts [ports ?] about four foot wide apiece ; conteyns about twenty-four houses, and is situated upon the edge of an hill, about a bow shott from the river side." He then gives the situation and size of the other Mohawk towns at that time, and closes his remarks by stating that their corn grew close by the river. The Mohawks chose the flats or river-bottoms for corn-fields because they were fertile, and besides, they were natural openings, with no trees to be cut down and cleared away. Much of Tekakwitha's time at certain seasons of the year was spent in these corn-fields ; and she must have witnessed, if not taken part in, some of the exciting scenes described by Pierron, who was then making his I 03 mnv 106 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. periodical rounds through the Mohavfk villages. He frequently gives incidents of Mohawk women whc were waylaid and scalped or captured by desultory bands of Mohegans and other tribes with whom they were at war. The constant fear of death that overhung them gave to the minds of these Mohawk squaws a serious turn, and made them more willing than they would otherwise have been to listen to the warning words of the blackgov/n. More than one of them, haunted perhaps by the remembrance of his pictures and his morality games, which were no less ingenious for gaining their attention, came and asked for baptism. Pierron succeeded also in rousing the chiefs to a sense of the degradation into which the constant purchase of brandy and rum at Albany was sinking them. He reminded them that when once under its influence they were in no condition to repel the attacks either of Satan or the Mohegans. Both he and Fremin had themselves been sufferers during the drunken riots of the Indians. While the two Fathers were together at Tionnontogen, they wrote: — " It seems sometimes as if the whole village had run mad, so great is the license they take when they give up to drink- ing. They have hurled firebrands at our heads ; they have thrown our papers into the fire ; they have broken open our chapel ; they have often threatened us with death ; and during the three or four days that these debaucheries last, and which recur with frequency, we must suffer a thousand insults without complaint, without food or sleep. In their fury they upset everything that comes in their way, and even butcher one another, not sparing relative, friend, coun- t,|. ■■,.v FATHERS FREMIN AND PIERRON. 107 tryman, nor stranger. These things are curried to such excess that the place seems to us no longer tenable ; but wo shall leave it only with life. . . . When the storm is over, we are left to go on with our duties quite peaceably." This state of things continued for some time, as did also the raids of their enemies. It was in the midst of such bristling savage thorns as these that the Lily of the Mohawks grew up from childhood into womanhood. In her new home at Caughnawaga, during these stormy times she lived a sweet, pure life, all uncontaminated. At last the Mohawk chiefs, won by Pierron's reiterated arguments, began to realize that they had among them, in intoxicating drink, "a foreign demon more to be dreaded than those they worship in their dreams." They were induced to take measures against this excess in public council, " and, advised by Father Pierron that the most effectual means would be themselves to make their appeal to the Governor-General of Manhattan, the more prominent among them presented a petition which they had drawn for the purpose." This is the answer which the Governor gave to the request of the Mohawks and the letter of the Father which ac- companied it : — Father, — By your last, I am informed of your complaint, which is seconded by that of the Iroquois chiefs, the Sachems, the Indians, as appears more opeiily by their petition en- closed in yours, respecting the large quantity of liquors that certain ones of Albany have taken the liberty to sell to the Indians; as a consequence, that great excesses are com- mitted by them, and the worst is feared unless we prevent it. In response, know that I have taken, and will continue I r I mmmmtmimtm 108 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. II I to take, all possible care, under the Huverost penalties, to restrain and oppose the furnishing any excess to the Indians. And I am delighted to sue such virtuous thoughts proceed from heathens, to the shame of many Christians ; but this must be attributed to your pious instructions, for, well versed in strict discipline, you have shown them the way of morti- fication both by your precepts and practice. Your very humble and affectionate servant, Francih Lovelace. At Font James, 18th of Nov. 1668. Fremin and Pierrou, during the two years 1668 and 1G69, baptized one hundred and fifty-one Indians, of which more than half were children or aged persons who died shortly after baptism. Says the " Relation " : — "This should be considered a sufficiently abundant har- vest in a waste land, and we may hope for much from such beginnings. We owe, under God, the birth of this flourish- ing church to the death and blood of the Reverend Father Jogues. He shed it at the very region where the new Chris- tian church begins to arise ; and it seems as though we are to see verified in our days, in his personi the beautiful words of TertuUian : * The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.* " That Pierron was fired with the spirit of Jogues, who founded this Mohawk mission in his blood, is proved by the following words, which he wrote in a moment of discouragement : — "I have attacked drunkenness and lewdness, which are divinities of the country, so madly are these people devoted to them. I have combated these vices. ... I have em- ployed gentleness and vigor, threats and entreaties, labors 1 -? t f FATHERS FREMLN AND PIERRON. 109 and tears, to build up this new church and to convert these poor savages. There remains nothing more than to shod my blood for their salvation, that which I long for with all the desires of my heart. But ciler all, I have not yet ob- served in them those marked amendments which the Holy Spirit effects in those of the heathen whom he would put in the number of the faithful." 3 wmpvi I 110 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. CHAPTER X. 'ill. ■ m, THE MOHEGANS ATTACK THE NEW CASTLE. — BATTLE OP KII:AQUARI0NES. — THE FEAST OF THE DEAD. IN the year 1669, in one of the long bark-houses at Caughnawaga on a summer morning before the dawn, Tekakwitha is turning uneasily in her sleep. Suddenly her aunt springs up beside her and speaks in a startled voice. In an instant all in the lodge are on the alert. Sharp, wild cries are heard; bullets pierce the stout palisade, and come whizzing through the bark sides of the new house. The warriors, roused from sleep, seize their nearest weapons, be they guns, war- clubs, tomahawks, or arrows. A hurried word to the women, a loud whoop, a few bounding steps, and they are on tlie platform of the palisade hurling defiance at an assaulting army of Mohegans. Before them are hun- dreds of the foe in war-paint and feathers, led by a stout man of middle age, — the wise and gallant Chickatabutt, the great sachem of the Massachusetts. His bearing makes him conspicuous among a score of famous saga- mores who ai*e leading the assault. In the motley ranks that follow are Hudson River Indians, mingled with the red-skin neighbors of the Puritans, grim old warriors of the Massachusetts tribe. There are also Narragansett braves and other New England Indians, — all united in a desperate attempt to crush the Mohawks, and thus THE MOHEGAN ATTACK. Ill "break in through the eastern door of the Long House of the Five Nations. The assailants seek, now by open attack and now by strategy, to dislodge the defenders of Caughnawaga from their lofty scaffolds, and to fire the palisade. Four Mohawks drop from their places dead, and two are wounded ; but the Mohegans make no perceptible headway against the defensive works of the Castle. The struggle continues with unabated fury. Among those who fall on the side of the en- emy are pupils of the English missionary Eliot, who know something of the Bible which he has translated for them. Five of these converts to Puritanism are en- gaged in this expedition, of whom but one escapes with his life. They too, like the ever increasing neophytes of Pierron, are called "praying Indians." Their chief Chickatabutt — or Josiah, as he is often called — was himself a " praying Indian " once. That was when he lived with his pious uncle Kuchamakin, one of Eliot's favorite pupils. " He kept the Sabbath several years," says Gookin ; " but after turned apostate, and for several years last past separated from the praying Indians, and was but a back friend to religion." Indeed the English, who had a good opinion of him in his early days, now thought him "a very vitious person," though all ac- knowledged he was as brave as brave could be. The Puritans had tried in vain to dissuade their Indian neighbors from accompanying this chief on his adven- turous march to the Mohawk Valley. In spite of every drawback, however, Chickatabutt, whose name means " A-house-afire," had succeeded in bringing his army all the way from ihe vicinity of Boston to the castle of Caughnawaga. After they were joined by their allies, *^\ KCSJ 13. ^^mmtmmmmwmmim 112 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. '.I I ■ ill. i. ■ IM !'l III I they numbered six or seven hundred men.^ True, they had spent much of their ammunition on the march, — > " shooting away their powder in the air, . . . boasting, vapouring, and prating of their valour," at the Indian villages where they had stopped for foraging purposes. It was their consequent lack of ammunition which de- termined them to carry the Mohawk Castle, if possible, by assault. But the brave Canieugas, or " People of the Flint," though taken by surprise in their sleep, were quick to grapple with the daring Mohegans, and fought like panthers. They were not to be easily overcome, by any roving Indian foe, in defence of their women and their homes. The squaws of Caughnawaga, with the well-known courage of their race, realized their periloua situation at the first alarm, and were "arming them- selves with knives and defensive weapons in case a breach should be made." The youths of the village were, many of them, fighting their first important battle on this occasion. The sight of the Mohawk women and young girls, arming themselves as best they could to resist the Mohegan attack, was in itself an irresistible appeal to their tribesmen to exert themselves to the ut- most in defending them against the well-known horrors of captivity, which would undoubtedly come upon them if the castle fell into the hands of the enemy. Many a young brave was nerved to desperate feats of valor oa that morning and during the days that followed. Begin- ning with the sudden attack at dawn, the struggle con- tinued for a long time with uncertain issue. News was ^ This is the number given by Gookin, who was an Indian agent and magistrate of the Massachusetts Colony at the time of this expedi- tion. Pierron in his account mentions only three hundred. I!!!' THE MOHEGAN ATTACK. 113 carried to Tiounontogeii that the whole country was lost ; that Caughnawaga was besieged by an army of Mohe- gans ; that all the youth had already fallen, and perhaps Gandagaro, the adjacent fort, was in extremity. These reports, though exaggerated, caused the Mohawk war- riors of the other castles to gather as fast as possible at Caughnawaga. Even had they been all there at the very first, they would still have been fewer in numbers than the enemy; but before the sun was high, enough of them had assembled to warrant a sally on the foe. Father Pierron was now at the castle, and a witness of the stirring events taking place there. Tekakwitha, too, was taking her part among the young girls, whose fate now hung in the balance. The missionary thus describes what followed : — "By eight o'clock in the morning our warriors without confusion promptly arrayed themselves witli all they have of greatest value, as is their custom in such encounters, and with no other leader than their owu courage went out in full force against the enemy. I was with the first to go to see if, amid the carnage about the palisades of the village, ■viiere so many unbelieving souls would perish, I might not be able to save some one. On our arrival, we heard only cries of lamentation over the death of the bravest of the village. The enemy had retired after two hours of most obstinate fighting on both sides. There was but a single warrior of the Loups [Mohegans] left on the ground ; and I saw that a Barbarian, after cutting off his hands and feet, had flayed him, and was stripping the flesh from the bones for a hateful repast." This was to honor Aireskoi ! Tekakwitha, ever help- ful and ready to assist others, would probably be where Z) r 114 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. liii i ::: she was most needed at that time, — with the bereaved women who were seeking their dead, and with those who ministered to the wounded. No heart so quick as hers to turn with loathing from the hideous human sac- rifice that was being prepared outside the castle walls. With the good deeds of the blackgown Pierron hourly before her, and the sound of his voice often in her ears, — for this missionary could doctor as well as preach,* — she must have had constantly in her mind the thought of Rawenniio during this time of peril and anxiety, and would not fail to call in spirit on the God of the Chri-tians for assistance against the foe. The Mohegan army sat down before the castle, besieg- ing it for some days without effect, though there was much firing back and forth. The provisions they had brought with them were about exhausted and their munition well spent. Some of their people were sick, and they saw the impossibility of getting the stronghold by assault. So they broke up the siege, to the great relief of the imprisoned Mohawks, and retreated twenty miles in the direction of the Dutch settlements. This brought them to Kinaquariones,^ now called Towereune, a steep rocky hill on the north side of the Mohawk River. It is just above Hoffman's Ferry, nine English or three Dutch miles west of Schenectady ; there they temporarily entrenched themselves. The Mohawks, who did not know of this camp, though secure for the time 1 Pierron had ridiculed the practices of the sorcerers and r. tedicine- men so effectually that they no longer attempted to use their charms and spells in his presence. a See note of J. S. Clark in " Early Chapters of Mohawk History," by Dr. Hawley (no. xx., as printed in the " Ar.'oum Advertiser "). THE IIOHEGAN ATTACK. 115 being in their castle, felt that in any case no time should be lost in following up the enemy as soon as they could make the necessary preparation. The women of Caugh- nawaga, having laid aside their weapons, began at once to assist the warriors in making ready the supply of meal which according to custom was to be carried on the war-path. This was soon done, as they had but to ■add a little maple-sugar or other seasoning to the pounded corn, which they had already twice charred or dried for use on just such expeditions. The warriors of the Mohawk nation were now all assembled to go in pursuit of the Mohegans. Every man was fully armed ^nd equipped, and their deerskin pockets were well filled with the crushed corn. They put themselves under the leadership of the brave warrior Kryn, surnamed the '•Great Mohawk." His home was at Caughnawaga, and his valor and good management on this expedition won for him a new title, that of " Conqueror of the Mohe- gans." He and his fellow tribesmen now hastily bade adieu to their families, who, together with the black- gown Pierron, were to remain at the castle ; then they embarked in canoes on the Mohawk, and aided by the force of the current soon disappeared around the great bend of the river in the direction of old Osserne- non on the route to the pale-face settlements. Anxious «yes and thoughts followed them. The bravest of two warlike races were now likely at any moment to meet in a decisive conflict, and who dare foretell the result ? Not Tekakwitha, who waited in silence and concern ; nor her more voluble companions, whose anxiety took the form of restlessness. Having all done their share in defending the castle, they could now only watch and mmmmmmm 116 KATEKI TEKAKWITHA. 'S' ' l|! 1 wait, looking often in the direction of the vanished braves, and hoping for news of the expedition from chance stragglers. In the mean-time the women were free to go back and forth to the spring, to care for the wounded, and to prepare the bodies of the dead for burial. The day after the departure of the warriors there were rumors of a desperate battle in progress about twonty miles away ; and on the following day at three o'clock in the afternoon, came certain news of victory. It was a great triumph for the Mohawks or Caniengas, bra- vest of the bold Kanonsionni. Chickatabutt, the sachem of the Massachusetts, was slain. The noblest of the Mo- hegan warriors fell at his side. Those who escaped fled away to their distant kindred humbled and ashamed, with lamentations and mourning for the loss of most of their chief men. The Mohawks were greatly elated. The gloom that hung over Caughnawaga was changed to glad excitement. All prepared to welcome home the heroes of the battle of Kinaquariones. Father Pierron started at once and alone in the direction of the battle- field to visit the wounded. He wished also to manifest to the warriors his interest in their victory. He arrived on the spot before nightfall. The warriors were glad ta see him, and eager to relate all the particulars of the fight. This proved to be the last great battle between the Mohawks and the Mohegans. Its deeds of valor were told and retold for many a day at the Turtle Village and in Tekakwitha's hearing with all the usual boast- fuln 3S of the Indian. Pierron wrote a full account of all that happened from the time the Mohawk war-party set out from the castle in their canoes till they returned i.t; i u I 1 ! THE MOHEQAN ATTACK. 117 It to their homes in triumph. It is here given in his own words : — " Night overtaking thorn [the Mohawks] in their pur- suit, they sent in advance certain of their number in quest of the enemy, and quietly to discover the place where he was encamped. As the scouts came within sight of the spot, desiring a better view of the situation, they drew still nearer. But notwithstanding their groat caution, one of the Loups on guard close by, hearing a noise, gave the customary challenge, Koue, koue (this is the 'Who comes there)' of the savages); as there was no response and he saw nothing, he did not deem it necessary to give the alarm. From the report given by the spies on their return of the condition of the enemy, it was determined not to attack him in his lodging-place, where he appeared too well entrenched, but to prepare an ambush on the route it was believed he would take. In the execution of this plan, the Iroquois made a wide detour to lay their ambuscade in a cragged and most advantageous pass which commanded the only route in the direction of the Hollanders. In the morning the Loups decamped; and as they marched in single file, after the Indian custom, twelve of them fell unexpectedly into the ambuscade. A shower of balls of which they were all at once made aware, immediately put to flight those that the casualty had spar*"!. FrightfiU cries at once rang through the forest, and the Loups rallied at the same place •where they had encamped. The Iroquois pursued them with vigor. On overtaking them, they made a fierce as- tsault. The Loups at first made a stout resistance ; but the cowardice of some among them forcing the main body to recede before the fury of the Iroquois, ten of the whole band made a stand within their works to defend themselves I , (">*. lit* 1^ •■I' 118 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. unto death. This aew entrenchment greatly harassed our Agniea [MohawksJ but as they are an indefatigable and brave people, they did not lose courage nor the hope of driving out the enemy; and to succeed in this with the least peril, they made use of an old tree, which they found there, and which they carried in front of them for protec- tion. This they were able to do, instead of going up one by one to the place where the enemy was fortified. Their skill however did not avail them ; for notwithstanding this^ device, the Loups did not omit to open a heavy fire from all sides, killing and wounding a number of our people ; and the fight without doubt would have been still more disas- trous if night had not terminated it. Our Indians captured at the outset four women of the twenty-four who accom- panied the expedition, and six men subsequently in the heat of the combat. The next morning as they were ready to renew the attack,, they found that the enemy had made their escape during^ the night, and that they were left masters of the battle-field. The victors, following the custom of the savages, toma- hawked and scalped the Loups left on the place, and then took care to bur}' those of their own people who had been slain in the fight." The Mohawks declared that nearly a hundred war- riors on the side of the enemy had perished, either by the sword in the fray or by water in flight. " This was. probably an exaggeration," continues Pierron, " as only nineteen scalps were secured." ^ According to the story of the Mohegan captives, they lost fifty men on their side, thirteen falling on the field of battle ; while they killed altogether nearly forty of the Mohawks. * Gookin says of the Mohegans : "About fifty of their chief men» they confess, were slain in this fight ; but I suppose more." THE MOHEQAN ATTACK. 119 r Pierron thus describes the triumphal march back to Caughnawaga from the field of action : — " We left twsj days after the combat, in company with a large number, both those who had taken part in the fight and those who had come to look on. The victors bore the scalps well painted, at the end of long batons made to support their trophies. The captives, divided into several bands, marched with singing ; and as I perceived that one of the women had a sick infant which she carried at the breast, I thought I would do well to baptize it, seeing it was about to die." 11 ;i The blackgown accordingly took occasion to approach the mother as they were crossing a stream, caught up a handful of water, and saying the short baptismal words, poured it on the little head, which soon drooped in death. He had already instructed some of the captives, and in the course of a few days all of them asked for baptism. On first reaching the castle, the Mohegan prisoners of war were received and tortured in the UBual manner. Pierron could do nothing for them while the heat of passion and enmity toward the victims lasted ; but watching his chance he saw that they were left alone for a time on the torture scaffold, before being killed, surrounded still by the ghastly scalps of their companions. He at once led them down from the hate- ful platform, and took them into a cabin near by, to prepare them, if possible, for a Christian death. While he was speaking to them earnestly of their salvation, some of the Iroquois came and stood near, saying to one another, " Do you see how he loves our enemies ? " Some among them added, " He ought to leave them to 120 KATERI TEKAKWITUA. Willi ^ if burn in hell, — people who have done us so much evil." rierron, overhuariti},' this, tunied about, and seeing that a crowd of the villagers had assembled, caught up the words of the discontented Mohawks, and taking them for his text, explained so well and so forcibly the teach- ing of Christ on the Mount, that in a little while the Indians who had gathered about him were all of one mind, and declared that he did well to teach the cap- tives. They no longer interfered with his self-imposed task, but gave him ample time to instruct them. Before the doomed Mohegans were finally put to death, they all received baptism ; among them, we are told, was " one of the bravest and most celebrated warriors of that na- tion, who in the combat had slain with his own hand several Iroquois." Submitting to Pierron's influence, the fierce Mohawks did not grudge even to this warrior whatever happiness he might be able to secure, through the blackgown's ministrations, in another world. Little by little these Mohawks were veering round in the di- rection of Christianity, under the firm and steady but gentle guidance of their devoted missionary. Whether or not they were willing to listen, his stirring voice still rang in their ears ; and whether or not they realized the fact, it was certainly true that he was treated every day with more and more of respect and trust. The next important event that took place at Caughna- waga was the Feast of the Dead. Here again, though Tekakwitha was certainly present and must have known all that was going on, her biographers have given no account of it. Pierron, however, has taken care to write out a full description of this great feast; it occurred only once in ten years. He, of course, in his important 'jiii THE FEAST OF THE DEAD. 121 positiou as the representative among them both of Christianity and of his French countrymen, ileals only with what concerned the whole Mohawk nation. He had little or no time to note the changes that were taking place in the young Tekakwitha; no word had passed between the two since his return from Quebec. If she had aught to say to him, she was forbidden to say it. Likely enough he did not even recognize her wlien he saw her, though he may have remembered the appearance of a little maiden who some years before had lodged him at Gandawague. We who have followed the course of her life more closely, can easily single out Tekakwitha from the crowd that has gathered to witness the strange cere- monies that are taking place in the woods not far from the castle. The bones of all the friends and relations of these people who have died within the last ten years have been carefully and reverently cleaned, scraped, and collected together to be deposited in a common pit pre- pared for their reception. The best and richest of beaver- skins and other furs are freely brought forward, that the pit may be lined with their beautiful warm surfaces. It is at night, amid the wailing chants of the women and the flaming of torches, that the relics of the dead, with many a last caressing touch, are deposited in the great pit; they are encased in separate robes with precious gifts. There are many tragic demonstrations of grief. A weird, pathetic scene it is ; and it makes a estrange and lasting impression on the minds of the young people who witness it for the first time. After the pit has been filled and covered over, the women are to be seen trudging back and forth to the village with 122 KATERI TEKAKWITIIA. -•MNl > ft •nil hampers of food, to be deposited on the gigantic grave for the use of their departed friends. It is only after the Feast of the Dead is over that the soul is supposed to take its final journey to the spirit-land. Previous to this celebration they believe that it hovers near the body, which they expose on a baric scaffold, or else put in a sitting posture in a temporary grave covered lightly with bark or twigs. During the progress of this feast quite a dispute arises among the assembled chiefs concerning the treatment received by Pierron. He has been cor- dially invited to be present, and now stands among the dignitaries of the Mohawk nation in company with Tekakwitha's uncle and other chiefs. The blackgown lets no part of the ceremony escape his notice. Distin- guished guests from Oneida and Onondaga have placed themselves in separate groups, according to custom* An Onondaga chief has risen to make a speech. Near enougli to see and hear what is going on are the womer* of Caughnawaga, who so lately took part in the defence of the castle. Tekakwitha's blanket partly conceals her face, but she is quite as richly dressed as the other young squaws. What she does not see or hear directly she can quickly gather from the talk of those about her. When the Onondaga has finished speaking, the Mohawk cliiefs recount in turn the leading superstitions and fables of the nation ; they are well known already to most of the people, who only half listen to what is be- ing said. Presently there is a stir among the Mohawk dignitaries, which centres the attention of all within earshot on the group. Pierron, it seems, has ceased to be a silent listener to what passes. He begins in hi» Ml TIIK FEA8T OF THE DEAD. 1'J:J turn to tell fables, giving them hero and there an ex- tremely ridiculuus turn. In the midst of it he is abruptly ordered by one of the chiefs to bo silent. All are now eager to get at the truth of what has occurred. Some loudly upbraid the chief for his dis- courtesy ; others bitterly accuse Pierron of an untiniely interference witii their customs. They say that he has been openly ridiculing their beliefs; his mouth must be stopped at once. But PieiTon, knowing full well his influence with the people, and judiciously appealing to tiieir love of fair play, boldly addresses the offending chief in these words, now distinctly heard ^>y the lis- tening throng : " Dost thou know, indeed, that thou hast given me the keenest affront I could have re- ceived ? But who art thou to order me to be silent, and am I here to obey thee ? If I had treated thee after this sort at Quebec, wouldst thou not have had cause to complain; but in what have I spoken evil, that my mouth should be closed ? And if I speak tlie tnith, why art thou not willing to hear ? " The chief replied that it was their custom on these occasions to keep up their fables. Pierron stoutly rejoined : " It is your custom to get intoxicated ; honestly, is it a good custom, and ought I to approve it ? It is your custom to violate every law of reason, and to live as the beasts ; think you it is not my duty to reprove you for all these vices? And yet you impose silence upon me when I would speak to you. Is this reasonable ? " As Pierron and the chief could come to no agreement, the black- gown withdrew from among the Mohawks when the sing- ing began, and took his place in the group of Onondaga guests, who received him with marked respect. > 1 1. 1 (4^ •♦•■'J 'tn 124 KATERI TEKAKWITUA. M. ■I, The ceremony lasted five hours. When it was over Pierron returned at once to Caughnawaga village, leav- ing the Mohawks still in the forest on the spot where the solemnity was conducted. A rumor was circulated there to the effect that the blackgown meant to return to Quebec. It was not long before the brusque Mohawk chief who had given offence came to him in the village to offer an apology for his conduct, saying : " My brother, up to this hour we have actea toward each other as the two best friends in the world." Then placing his hand on his heart, he added: "Tell me then, frankly, in what humor is thy soul? They say that thou goest to Quebec, and will no more come to live with us. If this be so, I implore thee not to get us into difficulty with Onnontio ; for this would bring trouble upon thyself, if so many, both old and young, who greatly love and honor thee, should for this reason receive ill-treatment. Tell me, then, what is in thy heart, and what are thy sentiments?" Pierron, in a grave and serious manner seldom as- sumed by him, replied: "It has been told thee that I have an irritated mind and a heart full of grief. This is true, and thou kuowest well that thou art the cause ; thou hast treated me with the greatest indignity. Thou hast even presumed to impose silence when I would speak of the faith, which is the thing of all else, as thou art not ignorant, I have most at heart. Did it not con- fuse thee to see me so well received by the Onondagas, whom I did not know, driven out by those who pro- fessed to be our friends ? " After listening patiently till he was through, the chief said with earnestness : " My brother, I see what 'V • I THE FEAST OF THE DEAD. 125 is at the bottom of this quarrel ; it is that we are not yet Christians. But if thou wilt leave this important affair to me, I promise thee success. This is what thou must do: First convoke a council, and then having given three belts to our three families, at each present speak out thy mind. After this, leave me to act, and I trust all will go well." All did go well, to the great delight of Father Pier- ron. The old chief, who was high in authority, went to work so energetically, sending his nephews out in every direction, that he soon assembled all the grandees of the Mohawk nation in the cabin of Pierron. The black- gown did indeed speak out his mind with such decided effect that his words were received with loud cries of applause. He threw down a fathom of wampum, say- ing : " Agnid, my brother, if it is true that thou art will- ing to hear me, there is my voice, which warns thee and entreats thee wholly to renounce Agreskoue, and never speak to him, but to adore the true God and follow His law." He threw down a second fathom of wampum, to oblige the medicine men no more to invoke denu^is for the cure of diseases, but to use natural remedies. Again and again the speaker was applauded ; even the medicine men who were present in the assembly showed their good will on this occasion. The last present to destroy the superstition of the dances was received with no less acclamation than the other two. It was Pierron's moment of triumph, the reward of his unceasing efforts in their behalf! The whole Mohawk nation seemed ready to do his will. The council which met some days after, included the delegation from Onondaga. 'H-. i*»'.. 126 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. These distinguished strangers had just returned from the visit they made to the Dutch after taking part in the Feast of the Dead. Garaconti^, the chief of the Onondagas, himself soon to become a Christian, now raised his powerful voice in support of Pierron, saying to the people, " Take his word, for he has sacrificed all for you." The blackgown triumphed at last. The sorcerers of the village cast their turtle-shell rattles into the fire, the women no longer called in the medicine men to cure their diseases, no dances were allowed which were not approved by Pierron, and the oyanders (or nobles) brought tlieir youth in crowds to the chapel to be instructed. "What more could the blackgown wish ? Alas ! he knew the Indians too well ; and he adds in the moment of his success, " Their natural inconstancy still divides my heart between fear and joy." So far as Tekakwitha was concerned, no fear as yet disturbed the calm content of her spirit. The Lily of the Mohawks, quite unnoticed in the retirement of her lodge, was taking note of all these things, and was wax- ing fairer eveiy day in the sunny light of Eawenniio's presence in the land. The true God, the Great Spirit, they tell her, is now to be worshipped by all the people. She hears them cry out through the village, " Hail to Eawenniiol Down with sorcery ! Down with Aireskoi !" These words are like sweet music in the ears of Teka- kwitha. She is in a dream of happiness, a day-dream of the spirit. Her busy fingers drop their work, uncon- scious of this unaccustomed idleness ; her thoughts are all of God. Tekakwitha's first and last and only love is Eawenniio. She hears his voice, she feels his presence DEMON WORSHIP DISCARDED. 127 in the purer air she breathes, for Aireskoi has fallen from lus throne. In the quiet and seclusion of the bug- house, all alone, she hears tlie noises of the crowd out- side, like distant murmurs ; but the name of " the true God " echoes in her ears, and she is happy. Why not leave her so ? Let us not disturb her. Why should she be roused to suffer ? Must the Lily droop her head and thirst and die, like the rest of Eawenniio's flowers ? Alas! it must be so. But let us not forget that this Lily of the Mohawks has a soul, though it is still like a little bird that breathes and just begins to move, but has not tried its strength. In sorrow the wings of the soul are developed. When once they have grown strong, it will be easy for Tekakwitha to fly away through the door of death to Rawenniio. ■'P**! ,./ 128 EATEBI TEKAKWITUA. •St 'T CHAPTER XT. WILL TEKAKWITHA MARRY? " T T is time for Tekakwitha to marry," said her aunts. 1 Her uncle was of the same opinion. " She will make a desirable wife," they thought, "a docile and a useful one. It will be easy to liud a brave young hunter for her, who will be glad to live in the lodge of the leading chief at Caughnawaga. Then there will always be plenty of game brought to the lodge for food, and a good supply of furs to exchange at Albany for the goods of the cloth-workers." Thus the adopted parents of the young girl put their wise old heads to- gether, and soon Tekakwitha's peace of mind was sadly disturbed by their new-laid plans. Until now she had been happy in her own way. Her uncommon skill and natural ingenuity developed and found vent in her daily tasks, though sometimes, to be sure, they must have become wearisome and monotonous. It was she who pounded the Indian corn and made the soup or sagamite, day after day. This sagamite took the place of bread with the Indians. She also distributed the food when prepared to the members of the family, and saw that each per- son's dish was properly filled at the right time. Like all generous natures, she was accustomed to take more than her share of the burden, and likely enough, less than her share of the sagamite. Chauchetifere speaks more y WILL TEKAKWITHA MAKRY ? 129 than once of her esprit, her ready wit, and also of her skill. He says : — " Judging from the work which I have seen her do, it will be easy for me to affirm that she worked delicately in por- cupine and in elk-skin. She made the belts (or burden- straps) with which the Indian women and girls carry wood ; she made those which the old men use in conducting the affairs of the nation, which are composed of beads of porcelaine (wampum) ; and one of the occupations of the squaws is also to sew, since they have learned how to do it, either from those who have been slaves among them or from the wives of Christians from Europe. She knew well how to make certain ribbons which the savages make with the skins of eels or strong bark. She prepared these skins or this bark, . and she reddened them, applying the color with sturgeon paste, which is used very skilfully among the Iroquois. She knew more than other Iroquois girls, for she could make net>3 very well indeed and qnaisses (buckets which the savages use to draw water) ; thus her dexterity furnished her with plenty of occupation. Sometimes she was making a pestle or pounder for crushing Indian com, sometimes she was forming a mat out of bark, and again she was preparing poles on which to hang the ears of com." Although she was the youngest in her uncle's family, and was delicate from the time her mother died, she was always the first one at work and the last to take a holi- day. It was quite a trial to her, then, when she found — the first symptom of trouble to come — that she would no longer be allowed to spend her time as best pleased herself. Her aunts now insisted that she should wear her prettiest moccasins and all her orna- ments, and that she should go with them to dances and 130 KATEKI TEKAKWITHA. • > ■f** »«». ■"•fc^ feasts, for which she had a distaste and some features of which were loathsome to her. She was so accustomed, from an inborn sense of duty, to obey those who stood to her in the place of father and mother, that she went as far toward fulhlling their wishes in regard to her costume and her attendance at popular amusements as her extreme timidity and acute sense of modesty would allow. These last-mentioned qualities were among her most marked characteristics. Her aunts, whose natures were of a very different fibre from her own, could have had little or no thought how this compliance on her part out of respect for them distressed her. Although it could scarcely have cast the faintest shadow of a mist across the whiteness of her soul, she was known long afterwards to regret and to grieve bitterly for this indulgence in little vanities. Her aunts could not and did not try to understand her. They thought she was queer. It seemed strange to them that Tekakwitha took so little pleasure in the festive customs of the Mohawks. They decided that it was due to her Algonquin origin. In other words, she was like her mother. So much the worse for her. It would have pleased them better to have had her resemble her father's family. But after all, the Algon- quins were a gentle, yielding race, and they thought they would soon bend her to their will. When they stated plainly the object they had in view in thus bring- ing her forward, — which was that she should marry, — Tekakwitha's whole nature was roused to resistance at the mere mention of such a thing, and every power of her soul was brought into action to thwart their plan. Though long accustomed to be docile and obey, she showed at this WILL T£KAKWnUA MAKKYi 131 time a sudden development of will, with inherent force to mould its own fate, and a strength of ciiaracter that had not before asserted itself. This must have proved to her aunts that after all there was something of the Mohawk in her nature. Sure of her own natural and inalienable right to decide for herself in this impor- tant question, she was unconquerable. This is clearly shown in the struggle of will against will, in which she was now enlisted and in which the odds were decidedly against her. But though bur whole nature was roused .at the well-meant, though in this case unwelcome and premature proposition of her aunts, Tekakwitha was too wise and too self-poised to break at once into open rebellion. She did not announce her secret determi- nation to go through fire aud water, if necessary, rather than submit to the plan of her relatives. Why she did not wish to marry was perhaps at that time as much a mystery to herself as to others ; but the fact remained. She could not and would not think of it for a moment. "When, therefore, they proposed to establish her in life," says Cholenec, " she excused herself under different pretexts, alleging, above all, he'* extreme youth and the little inclination she had to enter into marriage. The relatives seemed to approve of these reasons;" but the matter was not allowed to rest for any length of time. Charlevoix tells us that she made an energetic resistance to all offers. For the moment it was not insisted upon; but soon they returned to the charge, and to spare themselves the trouble of listening to her remonsti-ances, engaged her without her knowledge to a young man. As his alliance appeared desirable to the family of the chief, the proposition was made, according !: ]. I I: i \ to r 132 KATERI TEKAKWITIIA. I ■i. r \ • to custom, both to him and to the members of his fam- ily ; while Tekakwitha alone, the very one to whom it was of the utmost consequence, was kept in entire ignorance of the proceeding. This was easily done, ow- ing to her habitual seclusion and the peculiar custom of the country. " WiieiiGver marriage is in agitation," to use once more the words of Cholenec, " the business is to be settled by the parents, and the parties moat interested are not even permitted to meet. It is sufficient that they are talking of the marriage of a young Indian with a young^ female to induce them with care to shun seeing and speaking with each other. When the parents on both sides have agreed, the young man comes by night to- the wigwam of his future spouse and seats himself near her ; which is the same as declaring that he takes her for his wife and she takes him for her husband." The bride then presents the young man with sagamite or corn- cakes and sometimes with wood, in token of what is to be her duty in the lodge. He, on his part, sends presents of beaver-skins to the family of the bride. Thus mar- riages were made among the Iroquois Indians. Tekakwitha's relations, not knowing the force of the young girl's will, decided among themselves that the shortest and easiest way to overcome her unaccountable opposition would be to take her by surprise. They did not even allow her to choose the pereon to whom she was to be united. They desired to entrap her unaware into the simple and silent ceremony of an Iroquoia marriage. Thus her fate would be sealed and she forced to submit. Would she be able to thwart thia wicked plan ? And what effect would it be likely to WILL TEKAKWITHA MARHY ' 133 if liave on her future conduct ? Her aunts acted coldly and harshly in this momentous matter, quite Uisret^ard* ing her rights and her feelings. Tliey felt too conKdent of success to look beyond the present momenl, or else they presumed very far indeed on her well-known sweet temper and kindly disposition. Chanchetifere, who received his information chiefly from Tegonhatsihongo, says of her character and repu- tation at this time : — " She was neither vicious, nor a gad-about, nor a great chatterer, nor idle, nor proud, which is a cummon vice among the young savages. She was not attached to visions nor to dreams, neither had she ever cared much to assist at dances or games ; and she had shown on several occasions that she was prudent; but she was naturally timid, not daring to show herself when there was need that she should." Tekakwitha sat one evening on a low seat by the fire, — her own lodge-seat, which had been assigned to her by the chief matron in her uncle's household. The light of the blazing fagots before her played on her l)eaded moccasins and showed off to advantage her richly embroidered skirt. In her sitting posture it hung far over and half concealed her pretty leggings. Strings of wampum beads in curious devices were about her neck, and the end of a long rich scarf or girdle •which she wore lay on the ground beside her. Her work for the day was done, and she had donned these things in obedience to her aunt's desire. Why, she did not know, and little cared. They often had company ; then why not to-night ? One of her aunts had given to 134 KATERI TEKAKWITllA. * I the finishing touch to her costume, and dressed her hair with her own hands. It was not by any means tlie. first time she had done so. The guests, whoever they might prove to be, seemed to have changed their minds and gone elsewhere, for slie vrus now left quite to her- self. She was just weary enough to enjoy fully the rest and quiet, and was thinking perhaps of a piattern which she intended to work into a wampum belt for her uncle to be used in making a treaty, — likely enough it would be for the treaty of peace between the Mohawks and Mohegans which was brought about after the battle of Kinaquariones, by the people of Albany. Or she may have had in mind, as she sat there musing by the fireside, one of the blackgown's pictures which she had lately seen. If she had noticed at all the rich gift of furs that had been brought to the lodge and carefully put away, she never suspected that it was meant for a wedding present from the family of a young man for whom her aunts had expressed great esteem. But now,, while her thoughts are far from any such idea, the young man who desires her for his wife, and who ha» been kept by the laws of Indian decorum from ap- proaching her for some time past or addressing her himself on the subject, enters the wigwam in holiday attire. He is accompanied by some of his relatives,, whilst those of Tekakwitha step forward to receive them. The eye of the young Indian kindles with pleasure at sight of his bride so gayly bedecked with all the insignia of her rank. Her apparent unconcern at what is passing he easily attributes either to maiden coyness or Indian stoicism. Besides, all know that she ia extremely shy. So, with ready assurance of a welcome. fc' WILL TEKAKWITHA MAKKY f 185 he walks quickly toward her, and seats himself in si- lence by her side. Tekakwitha, utterly taken by sur- j>rise, is for a moment bewildered, disconcerted. Her aunts now bid her present the young man with some sagamite.^ In a moment she realizes what they arc doing, — that in spite of herself she is taking part in her own wedding. The hot blood rushes to her face. Slie blushes, but gives no other sign of what is in her mind. What can she do ? For an instant she is in an agony of suspense. Then, with quick determination, she rises abruptly, and all aHame with indignation, passes, quick as thought, out of the long-house. Could her relatives have fancied she had risen to do their bidding ? Her aunts knew better. Unflinchingly she had met their scowling looks, and felt the keen, fierce eye of her uncle upon her as she moved toward the door. Had her path been over red-hot coals, it would have made no differ- ence then to Tekakwitha. Her only and overmastering impulse was to escape at all hazards, — no matter how nor where. Once out of the stifling air of the cabin, she hurried on and on, taking an accustomed path, out of mere force of habit, till it brought her to the familiar corn-fields. There, breathless and trembling, she hid herself away, with a prayer to Rawenniio to save her from the young hunter whom she did not want, and also from the angry eyes of her relatives, which like burning irons pierced her heart. Soon they came to seek her, and urged her with threats and with entreaty to go back to the cabin. They had made excuses for her absence: and if she would but return with them ^ For marriage ceremonies see Lafitau, — " Mceurs des Sauvages," vol. i. p. 566 ; " De la Potherie," vol. iii. p. 14. k !J0 m' i;)6 KATEUl TEKAKWITHA. m •i now, all would yet be well. Tekukwitha, who was by this tiiuc calm aud collected, replied ([uietly but finnly that she would not enter the lodge at all while the young man was there. Finding it impossible to move her, tlioy returned and explained the affair as best they could to the relatives of the now indignant young hunter. He had been no lesis surprised at her strange conduct than slie had been at his unexpected errand to the lodge. There was no course left for him but to with- draw. She then returned to the lodge, and having borne the brunt of angry words with which she was received, retired wearily to rest in the angry silence which followed. It was many and many a long day to Tekakwitha before the storm which she thus raised about her own head had spent its fury in a series of domestic persecu- tions, till at last it was lulled to rest by the calm en- durance of her firm but gentle spirit. Several times after this her relatives tried to force her into marriage. On one occasion she adroitly hid behind a case of In- dian corn. " In everything else," says Chauchetifere, " she was good, industrious, peaceable, and agreeable. When she chose to give the word for a laugh, none ever had aught to complain of, and they liked her company. She never resented the raillery which was constantly aimed at her on account of her desire to remain un- married. Her good-nature exempted her at this time from several difficulties into which she would have fallen if she had not been possessed of natural patience, and if she had not liked better to suffer everything herself rather than to make othera suffer." Cholenec further says that the firmness of Tekakwitha rendered WILL TEKAKWITIIA MAURY? l:]i her relatives outrageous, for they felt as though they had received an insult " Artifice not having proved succossful, they hud rccuurso to violence. They now treated her an a slave, ubligiiig hur to do everything which wus most painful and repulsive, uud malignantly interpreting all her actions, even when most in* ocent. They reproached her without ceasing for tho wnnt of attachment to her relations, her uncouth manners, and her stupidity, for it was thus that they termed the dishke she felt to marriage. They attributed it to a secret hatred of tlie Iroquois nation, because she was herself of the Algon< quin race. In short, they omitted no means of shaking her constancy. The young girl sutl'ered all this ill treatment with unwearied patience, and without ever losing anything of her equanimity of mind or her natural sweetness ; she rendered them all the services they required with an atten- tion and docility beyond her years and strength. By de- grees her relatives were softened, restored to her their kind feelings, and did not further molest her in regard to the course she had adopted." A custom of the Indians in which Tekakwitha must have taken part about this time, with the other Mohawk girls of her age, was the Corn-Feast.* On this supposi- tion a brief description is here given of what was ever one of the merriest of their celebrations. The redmen, with the true poetic spirit of Nature's children, distin- guished the various times of the year as the sturgeon month or moon, the beaver-month, the bear-month, and ■80 on, according to the kind of hunting or fishing then in progress ; while the different seasons were known as * For an account of the Corn-Feast and its attendant merry-making, «ee Schoolcraft's " Red Race." \\ ■••v. 138 KATEIII TEKAKWITHA. the time when strawberries or chestnuts blossom, or as the time of corn-planting and when it is ripe. It was when the corn was ripe that the Corn-Feast began. The plentiful crop of Indian maize was gath- ered together in one place, and the Mohawk girls as- sembled with laug 1 and song to celebrate the harvest- The festival took p^ace in a field in the open air. The warriors and old men, not deigning to take part in this woman's frolic, sat at one side, tiiough not far away, and lazily smoked their pipes. They only betrayed now and then, and by the merest twinkle of an eye, that they took any notice of what was going on. The aged squaws- hung on the outskirts of the group of girls, urging them on with jests and .shrill screams of laughter. The young squaws were busily employed husking the ears of corn,, and throwing them together into heaps, after which they braided them into bunches of twenty * to be hung up and dried. This is preparatory to shelling, pounding,, and making the corn into cakes of fine flour for future use. But the part of the whole process which pleases^ the young squaws best is the husking. They sing to- gether snatches of song, and toss the ears of corn gayly~ from one to another. All the while they keep a keen eye on each separate ear as the soft husk is torn from it, and the silky tassels fall loosely away from the thick set rows of juicy kernels. But what has happened to* Tekakwitha there in the midst of them ? How they * See Lewis H. Morgan on the Indian Collection in the State Cahi- net of Notnral History, etc. His K«jK)rt for 1850 gives many details- concerning the domestic customs and industries of the Iroquois. He- rrantions three varieties of com, — white, red, and white flint, — and tells how they pivpared it for use. I WILL TEKAKWITHA MARRY? 13» shout with laughter ! Why is she blushing so ? In her hand she holds a bright red ear of corn instead of a white one, and a saucy girl calls out the name of a young hunter, — most likely of the one from whom Teka- kwitha so recently hid away. A red ear of corn is always the sign of a brave admirer. That is why it is watched for so eagerly. " Here he is," they say to the bashful girl ; " see, he has come to woo you again ! " She, who is easiest teased of them all on a subject like this, feels like running away once more to escape their jests^ or throwing the ear of corn at the saucy girl. But she is brave though shy, and a maker of fun herself; so she does not move, but keeps her eyes weU open and awaits her chance. As good fortune would have it, she soon spies her mischievous companion unsheathing a crooked ear of corn, tapering to a point and quite bent over, like a queer little man. " Wagemin ! wagemin ! " she calls out to the unlucky girl, " Wagemin ! Paimosaid ! " Although they have often plagued Tekakwitha in the lodge with being Algonquin rather than Mohawk, she does not hesi- tate on this occasion to recall the song of her mother's race, " Wagemin I wagemin ! Paimosaid 1 " — which are the words sung in the North and West when a crooked ear of corn is found. Enough of Algonquin tradition, learned from their captives, lingered among the Mo- hawks for them to understand these words, which mean,. " The little old corn-thief, — walker at night ! " The laugh is now on the saucy girl who called at- tention to Tekakwitha. Then catching at the sugges- tion conveyed by the word " Wagemin ! " they break forth gayly into the cereal chorus of the Algonquin Corn-Song, Playfully and with many gestures words like those which. ■1. . t 1:3 140 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. follow are recited by oue of the girls, alternating again and again with the chorus. Schoolcraft's version of the merry Indian Corn-Song is as follows : — i: m , . t - \ ' Cereal Chorus. Wtigemin ! wagemin ! Thief in the blade, Blight of the corn-field, Paimosaid ! •Recitative. See you not traces while pulling the leaf, Plainly depicting the taker and thief ] See you not signs by the ring and the spot, How the man crouched as he crept in the lot ? Is it not plain, by this mark on the stalk, That he was heavily bent in his walk ? Old man, be nimble ! The old should be good, But thou art a cowardly thief of the wood. Chorus. Wagemin t wagemin I etc. Where, little taker of things not your own, — Where is your rattle, your drum, and your bone I Surely a walker so nimble of speed, — Surely he must be a juggler indeed. See how he stoops as he breaks off the ear ! Nushka! he seems for a moment to fear. Walker, be nimble, — oh, walker, be brief ! Hooh ! it is plain the old man is the thief. Chorus. Wagemin! wagemin! etc. Wabuma I corn-taker, why do you lag ? None but the stars see you, — fill up your Why do you linger to gaze as you pull ? Tell me, my little man, is it most full ? A — tia ! see, a red spot on the leaf, Surely a warrior can't be a thief ! 1 ,1^ again Song WILL TEKAKWITHA MARRY? Ah, little night-thief, be deer your pursuit, And leave liere no print of your dastardly foot. Chorus. Wrtgeminl igeniin! Thief in the blade, Bliyht of the corn-field, Paimosaid ! 141 ■ft ' ■I 1^ 142 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. •I' « M f " 'A\ ■ CHAPTER XII. THE NEW COLONY OF CHRISTIAN INDIANS ON THE ST. LAWRENCE. — THE "GREAT MOHAWK" GOES TO CANADA. TEKAKWITHA was quite old enough to have de- cided opinions of her own on whatever con- cerned her individual life. She had also proved in her recent struggle cliat she possessed sufficient strength of will to act upon her convictions. Some of these con- victions she had never yet mentioned to any one, but she had for some time fully made up her mind to take a <\ecided step. She was only waiting a favorable oppor- tunity to declare her determination to become a Chris- tian. She felt that this would not be an easy thing to do ; for besides her strong propensity to shrink as much as possible from all observation, she saw that her un- cle was becoming every day more bitter in his opposi- tion to the teachings of the blaekgowns. The Feast of the Dead in 1669 was closely followed by a public renunciation, in the Mohawk country, of Aireskoi, or demon-worship. This was accompanied by the burning of charms, turtle-shell rattles, and other badges used by the medicine-men. Similar ceremonies took place about the same time, among the Onondagas and in other parts «:r the Long House of the Five Na- tions. " Paganism had fallen. Aireskoi was disowned, and his name is not even known in our days among the THE NEW COLONY OF CHRISTIAN INDIANS. 143 Iroquois. The next step of the missionaries was to dniplant Christian truth and Christian feeling in their hearts."* This waa another and more difficult ta.^k. Though the Iroquois Indians of the Five Nations have not since worshipped any other than the Great Spirit or true God, kno>vn in the Mohawk language as lia- wenniio; and though the sacrifices to Aireskoi cea.sed in the Mohawk Valley after the great Feast of the Dead, in 1669, — practically the life of the Mohawks was still pagan in almost every other respect. Father PieiTon, ,at Tionnontogen, or Saint Mary's, and his assistant Father Boniface, who took charge of a small bark chapel called St. Peter's, which the Indians themselves built at Caugh- nawaga Castle, both continued their missionary labors ^ith unabated zeal, but for some time they had only partial success. In 1670 eighty-four baptisms were re- -corded. That same year, in June, the great Onondaga chief, Garaconti^, was solemnly baptized at Quebec. It was hoped that other chiefs of the Iroquois would soon follow his example. Father Bruyas, who on first coming among the People of the Long House had been lodged three days in the cahin of Tekakwitha's uncle, came back from the Oneida -country in 1671. He was made superior of the Mo- hawk mission in place of Pierron. This missionary, the painter of pictures and the inventor of games, received orders to return to Canada to take charge of a new vil- lage of Christian Indians which was then being formed on the south bank of the St. Lawrence. As the latter part of Tekakwitha's life was closely connected with the growth and development of this new Christian colony 1 Shea's Hijtory of the Catholic Missions, chap. xiv. p. 267. ft. J 144 KATERI TEKAKVVITHA. ci; mi i f ' 4 i '% of Indians in Canada, and as we shall have occasion frequently to allude to it, some further account of it will not be out of place here. The site first chosen was- at La Prairie de la Madeleine just across a broad swell of the river from Montreal on a tract of land belonging to the Jesuits and hitherto untenanted. The Canadians called this Indian settlement St. Francois Xavier des Pres; and a little later, when that same mission was moved up close to the great Lachine Rapids in the St. Lawrence Biver, it was knovv n as St. Franc^ois Xavier du Sault, which last is in reality nothing more thun the Indian name of Caughnawaga put into French and still meaning "At the Rapids." This Christian settlement was started by the temporary sojourn at La Prairie of several Qneidas and Mohawks, who had been on a visit to Quebec and Montreal. They were attracted to the spot by Father Raffeix, who built a little chapel there. It grew by accessions from among the Five Nations, and wus encouraged by the French government, in the hope of thus gaining useful allies. Indians who came first from curiosity or for temporary shelter and hospitality afterwards settled there, with their families and friends. The Jesuit Fathers on their part were much pleased witVi the growth of this village, and took occasion to make of it a distinct settlement of Christian Indians. It soon became a general rendezvous for their converts from among the different nations and tribes of Indians, many of whom by residing there were quite withdrawn from the contagious pagan influences which surrounded them in their own country. All who went to live at St. Francois Xavier du Sault were obliged to renounce, with solemn promises, these three things, — first, the THE NEW COLONY OF CHRISTIAN INDIANS. 145 idolatry of dreams ; second, the changing of wives, a practice in vogue at Iroquois feasts ; and third, drunk- enness. Any one among them known to have relapsed into any of these practices was expelled at once from the settlement by the ruling chiefs. These were chosen by the Indians themselves from among the more fervent Christians. They were generally men who had ranked high in their own country, and who were attracted to the Praying Castle, as it was called, either from motives purely religious or on account of some bereavement or disappointment experienced in their old homes. Several of these Christian chiefs were famous characters in the history of the time. Two of them, Kryn and Hot Ashes, are closely connected with the life of Tekakwitha. Kryn, the " great Mohawk," has already been men- tioned in connection with the battle of Kinaquariones. His Christian name was Joseph, and his Indian name Togouiroui. He was also called the conqueror of the Mohegans. He dwelt with his wife at Caughnawaga on the Mohawk, and they had " an only daughter whose bright disposition made all in the town love her." After some difficulty with his wife on account of this child, he deserted her and went off for a long journey. The mother, it seems, had been converted by Father Boniface, and had declared herself a Christian just six months before she was thus deserted. Soon after the departure of her husband she was severely tried by the death of her daughter. This little girl had been her only con- solation and hope after she was forsaken by Kryn. Her friends now blamed her for adopting strange customo, saying it was that which had made her husband leave her and which had caused the death of her child. In 146 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. f ^'t spite of all this, Kryn's wife became more devoted than ever to her new faith. She was seen going to the little bark chapel of St. Peter's every night and morning, and often received the sacraments from the hands of Father Boniface. First as assistant to Pierron, and now under Bruyau, he still carried on the mission at Caughnawaga. In course of time he became very successful in winning the Mohawks of that place to Christianity. Thirty adults were baptized within a short time. After the morning and evening prayers at the chapel, a choir of children sang hymns in the Iroquois language ; and every Sunday the primitive Christian love-feast, or ceremony of blessed bread, took place in the cabin of a pious Mo- hawk woman. At Christmas time the little bark chapel at Caughna- waga was aglow with lights and bedecked with ever- greens. All day long the people of the Turtle village, much changed in mind since the torture and murder of Isaac Jogues, stole silently in and out of St. Peter's rustic shrine. The cross, considered uncanny and strange in the days of Goupil, had at last become a familiar sign among the Turtles in the Mohawk Valley. The crowd that gathered at the chapel door on Christmas day looked up at it again and again as they stood out in the snow and the cold December blast, wsiting patiently for an opportunity to enter. There in the chapel Father Boni- face had placed a fair little statue of the infant Jesus* lying in his wretched manger on the straw. This Christ* mas crib was a strange and woEderful sight to the simple Indians. Those who had become Christians told and retold the Bethlehem story in all its details to the curi- ous people who gathered about the image of the little rii' THE "GREAT MOHAWK" GOES TO CANADA. 147 w Christ child to gaze and wonder. Tekakwitha saw and heard all that was going on at the chapel, but said nothing; her aunts were there also, and her adopted sister. Tegonhatsiliongo, whose Christian name was Anastasia, would of course be present on such an occa- sion, and also the family of Kryn. The wife of the " great Mohawk," having chosen her part and received baptism, now maintained her ground with courage. Deserted and childless, she held firmly to her new- found faith, notwithstanding the abuse she received from friends and neighbors. "Soon after this storm," says good Father Boniface, " God rewarded her fidelity ; for in place of the little girl whom he had taken from her, He gave her back her husband a Christian." Kryn, in his wanderings, had by chance strayed into the new village at La Prairie ; there he met Father Fre- min, who with Pierron and Bruyas had formerly been Tekakwitha's guests. Kryn listened to all that Fremin had to say to him, having known and respected him ■during his brief stay in the Mohawk country, when the mission was first begun after De Tracy's expedition. The " great Mohawk " resolved to become a Christian ; furthermore, he decided that the best way for him to remain a Christian, and to become a good one, would be to join the new Indian settlement in the land of the French.^ He was a natural leader of men, bold and 1 Kryn became strongly attached to his Canadian friends. He sided -with them in the war which broke out some years later between the French and the English colonies. The massacre at Lachine in 1689 roused the old warrior who had conquered the Mohegans (in 1669) to aid in avenging his white allies. On Schenectady, in 1690, fell the l)loody act of retribution. Kryn was there. Later that same year, on « war-party near Salmon River, he was killed. 1"H 1S» 148 KATERI TEKAEWITUA. u ?' uncompromising; he had a lurge following among his own people on the Mohawk. His next move, there- fore, after becoming a Christian, was to return to his old home to find his forsaken wife, and to announce publicly the views he had embraced during his absence. The people gathered with interest and amazement to hear what their old leader had to say. None dared oppose him when he proclaimed his determination to leave everything that could draw him back to his old manner of life, and offered to lead all who would follow him to La Prairie, on the bank of the St. Lawrence. He gave his friends but brief time to consider his words and to make hurried preparations for a journey ; then, at break of day, the wild gathering-cry of the " great Mo- hawk " resounded once more, as of old, through the streets of Caughnawaga Castle. All knew it well, for time and time again it had called them out to battle. With a strange thrill and start of alarm they heard it once more ; but only those in the village who were baptized, both men and women, or who meant soon to become Christians, rallied about him now ; nor even all of these, for in that case Tekakwitha would have been of the number. A band of thirty or forty gathered at his call, and with a sad, hurried farewell to their friends, their homes, and the valley, they turned and followed in the footsteps of Kryn, who thus led them away into exile. Shea well calls these Indians "a noble band of pilgrims for religion's sake." Tekakwitha's adopted sister probably went either with this baud or with those who accompanied Father Boni- fefce to Canada a little later ; for soon after this event we learn that she was living at St. Francois Xavier 1i 1 THE "GREAT MOHAWK" GOES TO CANADA. 149 du Sault with her husband ; that they were both Chris- tians, and tliat Anastasia Tegonhatsiliongo also dwelt there and in the same cabin with thcin. The health of Father Boniface was completely broken down by the hardships he had undergone among the Mohawks ; so he too left Caughnawaga. He went to Canada in June, 1673, taking many of his neophytes with him as far as the Sault ; he died at Quebec the next year, sur- rounded by his old comrades and friends. The people of Albany and Schenectady, at the time of these migrations, had too much to do at home to give more than a sidelong glance at what was occurring at the neighboring Indian castle ; otherwise the Dutch and English settlers of the province would probably have shown some inclination to resent on the part of the French their efforts to attract the Mohawks to the vicinity of Montreal, as it was likely to interfere with their influence among the redmen, and above all with their highly prized rights in the fur-trade. Some time before this, the Albanians had succeeded in bringing about a treaty of peace between the Mohegans and the Mohawks. Thereupon these last had begun to indulge very freely in the purchase of liquor at Fort Orange ; they even carried kegs of it with them to their fishing- villages. This filled the pockets of the Dutch settlers, but it also brought on a severe form of illness among the Mohawks, — a quick and fatal fever, — which gave much occupation to the blackgowns, especially as the services of the medicine men were at this time often rejected; thus the influence of the missionaries was still further increased. Next, there was a dis- turbance in the government. The Dutch, taking the i| %] '^ ^ 'w 160 KAT£RI TEKAKWITHA. :m English by surprise, in 1673, regained possession of the province ; that very year a large l)and of the Mohawka left for Canada. To make matters worse for the inter- ests of the Albanians, a vessel with supplies for the Indian trade, which they were for along while expecting from Holland, did not arrive; this caused them to put a higher price on the goods they were accustomed to sell to the Mohawks, many of whom on that account turned to Canada for their purchases. In 1674, when Tekakwitha was in her eighteenth year, and when Boniface, after having resigned his cliarge at Caughnawaga, was slowly dying at Quebec, the English came once more into power at Albany, and governed the city thenceforth. During these various changes Tekakwitha's uncle kept up his connection with his Dutch neighbors, invariably trading at Albany. He was angered almost beyond endurance at the depar- ture of Kryn and of Boniface with so many of his townspeople. He joined with those who bitterly ac- cused Bruy&9, their only remaining blackgown, of a plan to break up the nation. Bruyas protested that he had had nothing at all to do with the affair, and threw the responsibility of the migration mainly upon their own chief the " great Mohawk," whose example so many had followed. He took occasion at the same time to remind those who remained of their vices, which he said were driving away the noblest of their tribesmen. He succeeded in pacifying them for a time ; but soon Assendas^, an aged and important chief at the capital of the Mohawk country, delighted the heart of the mis- sionary, and at the same time rearoused the hostility of the unbelieving Indians, by becoming a Christian. In / TU£ ''GREAT MOUAWK" GOES TO CANADA. 151 1675 Assendas^ died at Tionnontogen, to the great grief of 1 ather Bruyas. About the same time Father James de liiniberville arrived to take charge of St. Peter's chapel and the mission of Boniface; it included both the Turtle Castle of Caughnawaga on the Cayudutta and the adjacent Castle of tiie Bears called Andagorou. This castle was no longer on the south side of the river, but since De Tracy's expedition had been rebuilt on the north bank opposite to its old site. It was to Father de Lamberville that the niece of the Mohawk chief spoke out the wo^ds that had long lain nearest to her heart. it) \i.'tf •'i.iBB.'J ' ""■ l!l"F««"»'^^^w 162 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. CHAPTER XIII. >■•■ ' -■•^ TEKAKWITHA MEETS DE LAMBERVILLE. — IMPOSING CEREMONY IN THE BAKK CHAPEL. TEKAKWITHA was eighteen years old, and was still classed among the pagan or infidel Indians, as distinguished from the Christians. She had injured her foot severely ; she could not now leave the cabin, and sat idle one bright sunny day while the other women were hard at work in the corn-fields down by the river. She was unaWo to walk as far as the spring in the cove just below the castle, and bring up the d^^ily supply of water for the lodge ; nor could she gather fag- ots enough to prepare the evening meal, though she knew fc! at all would return at dusk hungry and weary from their work. A few women, with some old people burdened with ailments of various kinds, were also in the village. Two or three of these had strayed into the chiefs cabin, and were sitting with Tekakwitha when Father de Lamberville, who had been only a short time in the Mohawk country, passed slowly along through the rows of long, low bark-covered houses forming the Turtle Village. Caughnawaga was well-nigh deserted by its people that day, and seemed fast asleep, so still were its streets. The missionary was taking advantage of this occasion to visit the old and the sick who chanced to be in their cabins, that he might instruct them at his 1 !:>: TEKAKWITHA MEETS DE LAMBERVILLE. 153 leisure. He had no thought of entering the lodge of Tekakwitha. He knew that the chief who hved there disliked the Frenchmen who came down from Montreal ; and besides, he supposed the house would be empty as usual at such times. Its inhabitants were known to be busy and thrifty people ; they were doubtless at work in the fields. He passed close to the doorway of the cabin with eyes downcast, intent on his own quiet thoughts. He wore the long black cassock of his order, and carried a crucifix in his girdle like those worn by the three who had lodged with the chief when he lived at Gandawague on Auries Creek. The shadow of De Laraberville falling across the open doorway caused Tekakwitha to look up, and she saw him moving calmly on outside in the sunlight. Darkness brooded over the Mohawk girl where she sat, far back in the depths of the dreary cabin. Her heart was weary with waiting. It may have been that her mother's spirit hovered about just then, and renewed its prayer ; or, whatever may have caused it, the blackgown's train of thought was disturbed. He raised his eyes ; he stood a moment at the doorway, and " il fut pouss^ a y entrer," says the old manuscript, — a sudden irresistible impulse caused hint to enter. Lo I at the blackgown's approach the petals of this Lily of Caughnawaga opened wider than ever be- fore. Those who were present on that eventful day saw for the first time to the innermost depths of Teka- kwitha's soul, far down to its golden centre, enfolded so long in shadowy whiteness that no one suspected its hidden growth of beauty. Chauchetifere says : • — '* There he found Tekakwitha. Never was an encounter more fortunate on the side of the girl, who wished to speak •'*>% a 154 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. f ~ *« *«!( to the Father, and who dared not go to seek him ; on the side of tiie Father, who found a treasure where he expected to find no one." Charlevoix tells us that Tekakwitha — "could not dissemble the joy which this visit caused her^ and hastened to open her heart to the Father in the presence even of two or three women who were keeping her company, and to testify to him her earnest desire of embracing Chris- tianity. She added that she would have great obstacles to overcome in order to succeed in her intention, but that nothing should deter her. The ardor with which she spoke, the courage she evinced, and a certain air, at once modest yet resolute, which appeared on her face, proved to the mis- sionary that his new proselyte would be a Christian of no common order ; therefore he instructed her in many things of which he did not speak to all whom he was preparing for baptism. God doubtless establishes between hearts, the pos- session of which he has specially reserved to himself, a sort of spiritual sympathy which forms, even in this life, the sacred bond which is to unite them eternally in glory. Father de Lamberville, whom I well knew," continues Charlevoix, '* was one of the holiest missionaries of Canada, or New France, as it was then called, where he died at Sault St. Louis, as it were in the arms of Charity, worn out with toils, sufferings, and penance. He has often told me that from the first interview he had with Tegahkouita, he thought he perceived that Cod had great designs upon her soul; however, he would not hasten her baptism, but took all those precautions which experience had taught to be so necessary, in order to be certain of the savages before administering to them the sacrament of regeneration." As soon as Tekakwitha had recovered from the wound in lier foot, which had occasioned her encounter with the !1 TEKAKWITHA MEETS DE LAMBEKVILLE. 15S blackgown, she began to attend the morning and evening prayers at the cLapel, in accordance with Fatlier de Lamberville's advice. As often and as regularly as the sun rose and set, she was now to be seen on her way to St. Peter's. Chauchetifere says : — " At first they did not give her any trouble ; they let her go and come to say her prayers like the others ; and some have believed that if this cabin was not opposed to prayer when Catherine was in it, it might have come from the good custom which the mother of Catherine, that good Algon- quin of whom we have spoken, retained there up to the time of her death, and these infidels were accustomed to see praying." So far as Tekakwitha was concerned, the winter which followed these events passed quietly away in preparation for her baptism. She performed her usual duties in the cabin, and her aunts did not molest her on the subject of religion. According to one account, they had become Christians themselves, though this is contradicted else- where. The young girl was present at the instructions given to catechumens, and learned all the prayers with great facility and a marvellous avidity, in the hope that . the Father would hasten her baptism. " The missionaries before the baptism of adults took care to inform themselves, secretly, of their manners and conduct. Father de Lamberville questioned all who knew Tegahkouita, and was greatly surprised to find that none, even among those who ill-treated her, could say anything to her discredit. This was the more flattering to her, since the savages are much addicted to slander, and naturally inclined to give a malicious turn to the most innocent actions." ^^ ^^^^ MJHP 156 KATERI TKKAKWITHA. The missionary found no one who did not give a high encomium to the young catechumen. He hesitated no longer to grant what she so ardently asked. Easter Sunday, 167G, was appointed for the day of her bap- tism. The Cliristians of Caughnawaga Castle were pleased to lea.n that at last the blackgown had resolved to baptize Tekakwitha. Nearly a year had passed since she first asked tu be made a Christian. All knew her worth. When the glad news of Father de Lamberville's decision was made known to Tekakwitha, her counte- nance became radiant with joy. Her aunts give their consent to the step their niece was about to taice. We are not told what her uncle said or did at tlie time. Perhaps he was intent on other important affairs just then, or he would probably have put some obstacle in her way. He certainly dreaded, above all things, the possibility of seeing his niece enticed away to Canada in the footsteps of her adopted sister. Perhaps he felt quite sure of keeping Tekakwitha with him, as she showed no desire to join a band of Kryn's followers who set out from the Mohawk Valley shortly before the appointed Easter day arrived. Like those who had gone with the " great Mohawk " on a former occasion, these pilgrims were bound for the Praying Castle on the St. Lawrence Eiver. In the band were many friends and neighbors of Tekakwitha, so that in part at least her heart must have gone with them to Canada. The Praying Castle of St. Eranqois Xavier was no longer at La Prairie, as when Kryn first visited it, but had been moved this very year a few miles up the river close to the great Lachine Eapid or Sault St. Louis, and was henceforth called Caughna- waga. The older village of the same name in the Mohawk a high ated no Piaster ler bap- e were resolved ed since lew her lerville's counte- v^e their e. We le time, iirs just tacle in ngs, the Canada he felt ! showed • set out )pointed vith the pilgrims awrence bbors of ist have e of St. IS when iry year 8 Eapid lughna- 'ohawk IMPOSING CEREMONY IN THE BAUK CHAPEL. 157 Valley was astir with expectation wlien Easter Sunday ar- rived, in the year 1676.^ The young catechumen whom the blackgown De Lamberville esteemed so highly, the one of whom no word had been said in disparagement, every act of whose life was as clear and fair as the day, was eagerly awaiting the hour of her baptism. The Indian girls on that Easter morning, ready, as always, for a pageant or ceremonia] of any kind, crowded about the door of the rustic chapel, inside and out. Some of them carried their little brothers or sisters tied to their backs on cradle-boards. Some were gorgeous with bright-colored blankets and beads. Proudly they tossed their heads, these Mohawk girls, sure at least of their share of admiration from the young braves, notwith- standing that the old chiefs niece was for the moment attracting more attention in the town than usual. What did her wonderful reputation for virtue amount to, after all? Much hard work, some of them thought, and a scp.nt allowance of fun or excitement. But for once all eyes were centred on the quiet maiden, as she issued from her uncle's lodge, and with two companions, also ready for baptism, neared the door of the chapel. It was easy to see that most of the people of Caughnawaga respected and honored her on account of her virtue. There was a time when the Iroquois had vaunted the chastity of their women, and on that account held their heads higher than any other race of Indians. On this glorious Easter day the Mohawks seemed to realize, at least in a general way, that the maiden Tekakwitha, 1 Chaucheti^re mentions Easter Sunday, 1675, as the date of Eateri Tekakwitha's baptism. Cholenec and others give the date as above, 1676. "* ^ '*■> 158 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. •^ ,58 whom they knew to be as strong in will as their own flint rock and as pure at heart as their crystal spring, had caught up the beautiful crown that was last falling from them. They felt that she at least, while she lived, could be trusted to hold it securely above the mire into which they were sinking faster and faster. On the day of Tekakwitha's baptism, the light which the blackgown brought with him to the Mohawk country beamed with unquenchable brightness from her quiet but joyful face, and glimmered in scattered reHectious on the laces of the crowd through which she passed. There men and women, warriors, hunters, jugglers, boys and girls of every age, — in a word, all who were in the vil- lage had gathered into groups to watch what was taking place at the chapel of St. Peter. The blackgown took care to render the baptism of an adult, and especially of such a noteworthy one as the niece of the chief, as impressive as possible ; it was conducted with all due solemnity. Kever before had the Christians of Caughnawaga been more generous with their gifts. They had offered their richest furs ^ to adorn the chapel in honor both of Easter day and of Tekakwitha's baptism. The walls were hung with beaver and elk skins. There were bear-skin rugs and buffalo hides, embroidered in many colors, both under foot and on every side. Belts of wampum festooned the rafters. Blossoming branches of shrubs and clusters of frail little wild-flowers that grew in the ravines near by, decorated the altar. The entrance door ^ Tliis description of the chapel at the time of Tekakwitha's l>aptism is taken principally from a manuscript of Rev. Felix Martin, entitled *' Une Vierge Iroquoise." eir own spring, b falling le lived, lire into it which country uiet but ions on There oys and the vil- s taking wn took cially of chief, as all due iga been 'ed their if Easter sre hung kin rugs rs, both rampum ' shrubs V in the ice door 's Ijnptism I, entitled IMPOSING CEREMONY L\ THE BARK CHAPEU 169 ■was embowered in green. The approach to the chapel was through an avenue of budding trees, which had been planted there by the missionaries, to give an air of seclusion and dignity to the sacred portal. In them the birds were building their nests, and kept up a continual fluttering, chirping, and trilling. The blackgown's well- trained choir of Indian boys and girls, already within the chapel, were watchi.^'' for Tekakwitha to enter. AVhen the three catechun. ns appeared at the door, father de Lamberville, in surplice and violet stole, advanced to meet them. Sturdy Mohawk boys who had learned to serve at the altar, attended him. The ceremony began at the chapel door. Katherine was the Christian name to be given to Tekakwitha. Clear and distinct were the words of the priest, as he asked the following . questions : " Katherine, what dost thou ask of the Church of God ? " Then came the short sweet answer, " Faith." " What doth faith lead thee to ? " " Life everlasting," was the response. The blackgown, still using the words of the time-honored ceremonial, continued : " If then thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself." This exhortation sank deep into the soul of Tekakwitha. Fervent and recollected in spirit, she strove to catch the meaning of each word and sign. Father de Lamberville went on with the sacred rite. Breathing on her thrice, as she stood with head bowed •down, he exorcised the Evil One, saying : " Go out of her, thou unclean spirit ! give place to the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete ! ' She raised her head at these words, and he signed her forehead and breast with the cross. Then 5 4. 5 •J, e' I .^aWWIIHiMUrlMM 160 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. he blessed the salt, the symbol of wisdom, and laid it on her tongue. Again he bade Satan begone. They now entered the little church. They stood clo.se by the font. He touched her ear with spittle, saying the mystic word of Christ : Ephpheta, that is, " Be opened ! " Then she renounced the devil with all his works and pomps, and was anointed with the oil of the catechu- mens. She made her profession of faith in the words of the Apostles' Creed. After that the priest changed his violet stole for a white one, and poured the water of baptism on her head, saying at the same time the brief, essential words of the sacrament : " Katherine, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." The people watched each of these ceremonies with rapt interest. When it was all over, Katherine Teka- kwitha turned from the font with a white cloth on her head, which the priest placed there in token of inno- cence, bidding her carry it unsullied before the judg- ment-seat, of God ; and she bore in her hand a lighted taper, the symbol of faith. She seemed quite uncon- scious of earth, and bright with angelic joy. The Mohawks could almost believe they were looking at a blessed spirit rather than at one of themselves. The choir of Indian cliildren, silently waiting their turn, now filled the chapel with joyous melody, and made it resound with the sweet words of an Iroquois hymn, prepared for them by their missionaries. The birds outside, stirred to blither singing by the sound of voices within, warbled their richest notes. The great forest that sheltered the bark-covered shrine was alive with music, strange and rapturous, like the strains heard by Saint Cecilia in her :lii!l IMPOSING CEREMONY IN THE BAUK CHAPEL. 161 vision, he Lamberville, entranced, stood at the altar aud listened, like one in a dream. Each breath he drew was a fervent prayer for his Indian flock. He was quite aloue among them, — the only pale-face at Caughuawaga Castle, — but he felt no isolation. He had given his life to these people, and his heart vibrated in perfect accord with the Iroquois music. If he thought of his home in France and the glorious Easter anthems he had heard at St Eustache and Notre Dame, it was not with vain regret, but only with the calm assurance that if his friends across the sea could hear these Indians singins in their forest chapel and could see the face of this Mohawk girl lit up with the joy of her baptism, they would not feel that he was throwing away his life and talents among barbarian tribes. The path of his duty lay clearly before him. " Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." These words were ever ringing in the missionary's ears. It was in fulfilling this command that he had found the Lily of the Mohawks ripe for Christianity. He felt that he had gathered rich fruit with but little efifort, and his next thought was how to keep it safe and bring it to its highest perfection for the Master of the Vine- yard, whom he served. From the time of her baptism Katherine Tekakwitha's life resembled in many respects the lives of the early Christians. Chauchetifere thus speaks of her baptismal name : — " Several Indians bore this name before and after her, but not one of them so worthily as the Blessed Catherine Tega- kouita. La Praine de la Magdeleine possesses the precious Kit I •4, ■3 «« 162 KATEUI TEKAKWITliA. remains of oue named Catherine Ganneuktcno, from Oneida, who was the foundation stone of the mission. . . . Another Catherine died at the Sault at the uge of thirteen, liaving lived innocent as an angel, and died as a victim of virginity. These two Catherines would have served as models for all the Christian Indian women at the mission of the Sault, had not Catherine Tcgakouita arisen to shine like a sun among the stars." eida, uther iving nit}. >r all Inult, sun CHAPTER XIV. PERSECUTIONS. — HEUOIC CALMNESS IN A MOMENT OF PERIL. — MALICE OF TEKAKWITHA'S AUNT. AFTER her baptism, Katherine Tekakwitha was supremely happy. Her deft hands were as busy as before, providing for the general comfort in her uncle's lodge. Besides this she went back and forth twice each day to the chapel, where the blackgown assembled his dusky flock for morning and evening prayers. On Sundays she heard Mass at the same bark- covered slirine of St. Peter, and later on in the day she joined in chanting the prayers of the chaplet with al- ternate choirs of the Christian Indians. This was a favorite religious exercise at all the Iroquois missions. These people were gifted by nature with sweet voices, and sang well together. If at any time the Mohawk girl was beset with some difficulty or perplexity, she went at once to tell it with all simplicity to Father de Lamberville, who pointed out to her with great care the path which he believed would lead her most di- rectly on to holiness of life. Once sure of her duty, Tekakwitha walked straight forward, with timid, down- cast eyes, but joyous spirit, swerving neither to the right nor to the left. The rule of life that the Father prescribed for his other Christians to keep them from the superstitious, impure feasts and drunken debauch- I i i IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 lr'i|2£ 12.5 ■u Uii §2.2 II £f a^ 12.0 1.8 1:25 II U ,,.6 ^ 6" ► Hiotographic Sciences Corporation 33 WIST MAIN STMIT WEBSTER, N.Y. MSM (716)872-4303 *• u 1 «s ;:?;■ 164 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. i '^^ eries common among the Indians, was too general and not advanced enough for Tekakwitha. She had always avoided these excesses even in her heathen days, and now her craving for a higher and deeper knowledge of spiritual things was so great that the blackgown soon found himself called on to direct her in the way of special devotional exercises and unusual practices of virtue. In December, 1676, an event occurred of much inter- est to the Christian Indians. On the feast of the Im- maculate Conception, the blessing of the statue of Notre Dame de Foye took place at Tionnontogen, or the Mis- sion of St. Mary's. This statue was a fac-simile of a highly venerated one of the Blessed Virgin in Belgium. It was made of oak from the place where the first origi- nated, and had been sent out from France to the In- dians. Father Bruyas received it at Tionnontogen as a precious gift to his Christian Mohawks. All the neophytes of the neighboring villages assembled to see it unveiled and solemnly blessed. It was placed in the chapel in such a way that a bright ray of light falling^ through a small opening in the bark wall fell directly upon the Madonna. The Indians had not seen anything so beautiful and new to them since Boniface showed them on Christmas day at Caughnawaga the little statue of the Christ-child lying in a manger. Father Martin, speaking of the unveiling of this statue of the Madonna, says that Katherine Tekakwitha would not fail to be present at this pious rendezvous. She was baptized, it will be remembered, at Easter time ; and the blessing of the statue of Notre Dame de Foye took place on the 8th day of the following December. PEBSECUTION& 165 Charlevoix says, alluding to Tekakv.tha's Christian life: — "From the first, her virtues gained admiration even from those who were the furthest from imitating them ; and those to whom she was subject left her free to follow the promptings of her zeal for a short time. The innocence of her life, and the precautions she took to avoid all occasions of sin, and above all her extreme reserve with regard to all which might in the slightest degree wound modesty, appear- ing to the young people of the village a tacit reproach to the licentious life which they led, several endeavored to turn her astray, in the hope of tarnishing the splendor of a virtue which dazzled them. " On the other hand, although she neglected none of her domestic labors and was ever ready to assist others, her relatives murmured greatly at her spending all her free time in prayer; and as she would not work on Sundays and feastKlays, when forbidden by the Church, they would deprive her of food the enti'^ day. Seeing that they gained nothing by this means, they had recourse to more violent measures, often ill-treating her in the most shameful man- ner : when she went to the chapel they would send boys to throw stones at and calumniate her; while drunken men, or those pretending to be such, would piursue her and threaten her life; but fearless of their artifices, she continued her exercises as if in the enjoyment of the most perfect liberty and peace." She did not hesitate to say, when there was occasion for it, that she would die rather than give up the prac- tice of the Christian religion. Her resolution was put to severe tests, but she never wavered. Chaucbeti^re thus wrote concerning the persecutions she had to endure at this time:^- !♦ '*K J miMw* immmw^m^mm 1G6 KATEBI TEKAKW7THA. " There are those who dare not declare themselves when they are the only Christians in their cabin ; but Katherine showed an extraordinary firmness of spirit against human respect. When the children pointed their fingers at her^ when they called her no longer by her Indian name, but called her by the name of Christian in derision, as though they meant dog, — which lasted so long that they forgot her name, giving her none other at all but that of ths Christian, because she was the only one in the cabin v;ho was baptized,— far from afflicting herself on account of this scorn of which she was the object, she was happy to have lost her name. " She had much to suffer from the mockeries of the sor- cerers, of the drunkards, of all the enemies of * The Prayer/, likewise of her uncle." He too, as time went on, seems to have taken an ac- tive part in persecuting the young giil who was entirely dependent on him for protection from insult. When her own uncle, the chief man of the castle, turned against her, what could she expect from others but ill-treatment of every sort ? Her firmness, which nothing could shake, irritated her heathen relatives more and more. They called her a sorceress. Whenever she went to the chapel they caused her to be followed by showers of stones, so that to avoid those who lay in wait for her, she was often obliged to take the most circuitous routes. Was it not strange that one so shy by nature as Tekakwitha should have had the strength of will to undergo all this without flinching ? She seemed to be utterly devoid of fear ; though timid as a deer, she had the courage of a panther at bay, and was no less quick to act when the time for action came. One day when she was employed as usual in her A MOMENT OF PERIL. 167 uncle's lodge, a young Indian suddenly rushed in upon her, his features distorted with rage, his eyes flashing fire, his tomahawk raised above his head as if to strike her dead at the least opposition. Tekakwitha did not cry out, or make an appeal for mercy, or promise to abandon the course she was taking in the midst of this ever increasing torrent of threats and abuse. With perfect composure, without the tremor or twitch of a muscle, she simply bowed her head on her breast, and stood before the wild and desperate young savage as immovable as a rock. Words were not needed on either side. With all the eloquent silence of the Indian sign language, her gesture and attitude spoke to the youth and said : " I am here, I am ready. My life you can take ; my faith is my own in life or in death. I fear you not 1 " The rage in the Indian's eye died out, and gave place to wonder, then awe. He gazed as if spellbound. The uplifted tomahawk dropped to his side. Her firmness unnerved him. Admiration, then a strange fear, overmastered the young brave, whose brain perhaps had been somewhat clouded with liquor when he thus undertook to rid the old chief's niece of her Christian whims. Be that as it may, he could not have been more astonished at what he beheld if a spirit had appeared before him and ordered him out of the lodge. Cowed and abashed, he slunk away, as if from a superior being; or rather, in the words of Charlevoix, "he turned and fled with as much pre- cipitation as if pursued by a band of warriors." Thinking Tekakwitha meant to join the Mohawks on the St. Lawrence, they had sought by threatening her life in this way to prevent her from carrying out her ■»!• 4 168 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. Ik*" a purpose. They now let her live in peace for a titzie. No stone had been left unturned to weary her out and break her spirit; it had all proved to be of no avaiL They might as well have tried to frighten the stars from their accustomed course through the heavens as to turn this quiet Mohawk girl from the path her conscience marked out. Her hold on faith and virtue was stronger than torture or death. These first caprices of her tor- mentors were followed a little later by a more dangerous persecution, and to one possessed of Tekakwitha's sen- sibilities, the most cruel of all It was the last trial she was called upon to endure in the land of her birth. It was the only ore, perhaps, that could have estranged her from her nearest kindred and her beloved Mohawk Valley ; for we are told that she was particularly sensitive to the reproach they made to her of having no natural affection for her rela- tions and of hating her nation. Had this been true, she would never have remained in her uncle's lodge as she did, till its inmates hardened their hearts against her to the exclusion even of the commonest sentiments of humanity. This was particularly the case with one of her aunts, who succeeded only too well in making the life of her niece a torture. She was the direct cause of Tekakwitha's last and severest trial in the Mohawk country. In 1677 the Lily of the Mohawks accompanied her relatives on the usual spring hunt. They went in the direction of the Dutch, we are told, or in other words, towards the settlement at Schenectady. Had their ob- ject been to fish, they would most likely have gone on from there to the fishing village at the mouth of the i' I THE CAMP AT SARATOGA 169 Norman's Kill, near Albany, passing down through the ^ vale of Tawasentha." As these Indians went to hunt and not to fish, they probably took instead one of the many trails leading through the pine-forest of Saratoga, any one of which would quickly bring them to a region frequented by deer and game from the Adirondacks. There, at a certain spot known to the Mohawks from time immemorial, a strange medicinenspring bubbled over the top of a round, high rock, and scattered its health-giving waters at random over the ground. Then, and for a hundred years to come, its existence was known only to the Indians. No white man had ever been per- mitted to lift its pungent water to his lips. To this place, called " Serachtague " in his report of the colony. Governor Dongan tried in vain to recall the Iroquois Christians of Canada, by promising them Eng- lish blackgowns,^ and undisturbed possession of their favorite hunting-ground. With this interesting fact of «arly Saratoga history, however, we are not now con- cerned. As for the one involving Tekakwitha, here is Chaucheti^re's account of what occurred at the Mohawk hunting-camp, and of the report that was carried back from there to the village : — " In the spring or during the time of the chase she had gone with her relations towards the Dutch, with her uncle. The wife of this hunter did not like Catherine, perhaps be- * These promiaes were of oo great account. Kiyn, the great Mo« liawk warrior, said in 1687, " If a priest would settle at Saragtoga, many [Indians] would return ; for they had longed and waited a long time for it." Colonial Histoiy, vol. iiL p. 436. As this hope failed, and neutrality was not possible, we find Krjm thenceforth in close allianoe with the French. •I. 4i ■^ ^ -■ 170 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. h M H ■I H t. cause the good life of Catherine was a reproach to the con- trary life led by this infidel ; this woman examined all the actions and all the words of Catherine, that she might dis- cover something with which to find fault. It is a common thing among the Indians to treat an uncle like a father, and to call him by the very name of father. Catherine chanced one day, in spi aking of this old man in company with others, to let slip his name without using the name of ' father ' or ' my father ; ' this y .-•*nan noticed that, and judged rashly of Catherine, and said that Catherine had sinned with her husband. She did not fail to seek out Father Lam- berville, and tell him that she whom he esi^eemed so much had sinned. The Father wished to examine the reasons which this woman had for treating in such a way this good Christian, and having found out that the strongest was that which I have just related, he sharply reproved this evil- speaking tongue ; but he did not neglect to speak to Cather- ine and to instruct her on the sin, and the pains of hell that God has prepared for punishing it, and then he questioned Catherine, who replied with firmness and modesty that never had she fallen into this sin either on this occasion or on any other, and that she did not fear to be damned [for it] ; but much sooner, for not having courage enough to let them break her head rather than to go to work in the fields on Sunday. She believed sh*^ had not done enough by remain- ing whole days without eating, for when she did not go to work in the fields on Sundays, they would hide everything there was to eat in the cabin, and they left her nothing of what had been prepared for that day. This was in order that hunger might oblige her to go to the fields, where they would have forced her to work." They declared that Christianity was making her lazy and worthless. Had she been accustomed to idle away MALICE OF HER AUNT. 171 as much of her time in amusement as the other young squaws, she would not have been so treated ; but her ill-natured aunts, for whom she had worked industri- ously all her life, now begrudged her the one day of rest out of seven which she took for conscience' sake. Thus Sunday generally proved not a feast, but a fast-day to Tekakwitha. Her life was becoming intolerable. Her cruel and morose aunt, whom Martin rightly calls un esprit bizarre, had received from Father de Lamberville a reprimand which covered her with confusion. She visited her chagrin upon the head of her innocent victim. "Well !" she had said to the blackgown, "so Katherine, whom you esteem so virtuous, is notwithstanding a hypocrite who deceives you." As such her aunt now treated her. This evil-minded old squaw, who looked through the murky cloud of her ow^n sins at the bright- xiess and holiness of the young life so close to hers, dis- liked its radiance. It caused her to blink uncomfortably, and she refused to believe in its truth. She shrank back into the dark, which suited her better. In her fruitless effbrtjs to hide from her wicked eyes the bright light that shone about the pathway of TekaJkwitha, she tried by every means in her power to brand the virtue of her niece as a mere pretence, assumed to cover worse deeds than her own. There was no longer for the Lily of the Mohawks even a shadow of protection in her home at Caugh- nawaga Castle. Her uncle had beset her path with drunken men and taunting children ; she had been de- prived of food, she had been threatened with death, and last of all, her aunt had done what she could to defame her to the blackgown. He, however, was now her only n ^! m I ' ■^•^ w 172 KATEAI TEKAKWITHA. • 1' • I friend ; and his advice to her was to leave the country as soon as possible, and take refuge at the Praying Castle. What wonder, then, that Tekakwitha, after having thus spent a year and a half in her home as a Christian, be- gan to look with longing eyes towards the new Caugh- nawaga on the St. Lawrence, whither her adopted sister and Anastasia Tegonhatsihongo had already gone. She turned to the mission settlement in her thoughts as to a land of promise and peace, an asylum where her religion and her innocence would be respected. Travelliiig Indians from the Sault came and went among their tribesmen in the Mohawk Valley. Some- times they were joined by new recruits, who returned with them to Canada. Tekakwitha now greeted the arrival of each band of these Christian Indians with a hopeful smile; but again and again she saw them depart with a weary sigh, for when they were gone, she felt that her only chance of release from her trials had vanished with them. Thus far none of them had offered to take her to the Praying Castle, and indeed, she knew of no one with whom she would have cared to go had she been asked. She saw no way out of her troubles. Her uncle, grown harsh and unkind to her, was displeased with aU that she did in the lodge, and yet he would not consent to her going away. The old chief was moody and sullen at sight of his half-untenanted castle. Who then would dare to tamper with his niece, or assist her in any way to escape ? Who would ever be found will- ing to undertake so dangerous a venture ? Tekakwitha sadly realized her position, and felt that she could only gather together the powers of her soul for patient and persistent endurance even unto death. She knew "A LILT AMONG THORNS." 178 that if her relatives could once force her by long-con- tinued persecution to yield to them, their old kindness would return; they would then be only too glad to choose a husband for her, and to give her a place among the oyanders, or noble matrons of the nation. But the national life of the Mohawks was still thoroughly hea- then, and her part was already taken with the Chris- tians. She would not retreat one step, nor entertain for a moment the thought of surrender, though sho was cut off almost entirely from communication with those of her own faith. She stood apart from them all, aad suffered and made no moan. During this time Teka- kwitha was learning the bitterest lesson of life ; she was daily sounding the depths and unlocking the secrets of unshared son'ow. In this the heart of the Lily was waxing strong ; but alas ! her veiy soul was athirst for the "living water" that was so cruelly denied her. She had scarcely as yet been allowed to taste of its sweet- ness. She knew that those who lived at the Sault were permitted to drink deep of the precious draught, and revelled in wealth of spiritual food. Thus checked and deprived of instruction, how could she ever hope to ob- tain the " bread of life " that was given out so freely at the mission village ? Was she alone, of all the Iroquois Christians, to hunger and thirst for these things without relief till she died ? Was she to be all her life " the only one in the lodge baptized " ? And would she be always treated as now? She felt that she could not endure it much longer and live ; for the Lily was left quite alone among thorns, and the thorns were pricking^ her almost to death. J) 1) 174 KATERI TEKAKWITUA. . "I ft;. Hi CHAPTER XV. HOT ASHES PLANS TEKAKWITUA's ESCAPE. THE Indian chief Louis Garonhiagu^, known to the English as Hot Ashes, and called by the French La Poudre Chaude or La Cendre Chaude, was, as his name implies, a quick-tempered, impulsive, and fiery man. He was an Oneida by birth, and was known to have been one of the executioners of the heroic mis- sionary Brebeuf, who, with his companion Lalemant, was tortured and slain in the Huron country by Iro- quois warriors. Since that time Hot Ashes had become a Christian. His career and character are interesting and characteristic of the times. As this impetuous chief, dogiqiie, and apostle was bold enough to come forward and assist the Lily of the Mobav.'ks to escape from her uncle's lodge to the Sault St. Louis, some further account of him may well be given. Hot Ashes had been betrothed to his wife in child- hood. They had lived together from the time he was eight years old. The violence of his nature was held in check to a certain extent by the unalterable patience, the gentleness, and the yielding disposition of his worthy squaw. Their union was what Chauchetifere calls one of the good marriages that are sometimes made among the savages. Hot Ashes was chief or captain of his village in the Oneida country, and was held in high HOT A8UE8. 176 esteem by his tribesmen. His own quick temper was the cause of his leaviug them. At one time the question of moving the village to a new site — an event of frequent occurrence among the Indians — gave rise to a quurrel between the leading chiefs. While still angry on this account, Hot Ashes went off to the hunt Thereupon a second event occurred, of so irritating a nature that he was enraged beyond all bounds. News cuuie to Iiim that his favorite brother had been killed. The bearer of the news did not tell him who had committed the fatal deed. The furious and excitable chief immediately persuaded himself that it had been done by tiie French. Without waiting to learn the particulars, he hurried off toward Montreal to wreak his vengeance on the Cana- dian settlers. On his way, however, he learned that his brother bad been killed in an entirely different quarter, and not by these people at alL Hot Ashes was now in a quandary. What should ho do next ? He was near the Praying Castle on the St. Lawrence, whose hospitable doors were always open to travellers, and he paused there for a time to consider the situation. The Indians of that place liked him from the first ; he soon made friends among them, and his wife was charmed with the quiet, orderly, and peaceful life of the Christian Indians who dwelt there. Hot Ashes thus had ample time to cool down and think matters over. Should he now decide to return to his own country, he would feel bound to avenge his brother's death, accord- ing to custom, on the people by whom he had been slain. He knew that this would involve his whole nation in a bloody war. This he disliked to do ; for when not in a tempest of anger. Hot Ashes was a gen- I'* !;! 1' 176 KATERI TEKAKWITUA. ,. J ■ erous, good-hearted man. Then, too, the longer he re- mained at the Sault the more contented and calm ho became. Won over by his wife Garhoit, he consented to be instructed and to be baptized vfith his whole family. The baptism of so important a chief was a great event for the mission. All his own people who were in the vicinity, and many even from the distant Oneida country, assembled at the Praying Castle for the occasion. A number of these remained and became Christians. There were soon so many Oneidas dwelling at the Sault that they needed a ruler of their own nation, and Hot Ashes was chosen to preside over them. He thus became the fourth dogique, or captain of the Praying Castle. He soon ranked firpt of all in importance, notwithstanding the ability of his .^tanch friend Kryn, the " great Mo- har k." Still his unruly temper would break forth at times, as it did on the occasion of his reception as captain. The men of the Sault assembled in due form, lighted the fire for him, gave him the calumet to smoke, and went through all the ceremonies save one, which most unfortunately was forgotten. Hot Ashes, indignant at the oversight, went to Father Fremin, the missionary, and gave vent to his ire. He said that they had mocked him, that they had treated him like a child, that he was a chief without a mat, that he would be obliged to hold his council out of doors. In shoit, he could not be pacified till the old men reassembled, and the whole ceremony from beginning to end was gone over. Once duly installed. Hot Ashes ruled the village with ability and vigor up to the time of his death. He out- lived Tekakwitha, and was finally killed in battle. Many incidents are told of his courage, piety, and zeal. HOT ASHES. 177 his devotion to his religion and the good of the settle- ment, and also of his tenderness to his wife while suffer- ing from grievous ailments which afflicted the later years of her life. He had a natural talent for exhorting and teaching. He won many of his own people to Christianity, and when war was threatened he did what he could to maintain peace between the Oneidas and the French. While thus engaged he was suspected of double dealing ; but taking no notice of the evil things that were said of him, Hot Ashes held to his own disinterested course with head erect, con^ding in his <^ood wife, who alone remained true to him, till at last he succeeded in living down all suspicion of treachery on either side. He it was, more than all others, who opposed and prevented the introduction of the liquor traffic into the settlement at the Sault. A lively incident is given by Chauchetifere to show his love of temperance. Soon after his baptism he chanced to be hunting at the end of the island of Montreal, when he fell in with a band of Oneidas. They were being supplied with liquor by an unscrupulous Canadian trader. They sat around a great bowl of fire water, from which they drank freely, and which was constantly replenished by the crafty Frenchman. Hot Ashes was asked to join them. He did so, through courtesy, and drank with the rest. Find- ing that he was expected and urged to take more than he ought, an expedient came into his ready brain for preventing further mischief. As there were older men than himself in the band, it would not have been con- sidered proper for him to reprove them openly. This, then, is what he did. He stood up and began to sing like a drunken man, and to dance. Suddenly he pre- '!» 'U ;i) «• 178 K^'^^ltl TEKiVKWITHA. J?; il tended to take a false step, and at the same time gave the bowl a great kick with his foot. This scattered its contents over the ground. The Indians, not suspecting his intention, looked upon the accident as a good joke. They began to laugh uproariously and to make fun of Hot Ashes, who went on with his mimicry. In the mean time night came on, and they thought no more of drinking, but all fell asleep. Hot Ashes then retired, well pleased with having put a stop to the debauch. Other anecdotes might be given to show the character and spirit of this Indian ; but it is enough to know that he was just the one to assist the Lily of the Mohawks in the accomplishment of her now well-defined purpose, — to escape at all hazards, and turn from her uncle's lodge to the Praying Castle. Tekakwii/ha's adopted sister, already in Canada, knjw ■well the condition of affairs in the Mohawk country, and above all, in the lodge of the chief, ^ 7ith whom she had formerly lived at Caughnawaga. She was fully aware that Tekakwitha's life there as a Christian would necessarily be a thorny one. She and her husband often spoke of the unhappy condition in which the young Mohawk was placed, and of the desirability of having her with them. When it became known that Hot Ashes was about to visit the Long House of the Five Nations on an errand of zeal, they realized at once that the wished- for opportunity had come. They would now be able to assist Tekakwitha. The Oneida chief intended to speak to his people concerning the faith that was in him, and to persuade as many of them as possible to return with him to the Sault. Tekakwitha's brother-in-law, urged by his wife, resolved to accompany Hot Ashes on his TEKAKWITHA'S ESCAPE. 179 proposed journey, and in order to make sure of canymg out his own immediate purpose, — which was to bring his sister-in-law back with him, — he took into his con- fidence a good friend of his from Lorette, a mission vil- lage of the Hurons, near Quebec. This Indian of Lorette and the brother-in-law of Tekakwitha consalted with Hot Ashes, and the three together planned their journey as best they could beforehand. Then they stepped lightly into a canoe, just large enough to hold them, and soon were speeding southward over Lake Champlain, and thence through Lake George on their way to the Mohawk Valley. Ah, Tekakwitha, why is your step so weary there in the village street ? Why do you pause at the cabin door as though you did not care to enter ? Why are you sad and faint ? Have they hidden the food away from you again, lest you should find a morse! to eat, and will you be greeted with angry words if you enter your uncle's lodge ? Is it no easier for you to bear it now than it was at first ? Poor child ! you are both hungry and hungry-hearted; human nature is strong within you to-day. The craving for peace and comfort and human love will not be hushed and trampled under by faith, and the hope of a far-away heaven. Has Rawenniio forgotten the Mohawk girl ? She seems to be drifting away from the sound rf his voice. The strength of her spirit is gone. She is sad unto death. Why not give up the struggle at once, go into the lodge, and consent to do like the rest ? For one who has grown too weary to swim, it can scarcely be wrong to drift with the current. Are these your thoughts, Teka- kwitha ? See I They have startled her out of her weari- .i 1 8!, m 180 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. 1 ness I With a sudden return of energy and a quick determination, as if afraid to trust herself in the lodge^ she turns and takes the path to the chapeL She will find the blackgown, if it is possible to do so ; she will tell him her wicked thoughts, and be guided by what he says. He is wise and good. He can tell her how to chase such thoughts away, and perhaps she can keep them from coming back. At all events, he will speak to her the comforting words of forgiveness and tell her to go in peace. Then she will be sure that Rawenniio loves her and is not angry. She knows the path so well that she quickly comes within sight of the chapel. As it is not her usual hour for prayer, no one is around to waylay or disturb her. Close at hand is De Lamberville's cabin. Tekakwitha does not find him at once, for the blackgown has guests. They av3 Christian Indians, who have come from the Sault, and there are three of them. Father de Lamber- ville is well pleased to have such visitors ; he welcomes the Christians from the Sault who come to the Mohawk as if they were angels come from heaven.- He gladly receives them into his cabin, and leaves them free to come and go as they please. " One could see the spirit of Christianity and the mortification of the passions depicted on the faces of these new apostles." The novelty of seeing and hearing them on this occasion has already attracted a crowd of Indians to the spot. One of the blackgown's guests has risen to make a speech. Tekakwitha finds herself in the midst of the old mpn and the chiefs of Caughna\/aga who are assembled there, and she listens with eager interest to all that is said. Y TEKAKWITHA'S ESCAPE. 181 Her uncle is away on a visit to the Dutch, which happens well for her. It is no less a personage than Hot Ashes who is addressing the people. In his impetuous, head- long way he tells them that " as they all know, he was formerly captain at Oneida, that he was a warrior, and that he acted like them in those days, but that after all he was only a dog ; that he had begun to be a man a few months back ; and he said many touching things," continues Chauchetifere, "but nobody profited by them at all except Catherine. The old men withdrew, one after another, and left the speaker almost entirely alone. Catherine could not separate herself from these new-comers. She declared to the Father that she must indeed go away, even at the cost of her life." She was too unhappy and iistrustful of herself and her own powers of endurance to remain longer in the country where she was exposed to so many and such constant trials of her strength and her faith. Father de Lamber- ville, moved by her earnest words, spoke to Hot Ashes and his companions about her. He asked if it would be possible for them to take her back with them to Canada. " Certainly," they said. It was in the hope of assisting her to escape that they had come to Caughnawaga. Hot Ashes at or je offered Tekakwitha his own place in the canoe. He said that he intended to go on to Oneida and to pass through all the Iroquois nations, preaching the faith. Her brother-in-law, there- fore, and the Indian from Lorette, could take the canoe and return with Tekakwitha to the Praying Castle. God had provided » means of escape fnr her most unexpect- edly. It was the very best opportunity she could have to go ; her uncle was away, and her aunts, either through Ml 11 i .'fcs* • «<• ' 1 i I 182 KATERI T£KAKWITUA. indifference or ignorance of the plan, put no obstacle in her path. Tekakwitha was never known to falter when the moment came for prompt decision and instant action. Chaucheti^re says: "The resolution was no sooner taken than it was carried into execution." The two companions of Hot Ashes put Tekakwitha secretly into the canoe with them, and immediately took the route leading towards the Dutch ; ^ that is to say, they embarked on the Mohawk Eiver and followed its course for some distance, before taking any one of the different woodland trails leading to Lake George. 1 According to Cholenec's account of Tekakwitha's escape, her brother-in-law went on a hurried visit to the Dutch and back again to Caughnawaga, before he started with her at alL This he did in order to mislead her uncle, who would think he had come to that vicinity for no other purpose than to trade in beaver-skins. The minor details of her journey are somewhat confused in the two accounts of Choleneo and Chaucheti^re, but the main facts are the same in both. I ; TO THE NEW CAUGHNAWAGA. 183 CHAPTER XVI. FROM THE OLD TO THE NEW CAUGHNAWAGA. AS they left Caughnawaga Castle, and paddled around the sharp hends of the Mohawk Kiver, the two Indians who were conducting this stirring ad- venture used the utmost caution to prevent an en- counter between Tekakwitha and her uncle, who might be at that very time returning from Schenectady. This they dreaded above all things. If the old chief should meet her in company with them, he would suspect their purpose at once, and the lives of the three would be in danger. They followed the course of the river current, however, as it carried them in the general direction of their journey more swiftly than they could otherwise travel They wished to make the most of their time before the uncle could be warned of their departure from the castle. It was probably not far from the spot where the Chuctanunda Creek at Amsterdam ^ comes tumbling down the hill into the Mohawk, or in that vicinity, that she and her two companions left the canoe by the river- side and took to the woods ; as in the thickets along 1 Amsterdam is the point at which the Mohawk so bends its course to the southeast that any further advance by the river would have taken the fugitives away from rather than towards their destination. To have left the river sooner would have carried them over a rough and difficult country. Ik 3 'I I f) '• 't^K 1'; •111 i * 1 : I 184 KATERI TEKAKWITHA. the less frequented trail by land, it would be easier for Tekakwitha to conceal herself quickly in case of alarm, than if they were to continue the journey further by way of the river. Had they followed the latter course, the)i would have been obliged to take a more easterly trail across Saratoga County.* As they feared, the uncle was soon on their trail ; for shortly after the three mission Indians had disappeared from Caughnawaga Castle Tekakwitha's absence was noticed. It was quickly inferred that she had gone to Canada. She was not in the lodge, not in the chapel, nor with the girls at the spring. Instantly a runner was despatched to the Dutch settlement to warn the Turtle Chief of what had occurred. The news filled him with rage. Leaving his Dutch friends abruptly, he started homeward to learn if it wero indeed true that his niece had vanished, and if so, speedily to follow her. On his way to the cfistle he passed an Indian travelling rapidly in the opposite direction from himself, whom he scarcely noticed and did not recognize. Nevertheless this Indian was no other than Tekakwitha's brother-in- law, — the veiy man he wanted to capture. The unrec- ognized relative knew the chief as soon as he saw him, but he was too near to avoid passing him without ex- citing suspicion. So, feigning an unconcern which he was far from feeling, he kept straight on, and passed the old man safely. He then continued his journey to Schenectady. The chief, on the other hand, was in quite as great a hurry to reach the Mohawk village. Perhaps he had doubts as to the truthfulness of what he had heard. At all events, when he arrived at Caugh- 1 See "Indian Trails in Saratoga Connty," Appendix, Note D. •' I, TO THE NEW CAUGHNAWAGA. 185 for nawaga he went directly to his own lodge, and found that Tekakwitha was indeed not there, and had not been since the departure of Hot Ashes. Immediately he gath- ered what information he could at the castle, " loade