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MOHAWK	A SHORT SKETCH OF THE INDIANS IN NEW NETHERLAND,
THEIR LAND, STATURE, DRESS, MANNERS, AND MAGISTRATES,
WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1644,
BY
JOHANNES MEGAPOLEN'SIS, Junior,
MINISTER THERE.
REVISED FROM THE TRANSLATION IN HAZARD’S HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS,
WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES,
BY JOHN ROMEYN BRODHEAD.INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
The Reverend Johannes Megapolensis, Junior, the author
of the following tract, was a son of the Reverend Johannes Megapo-
lensis, Minister of the Church at Coedyck, in Holland, and was born
in 1603. He married his cousin Machteld Willemsen, by whom he
had four children, Hillegond, Dirck, Jan, and Samuel. Having studied
divinity, he became the minister of the Congregation of Schoorl and
Berg, under the Classis of Alkmaar, in North Holland, where he
remained until the spring of the year 1642.
At that period, there was only one minister, the Reverend Eve-
rardus Bogardus, settled in New Netherland, and his services were
limited to Manhattan and its neighborhood. The want of a clergy-
man at Beverwyck (now Albany), in the Colonie of Rensselaerswyck,
having been felt for some time, Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, the patroon
of that Colonie, made an agreement with Domine Megapolensis, on
the 6th of March 1642, to send him thither “for the edifying im-
provement of the inhabitants and Indians.” The Patroon bound him-
self to convey the Domine and his family to New Netherland free of
expense, and give him an outfit of three hundred guilders, provide
him with a proper residence after his arrival, and assure him, for his
first three years’ service, an annual salary of one thousand guilders,
besides thirty schepels of wheat and two firkins of butter, with the
promise of an addition of two hundred guilders a year for the suc-
ceeding three years, “ should the Patroon be satisfied with his service.”
On the other hand, Megapolensis agreed to “ befriend and serve the
Patroon in all things wherein he can do so without interfering with,
or impeding his duties.” As the Classis of Amsterdam was the
ecclesiastical superior of all the Dutch Colonial Clergy, it was neces-
sary to obtain its assent to this arrangement, and the Domine accord-
ingly appeared before a committee of that body on the 18th of March,140
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
and explained his views in wishing to settle himself in ISTew Nether-
land. On the 22d of March the Classis attested a formal call for
Megapolensis to preach the gospel and govern the church at Rens-
selaerwyck, “in conformity with the government, confession, and
catechism of the Netherland Churches, and the Synodal acts of
Dordrecht.” This call, after some delay, having been approved by
the Amsterdam Chamber of the West India 'Company, on the 6 th of
June, Domine Megapolensis set sail with his family from Holland,
and, after a prosperous voyage, arrived at Beverwyck on the 11th of
August, 1642.
A parsonage house was immediately allotted to the Domine, and
preparations made for the building of a church, which was finished
the next year, and was, besides that at Manhattan, the only one in
New Netherland. The influence of Megapolensis soon produced
salutary effects at Rensselaerwyck. The colonists revered and es-
teemed their faithful monitor, who executed the duties of his holy
office very acceptably; and the counsels of the Domine were always
received with respect by the Commissary and officers of the Colonie
and of the Province.
Nor were the pious services of Megapolensis confined to his own
countrymen. A part of his duty was to “ edify and improve ” the
savages in the neighborhood. He therefore applied himself diligently
to the task of learning what he termed the “ heavy language ” of the
Mohawks, so as to be able to speak and preach to them fluently.
The Red men around Fort Orange or Beverwyck were soon attracted
to hear the preaching of the gospel; and Megapolensis, the first
Protestant Dutch Clergyman on the northern frontier of New Neth-
erland, thus gave, in 1643, the example of missionary zeal, which,
three years afterwards, in 1646, was imitated, near Boston, by John
Eliot, the u Morning Star” of a similar enterprize in New England.
An incident occurred about this time, which should not be
omitted in any notice of Domine Megapolensis. Father Isaac Jogues,
a noble-hearted and self-denying Jesuit missionary, while on his way
from Quebec to. the Chippeways, was taken prisoner byvthe Mohawks,
and suffered horrible cruelties from the savages. During the winter
of 1642-3, however, some of his persecutors began to listen to his
teachings, and his situation was so far improved that he was allowed
to make occasional visits, writh parties of the Mohawks, to the neigh-
boring Dutch at Fort Orange, who did all they could to effect hisINTRODUCTORY NOTE.
141
deliverance. At length Jogues eluded the vigilance of the savages,
and remained for several weeks in close concealment, during which
constant kindness was shown him by Domine Megapolensis, who had
become his warm friend. The Jesuit Father was eventually ransomed
by the Dutch, and sent down to Manhattan, whence he sailed for
Europe. Jogues returned to Canada in 1646, and again visited the
Mohawks, by whom he was cruelly put to death.
In 1644, two years after his settlement at Beverwyck, Domine
Megapolensis drew up the tract entitled Korte Ontwerp van de Ma-
halcuase Indianen in Nieuw Nederlandt, dkc., or, “ A Short Sketch
of the Mohawk Indians in New Netherland, &c.” This little work is
said by Van der Donck (I. N. Y. H. S. Coll. [II. Series], p. 158,) to
have been in the form of a letter written to his friends in Holland,
by whom it appears to have been published—as the Domine himself
said—“ without his consent.” Van der Donck, who is a very compe-
tent authority, adds, that it “ may be fully credited, he [Megapolensis]
being a man of truth and of great learning, who writes in a vigorous
style.” The Domine’s tract gives a very interesting account of the
Mohawk Indians, their habits and customs, of which but little was
then known in Holland. Public attention in the Fatherland, however,
through the representations of Melyn, Van der Donck, and others,
was becoming more and more attracted to New Netherland, and in
1651, Joost Hartgers, of Amsterdam, published a small quarto pam-
phlet, entitled “ Beschryvinge van Virginia, Nieuw Nederlandt,
Nieuw Englandt, <#c.” This little work was evidently compiled
from De Laet’s History, and Van der Donck’s “ Vertoogh,” which
had been printed the year before. Domine Megapolensis’s tract was
appended to this “ Beschryvinge,” and it forms the most valuable—
certainly the most original—portion of Hartger’s pamphlet, the handy
shape of which no doubt gave it a large circulation. Though it was
not published until 1651, or two years after the “Breeden Ra§dt”
of Cornells Melyn, this tract is, actually, in point of date of composi-
tion, the earliest separate account of a portion of New Netherland, of
which wTe have any knowledge. Hudson’s Journal in Purchas, and
De Laet’s History were published in 1625 ; but, excepting some offi-
cial papers respecting the organization of the West India Company,
there seems to have been nothing of interest respecting the Dutch
Province printed, after those works, for more than twenty years.
De Vries, indeed, treats of the leading events of New Netherland142
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
between 1630 and 1643 ; but he did not publish his work until 1655,
or four years after the appearance of Megapolensis’ tract in Hartger’s
pamphlet. It will be noticed that De Vries, in describing the Mo-
hawk Indians at the time of his visit to Fort Orange in 1640, uses the
Domine’s letter of 1644, very freely. An imperfect translation of it
was published in 1792 by Ebenezer Hazard, in the first volume of his
Historical Collections of State Papers, pages 517-526, which has
been frequently referred to by American writers.
After serving for six years at Beverwyck, Domine Megapolensis,
in 1648, made preparations to return to Holland, whither his wife
actually went. This purpose he was about to execute the next year ;
but through the persuasions of Director Stuyvesant, who represented to
him the urgent need of the Church at Manhattan, which, by reason
of the retirement of Domine Backerus, the successor of Bcgardus, was
then without a pastor, he gave up his design, and, in August, 1649,
was installed as the Minister of the Church of Hew Amsterdam, with
a salary of twelve hundred guilders a year. Before he left Bevei-
wyck, Megapolensis had written a catechism, for the benefit of those
inclined to partake of the Holy Communion. This work he sent by
his wife to the West India Directors, by whom it was placed in the
hands of the Classis of Amsterdam for examination, with a view to
its being printed and distributed in Brazil and elsewhere. The
Classis, however, preferred to adhere to the Netherlands Catechism,
of which they ordered a quantity to be sent out.
In the summer of 1650 the wife of Domine Megapolensis re-
turned to him, from Holland, accompanied by their son-in-law, the
Reverend Wilhelmus Grasmeer, of Grafdyck, in the Classis of Alck-
maer.* Domine Grasmeer immediately went to Beverwyck, and re-
mained in charge of the church there until the next year, when he
returned to Holland with good testimonials, and endeavored to pro-
cure the appointment of assistant minister to his father-in-law, in the
church of Hew Amsterdam. The Classis, however, owing to his
being under censure for having left Holland without leave, declined
his request; and soon afterwards Domine Samuel Drisius, of Leyden,
who having lived some time in London, could preach in Dutch,
French and English, was appointed Colleague with Domine Mega-
* See Correspondence of Classis of Amsterdam. Hillegond Megapolensis,
however, was married, on the 24th of June, 1654, to Comelis Van Ruyven, the
Provincial Secretary of New Netherland.INTRODUCTORY NOTE*
143
polensis. Drisius arrived at New Amsterdam in the summer of 1652,
where he remained for twenty years, a useful and acceptable minister.
Megapolensis was a very earnest supporter of his own church,
and as vehement an opposer of other denominations. In 1654 he
took a leading part in organizing a Dutch church at Midwout, or Flat-
bush, to which Domine Johannes Theodoras Polhemus was called as
minister. Polhemus also preached at Breuckelen and Amersfoort, or
Fiatlands, alternately, on Sunday afternoons, until 1660, when
Domine Henricus Selyns arrived from Holland, and took the Breuck-
elen charge. The Lutherans, who wished to establish a church ©f their
own, met, however, with little favor from Megapolensis and his col-
league, through whose influence several measures of restraint, savoring
too much of bigotry, were adopted and enforced by the colonial au-
thorities of New Netherland. Unauthorized “ conventicles ” as they
were called, were forbidden, and for a time a species of religious intol-
erance disgraced the province. Before many years, however, better
counsels prevailed, and Lutherans, Quakers, and other sects not of the
established church, enjoyed greater freedom.
In 1655, Domine Megapolensis accompanied Director Stuyvesant
in his expedition against the Swedes on the South or Delaware River,
where he preached a thanksgiving sermon to the troops, on the sur-
render of Fort Casimir. The Domine thought the terms granted
the Swedes too easy, among other reasons, because a Lutheran min-
ister was allowed to remain in the exercise of his sacred functions
there, though the Dutch had none of their own to take his place;
Megapolensis never lost his interest in the Mohawk savages,
among whom he had spent his early years in the province. His
letters to the Classis of Amsterdam contain several interesting details
concerning them, from whom he obtained the missal and other me-
morials of his murdered friend, the missionary Father Jogues. In
1658, another Canadian Jesuit, Simon Le Moyne, who, in the summer
of 1654, had discovered the Salt Springs at Onondaga, visited New
Amsterdam, and became quite intimate with Megapolensis. He re-
lated to him his discovery at Onondaga, which the Domine commu-
nicated to the Classis in Holland, adding, however, a somewhat un-
courteous expression of his doubt of the fact. Le Moyne seems to
have been very anxious to effect the conversion of his Dutch clerical
friend to the Romish doctrine, and wrote three polemical essays,
which he sent to Megapolensis, after his return to the North. The144
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
Domine, however, not shaken in his faith, prepared a reply to the
Father, which he dispatched to him by a bark which sailed from
New Amsterdam for Quebec. But the vessel—which was the first
that cleared from Manhattan for Canada—on entering the Saint
Lawrence was wrecked on the Island of Anticosti, and Le Moyne lost
the benefit of the Domine’s elaborate answer.
In the autumn of the same year, 1658, Megapolensis sent his
youngest son Samuel, then going into his 25th year, to Holland, for
the purpose of completing his education at the University_of Utrecht,
and of being ordained to the ministry. Samuel had studied the
Latin and English languages at the “ Academy of New England in
Cambridge,” and carried with him letters of recommendation from
his father to the Classis of Amsterdam. After five years stay in Hol-
land, Samuel took his university degrees in theology and medicine
and was ordained as a minister. In the summer of 1664 he returned
to New Netherland, and took the place of Domine Henricus Selyns,
who went back to Holland. His charge included Breuckelen, the
Waal-bogt, G-owanus, and Stuyvesant’s “Bouwery,” near New
Amsterdam. The young Domine also assisted his father and Domine
Drisius in the Metropolitan Church.
Not long afterwards, the Dutch province was obliged to surrender
to the English forces, under Colonel Richard Nicolls. This event took
place in September 16 64. Both the Domines Megapolensis were promi-
nent in the transactions which accompanied it; and, perhaps, it was
owing chiefly to their remonstrances that Stuyvesant refrained from offer-
ing an unavailing resistance. The name of Samuel Megapolensis appears
as one of the commissioners by whom the articles of capitulation were
signed,^at the Director’s Bouwery, on the sixth day of September, 1664.
After the surrender, Domine Megapolensis remained in charge of
the Dutch Church of New York, assisted by his colleague, Domine
Drisius, and his son Samuel. The ministrations of the latter, however,
were chiefly in the “ adjacent villages,” where he seems to have done
good service. He also practised as a physician in the capital; but
after five years’ settlement, he became dissatisfied with the condition of
things in New York, resigned his ministerial charge, and returned to
Holland in the spring of 1669.
A few months after the departure of his son, Domine Megapolensis
died. This event seems to have occurred^ suddenly, towards the close
of 1669, as the Consistory of the Church of New York, on the 24thINTRODUCTORY NOTE.
145
of January, 1670, announced to the Classis of Amsterdam that their
venerated pastor had been “snatched away by death.” His widow
survived him several years. Although he was not the first clergy-.
man in the Dutch Church in New Netherland, he was the first who
continued a settled minister until he died. His'predecessors, Bogardus
and Backerus, severally resigned their charges in 1647 and 1649.
Megapolensis, after seven years’ service at Beverwyck, and twenty
years’ labor at Manhattan, died in the discharge of his pastoral func-
tions. He was a man of thorough scholarship, energetic character,
and devoted piety; and he is entitled to high, if not preeminent posi-
tion, in the roll of early Protestant Missionaries among the North
American Savages. For nearly a quarter of a century he exercised a
marked influence in the affairs of New Netherland. He saw the in-
fancy of the Dutch Province, watched its growth, and witnessed its
surrender to overpowering English force. His name must ever be
associated with- the early history of New York, towards the illustration
of which his correspondence with the Classis of Amsterdam, now in
the possession of the General Synod of the Reformed Protestant
Dutch Church, and this sketch of the Mohawk Indians, form original
and very valuable contributions.
SECOND SERIES.—VOL. III.
10146
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
Names oe the Ministers of the Collegiate Reformed Protestant
Dutch Church of the City of New York, in the order of their
installation, with the dates of their several resignations or deaths
from 1633 to 1855.
[As a fitting appendix to this notice of Domine Megapolensis, and as a
subject of general historical interest, the following list of the Ministers of the
Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the City of New York, in
the order of their installation, with the dates of their several resignations
or deaths, from 1633 to 1855, has been carefully prepared, and is believed
to be quite accurate. It may be added, that portraits of all the deceased
clergymen of that church, from Domine |Dubois to the present time, are
preserved in the Consistory Room, under the Middle; Dutch Church, in
La Fayette Place.]
	Ministers’ Names.	Installed.	Resigned.	Died.
1	Everardus Bogardus,		1633	1647	1647
2	Johannes Backerus,		1647	1649	—
8	Johannes Megapolensis,		1649	—	1669
4	Samuel Drisius,		1652	—	1672
5	Samuel Megapolensis,		1664	1669	—
6	WilhelmusYan Nieuwenhuysen,	1671	—	1681
*7	Henricus Selyns,		1682	—	1700
8	Gualterus Dubois, .....	1699	—	1751
9	Henricus Boel,		1713	—	1754
10	Johannes Ritzema,		1744	1783	1796
11	Lambertus De Ronde,		1751	1783	1795
12	Archibald Ladlie, D. D		1764	—	1778
13	John H. Livingston, D. D.	1770	1810	1825
14	William Linn, D. D. . . .	1787	1805	1803
15	Gerardus A. Kuypers, D. D		1789	. —	1833
16	John N. Abeel, D. D		1795	—	1812
17	John Scbureman, D. .D		1809	1811	1818
18	Jacob Brodhead, D. D. ....	1809	1813	1855
19	Philip Milledoler, D. D		1813	1825	1852
20	John Knox, D. D.		1816	—	—
21	Paschal N. Strong,		1816	—	1825
22	William G. Brownlee, D. D. . . .	1826	—	—
23	Thomas De Witt, D. D		1827	—	—
24	Thomas E. Yermilye, D. D. . .	1839	—	— *
25	Talbot W. Chambers, D. D		1849		•!litorte ©tttuKtp
van de Mahakuase Indianen
in Nieuw Nederlandt,
haer landt, stature, dracht, manieren,
en Magistraten;
BESCHREVEN IN ’T JAER 1644;
DOOR
JOHANNEM MEGAPOLENSEM,
JUNIOREM,
|J«Mk<mt altratr.
AMSTERDAM.
Bij JOOST HARTGERS,
Bookverkooper op den dam.
Anno 1651.A SHORT SKETCH
OF THE
MOHAWK INDIANS, ETC.
The land here is in general like that in Germany. It
is good, and very well provided with all things needful for
human life, except clothes, linen, woollen, stockings, shoes,
&c., which tare all dear here. The country is very moun-
tainous, some land, some rocks, and so exceeding high
that they appear to touch the clouds. Thereon grow the
finest fir trees the eye ever saw. There are also in this
country oaks, alders, beeches, elms, willows, &c. In the
forests, and in the wilderness along the water side, and on
the islands, there grows an abundance of chesnuts, plumbs,
hazle nuts, large walnuts of several sorts, and of as good
a taste as in the Netherlands, but they have a somewhat
harder shell. The land on the hills is covered with thickets
of bilberries or blueberries ; the ground in the flat land
near the rivers is covered with strawberries, which grow
here so plentifully in the fields, that we go there and lie
down and eat them. Yines also grow here naturally in great
abundance along the roads, paths, and creeks, and you
find them wherever you turn yourself. I have seen many
pieces of land where vine stood by vine and grew very
luxuriantly, climbing up above the largest and loftiest trees,
and although they were not cultivated, the grapes were as
good and sweet as in Holland. Here is also a sort of grapes
which grow very large, each grape as big as the end of one's
finger, or a middle sized plumb, and because they are some-
what filmy and have a thick skin we call them Speck Bruy-
ven* If we would cultivate the vines we might have as good
* Hog-grapes.150
A SHOKT SKETCH
wine here as they have in Germany or France. I had
myself last harvest a boat load of grapes and pressed
them. As long as the wine was new it tasted better than
French or Rhenish Must, and the colour of the grape juice
here is so high and red that with one wine glass full you
can colour a whole pot of white wine. In the forests is
great plenty of deer, which in harvest time and autumn
are as fat as any Holland deer can be. I have had them
with fat more than two fingers thick on the ribs, so that
they were nothing else than clear fat, and could hardly be
eaten. There are also many turkies, as large as in Holland,
but in some years less than in others. The year before I
came here, [1641] there were so many turkies and deer
that they came to the houses and hog pens to feed, and
were taken by the Indians with so little trouble, that a deer
was sold to the Hutch for a loaf of bread, or a knife, or
even for a tobacco pipe ; but now we commonly give for a
large deer six or seven guilders. In the forests here there
are also many partridges, heath-hens and pigeons that fly in
flocks of thousands, and sometimes 10, 20, 30 and even 40
and 50 are killed at one shot. We have here, too, a great
number of all kinds of fowl, swans, geese, ducks, wid-
geons, teal, brant, which are taken by thousands upon the
river in the spring of the year, and again in the autumn fly
away in flocks, so that in the morning and evening, any
one may stand ready with his gun before his house and
shoot them as they fly past. I have also eaten here several
times of elks, which were very fat and tasted something like
venison ; and besides these profitable beasts we have also in
this country lions,*' bears, wolves, foxes, and particularly
very many snakes, which are large and as long as 8, 10, and
12 feet. Among others, there is a sort of snake, which
we call rattlesnake, from a certain rattle which is in its tail,
two or three fingers breadth long, and has ten or twelve joints,
and with this rattle it makes a noise like the crickets. Its
colour is variegated like our large spotted dogs. These
snakes have very sharp teeth in their mouth, and dare to
bite dogs ; they make way for neither man nor beast, but
fall on and bite them, and their bite is very poisonous, and
commonly even deadly too.
As to the soil of this country, that on the mountains is
Panthers, or American Liens.OF THE MOHAWK INDIANS, ETC.	151
a reddish sand or rock, but in the low flat lands, and along
the rivers, and even in the sides of the mountains for an
hundred or two hundred paces up there is often clay ground.
I have been on hills here, as high as a church, to examine
the soil, and have found it to he clay. In this ground there
appears to he a singular strength and capacity for bearing a
crop, for a farmer here * told me that he had clean wheat
off one and the same piece of land, eleven years succes-
sively without ever breaking it up, or letting it lie fallow.
The butter here is clean and yellow as in Holland. Through
this land runs an excellent river, about 500 “or 600 paces
wide. This river comes out of the Mahakas Country,
about four miles f north of us. There it flows between two
high rocky banks, and falls from a height equal to that of a
Church,% with such a noise that we can sometimes hear it
with us. In the beginning of June twelve of us took a ride
to see it. When we came there we saw not only the
river falling with such a noise that we could hardly hear one
another, but the water boiling and dashing with such force in
still weather, that it was all the time as if it were raining;
and the trees on the hills there (which are as high as
Schoorler Duyn §) had their leaves all the time wet exactly
as if it rained. The water is as clear as crystal, and as
fresh as milk. I and another with me saw there, in clear
sunshine, when there was not a cloud in the sky, as we
stood above upon the rocks, directly opposite where the
river falls in the great abyss, the half of a rainbow, or a
quarter of a circle, of the same colour with the rainbow
in the sky. And when we had gone about ten or twelve
rods farther downwards from the fall, along the river, we
saw a complete rainbow, or half a circle appearing clearly
in the water just the same as if it had been in the clouds,
and this is always to be seen by those who go there. In this
river is great plenty of several kinds of fish,—pike, eels,
perch, lampreys, suckers, cat fish, sun fish, shad, bass, &c.
In the spring, in May, the perch are so plenty, that one
man with a hook and line will catch in one hour as many
as ten or twelve can eat. My boys have caught in less than
♦Brandt Peelen, of Utrecht, who lived on “Brandt Peelen’s ” or Castle
Island, a little below Fort Orange. See De Yries, ante p. 91, and Van der
Donck, in I. N. Y. H. S. Coll. (Second Series), page 159.
f Twelve English miles.	% The Cohoes Falls.
§ A “ dune,” or sand hill, on the coast of North Holland, near the village of
Schoorl, where Domine Megapolensis had lived.152
A SHORT SKETCH
an hour fifty, each a foot long. They have a three pronged
instrument with which they fish, and draw up frequently
two or three perch at once. There is also in the river a
great plenty of sturgeon, which we Christians do not make
use of, but the Indians eat them greedily. In this river,
too, are very beautiful islands, containing ten, twenty, thirty,
fifty and seventy morgens * of land. The soil is very good,
but the worst of it is, that by the melting of the snow, or
heavy rains, the river is very likely to overflow and cover
that low land. This river ebbs and flows as far as this
place, although it is thirty-six miles f inland from the sea.
What relates to the climate of this country, and the
seasons of the year, is this, that here the summers are pretty
hot, so that for the most of the time we are obliged to go in
our bare shirts, and the winters are very cold. The sum-
mer continues until All Saints' Day; but then begins the
winter, in the same manner as it commonly does in Decem-
ber, and it freezes so hard in one night that the ice will
bear a man. Even the river itself, in still weather and no
strong current running, is frozen with a hard crust in one
night, so that on the second day we can go over it. And
this freezing continues commonly three months ; for
although we are situated here in 42 degrees of latitude, yet
it always freezes so. But sometimes there come warm and
pleasant days. The thaw however does not continue, but
it freezes again until March. Then, commonly, the river
first begins to open, but seldom in February. We have the
greatest cold from the north west, as in Holland from the
North East. The wind here is very seldom.East, but almost
always South, South West, North West, and North.
Our shortest winter days have nine hours sun; in the
Summer, our longest days are about fifteen hours. We
lie so far west of Holland that I judge you are about four
hours before us, so that when it is six o'clock in the morning
with us it is ten with you, and when it is noon with us, it
is four o'clock in the afternoon with you.
The inhabitants of this country are of two kinds ; 1st,
Christians—certainly so called : 2d, Indians. Of the Chris-
tians I shall say nothing ; my design is to speak of the
Indians only. These among us are again of two kinds : 1st,
m
* A morgen is about two acres.
f A Dutch mile is about three English miles.OF THE MOHAWK INDIANS, ETC.	153
the Mahakinbas,* or, as they call themselves, Kajingahaga;
2d, the Mahakans, otherwise called Agotzagena. These two
nations have different languages, which have no affinity
with each other, as the Dutch and Latin. These people
formerly carried on a great war against each other, hut
since the Mahakanders were subdued by the Mahakobaas, a
peace has subsisted between them, and the conquered are
obliged to bring a yearly contribution to the others, We
live among both these kinds of Indians ; and, coming to us
from their country, or we going to them, they do us every
act of friendship. The principal nation of all the savages
and Indians hereabouts with which we are connected, are the
Mahakuaas, f who have laid all the other Indians near us
under contribution. This nation has a very heavy lan-
guage, and I find great ^difficulty in learning it, so as to
speak and preach to them fluently. There is no Christian
here who understands the language thoroughly; those who
have lived here long can hold a kind of conversation just
sufficient to carry on trade with them, but they do not
understand the idiom of the language. I am making a
vocabulary of the Mahakuaa language, and when I am
among them I ask them how things are called ; but as they
are very stupid, I cannot sometimes get an explanation of
what I want. Besides what I have just mentioned, one
will tell me a word in the infinitive mood, another in the
indicative ; one in the first, another in the second person ;
one in the present, another in the praeter perfect tense. So
I stand oftentimes and look, but do not know how to put it
down.% And as they have their declensions and conjugations,
so the^ have their augments like the Greeks. Thus I am
as if I was distracted, and frequently cannot tell what to do,
and there is no person to set me right; I must do all the
studying myself in order to become in time an Indian gram-
marian. When I first observed that they pronounced their
words so differently, I asked the commissary of the com-
pany what it meaned. He answered me that he did not
know, but imagined they changed their Language every two
or three years ; I told him in reply that it could never be
that a whole nation should so generally change their lan-
guage ;—and, though he has been connected with them here
these twenty years, he can^afford me no assistance.
* The Mohawks.
t The Mohawks.154
A SHORT SKETCH
The people and Indians here in this country are of
much the same stature with us Dutchmen ; some of them
have very good features, and their bodies and limbs are
well proportioned ; they all have black hair and eyes, but
their skin is yellow. In summer they go naked, having only
their private parts covered with a patch.' The children and
young folks to 10, 12 and 14 years of age go mother naked.
In winter, they hang loosely about them an undressed
deer's, or bear's, or panther's skin; or they take some
Beaver and otter skins, of wild cat's, raccoon's, martin's,
otter's, mink's, squirrel's or several kinds of skins, which are
plenty in this country, and sew some of them to the others,
until it is a square piece, and that is then a garment for
them ; or they buy of us Dutchmen two and an half ells of
duffels, and that they hang loosely on them, just as it was
torn off, without any sewing, and as they go away they look
very much at themselves, and think they are very fine. They
make themselves stockings and shoes of deer skin, or they
take leaves of their corn, and plat them together and use
them for shoes. The women, as well as the men, go naked
about the head. The women let their hair grow very long,
and tie it together a little, and let it hang down their backs.
$ome of the men wear their hair on one side of the head,
and some on both sides, and a long lock of hair hanging
down. On the top of their heads they have a streak of hair
from the forehead to the neck, about the breadth of three
fingers, and this they shorten until it is about two or
three fingers long, and it stands right on end like a cock's
comb or hog's bristles; on both sides of this cock's comb
they cut the hair short off, except the aforesaid locks, and
they also leave on the bare places here and there small
locks, such as are in sweeping-brushes, and then they are
very fine.
They likewise paint their faces red, blue, &c., and then
they look like the devil himself. They smear their heads
with bear's-grease, which they all carry with them for this
purpose in a small basket ; #hey say they do it to make
their hair grow better and prevent their having lice^ When
they travel, they take with them some of their maize, a
kettle, a wooden bowl, and a spoon; these they pack up
and hang on their backs. Whenever they are hungry, they
forthwith make a fire and cook ; they can get fire by rub-
bing pieces of wood against one another, and that very
quickly.155
OF THE MOHAWK INDIANS, ETC.
They generally live without marriage ; hut if any
of them have wives, the marriage continues no longer than
they think proper, and then they separate, and each takes
another partner. I have seen those who had parted, and
afterwards lived a long time with others, seek their former
partners, and again be one pair. And, though they have
wives, yet they will not leave off going a whoring ; and if
they can sleep with another man's wife, they think it a
brave thing. The women are exceedingly addicted to
whoring ; they will lie with a man for the value of one, two,
or three schillings, and our Dutchmen run after them very
much.
The women, when they have been delivered, go about
immediately afterwards,, and be it ever so cold it makes no
difference, they wash themselves and the young child in the
river or the snow. They will not lie down (for they say
that if they did they should soon die), but keep going about.
They are obliged to cut wood, to travel three or four miles
with their child in a wood ; they go, they stand, they work,
as if they had not lain in, and we cannot see that they
suffer any injury by it; and we sometimes try to persuade
our wives to lay-in so, and that the way of lying-in in Hol-
land is a mere fiddle-faddle. The men have great authority
over their concubines, so that if they do anything which
affronts them and raises their passion, they take an axe and
knock them in the head, and there is an end of it. The
women are obliged to prepare the land, to mow, to plant,
and do everything ;—the men do nothing, except hunting,
fishing, and going to war against their enemies. They are
very cruel towards their enemies in time of war; for they
first bite off the nails of the fingers of their captives, and
cut off some joints, and sometimes the whole of the fingers ;
after that, the captives are forced to sing and dance before
them stark naked; and finally, they roast their prisoners
dead before a slow fire for some days, and then eat them
up. The common people eat the arms, buttocks and trunk,
but the chiefs eat the head and the heart.
©ur Mahakas carry on great war against the Indians of
Canada, on the Eiver Saint Lawrence, and take many cap-
tives, and sometimes there are French Christians among
them. Last year, our . Indians got a great booty from the
French on the Eiver Saint Lawrence, and took three French-
men, one of whom was a Jesuit.* They killed one, but the
* This happened on the 4th of August, 1642. The Jesuit Father, whose life156
A SHORT SKETCH
Jesuit (whose left thumb was cut off, and all the nails and
pieces of his fingers were bitten,) we released, and sent him
to France by a yacht which was going to Holland. They
spare all the children from ten to twelve years old, and all
the women whom they take in war, unless the women are
very old, and then they kill them. Though they are so very
cruel to their enemies, they are very friendly to us, and we
have no dread of them. We go with them into the woods ;
we meet with each other, sometimes'at an hour or two's
walk from any houses, and think no more about it than if
we met wiih a Christian. They sleep by us, too, in our
chambers before our beds. I have had eight at once who
laid and slept upon the floor near my bed, for it is their
custom to sleep only on the bare ground, and to have only
a stone or a bit of wood under their heads. In the evening,
they go to bed very soon after they have supped ; but they
rise early in the morning, and are up before day begins to
break. They are very slovenly and dirty; they wash neither
their face n6r hands, but let all rejnain upon their yellow
skin, and look as dirty as hogs. Their bread is Indian corn
beaten to pieces between two stones, of which they make a
cake, and bake it. in the ashes: their other victuals are
venison, turkies, hares, bears, wild cats, their own dogs,
&c. The fish they cook just as they get them out of the water
wdthout cleansing; also the entrails of deer with all their
contents, which they cook a little ; and if the entrails are
then too tough, they take one end in their mouth, and the
other in their hand, and between hand and mouth they
separate and eat them. So they do commonly with the
flesh, for they carve a little piece and lay it on the fire, as
long as till one can go from house to church, and then it is
done; and when they eat it, the blood runs down their
was spared, was Isaac Jogues’; the one killed was Ren6 Gonpil, a donne, or
novice. In the summer of the following year, Jogues visited Fort Orange,
where Domine Megapolensis showed him great kindness. He sailed from Man-
hattan for Europe on the 5th of November, 1643. Returning to Canada,
Jogues again visited the Mohawk country in 1646, and gave the name “ Saint
Sacrament” to what is now known as “Lake George,” because he first saw it
on Corpus Christi day. He was murdered by the Mohawks on the 18th of Octo-
ber, 1646. De Yries refers to Jogues’ capture, under date of his own visit to
Fort Orange in 1640, which was two years before the Jesuit Father’s misfor-
tune happened. He no doubt got the facts, chiefly, from this tract, which he
uses freely and follows closely. See cfrite, page 89 to page 97, for the portion
of De Yries’ work, copied almost word for word from Megapolensis. There
are a few transpositions and alterations. The translation is, in general, suffi-
ciently accurate.	"OF THE MOHAWK INDIANS, ETC.	157
chins.' They can also take a piece of bear-grease as large
as two fists, and eat it up so without bread or anything else.
It is natural to them to have no beards; not one in an
hundred has any hair about his mouth.
They have also naturally a great opinion of themselves;
they say, Ihy Othhon, (“I am the devil;”) by which they
mean that they are superior folks. In order to praise them-
selves and their people, whenever we tell them they are very
expert at catching deer, or doing this and that, they say,
Tkoschs ho, aguweechon Kajingahaga houaane Jountuchcha
Othhon; that is, “ Keally all the Mohawks hre very cunning
Devils.” They make their houses of the bark of trees, very
close and warm, and kindle their fire in the middle of them.
They also make of the peeling and bark of trees, canoes or
small boats, which will carry four, five and six persons. In
like manner they hollow out trees, and use them for boats,
some of which are very large. I have several times sat and
sailed with ten, twelve and fourteen persons in one of these
hollowed logs. We have in our colony* a wooden canoe
obtained from the Indians, which will easily carry two hun-
dred schepelsf of wheat. The arms used by them in war
iwere formerly a bow and arrow, with a stone axe and clap
hammer, or mallet; but now they get from our people guns,
swords, iron axes and mallets. Their money consists ofcer^
tain little bones, made of the shells of cockles, which are
found on the sea-beach ; a hole is drilled through the mid-
dle of the little bones, and these they string upon thread,
or they make of them belts as broad as a hand, or broader,
which they hang on their necks, or around their bodies ;—
they have also several, holes in their ears, and there they
likewise hang some. ’ They value these little* bones as highly
as many Christians do gold, silver and pearls ; but they
have no idea of our money, and esteem it no better than
Iron. I once showed one of their chiefs a rix-dollar; he
asked how much it was worth among the Christians ; and
when I told him, he laughed exceedingly at us, saying we
were fools to value a piece of iron so highly ; and if he had
such money, he would throw it into the river. They place
their dead upright in holes, and do not lay them down, and
then they throw some trees and wood on the grave, or en-
close it with palisades. They have their set times for going
* Rensselaerswyck.	f A sehepel is about three pecks.158
A SHORT SKETCH
to catch fish, hears, panthers, and heavers. In the spring,
they catch vast quantities of shad and lampreys, which
are very large here :—they lay them on the hark of trees in
the sun, and dry them thoroughly hard, and then put them
in “ notasten,” or bags, which they plait from hemp which
grows wild here, and keep the fish till winter. When their
com i3 ripe, they take off the ears and put them in deep
pits, and preserve them therein the whole winter. They
can also make nets and seines in their fashion; and when
they want to fish with seines, ten or twelve men wall go
together and help each other, all of whom own the seine in
common.
They are entire strangers to all religion, but they have
a Tharonhijouaagon, (whom they also otherwise call Atli-
%6'oekkuatorigho,) that is, a Genius, whom they esteem in
the place of God; but they do not serve or present offer-
ing's to him. They worship and present offerings to the
devil, whom they call OtsJcon, or Aireskuoni. If they have
any bad luck in war, they catch a bear, which they cut in
pieees, and roast, and that they offer up to their Aireskuoni,
saying the following words: “Oh! great and mighty Airesku-
oni, we know that we have offended against thee, inasmuch as
we have not killed and. eaten our captive enemies;—forgive
us this. We promise that we will kill and eat all the cap-
tives we shall hereafter take as certainly as we have killed,.
and now eat this bear.” Also wrhen the weather is very
hot, and there comes a cooling breeze, they cry out directly,
Asoronusi, asoronusi, Otskon aivorouhsi reinnuha; that is,
“ I thank thee, I thank thee, devil, I thank thee, Oomke !”
If they are sick, or have a pain or soreness any where in
their limbs, and I ask them what ails them ? they say that
the devil sits in their body, or in the sore places, and bites
them there; and they always attribute to the devil the ac-
cidents which befal them; they have otherwise no religion.
When we pray they laugh at us. Some of them despise it
entirely; and some/ when we tell them what we do when
we pray, stand astonished. When we have a sermon, some-
times ten or twelve of them, more or less, wall attend, each
having a long tobacco pipe, made by himself, in his mouth,
and will stand awhile and look, and afterwards ask me what
I was doing and what I wanted, that I stood there alone
and made so many words, ’while none of the rest might
speak ? I tell them that I admonish the Christians, thatOF THE MOHAWK INDIANS, ETC.
159
they must not steal, nor commit lewdness, nor get drunk,
nor commit murder, and that they too ought not to do
these things ; and that I intend in process of time to preach
the same to them and come to them in their own country and
castles (about three Days’ journey from here, further in-
land) when I am acquainted with their language. They
say I do well to teach the Christians; but immediately
add, Diatennonjawij Assyreoni, hagiowisk, that is, “Why
do so many Christians do these things ?” They call us
Assyreoni, that is, cloth-makers, or Charistooni, that is,
iron workers, because our people first brought cloth and
iron among them.
They will not come into a house where there is a men-
struous woman, nor eat with her. No woman must touch
their snares in which they catch deer, for they say the deer
can scent it.
The other day an old woman came to our house, and
told my people that her forefathers had told her “that
Thar onhij-Jagon, that is, God, once went out a-walking
with his brother, and a dispute arose between them, and
God killed his brother.” I suppose this fable took its rise
from Cain and Abel. They have a droll theory of the Crea-
tion, for they think that a pregnant woman fell down from
heaven, and that a tortoise, (of which there are plenty
here, in this country, of two, three and four feet long, some
with two heads, very mischievous and addicted to biting)
took this pregnant woman on its back, because every place
was covered with water ; and that the woman sitting upon
the tortoise grabbled with her hands in the water, and
scratched up some of the earth; wThence it finally happened
that the earth became elevated above the water. They
think that there are more worlds than one, and that we
came from another world.
The Mohawk Indians are divided into three tribes, which
are called Ochkari, Anaivare, Oknaho, that is, the bear, the
tortoise and the wolf. Of these, the tortoise is the great-
est and most eminent; and they boast that they are the
oldest descendants of the woman before mentioned. These
have made a fort of palisades, and they call their castle
Asseru&’ Those of the bear are the next to these, and their
castle is called by them Banagiro. The last are a progeny
of these, and their castle is called Thenondiogo. Each of160
A SHORT SKETCH, ETC.
these tribes carries the beast after which it is called (as the
arms in its banner) when it goes to war against its
enemies, and this is done as well for the terror of its
enemies, as for a sign of its own bravery. Lately one of
their chiefs came to me and presented me with a beaver,
an otter, and some cloth he had taken from the French, the
which I must receive as a token of friendship. When he
opened his budget there appeared in it a dried head of a
bear, with grinning teeth. I asked him what that meant ?
He answered me that he fastened it upon his left shoulder
by the side of his head, and that then he was the devil,
who cared for nothing, and did not fear any thing.
The government among them consists of the oldest, the
most sensible, the best-speaking and most warlike men.
* These commonly resolve, and then the young and warlike
'Men execute. But if the common people do not approve
of the resolution, it is left entirely to the determination of
the mob. The chiefs are generally the poorest among them,
for instead of their receiving from the common people as
atnong Christians, they are obliged to give to the mob;
especially when any one is killed in war, they give great
.presents to the next of kin of the deceased; and if they
take any prisoners they present them to that family of
which one has been killed, and the prisoner is then adopted
by the family into the place of the deceased person. There
is no punishment here for murder and other villainies, but
every one is his own avenger. The friends of the deceased
revenge themselves upon the murderer until peace is made
by presents to the next of kin. But although they are so
cruel, and live without laws or any punishments for evil
doers, yet there are not half so many villainies or murders
committed amongst them as amongst Christians ; so that
I oftentimes think with astonishment upon all the murders
committed in the fatherland, notwithstanding their severe
laws and heavy penalties. These Indians, though they live
. without laws, or fear of punishment, do not—at least, they
very seldom—kill people, unless it may be in a great passion,
or a hand-to-hand fight. Wherefore we go wholly uncon-
cerned along with the Indians and meet each other an hour's
walk off in the woods, without doing any harm to one
another.
Johannes Meoapolensis.