The New York Packet

Messieurs LOUDON,

BEFORE the late American war, I was possessed of a curious Dutch history of this country, from its first discovery and settlement by that nation. If my memory is good, one part of the book, respecting the native Indians, contained the following remarkable transaction, which may be useful to apply at this present time.

"THE Manhatans, who resided on the island of New-York, were a very powerful and warlike people: By their bravery the neighbouring tribes of Indians had either became tributary, or confederated with them. On the Jersey shore, at Gonomepa and Bergen, resided the Sanhikans, a very civil and peaceable people; they had purchased an alliance with the Manhatans and their other allies, by paying them a yearly tribute of fur and oysters. After the Dutch had obtained permission to build a fort and establish a factory on the island Manhatans (or New-York) this tribute did not satisfy the Manhatans and others, because they had but few oysters to spare the Dutch, and not furs enough to purchase goods at the factory, or pay their old debts.

They therefore sent a demand to the Sanhikans, that the tribute might be doubled. or that they might have leave to fetch as many oysters as they wanted, from the banks near the Jersey shore, and hunt in the woods freely, and set as many fox and musk-rat traps as they chose on the Jersey shore.

This was hard times to the Sanhikans, who immediately sent one of their Head-warriors (I forget his name) to remonstrate against this unreasonable demand; - which he did in the following remarkable speech.

Head men, Warriors, and Brothers of the Manhatans, Tucororors, Sengerorors, Pachami, Tappans, Waranocks, Wappingers, and others.

...(A GROAN.)

"MY eyes drop tears - my heart swells with sorrow - and my knees tremble, while I now attempt to return an answer to the demand you have made of our nation the Sanhikans; because I see if we do not grant your request you may seek a pretext of violating that peace that has united between you and us and the other our confederates, since we first entered into an alliance with you, and delegated to you and them the power of lighting the Council fire; declaring war and making peace, besides the right of fixing the quotas of men and quantities of provisions each tribe must furnish for the common defence. When we first entered into alliance with you, we bound ourselves to pay you a yearly tribute from the produce of our Shore and land: You accepted of the offer at first, and ratified the agreement by a belt of wampum, swearing that you would never violate it. Did all the other confederates behave as we did? No. And now I must request you to answer me my brothers, whether every requisition you have made to us, has not been faithfully complied with? Have not our Head-men attended your Council fire? Has not your enemies been our enemies? Have we not furnished you with our full proportion of young men for the war, when required, and the means of supporting them? Have we not faithfully paid you the tribute first established; and with which you have always been content until this strange nation, the Charitoni (the Dutch or workers in cloth) came to dwell with you.

(A PAUSE.)

A Belt of Wampum, and Lamp of the Foot.

Brothers, I grow warm - I will speak boldly: I fear you have foolishly become fond of their cloth, their trinkets, their beads, and their strong drink; for those you have laid aside the warm bear and beaver skin, the wampum, the eagle quill, and fountain water, used by your ancestors. You have contracted a debt by these means, and by hiring the Aioni to aid you in the wars; and now you see no way of satisfying them but by raising the tribute, we and the other confederates have agreed to pay you. If we agree to your first request, how long will that satisfy you? If we should see you go on in a mad course of extravagance, in squandering and giving away your property, and contracting new debts.

We have been told, that not content with your wigwams, you have it in contemplation to build a town of houses such as the Charitoni live in; if so where will your desires end? Will you stop here? No, year after year you will advance your demands, till we are no longer able to satisfy you. Fix now a certain quantity, if it even exceeds our proportion, let us only be assured, that what you ask is for the general good of the confederates, and we will make good your requisitions; let us be assured that you will not employ our tribute in extravagance, or squander it away for the baubles of the Charitoni! Let us see you employ it to discharge the debt due to the Charitoni and Aionioni, for aiding in the wars; and that you mean to get clear of that debt before you contract others, by entering into a war, to conquer and extirpate tribes whose lands the Afegos will, when vacant take possession of; for where will you find people to settle on those lands! You might rather send the Calumet of peace amongst them, and get them to furnish you with furs and
Other articles: If you march into their country you cannot remain there long; they fly from you unless you surprise them, and when you are gone they return again, as mad as a wolf that has been robbed of her whelps, and become more mischievous and furious than ever. Let us know how the general tributes are disposed of; don't you have too much of them amongst yourselves?

(A PAUSE)

Each Head-man took a whiff of the Calumet of peace offered by the Speaker, but some did it reluctantly. The Speaker after muttering a prayer or address, began:

Brothers, I shall now answer your second demand. What would be the consequence should we comply with it. If we agree that you shall fetch oysters on our banks, might not a dispute arise between your people and ours, so as to endanger the general peace! Would you suffer us to tell you, brother, you have enough, you must let the banks recruit, or we will neither of us have any oysters: If we should insist upon counting the number you have taken, and a fight should commence between us, do not we know from experience that the oysters will all die. You say the Tuscororors, Singerorors and Tappans, have agreed to your demand on them; are their claims and small oysters to be compared to our fine oysters! Have you added to your request free hunting, fowling, and catching foxes, racoons, and musk-rats. You answer yes, the two first are possessed of so small a tract of country that you will be able to obtain but few furs from them: The Tappans have no oysters, their shore abounds not with musk-rats, few deer are in their woods; what would be the consequence should we agree freely to let you hunt on our lands, and set as many traps as you please. I will foretell it by what I saw lately. Some musk-rats had their holes along the banks of a pleasant river, and lived happily; a parcel of beavers came there, and judging the river would suit their conveniency, desired leave of the musk-rats, to dam it across and fix their residence there, promising to protect them from their enemies.

The musk-rats foolishly agreed to their proposals; the beavers fell to it with their teeth, cut down the trees aside the river, drove away the fish, the support of the musk-rats, and at last by their dam, raised the water so high as to endanger drowning and starving the musk-rats, who were soon obliged to quit their place of abode to the beavers. If we let your young men hunt freely on our lands, we shall often be deprived of the flesh and skins of the deer and bear; but should we allow you to place as many traps as you please along our shores, you would soon prevent us from getting any thing ourselves. If we once let you get footing on our lands, and do as you please, you will soon possess the whole income. Brothers, you know when a snake has got its head in a hole, it is no hard matter for it to get its body in. You say you will take no more after you have paid your old debts, I answer we all know strong drink is so enticing, that when we have once tasted of it, and our hearts are made light, if a keg of it stood by the side of us, we would not leave it till it was empty—therefore we cannot agree to your last proposals, but must abide by the first. We will go further—light a General Council fire of all the old and wise men of the different nations; and let us consult what will be for the general good—our wise men shall attend. I have done; accept this string of wampum.

The answer made by the Council of the confederates in some future paper."