The following letter, dated January 11th 1786, was published by the St James' Chronicle in their issue of Saturday February 4th to Tuesday February 7th 1786.
Sir
The arrival of Joseph the Indian Sachem is the general conversation, and as I hear so many various ideas, and absurd accounts of his country, the following short description may be agreeable to your readers. The six confederate Nations were till some years back five only, and consisted of the following Tribes, the Mohawks, Oneydoes, Onondagas, Gayugas, and Senekas. The Origin of this Union is too remote for us to be acquainted with it. The Tuscaroras, who now make the sixth, fled to the confederate Nations after an unfortunate war they had with the Cherokees. These confederate Nations conceive themselves as superior in courage and wisdom to all the other Aborigines of America, and assume the title of Ongue-honwe, which signifies men surpassing all others. It is this conviction of their own superiority which has inflamed their courage to such a degree as to render them terrible throughout the numerous tribes of that vast desert, who are impressed with the same idea and yield them implicit obedience and respect. All the tribes around them have for many years entirely submitted, and pay them an annual tribute of Wampum, which two old warriors of the Mohawks are sent to receive. I have beheld one of these Chiefs wrapped round in an old blanket with a tomahawk in his hand, issuing his commands with as absolute authority as Caesar surrounded by the Imperial legions.
The rank of sachem is not at the disposal of bribery, family or fortune, by their virtues only they rise to this eminence; and should they fail in persevering in those virtues, they are degraded with scorn and contempt. They have such absolute ideas of liberty that they permit no kind of servitude among them. Their arms are muskets, long knives, and a small hatchet called a tomahawk which they never cease to carry about them. The last serves them also as a pipe, a steel bowl being fixed on the head of the hatchet, and the tube running up the handle. This they throw with such certainty and dexterity as to stick the edge of it into any object at considerable distance. They express peace by the metaphor of fire and tree, and war by an axe or hatchet. These are the brave, the free, the faithful allies England has so shamefully abandoned, nor is this the first time she has acted in this manner. The Welnis [?] cultivated a friendship with the English, and obtained leave of the confederates to move nigher to them for the benefit of commerce. They displayed the most heroic resolution and immoveable affection for the English at the Tawightawi town, where out of seventy warriors they lost twenty-two on the spot. And though afterwards they were allured with the most advantageous offers by the French, they persisted in their alliance with us. Yet, in the war with the French on our account, they were amused by us with hopes of assistance, but were basely abandoned without arms or ammunition to the fury of an enraged enemy.
Permit me, Mr Baldwin, to say a word or two before I conclude, to the generous Ungaa Laugas Ca, who favoured me with a few lines in your last paper. I rejoice that, like me, he rises abouve the prejudices of Civilisation and prefers the honest name of Savage to the specious glaring one of a polite European. Should Fortune (who in this country of chance, where humble merit pines into obscurity while villainy and perfidity ride in state) frown upon him; I invite him with the sincerity of a savage to fly with me to my humble Whig-wam, on the banks of the Alabama. Should he (as I have reason to think he is) be descending into the vale of years, we will have the joy which the Children of Nature only know, of providing for our friend. While I am traversing the desert to procure him venison, or siezing the finny race in our noble river, he shall be instructing the rising generation to avoid the miseries which flow from a knowledge of men, whose heart and tongue but seldom are in unison; and in the evening after we have eat our friendly meal and indulged ourselves with a social pipe and glass, my faithful squaw, the lovely Latefa, shall compose his bed of the forest furs of the shaggy inhabitants of the forest.
Machichesco, Jan 11th 1786.
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