The belts received at treaties, councils and other assemblies were entrusted for presentation to the care of one individual, usually the sachem, who was expected to keep in mind the occasion and purport of each, which he could readily do by the aid of the devices emblematic of the event it signalized that were traced upon each.[17] Thus a belt presented to Sir Wm. Johnson by the Six Nations, had wrought upon it the sun, the emblem of light, and symbols of the Six Nations. It signified that their minds were now illumined by the clear bright light of truth and their intention to abide in the light.[17] In a belt presented at Easton, His Majesty King George was figured taking hold of the king of the Six Nations with one hand, and the king of the Delawares with the other. A belt presented by the Indians of Eastern Maine as a pledge of their friendship and fidelity to the United States and the king of France was explained as follows: The belt was thirteen rows wide to represent the United States, and had upon it a cross indicating France, and several white figures denoting the different Indian villages.[18] The Indian like other young languages drew closer to nature than the dusty abstractions of civilization. It was highly figurative and the majority of its words referred directly to familiar external sights. The tribes of each nation of the Iroquois were known respectively as the Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Turtle, Deer, Snipe, Heron and Hawk. The significant names of chiefs are known to all, and whoever is familiar with Indian oratory will readily recollect its garb of bold and striking metaphors. These features, while imparting energy to the language, at the same time made it easy to convey its meaning by picture writing or symbolism, the only mode of writing which the aborigine possessed.[19] Thus, too, it was easy to put upon a belt a few significant characters which by the principle of mental association should clearly depict the salient features of an event or of a series of events. Such belts carefully preserved served as the annals of a nation. They were the only authentic history of the past, recalling the treaties, councils, triumphs and domestic celebrations of former generations. At stated times their custodian, the sachem, was accustomed to gather the younger warriors about him, and unfolding to them the secrets locked up in these mysterious records, instruct them in the history and engagements of their tribe. The old soldier's breast glowed with honest pride, as he recounted to his young braves the exploits of their sires, or exhibited the proud tokens of submission forced from some ancient enemy, and most of all when he came to dwell upon scenes conspicuous for his own valor and reddened by his blood. And as the impetuous youths drank in the glorious story of their father's might and valor on the war path, there sprang up within them a patriotism "that grew by what it fed on." In the extensive confederation of the Iroquois, Hono Wenato, an Onondaga sachem, was the hereditary keeper of the wampum. Whenever the grand council met to fill a vacancy in the sachemship of a tribe of any nation, it was his duty publicly to repeat to the new sachem their ancient laws and usages, and to unfold to him the structure and principles of the league, as recorded in the belts committed to his charge.[20]
Wampum played an important part in religious as well as civil ceremonies. On occasions of great public calamities, it formed the most acceptable sacrifice that could be offered to the terrible Hobbamocko, the author of evil, and it entered largely into the mystic rites of all those weird assemblies that gathered under the shades of the forest. When evil threatened or its farther progress was to be stayed, as also after great triumphs and abundant harvests, the Indians gathered from far and near to celebrate their mysteries. They danced for days, painted and clad in hideous guise, about a great fire, the throne of the divinity, and with wild and frantic yells cast from time to time into the flames furs and weapons, and that choicest of their treasures the costly wampum. Nay it was even whispered in the early time, that little children gaily adorned with wampum were led into the midst and thrust into the fiery embrace of the hissing god.[21] The practice of the Iroquois was less fearful, among whom a string of white wampum was hung around the neck of a white dog suspended to a pole and offered as a sacrifice to the mighty Haweuneyn. The wampum was a pledge of their sincerity, and white an emblem of purity and of faith. In the same nation, previous to "giving thanks to the Maple," and their other stated festivals, the people assembled for the mutual confession of their sins. "The meeting was opened by one of the 'keepers of the faith,' with an address upon the propriety and importance of acknowledging their evil deeds to strengthen their minds against future temptations. He then took a string of white wampum in his hand, and set the example by a confession of his own faults, after which he handed the string to the one nearest to him, who received it, made his confession in like manner, and passed it to another. In this way the wampum went around from hand to hand, and those who had confessions to make, stated wherein they had done wrong, and promised to do better in the future. Old and young, men, women and even children, all united in this public acknowledgment of their faults, and joined in the common resolution of amendment. On some occasions the string of wampum was placed in the centre of the room, and each one advanced in turn to perform the duty as the inclination seized him. A confession and promise without holding the wampum would be of no avail. It was the wampum which recorded their words and gave their pledge of sincerity. The object of the confession was future amendment."[22]
Wampum was the tribute paid by the vanquished in war, as also the means by which threatened wars were often averted. The Long Island Indians for many years paid an annual tribute to the Pequots, a powerful tribe dwelling in Eastern Connecticut.[23] It is commonly supposed that these tribes were also tributary to the Six Nations. To the same great power were subject the clans between the Hudson and the Connecticut, and every year two aged but haughty Mohawks might be seen going from village to village to collect the tribute that was their due. It is asserted that as late as 1756, a small tribe near Sugar Loaf Mountain made an annual payment to this nation of £20 in wampum. Individual as well as national obligations were similarly satisfied. Like the early German, the Indian set a marketable value on human life, and a suitable present of wampum on the part of the murderer, if accepted, freed him from the vengeance of the dead man's friends, for the wampum belt washed away all traces of the bloody stain.[24] Perhaps desire for another's wampum sometimes prompted him to such foul deeds, as it did the white man,[25] though happily the Indian seldom stooped to theft.
Thus in the rude civilization of the aborigine wampum filled a space accorded to no one article in our own. Through life it faithfully met all his varied wants, and when he came to die, his friends placed it about his dead body,[26] that it might befriend him on his journey to the spirit land, and on his arrival there gain for him admission to the realms of the god Kiehtan, the abode of the blessed.
The shrewd commercial instinct of the Dutch colonists was quick to profit by wampum in their dealings with the aborigines. Happily its most extensive producers dwelt at their very doors. They obtained from the Long Island tribes in return for knives, scissors, hatchets and the like, great quantities of this novel coinage, and then exchanged it with the Indians of the mainland for hides and furs, often plunging far into the interior and drawing thence products which gold could never have won from their possessors. Did common trifles fail, wampum was the unfailing reserve whose charms the savage was powerless to resist. With such an adjutant trade became doubly flourishing and lucrative. Posts sprang up along the Hudson, in the valley of the Connecticut and as far south as the Schuylkill, through all of which ceaseless revenues poured into the coffers of the Dutch West India Company. Connecticut, alone, annually furnished to her traders ten thousand beaver skins.[27] In all this traffic wampum played a leading part, so much so in fact that fur trade and wampum trade became synonymous terms.
Toward the close of September, 1627, Isaac de Rasieres was dispatched from New Amsterdam on an embassy to the English colony at New Plymouth. Being of a trading turn, he carried with him in his vessel among other merchandise about £50 in wampum which he managed to dispose of there.[28] Wampum was as yet comparatively unknown in Massachusetts Bay, and the colonists were ignorant of its uses. This purchase made with great reluctance, they sent to their trading house at Kennebeck, where "when the inland Indians came to know it, they could scarce procure enough for many years together." Everywhere in New England, as in the Dutch provinces, wampum soon became a leading article in the Indian trade, and added greatly to its profits. Seven years after its introduction to Kennebeck, Mr. Winslow carried thence into England about twenty hogsheads of beaver, "the greater part whereof was traded for wampampeage" during the year. By 1636 this trade had grown to such proportions in Massachusetts colony that the standing colony were authorized to farm it out for the increase of the public revenues, and to establish the severest penalties for any infringement of the privileges thus granted. The traders of New England were now ranging the forests in all directions and often plunged into them for hundreds of miles to the great alarm of the Dutch who feared that the English would monopolize all the profits of the trade, and that "they should be obliged to eat oats out of English hands."[29] From the north the French descended in great numbers, eager to share in the gains of this traffic, and often encroached upon the domains of other nations. The solitudes of the wilderness thus resounded every where to the tread of the adventurous white man, who, lured on by the hope of gain, thought not of the dangers that beset his path. It doubtless afforded the Indian no little satisfaction to welcome the haughty foreigner to his wigwam, and while dictating his own terms, to receive in payment the honored currency of his fathers. When he took his pay, he measured it off after his own fashion, the unit being the distance from the elbow to the end of the little finger. According to one authority it made no difference whether a short or tall man measured it.[30] Adrian Van Tiedhoven, clerk of the court at the South river, however tells a different story, complaining bitterly "because the Indians always take the largest and tallest among them to trade with us."
But hides and furs were not the only articles which wampum purchased from the natives. It was a frequent consideration in early Indian deeds. In the records of Windsor, Conn., is preserved a deed, which conveys territory lying between the Podunk and Scantic rivers, and extending a day's march into the country, the price paid for which was fifteen fathoms of wampum and twenty cloth coats. Most of the present towns of Warwick and Coventry in Rhode Island, were purchased of Miantinomi, sachem of the Narragansetts, for one hundred and forty-four fathoms of wampum.[31]
In New England the limits of the trade were considerably extended by the quantities of wampum tribute which poured into the hands of the colonial authorities. Wampum was the commodity in which tribute was universally paid, and the stern justice of our fathers imposed this with no sparing hand upon their weak and erring neighbors. In 1634, the Pequots were fined 400 fathoms of wampum, and two years afterwards 600 fathoms more.[32] After 1637, the Long Island Indians paid a large yearly tribute to the united commissioners,[33] as did also the Block Islanders. It is often difficult, as in the present case, to see the justice of such exactions. These Indians had been guilty of no unfriendly act, and the utmost urged in extenuation of the imposition was the flimsy pretence that but for an alleged protection the same sums would have gone in fealty to their red brethren. In 1644, the Narragansetts were fined 2000 fathoms, and doomed to pay yearly thereafter a fathom for every Pequot man, half a fathom for every youth and a hand breadth for every child in the tribe. As late as 1658,[34] the Pequots were fined ten fathoms a man, and one of their number imprisoned for offering refuse wampum in part payment.[35] This tribe had suffered so many and severe exactions that they were obliged to search in all directions for the material out of which to manufacture their wampum, and occasionally crossed over to Long Island for this purpose. The Montauk sachem fearing that his shores would be exhausted of their shelly wealth, opposed these visits, until the Pequots succeeded in securing the interposition of the united commissioners in their behalf.[36] In 1663, the assessment upon this tribe was fixed at 80 fathoms. Such are a few of the many instances to be found in the records, showing the enormous amount of wampum paid as tribute by the natives to the early authorities of New England.
The Dutch supply was augmented in a different manner. They soon found the native manufactories inadequate to the demand and erected mints of their own, and by introducing steel drills and polishing lathes won a great advantage over the original wearisome hand processes. The French sought a still greater advantage by substituting porcelain for shells, but the Indians were not to be thus easily imposed upon, and the manufacture of earthen money was soon given up.[37] It is sometimes asserted that the English engaged in making wampum, though the statement appeared to be without foundation. The Dutch, however, produced it in large quantities, and were thereby enabled to enlarge the circle of their own posts; and also to furnish liberal supplies to the traders, north and south, who ranged over the entire Atlantic coast from the St. Lawrence to the gulf. In Virginia, the Carolinas, and later in Georgia, wampum was the chief medium employed in the fur trade.