[97] Nat. Intell. July 31, 1840.
His grandfather was an Englishman, and had served with reputation under the Duke of Marlborough in some of his famous continental battles, in the days of Queen Anne, and he cherished the military principle with great ardor. He spoke fluently the German and Dutch languages, and was thus able to communicate with the masses of the varied population, originally from the Upper Rhine and the Scheldt, who formed a large portion of the inhabitants of the then frontier portions of Albany County, including the wild and picturesque range of the Helderbergs and of the new settlements of Schoharie, the latter being in immediate contact with the Mohawk Iroquois. The influence of the British government over this tribe, through the administration of Sir William Johnson, was unbounded. Many of the foreign emigrants and their descendants were also under this sway, and the whole frontier was spotted with loyalists under the ever hateful name of Tories. These kept the enemy minutely informed of all movements of the revolutionists, and were, at the same time, the most cruel of America's foes, not excepting the Mohawks. For the fury of the latter was generally in battle, but the former exercised their cruelties in cold blood, and generally made deliberate preparations for them, by assuming the guise of Indians. In these infernal masks they gave vent to private malice, and cut the throats of their neighbors and their innocent children. In such a position a patriot's life was doubly assailed, and it was often the price of it, to declare himself "a son of liberty," a term then often used by the revolutionists.
He had just entered his seventeenth year when the war against the British authorities in the land broke out, and he immediately declared for it; the wealthy farmer (Swartz) with whom he lived, being one of the first who were overhauled and "spotted" by the LOCAL COMMITTEE OF SAFETY, who paraded through the settlement with a drum and fife. He was at the disarming of Sir John Johnson, at Johnstown, under Gen. Schuyler, where a near relative, Conrad Wiser, Esq., was the government interpreter. He was at Ticonderoga when the troops were formed into hollow square to hear the Declaration of Independence read. He marched with the army that went to reinforce Gen. Montgomery, at Quebec, and was one of the besieged in Fort Stanwix, on the source of the Mohawk, while Gen. Burgoyne, with his fine army, was being drawn into the toils of destruction by Gen. Schuyler, at Saratoga--a fate from which his supersedeas by Gen. Gates, the only unjust act of Washington, did not extricate him.
The adventures, perils, and anecdotes of this period, he loved in his after days to recite; and I have sometimes purposed to record them, in connection with his name; but the prospect of my doing so, while still blessed with an excellent memory, becomes fainter and fainter.
8th. Otwin (vide ante) writes from La Pointe, in Lake Superior, in the following terms:--
"I often look back to the happy days I spent in your family, and feel grateful in view of them. A thousand blessings rest on your head, my dear friend, and that of your wife, for all your kindness to me, when first a stranger in a distant land. I cannot reward you, but know that you will be rewarded at the resurrection of the just."
9th. "I know of no good reason," says a correspondent, "why a man should not, at all times, stand ready to sustain the truth." This is a maxim worthy Dr. Johnson; but the experience of life shows that such high moral independence is rare. Most men will speak out, and even vindicate the truth, sometimes. But the worldling will stand mute, or evade its declaration, whenever his interests are to be unfavorably affected by it.
I reached Washington on public business during the heats of June, and, coming from northern latitudes, felt their oppressiveness severely.
27th. Mr. Bancroft, the historian, pursues exactly the course he should, to ferret out all facts, new and old. He does not hold himself too dignified to pick up information, or investigate facts, whenever and wherever he can find them. In what he has to say about the Indians, a subject that lies as a superstratum under his work, he is anxious to hear all that can be said. "Let me hear from you," he adds in a letter of this date, "before you go back. I want to consult you on my chapter about the Indians, and for that end should like to send you a copy of it."
The chief, Eshquagonaby, of Grand Traverse Bay, Lake Michigan, relates the following traditions: When Gezha Manido (the Good Spirit) created this island (continent), it was a perfect plain, without trees or shrubs. He then created an Indian man and woman. When they had multiplied so as to number ten persons, death happened. At this the man lamented, and went to and fro over the earth, complaining. Why, he exclaimed, did the Good Spirit create me to know death and misery so soon? The Good Spirit heard this, and, after assembling his angels to counsel, said to them, What shall we do to better the condition of man? I have created him frail and weak. They answered, O, Good Spirit, thou hast created us, and thou art everlasting, and knowest all things; thou alone knowest what is best.