[1349] All of the authorities to which he refers have already been cited, and it may fairly be said that there is nothing of special value in his remarks on the subject. In the development of the topic to which the work is devoted the author alludes to the custom of the Indians to refrain from connection with women not only during the time that they were on the war-path, but for some days before starting. The unanimity of testimony as to this custom of the Indians renders special citations unnecessary. Until the natives were debauched in this respect by contact with civilization, no authentic instance can be found of the violation of a woman by a warrior on the war-path. Brantz Mayer, in his defence of Cresap (Logan and Cresap, p. 110), quotes from the Md. Gazette (Nov. 30, 1774) a charge of this sort. If there was foundation for it in the minds of those who made it, investigation would probably have traced the outrage to whites disguised as Indians. The superstition which protected women from Indian assault was still in force at that time.
[1350] The editor says he "has given the following memorandum of Indian fighting men, inhabiting near the distant parts, in 1762; to indulge the curious in future times, and show also the extent of Dr. Franklin's travels. He believes it likely to have been taken by Dr. Franklin in an expedition which he made as a commander in the Pennsylvania militia, in order to determine measures and situation for the outposts; but is by no means assured of the accuracy of this opinion. The paper, however, is in Dr. Franklin's handwriting: but it must not be mistaken as containing a list of the whole of the natives enumerated, but only as such part of them as lived near the places described."
[1351] In addition to a vast number of reports, extracts from letters, and proceedings of one sort and another, I would call especial attention to the following papers: Carleton's Commission (ii. p. 120); Proceedings connected with Connolly's arrest (ii. pp. 218-221); Schuyler's expedition to Tryon County (iii. p. 135); Stuart's letter to Gage, Oct. 3, 1776 (Part iii., 1776, iv. p. 180); an account of Wyoming massacre from fugitives (vii. p. 51); Col. Wm. Butler's report to General Stark of the destruction of Unadilla, etc. (vii. pp. 253-255); Colonel Van Schaick's report of the destruction of Onondaga (viii. p. 272); the Minisink affair (viii. pp. 275, 276); the letter of the Earl of Dartmouth to Lord Dunmore (viii. p. 278); attack On Indians at Ogeechee, April, 1779 (viii. p. 300); action of the Council at Williamsburgh in Hamilton's case (viii. p. 337); letters from Sullivan's headquarters concerning battle at Newtown (ix. p. 23); Sullivan's proclamation to Oneidas (ix. p. 25); Brodhead's report of his expedition (ix. p. 152); Sullivan's report, Teaoga, Sept. 30, 1779 (ix. p. 158); Joint movements in the valleys of Mohawk, Hudson, and Connecticut (xi. pp. 81-83). The foregoing sufficiently illustrates the wealth of historical material collected in the Remembrancer.
[1352] The Register contains nearly all the papers submitted to Parliament which bore upon American affairs, together with other documents which the publishers from time to time added to the volumes. The Remembrancer and the Register together furnish the means of writing a history of the border warfare of the Revolution which would be nearly complete. A large mass of documentary material respecting the relation of General Haldimand in Quebec with the Indians and with British officers operating with the Indians is in the Haldimand Papers, in the British Museum, of which the Dominion archivist, Douglas Brymner, is now printing a calendar in his Annual Reports (Ottawa). The correspondence of Haldimand and Guy Johnson, 1778-1783, makes three vols. Many papers on this border warfare are in the Quebec series of MSS. in the Public Record Office, and are also noted by Brymner (Report, 1883, p. 79).—Ed.
[1353] In the Secret Journals, the Articles of Confederation, proposed by Franklin on the 21st of July, 1775, are printed in full. I have had occasion to refer to them because an offensive and defensive alliance with the Six Nations is proposed in them. In the "Advertisement" to the edition of the Secret Journals which is cited, the publishers say that these Articles "have never before been published." In the Gentleman's Magazine (xlv. p. 572) a "Plan of the American Confederacy" is given. This plan is copy of Franklin's proposed Articles of Confederation, with a preamble addressed to the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, and was apparently received from that colony. In connection with this, see Bancroft (viii. p. 97). In the Scot's Magazine (Edinburgh, 1775, xxxvii. p. 665) these Articles were copied from the Gentleman's Magazine, with this comment: "The copy from whence this was printed was addressed particularly to the Province of North Carolina; but the same was without doubt submitted to the consideration of every other Provincial Congress, as the preamble clearly shows." The preamble thus referred to reads: "The Provincial Congress of —— are to view the following Articles as a subject which will be proposed to the Continental Congress at their next session." These two magazines publish the Articles as a mere submission of a plan. When the proposed Articles of Confederation reached the Annual Register they became "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union entered into by the several colonies of New Hampshire, &c., &c., in General Congress met at Philadelphia, May 20, 1775" (Annual Register, 1775, p. 253). These Articles were also published as if they had been adopted in The History of the British Empire, etc. By a Society of Gentlemen. (Printed for Robert Campbell & Co., Philadelphia, 1798, 2 vols.: i. p. 188, note.) They are also given as Articles of Confederation, etc., entered into, etc., May 20, 1775, in An Impartial History of the War in America, etc., Boston, 1781, Appendix to vol. i. p. 410.
[1354] The rumors current in the colonies during the progress of events express the hopes and the fears of the colonists, and to a certain extent also indicate their opinions. We should naturally expect to find in an American collection of this sort something to help us in getting at the views of the colonists on the question of employing Indians. In fact, there is but little to be found in the book on this subject, and we are obliged to turn again to Almon's Remembrancer, where we find numerous rumors recorded, some of them improbable in their very nature, but serving to indicate the hopes of the people; as for instance, in a letter from Pittsfield, May 18, 1775: "The Mohawks had given permission to the Stockbridge Indians to join us, and also had 500 men of their own in readiness to assist" (i. p. 66). Again, Worcester, May 10: "We hear that the Senecas, one of the Six Nations, are determined to support the colonies" (i. p. 84). [This extract will be found in the Spy of that date.] June 20, 1775: "The Indians from Canada, when applied to by Governor Carleton to distress the settlement, say they have received no offence from the people, so will not make war with them" (i. p. 147). August 3: "The Canadians and Indians cannot be persuaded by Governor Carleton to join his forces, but are determined to remain neuter" (i. p. 169). August 12: "The Indian nations, for a thousand miles westward, are very staunch friends to the colonies, there being but one tribe inclined to join Governor Carleton, of which, however, there is no danger, as the others are able to drive that tribe and all the force Carleton can raise" (i. p. 251). The Boston Gazette and Country Journal for August 21, 1775, contains the statement that "all apprehensions of danger from our fellow-subjects in Canada and the Indians are entirely removed." The arrival of Swashan, with four other Indians of the St. Francois tribe, at Cambridge, with the statement that "they were kindly received and are now in the service", is printed in the columns of the same journal. Cf. Drake's Book of the Indians, iii. ch. xii. p. 156; Moore's Diary of the Rev., i. p. 127. The Boston Gazette, etc. (Dec. 4, 1775) has the following: "Last week his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief received some despatches from the Honorable Continental Congress, by which we have authentic intelligence that several nations of the Western Indians have offered to send 3,000 men to join the American forces whenever wanted." The New England Chronicle or the Essex Gazette, from Thursday, July 27, to Thursday, August 3, 1775, published at Stoughton Hall, Harvard College, under date of Aug. 3, says: "We can't learn that a single tribe of savages on this continent have been persuaded to take up the hatchet against the colonies, notwithstanding the great pains made use of by the vile emissaries of a savage ministry for that purpose."
[1355] Also in Campbell's Border Warfare of New York during the Rev. War (a second edition of his Annals of Tryon County), App.
[1356] This petition, if in the Mass. Archives, as one might infer, cannot now be found there.
[1357] For instance, John Sullivan and John Langdon write from Philadelphia, May 22, 1775, that the Indians tell them Guy Johnson "has really endeavored to persuade the Indians to enter into a war with us" (vii. p. 501); Lewa, a well-known Indian, reports the Canadian Indians friendly to the Americans, and says he "can raise 500 Indians to assist at any time" (vii. p. 525); Governor Trumbull has learned that "the Cognawaga Indians have had a war-dance, being bro't to it by Gen. Carleton" (vii. p. 532); Rev. Dr. Eleazer Wheelock gives Dean's report as to the good-will of the Canadian Indians (vii. p. 547).
[1358] Sparks asserts that Natanis, a Penobscot chief, was in the interest of Carleton (Washington, iii. p. 112, note). Judge Henry says he was one of those who joined Arnold at Sartigan. In the American Archives (5th ser., i. pp. 836, 837), James Bowdoin, writing to Washington, says that the Penobscots said "that when General Washington sent his army to Canada, five of their people went with them, and two of them were wounded and three taken prisoners." The small number of Indians who accompanied Arnold cut no figure in the campaign, but the advance of the column under Montgomery excited fears in the minds of the English in Canada that the invaders might use the natives as auxiliaries, precisely as the Americans feared a similar use on the English side. In Almon's Remembrancer (ii. p. 108), a letter from Quebec states: "General Montgomery, who commands the provincial troops, consisting of two regiments of New York militia, a body of Continental troops, and some Indians", etc. On Sept. 16, 1775, General Carleton, writing from Montreal to Gage, in an account of the landing of the Americans near St. John's, says: "Many Indians have gone over to them, and large numbers of Canadians are with them at Chamblée" (Sparks's Washington, iii. 110, note). The Canadian Indians, instead of contributing to Montgomery's force, asked for protection,—a plea which apparently seemed, in the excitement of the hour in Canada, to be a declaration of friendship. "The Caghnawagas have desired a 100 men from us. I have complied with their request, and am glad to find they put so much confidence in us, and are so much afraid of Mr. Carleton" (letter from Montgomery, camp before St. John's, Oct. 20, 1775, in Almon's Remembrancer, ii. p. 122). The Mohawks, on the contrary, acted on the English side, and some of them were killed by the Americans.