The Trumbull MSS. in possession of the Mass. Hist. Soc. contain copies of the papers connected with the discussion of the title of the colony to its settlement in the Susquehanna Valley. There is probably no single collection of papers so rich in this direction.
E. JOURNALS AND DIARIES OF THE SULLIVAN EXPEDITION.
A list of the journals of Sullivan's expedition was prepared by the writer of this chapter for publication in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., Oct., 1886, and this list in an extended and revised form was to be appended here; but the repetition is rendered unnecessary by the publication of an elaborate volume by the State of New York, Journals of the military expedition of Major-General John Sullivan against the Six Nations of Indians in 1779, with records of Centennial Celebrations,—compiled by George S. Conover, under the direction of Frederick Cook, Secretary of State. It reprints, and in some cases gives for the first time in type, the journals of twenty-six participants, pertaining either to the main expedition or to that against the Onondagas. An enumeration is also given of the journals known to have existed, but no longer to be found.
Appended to the journals are the reports of Sullivan, Brodhead, and a roster of the expeditionary army. The main historical narrative is an elaborate account, compacted from four centennial addresses, given by the Rev. David Craft in 1879, and revised from the original publication in the Centennial Proceedings of the Waterloo (N. Y.) Library and Historical Society. In a note it is shown that a collation of all the journals supports Sullivan's statements in his official report, making his total loss in the campaign 41 men, while 41 Indian settlements or towns were destroyed.
The portraits of the book are those of Sullivan (with the spear), General Clinton (profile), Gansevoort (by Stuart), and Philip Van Cortlandt. The rest of the volume describes the various centennial celebrations in 1879, at Elmira, Waterloo, Geneseo, and Aurora, with the addresses, principal among which is one by Erastus Brooks on "Indian History and Wars", and another by Major Douglass Campbell on "The Iroquois and New York's Indian policy."
The maps include one by Gen. John S. Clark of the battlefield of Newtown (not far from Elmira) and the Chemung Ambuscade; another, by the same, of the Groveland Ambuscade, near Conesus Lake, and the route thence to the Genessee; five maps of as many sections of Sullivan's route, surveyed by Lieutenant Benjamin Lodge, the originals of which make a part of the collection of maps made by Robert Erskine, the topographical engineer of the Continental army, and by his successor, Simeon De Witt, and now in the cabinet of the N. Y. Hist. Society. Gen. J. S. Clark, in describing these maps, says that the route of Dearborn on the west side of Cayuga Lake, and General Clinton's descent of the N. E. branch of the Susquehanna, do not appear to have been surveyed, but that Clinton's route is well illustrated in a sketch of Col. William Butler's march (Oct.-Nov., 1778) made by Capt. William Gray, which is also included in the volume. The five maps above referred to are reproductions from the originals, with some names added from the rough preliminary sketches, also preserved in the same collection. A rough plan of Tioga, in fac-simile of a drawing in the journal of Capt. Charles Nukerck, is also given.—Ed.
F. BOUNTIES FOR SCALPS.
It has been stated in the narrative that the colonies themselves were partially responsible for the low estimate in which Indians were held by the inhabitants of the frontiers. Bounties had been so frequently offered for the destruction of wild animals and of Indians that the border settlers might well infer that the law drew no distinction between the savage and the brute. Mrs. Jackson, in her Century of Dishonor (App. p. 406), quotes from Gale's Upper Mississippi (p. 112) a vigorous denunciation of the acts of the governments in granting bounties for scalps: "In the history of the Indian tribes in the Northwest, the reader will at once perceive that there was a constant rivalry between the governments of Great Britain, France, and the United States as to which of them should secure the services of the barbarians to scalp their white enemies, while each in turn was the loudest to denounce the shocking barbarities of such tribes as they failed to secure in their own service. And the civilized world, aghast at these horrid recitals, ignores the fact that nearly every important massacre in the history of North America was organized and directed by agents of some one of these governments." One or two instances, taken from the records by way of illustration, will suffice to show how the settlers along the frontier and legislators reciprocally viewed this subject. In November, 1724, John Lovewell, Josiah Farwell, and Jonathan Robbins, presented a "Humble Memorial" to the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, in which they set forth that they, with forty or fifty others, were "inclinable to range and keep out in the woods for several months together, in order to kill and destroy their Indian enemy, provided they could meet with incouragement suitable." For five shillings a day, and such other reward as the government should see cause to give them, they would "employ themselves in Indian hunting one whole year." On the 17th of November, the General Court by vote authorized the formation of the company, the men to receive "two shillings and sixpence per diem, the sum of one hundred pounds for each male scalp, and the other premiums established by law to volunteers without pay or subsistence" (Kidder's Captain John Lovewell, pp. 11, 12). Col. Johnson, in 1747, was "quite pestered every day with parties returning with prisoners and scalps, and without a penny to pay them with" (Stone's Sir William Johnson, i. 255, 342). For the outlay made in this behalf Col. Johnson was ultimately reimbursed by the province of New York. In the memorial or representation of their case, submitted by the rioters who murdered the Conestega Indians to the authorities at Philadelphia, it is written: "Sixthly. In the late Indian war, this Province, with others of his Majesty's colonies, gave rewards for Indian scalps, to encourage the seeking them in their own country, as the most likely means of destroying or reducing them to reason; but no such encouragement has been given in this war, which has damped the spirits of many brave men, who are willing to venture their lives in parties against the enemy. We therefore pray that public rewards may be proposed for Indian scalps, which may be adequate to the dangers attending enterprises of this nature." On the 12th of June, 1764, the authorities of Pennsylvania offered bounties for scalps, presumably in response to this petition (Penna. Col. Rec., ix. 141, 189).
On the 27th of September, 1776, a committee reported to the South Carolina Assembly, that it was "not advisable to hold Captive Indians as Slaves, but as an encouragement to those who shall distinguish themselves in the war against the Cherokees, they recommended the following rewards, to wit: For every Indian man killed, upon certificate thereupon given by the Commanding Officer, and the scalp produced as evidence thereof in Charlestown by the forces in the pay of the State, seventy-five pounds currency; For every Indian man prisoner one hundred pounds like money" (American Archives, 5th ser., iii. 32).
It is true that bounties had previously been offered in New York for scalps taken from the "enemy", but at the time of the Revolution New York and Massachusetts had apparently abandoned the policy of offering bounties for scalps. Abundant records show that they had been committed to this policy in earlier times. The Act of Assembly in South Carolina, the previous legislation in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, and Virginia, and the subsequent legislation in Pennsylvania and Illinois, were directed exclusively against Indians. Penna. Colonial Records (xii. 311; xii. 632; xiii. 201). Laws of the Colonial and State Governments relating to Indians and Indian Affairs from 1633 to 1831 inclusive, with an appendix containing the proceedings of the Congress of the Confederation and the laws of Congress from 1800 to 1830 on the Same Subject (Washington city, 1832), p. 239. In the Pennsylvania Archives (iii. p. 199) there is a curious letter from the superintendent of Indian affairs in the Southern Department to the governor of Maryland, dated June 30, 1757, in which he says that several of the colonies are becoming fond of giving large rewards for scalps. If these rewards were confined to their own people he should consider it laudable, but as they are offered chiefly to Indians the case is very different. He says the Indians make several scalps out of one. The Cherokees in particular make four scalps out of one man killed. "Here are now", he adds, "twenty scalps hanging out to publick view which are well known to have been made out of five Frenchmen killed. What a sum (at £50 each) would they produce if carried to Maryland, where the artifice would not probably be discovered!" In early times in Maryland, the proof required from persons who had killed Indians, in order that the reward might be claimed, was the production of the right ear of the dead Indian. There was less opportunity to subdivide the ears, and thus multiply the bounties. The charge that the English paid bounties for scalps thus found its way naturally into the histories, and the officers who had been disciplined in the previous wars were probably ready to make such offers. Doddridge (Notes, 274) expresses the belief current on the frontier when he says, "The English government made allies of as many of the Indian nations as they could, and they imposed no restraint on their savage mode of warfare. On the contrary, the commandants at their posts along our Western frontiers received and paid the Indians for scalps and prisoners, thus, the skin of a white man's or even a woman's head served in the hands of the Indian as current coin, which he exchanged for arms and ammunition, for the further prosecution of his barbarous warfare." This belief found expression at the time, and worked its way into print. The Remembrancer gives a letter from Capt. Joseph Bowman "at a place called Illinois Kaskaskias, upon the Mississippi", dated July 30, 1778, in which we read: "The Indians meeting with daily supplies from the British officers, who offer them large bounties for our scalps" (Remembrancer, viii. p. 83). There is, however, better authority than rumors of this class to justify those authors who repeat this statement. When Governor Hamilton was captured at Vincennes, he was sent to Williamsburg, and his conduct was investigated by the Council of Virginia. In their report the Council say, "The board find that Governor Hamilton gave standing rewards for scalps, but offered none for prisoners, which induced the Indians, after making the captives carry their baggage into the neighborhood of the fort, there to put them to death, and carry in their scalps to the governor, who welcomed their return and success by a discharge of cannon" (Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. by Thomas Jefferson Randolph, Boston, 1830; 2d ed., vol. i. p. 456). Thus the official sanction of a board composed of prominent men of good reputation has been given to the statement. In weighing the value of this decision we must not forget that Hamilton was the special object of hatred to the Virginians. Col. George Rogers Clarke, in an official communication to the governor of Virginia, from Kaskaskia, Feb. 3, 1779, speaks of "A late meneuvr of the Famous Hair Buyer General Henry Hamilton, Esqr., Lieut.-Governour of De Troit", etc., etc. (Calendar of the State Papers of Virginia, p. 315). C. W. Butterfield edited a reprint of A Short Biography of John Leith (Lancaster, Ohio, 1831) as Leith's Narrative (Cincinnati, 1883), and in this new edition (p. 39) we find an account of a brutal murder, by Indians, of a prisoner at Sandusky: "They knocked him down with tomahawks, cut off his head, and fixed it on a pole erected for the purpose; when commenced a scene of yelling, dancing, singing, and rioting." To this part of Leith's narrative the annotator attaches a note, in which he states that a part of the "importance of this recital is in a historical sense;" "that captives were brought to the points contiguous to Detroit, and then tomahawked and scalped, the direct result of Hamilton's barbarous policy of offering rewards for scalps, but paying none for prisoners." The language of the note is ambiguous, but a natural interpretation of its purpose would be that the statement in the text was relied upon to prove the charges against Hamilton. I presume this prisoner was scalped,—it would probably have been recorded by Leith as a remarkable event if he had escaped being scalped,—but a statement which omits mention of the fact can hardly be cited as evidence against Hamilton.