A few words respecting the embellishments of these volumes. The frontispiece of each volume presents an elegantly engraved portrait of the brave and wary Mohawk, who forms the principal biographical figure of the work, taken at different periods of his life. The Chief sat for his picture several times in England; once, at the request of Boswell, in 1776, but to what artist is not mentioned. He likewise sat, during the same visit, to the celebrated portrait and historical painter, George Romney, for the Earl of Warwick. He was again painted in England, in 1786, for the Duke of Northumberland; and a fourth time, during the same visit, in order to present his likeness in miniature to his eldest daughter. His last sitting was to the late Mr. Ezra Ames of Albany, at the request of the late John Caldwell, Esq. of that city. This was about the year 1805, and the likeness is pronounced the best ever taken of Captain Brant. The author's valued friend Catlin has made a very faithful copy of this portrait, which has been beautifully engraved by Mr. A. Dick, a well-known and skillful artist of New-York. This picture, as latest in the order of time, will be found at the head of the second volume. The inscription of this plate is a facsimile of the old chief's signature, from a letter written by him to the Duke of Northumberland not long before his death. The author has another picture of the elder Brant, of which he may be pardoned for giving some account. Being at Catskill, in the Summer of 1833, the author discovered, in the possession of his friend, Mr. Van Bergen, some odd volumes of the London Magazine of 1776, in one of which he accidentally found an engraving of Brant, from the portrait taken for Boswell, in the gala costume of the Chief as he appeared at Court. The countenance of this picture, however, was dull, and comparatively unmeaning. On his visit to Upper Canada, in September, 1836, the chieftain's daughter, Mrs. Kerr, showed him a head of her father in a gold locket, which was full of character and energy—with an eye like the eagle's. Having procured this locket, and placed it, together with the engraving referred to, in the hands of Mr. N. Rogers, that eminent artist has produced a very spirited and beautiful picture, which was painted expressly to be engraved for this work. Before it was placed in the hands of the artist, however, Mr. Chapman, an artist of New-York, returning from a visit to England, brought with him a superb print of Brant, taken from the Earl of Warwick's picture by Romney. As this print not only presents more of the figure of the chief than either of the others, and possesses withal more character and spirit, it has been adopted for the work in lieu of that painted by Mr. Rogers. The engraving has also been well executed by Dick, and stands in front of the first volume. The picture by Catlin is the war-chief of the forest in the full maturity of years. The other is the Indian courtier in London. This first volume also contains a finely engraved portrait of General Gansevoort, by Prudhomme, from a portrait by Stuart. It is a fine specimen of the gentleman of the Revolutionary era.
But these are not all the pictorial illustrations. In the completion of the life of Brant, it has been deemed proper to add some account of his family subsequent to his decease. The law of official inheritance among the Six Nations will be found peculiar to that people, the descent being through the female line. Joseph Brant was himself the principal War-chief of the Six Nations; and his third wife, who at his decease was left a young widow, was, in her own right, the representative of the sovereignty of the Confederacy, in whom alone was vested the power of naming, from among her own children, or, in default of a child of her own, from the next of kin, a principal civil and military chief. On the death of her husband, therefore, she selected as his successor her youngest son, John Brant, then a lad of seven years old. He grew up a noble fellow, both in courage and character, as the reader will ascertain before he closes the second volume. During the author's visit to the Brant House in Upper Canada, he saw a portrait of the young chief, then recently deceased, which, though painted by a country artist, and, as a whole, a very bad picture, was nevertheless pronounced by Mr. and Mrs. Kerr to be very correct, so far as the figure and likeness were concerned. Obtaining this portrait from Canada last Autumn, it was placed in the hands of Mr. Hoxie, who has produced the excellent picture which has been well engraved by Mr. Parker, and will be found in the second volume. As the young chief went first upon the war-path in the Niagara campaigns of 1812-15, the idea of embodying a section of the great cataract in the back-ground of the picture was exceedingly appropriate.
As the name of the celebrated Red Jacket appears frequently in the second volume, a likeness of him has been added, from a painting by Weir, beautifully engraved by Hatch. In addition to all which is the finely engraved title-page, designed, engraved, and presented to the author, by his estimable friend Mr. A. Rawdon.
In addition to these illustrations, another has been added, the character of which is striking and its history curious. It is the sketch of a scene at a conference with the Indians at Buffalo Creek, in the year 1793, held by Beverley Randolph, General Benjamin Lincoln, and Colonel Timothy Pickering, in the presence of a number of the British officers then stationed upon that frontier. Messrs. Randolph, Lincoln, and Pickering were on a pacific mission, accompanied, at the request of the Indians, by a number of Quakers. The sketch of that conference was drawn by a British officer, Col. Pilkington, and taken to Europe. In 1819 it was presented to an American gentleman of the name of Henry, at Gibraltar, and by him given to the Massachusetts Historical Society. The sketch is drawn with the taste and science of a master of the art; the grouping is fine, and the likenesses are excellent. As the history of the mission of those gentleman forms an interesting chapter in the present work, this sketch has been deemed an appropriate accompaniment.
In addition to the acknowledgments already made in the preceding pages, the author is under obligations, to a greater or less extent, to many other individuals, for hints, suggestions, and the collection of materials. Among these he takes pleasure in naming the Hon. Lewis Cass, late Secretary of War, and now Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary near the Court of St. Cloud; General Dix, Secretary of the State of New-York, and Mr. Archibald Campbell, his deputy; General Morgan Lewis; Major James Cochran, of Oswego, and also his Lady, who was the youngest daughter of General Schuyler; Major William Popham, who was an aid-de-camp to General James Clinton; Samuel S. Lush, Esq., and S. De Witt Bloodgood, Esq. of Albany; James D. Bemis, Esq. of Canandaigua; Lauren Ford and George H. Feeter, Esquires, of Little Falls; Giles F. Yates, Esq. of Schenectady; William Forsyth, Esq. of Quebec; and the Rev. Mr. Lape, formerly of Johnstown, and now of Athens, N. Y.
With these preliminary explanations, the work is committed to the public, in the belief that, although it might, of course, have been better executed by an abler hand with a mind less distracted by other pressing and important duties, it will, nevertheless, be found a substantial addition to the stock of American history.
WILLIAM L. STONE. New-York, March, 1838.