[FN] Natalie Delagie, an adopted child of Colonel Burr, born in France, and Subsequently married to a son of General Bumpier, of South Carolina.
Miss Theodosia received the forest Chief with all the courtesy and hospitality suggested; and, young as she was, she performed the honors of her father's house in a manner that must have been as gratifying to her absent parent as it was creditable to herself. Among other attentions, she gave him a dinner party selecting for her guests some of the most eminent gentlemen in the city, among whom were Bishop Moore and Doctors Bard and Hosack. In writing to her father upon the subject, she gave a long and sprightly account of the entertainment. She said that, in making the preliminary arrangements she had been somewhat at a loss in the selection of such dishes as would probably suit the palate of her principal guest. Being a savage warrior, and in view of the many tales she had heard, of
The Cannibals that each other eat,
The anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders—
she added, sportively, that she had a mind to lay the hospital under contribution for a human head, to be served up like a boar's head in ancient hall barberic. But, after all, she found him a most Christian and civilized guest in his manners. [FN]
[FN] Conversations of the author with Colonel Burr. The Colonel was anxious that this letter from his daughter should be found among his papers; but Mr. Davis, his biographer, after diligent search, has not discovered it—nor has he been able to find the correspondence between Brant and Colonel Burr. By the papers of Captain Brant, it appears that Miss Burr visited him at Grand River, after she became Mrs. Alston, in company with her husband. Seeing that when the Chief saw her in New-York "she was very young, and had since assumed a new name," Governor George Clinton gave the young married couple a cordial letter of introduction to the Chief.
It has been seen from his own letter, that the Chief was well pleased during his visit in New-York. He had, indeed, reason to be gratified, for he was treated with marked kindness and consideration. His own deportment was, moreover, such as to secure the respect and esteem of those with whom he came into association. The Rev. Dr. Miller, who became acquainted with him during that visit, in a letter to the author already referred to in a note, thus speaks of him:—"I have called Joseph Brant 'a remarkable man.' He was, in my opinion, truly so. My personal intercourse with him was not considerable; but it was quite sufficient to impress me with most respectful sentiments of his intellectual character, his personal dignity, and his capacity to appear well in any society. I met with him repeatedly;—was with him at a dining party—and listened to his conversation in various situations—some of them rather trying; and was surprised at the simple, easy, polished, and even court-like manners which he was capable of assuming; though, at the same time, I was assured that he was capable of being as great a savage as any individual of his nation. I remember, on one occasion, that when some very impertinent and unseasonable questions were addressed to him by a gentleman who ought to have known better, he evaded them with perfect civility, and at the same time with an adroitness and address which showed that he was fitted to be no mean diplomatist."
Another gentleman, whose opportunities of studying the manners and character of Captain Brant were extended through several years of occasional intercourse with him, remarks:—"His manners, which were greatly improved, if not formed, by a constant intercourse, not only with the best society in the province, but also in England—which he visited more than once, and was there received and caressed in the families of the nobility and gentry—were remarkably easy and dignified. When among strangers, or in mixed company, he was reserved and taciturn; but extremely affable and communicative when with friends in whom he could confide. Although not particularly distinguished as a public speaker, he was a man of strong mind, possessed a voice of surpassing softness and melody, a fascinating address, and great colloquial powers, which rendered him a most interesting companion. He lived in the style of a gentleman, and was punctilious in the observance of the rules of honor and etiquette practised among individuals of that caste in their social relations." [FN]
[FN] Letter to the author, from General Peter B. Porter.