tribes, in
more or less employed. Probably we should not
have been left, as we are, to mere conjectures
on this subject, at least between the important
dates of 1609 and 1664, had not the directors of“
the state paper office in Holland decided; iti
1820, to sell the books and records of'the Dutch
West India Company, as waste"p&per.#
In examining the archaeology of‘ this part of
Mew York, we are, therefore, to lóok for decisive,
proofs of the early existence of this'trade in the
hands of th© two- powers named. The Dutch
were an eminently commercial people, at the
epoch in question, and pursued the fur trade to
remote parts of the interior, at an early date.
They had* scarcely any other*object at the time
but to make this trade profitable. Settlements
and cultivation was a business in the hands of
patroons, and was chiefly confined to the rich
valleys and intervales of the southern parts Of
the state. They were,- at the same tipi©,f too
sagacious to .let any thing interrupt their good
understanding with the natives;, and on this
account, probably, had less heed of military
defences of a formidable kind than the French,
who were a foreign pow§r. It was, besidesfthe
policy of New France,—a policy móst persever-,
ingly pursued,-^ to wrest this trade, and the
power of the Indians, from the -hands of the
Dutch and their successors, the English. They
sought not only to obtain thé trade, but they
* Vide Mr. Brodbead’s Report.
intrigued for the territory. They^also made the
xpost strenuous endeavors to enlist the minds of
the Indians, by the ritual observances of the
Romish church, and to propagate among the
Iroquois its peculiar doctrines., They united in
this early effort the sword, the cross, and the
purse.
yWere all the libraries,of Europe, and America
burned and totally .destroyed, there would remain
incontestibleevideuces.of.each of the above
named efforts, in the metallic implements, guns,
sword blades, hatchets, locks;, bells, horse-shoes,
hammers,' paste and glass.beads, medals,; crucif
fixes, and other remains, which are so frequently
turned up by the plough in the fertile wheat and
cornfields of Onondaga.
Looking beyond this era, but still found in the
same geographical area, are the antiquities peculiar
to the Ante-Columbian period, and the
age of intestine Indian wars.;: These are found
in various parts of the state, in the ancient ring
forts, angular trenches, moats, barrows, or lesser
mounds, which constituted the ancient simple
Indian system of castramentation.
This era is not strongly marked by the
stone hatchets, pestles, fleshing instruments,
arrow heads and javelins of chert and hornstone;
amulets of stone, bone and sea-shells, wrought
and unwrought; - needles of bone, coarse pottery,
pipes, and various Other evidences of antique
Indian art. The practice of interring their favorite
utensils, ornaments and amulets with the