and paved the way for thé heavier, and final
defeafi which but four years afterwards, marked
the total downfall of the French power, under
Montcalm at Quebec.
We should -not, in our reminiscences of the
past, and our felicitations of the present, forget
weapons
faithfully for the colonies,; nor;' feel averse to
giving our tribute of applause to the manly race7
of brave men and orators,, wh o .figtire- conspicuously
alike in their and owf history.'
The great Mohawk sachem, Soi-en-ga-mh-ta,
lived through thé’entiré rèighs Öf Quèën Anne
and George I, and nearly to thé close of George
II. He was therefore cótemporary with Pope
and Addison, as well as with the heroic Duke
of Marlborough, with some of-Whose veteran
regiments, after their triumphs on thbeontirieht,
he fought against the French tm the frontiers of
New York; at first, as a youthful scoilt, and
afterwards as an approved war captain. There
was a tihië; in otir settlements, when there was
a moral force in the name ^^hgM èndrick and
his Mohawfcs, which had an electric effect; and
at the time he died, his losis Was widely and
deeply felt and lamented, even in Great Britain.
And weretlid time and occasion pertinent, it is
believed that a sëaroh of the colonial r#c ords,
and of Cotemporary papers, respecting him, would
well reward the pen of his biographer.
“ A Mohawk he, by TiondogaStöoa,
And fell, the mighty monarch of the wood.’'’
Mr. Giles F. Yates, to whose manuscripts and
gleanings of the “ olden times in the Mohawk
yalley,’’' we are indebted for the following details,
traces him to the reign of William III.
“ The precise time,’’ he observes, “ of Hendrick’s
birth, cannot be ascertained, but several circumstances
conspire to induce the belief that it took
place sometime between the years 1680 and
1690. If he was in London at the time Addison
wrote his account of the Mohocks, 1713 I think,
then Hendrick may have been nearly seventy
years old when he was slain in battle, 1755.
He was-then and before called old King Hendrick.
The aboriginal name of this celebrated chieftain
ha3 never, to my knowledge, been known, since
the days he flourished, and in all contemporaneous
notices of him, he was always, called by his
• English name Hendrick. It is therefore the duty
of his biographer to, give his authority for the
name he may .use as the true original one. My
authority is the release to King George II, of
which the reader will find a notice in the sequel.
“ If-is said that he, .on. two occasions, visited
his British sovereign. On one of these occasions,
doubtless the last,, which is conjectured to
have been about the year 1740, his majesty presented
him a rich suit of clothes—a green coat,
Set off with brussels and gold lace, and a cocked
hat, such as was worn by the court gentry of
that period. In these, he sat for his portrait,
which was executed by a London artist. From
this portrait, which has no date, engravings were