18
poses of war should have required this barbaric
act. The census will show that this taste rem
a in s as strong now as it was 68'years ago.
Adverse to agricultural labor, and always, confounding
it with slavery, or some form of servitude,
at least, deeming it derogatory, the first
effort of the Iroquois to advance from their •original
corn-field and garden of beahs and viue^is
connected with, the Jetting out of then spare
lands to white men, who were cast on the frontiers,
to cultivate, receiving for it some low remuneration
in kind or' otherwise, by way of
rent. This system, it is true, increased a little,
their means of subsistence,.but nourished their
native pride and indolence. It seems to have
been particularly a practice of the Iroquois, and
it has been Continued and incorporated into their
present agricultural system. I have taken, pains
to indicate, in every farUily-, the amount of land
thus let, and the actual or estimated value received
for it. These receipts, I was informed,
low as they are in amount, are generally paid in
kind, or in such manner as often to diminish
their value and effect, in contributing to the proper
sustenance of the family.
X have been equally careful to ascertain the
number of families who cultivated no lands, and
insert them in the tables. The division of real
property among this people, appears to fall under
the ordinary rules of acquisition in other societies.
But it is not to be inferred in all cases,
that the individual returned as without land has
absolutely no right to any,or having this right, has
either foifeited or alienated it, although the laws
of the tribes respecting property, permit one Iroquois
to convey his property in fee to another. It
is only to be inferred, in every case* that they are
non-cultivators. In a few cases the persons thus
marked are mechiunics, and rely for support on
their skill. In the valley, of the Allegany, some of
them are pilots in conducting rafts of lumber or
arks down that stream: It would have relieved
the industrial means of this band of the Senecas,
extended as they are for forty miles along both
banks of this river* could the amount received for
this species-of pilotage have been ascertained, together
with the avails derived from several saw*
mills owned by them, and from the lumber trade
of that river generally. But these questions
would have remained a blank in other tribes.
Not a few persons amongst the Onondagas
. and Tuscaroras, and the Tonewandas and other
bands of Senecas, living in or contiguous to the
principal wheat growing counties, labor during
the harvest season adnreapèrs and cradlers, for
skill and ability in which occupations they bear
a high reputation, and receive good wages in
cash. There are a few engaged some parts of
the year, as mariners on the lakes. It will be
sufficient to denote these varied forms of incipient
labor and strength of muscle and personal
energy among these tribes* which it was, however,
impracticable to bring into the tables;
Individual character vindicates its claims to