Hendrick, Brant, or Skenandoah. The eloquence
and force of Grarangnla,Xogan, and Red Jacket,
in their public speeches, have commanded uni-
yersal admiration. Mr. Jefferson considered the
appeal of Logan to the white race, after the extirpation
of his family, as without a parallel ; and
if has been imitated in vain, by distinguished,
poets and orators.- *
Such were the aboriginal people who occupied
western New York* and their memory will for- ,
ever live in the significant names which they
have bestowed upon the streams and mountains
which beautify and adorn the land. Viewed as
one of the Irido-American Stocks, they possessed
some Yety striking traits.
Few barbarous natiôrfe have ever existed on
the globe, who havefshown more native energy,
and distinctiveness of character. Still fewer
who have evinced so firm a devotion to the spirit
of independence. Yet all their native manliness,
and energy of character and action, would have
failed, or become inoperative, had they nofhban-
doned the fatal Indian principle of tribal supremacy,
or independent chieftainships, and made
common cause in a national confederacy. The
moment this was done, and each of the Component
clans or tribes had surrendered the power
of sovereignty to a general council of the whole,
the foundation for their rise was laid, and they
soon became the most powerful political body
among the native .tribes of North America, this
side of the palaée of Montezuma.
In visiting the descendants of such a people,
after a lapse of more than two centuries and a
quarter from the discovery, it was the impulse
of the commonest interest, to make some inquiries
Ihttp their former history and antiquities.
These . were pursued under i favorable circumstances,
for the most part, at all points of my
journey, and have,been resumed, wheu broken
off whenever practical* The only method pursued,
was to obtain all the1 facts possible, from
redor white men; of reliable testimony. Another
tjme and place was required to digest them into
a connected*, history. They were collected in
the pauses which intervened, in the obtaining
of the statistics, o,f> the census, and they-hre con:
tributed herewith, in tMeg|imple garb and fresh-?
ness-of the original minutes; Those who related
the-traditions, doubtless supposed, themselves to
be delivering the important,lore of their history..
They were related, .along. the road, or - seated
around the evening-circle,,, as’the current belief
of the people- Sometimes the fields or hills, disclosing
the localities of old forts, were the scene,
ofifthe narrations; sometimes the Indian- burial;
ground; sQmetimesmore fofmal interviews. He
who gleans popular traditions among this radej
must have his ear eyer.open, and,his pen or pencil
ever ready. <j
- Historical and biographical notices, names of
places, and sketches of antiquarian remains,
were thus Acquired,, as time or occasion prompted.
To make minutes of what occurred, was all that