epochs which mark a stage in the progress of mankind. That great event was also attended with wars, and crimes, and calamities; it was for a time dubious, and at last imperfect in its results: but it left behind it a long track of pure and glorious light, which still cheers our path and teaches us not to despair of the fortunes of the human race. Least of all should we, in this favoured land, where Heaven has dispensed its choicest blessings, indulge even a momentary doubt of the final triumph of Freedom and Justice. Guided by jurists, and statesmen, and lawgivers, such as Europe, the venerable parent from whom we sprung, should be proud to own as her sons, we have pressed forward in the career of national greatness, and have now arrived at a lofty eminence of glory, from whence we may look back upon the past with pride and joy, unmingled with regret or remorse, and where the prospect of the future is gilded with the brightest rays of hope.-But much still remains to be accomplished. We owe a large debt of gratitude to our predecessors, and are bound to transmit the rich inheritance we have received from them, not only unimpaired, but enlarged and improved, to those who come after us. Though separated by a wide waste of waters from our European brethren, we are members of the same great family and commonwealth. We have the same literature, religion, and law of nations; are united to them by a thousand ties of affection and interest; and cannot be indifferent to whatever concerns their progress in social improvement. The wise and the good of the old world must look with anxious eyes to the result of the great experiment here making. Let us not defeat their high hopes. Let us redeem the pledges we have given to the world. Let us realize the desire of the sage and the vision of the poet: so that when the future traveller leaps upon this Hesperian shore, he may exclaim Salve magna parens frugum, Saturnia tellus COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE LATE HONOURABLE SAMUEL JONES, OF OYSTERBAY, QUEEN'S COUNTY, LONG-ISLAND, TO JOHN PINTARD, ESQ. OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, THEN RECORDING SECRETARY OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 10001 SIR, ENCLOSED you have some Notes on a Pamphlet, entitled, "a Discourse delivered before the New-York Historical Society, at their Anniversary Meeting, the 6th December, 1811, by the Honourable De Wit Clinton, one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society." These Notes were made soon after the pamphlet was received; but the communication was delayed for the purpose of previously conferring with certain gentlemen respecting some parts of them, which object, from various causes, has but lately been effected. I also enclose Notes on the late editions of our revised laws; and wish to be informed whether such communications are considered as useful to the Society. SAMUEL JONES. Oysterbay, West-Neck, Queen's County, 20th Oct. 1817. NOTES ON THE PAMPHLET, ENTITLED, "A DISCOUSE DELIVERED BEFORE THE NEW-YORK AT THEIR ANNIVERSAY MEETING, the 6th December, 1811*." PAGE 40, line 27. Should not the date 1774 be 1674? Page 40, line 33. "Over all Long-Island." This must be a mistake, unless the Long-Island Indians were part of the Pequot nation; for it is certain that when the Europeans first began their settlements on the Island, the Indians on the western part of it were tributary to the Mohawks. Page 41, lines 34 and 35. "Very savage and ferocious." We meet with no evidence that such was the fact on the contrary, we have reason to believe that the supposition was founded in mistake. Several of the early settlements on the Island were in dispersed situations; all in the neighbourhood of, and some among the Indians. South-Hampton, as appears from Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, was settled about the year 1638. Its situation was near the Montauk Indians, who were then numerous, and so far from any other European settlement, that no assistauce could be expected from any of them, in case of an attack by the Indians. And yet we do not hear that any hostility was ever committed by the Indians against This Discourse of Mr. Clinton, is republished in the second volume of the New-York Historical Collections, and Mr. Jones's references are accommodated to this second edition. any of those settlements. The only tradition we have of any hostility with the Indians on this Island, is a vague account of a most atrocious attack upon them by the white people. The story is this: The Massapeage Indians who lived at Fort Neck, on some occasion, had a meeting with the Merrick Indians, or Rockaway Indians, or both; notice of which being conveyed to Oysterbay, intimating that the Indians were about rising, or had risen to massacre the white people, a captain Underhill immediately marched with a company of armed men to Fort Neck, where they arrived about the break of day. But not finding any appearance of hostility there, and learning that the meeting of the Indians was to the westward, they immediately marched that way, and met the Indians on the eastern part of Whale Neck, about four miles from Fort Neck; and immediately attacked them, and killed a considerable number of them; the Indians being unarmed and making no resistance. The wind being northwest, and the weather cold, Underhill's company collected the bodies of the Indians and threw them in a heap on the brow of the hill, and then sat down on the leeward side of the heap and eat their breakfast, and then returned home; having discovered that there was no truth in the story of the Indians rising. When that part of the country came to be settled, the highway across the Neck passed directly over the spot where it was said the heap of Indians lay, and the earth in that spot was remarkably different from the ground around it, being strongly tinged with a reddish cast, which the old people said was occasioned by the blood of the Indians!!! This appearance was formerly very conspicuous. Having heard the story above sixty years ago, I frequently viewed and remarked the spot with astonishment. But by digging down the hill for repairing the highway, the appearance is now entirely gone. This tradition will soon be lost; few of the present generation ever heard of it. The Indians are nearly extinct; and the transaction is too disgraceful to the white people to be long kept in remembrance by them. Page 40, Note. Staten-Island was purchased of the Indians the 10th of August, 1630, by Michael Paw, a Dutch subject. The conveyance is recorded in the office of the secretary of the State of New-York, in book A, page 6, of Dutch records. The purchase by Lovelace is dated the 13th of April, 1670, and is probably recorded in the same office. Page 42, line 2. "Charles Thomson." Mr. Thomson says, that the Indian nation, called Loups by the French, and Delawares by the English, was a nation or confederacy consisting of five tribes, who all spoke one language, and that one of the tribes was the Mahiccon or Mahattan, who occupied Staten-Island, YorkIsland, Long-Island, and that part of New-York and Connecticut which lies between Hudson and Connecticut rivers, from the Highlands down to the Sound; which is not improbable. Page 42, line 7. "Dutch." The possessions of the Dutch on Long-Island never extended above thirty 'miles eastward of New-York. The eastern part of the Island, and extending to the town Plots, of Oysterbay, inclusive, was settled by people from New-England. The Dutch finding all the Indians within and adjoining their settlements on Long-Island, tributary to the Mohawks or Five Nations, probably concluded from that circumstance, that all the Indians on the Island were so: but I believe there is no evidence that such was the fact; on the contrary, there is a tradition among the Montauk Indians, that their ancestors had frequent wars with the Indians on the Main, who conquered and compelled them to pay tribute. This tradition is corroborated by the early historian, who asserts, that the Narragansets held dominion over part of Long-Island; and by the fact that the Montauk sachem paid tribute to the four New-England colonies. Page 42. Further, we have no reason to believe that the Five Nations had any war with the Indians on Long-Island after it was settled by Europeans. Their conquests upon the Island, whatever might have been their extent, were prior to that period. And considering the general character and conduct of those nations, it is not supposable that they would suffer any Indians who were tributary to them, to pay tribute to any other Indians. There seems, therefore, to |
