20 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



hatchets, that our feet might not sHp down the mountain ; and thus we 

 crept on. It happened that the old Indian'' s foot shpt; and the root of a 

 tree by which he held, breaking, he shd down the mountain as from the 

 roof of a house ; but happily he was stopped in his fall, by the string 

 which fastened his pack hitching on the stump of a small tree. The 

 other two Indians could not go to his aid, but our Dutch fellow-traveller 

 did ; yet not without visible danger of his own life. I also could not put 

 a foot forward, till I was helped; after this we took the first opportunity 

 to descend into the valley; which was not till after we had labored hard 

 for half an hour with hands and feet. Having observed a tree lying 

 directly oft' from where the Indian fell, when we were got into the valley 

 again we went back about one hundred paces, where we saw that if the 

 Indian had slipt four or five paces further, he would have hillen over a 

 rock one hundred feet perpendicular, upon craggy pieces of rocks below. 

 ^hQ Indian was astonished, and turned quite pale; then with out-stretched 

 arms, and great earnestness he spoke these words: "/ thank the great 

 Lord andj Governor of this tvorld, in that he has had mercy upon me, and 

 has been tvilUng that I should live longer T Which words I, at that time, 

 put down in my journal: this happened on the 25th of March, 1787. 



'"In the 9th of April following, while we were yet on our journey, I 

 found myself extremely weak, through the fatigue of so long a journey, 

 with the cold and hunger, which I had suffered; there having fallen a 

 fresh snow about twenty inches deep, and we being yet three days journey 

 from Onondago, in a frightful wilderness; my spirit failed, my body 

 trembled and shook; I thought I should fall down and die; I stept aside, 

 and sat doAvn under a tree, expecting there to die. My companions soon 

 missed me ; the Indians came back, and found me sitting there. They 

 remained awhile silent ; at last the old Indian said, ' My dear companion, 

 thou hast hitherto encouraged us, wilt thou now quite give up? remem- 

 ber that evil days are better than good days : for when we suffer much, 

 we do not sin; sin will be driven out of us by suffering; but good days- 

 cause men to sin; and God cannot extend his mercy to them; but con- 

 trarywise, when it goeth evil with us, God hath compassion upon us.' 

 These words made me ashamed; I rose up, and traveled as well as I 

 could. 



'"The next year I went another journey to Onondago, in company with 

 Joseph Spanhenberg and two others. It happened that an Indian came 

 to us in the evening, who had neither shoes, stockings, shirt, gun, knife, 

 nor hatchet; in a word, he had nothing but an old torn blanket and some 

 rags. Upoii enquiring whither he w^as going, he answered to OnondagrJ. 

 I kncAV him, and asked him how he could undertake a journey of three 

 hundred miles so naked and unprovided, having no provisions, nor any 

 arms to kill creatures for his sustenance? lie answered, he had been 



