62 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
with me that were sharp likewise if properly made use of and I 
hope you will make use of them vigorously and our common | 
enemy As your Hatchet is now sharp. I likewise sharpen your | 
knife to cut our enemys throats or take their scalps off, and as | 
I know it is an old custom amongst you to feast on your enemies | 
flesh I present you those Kettles for that purpose. [This is | 
meant figuratively, and some Meat is boiled in the Kettles, which 
they eat and call it French Mens Flesh, so when drink is given 
it is called blood of their enemies. ]|—O’Callaghan, 7:149 
There was much profit in selling these implements. La Salle 
gave an account of trade at Fort Frontenac in 1684, with general 
demands, cost and profit. He wanted 1000 axes, which would | 
cost 7 or 8 sous a pound and would sell for 30 sous apiece. They | 
- were prized as presents and Schuyler gave the Iroquois 300 
hatchets in 1708. Metallic implements made blacksmiths neces- | 
sary to the Indians and it became a matter of political impor- | 
tance whether the blacksmith was English or French. Old anvils. | 
have been found on village sites, the possession of which was 
matter for stratagem or debate two centuries ago. A few words. 
on this may be of interest. | 
As the Iroquois increased their use of guns, axes and kettles, | 
they more and more required the aid of smiths. The Mohawks 
could go to the white settlements, but this was too long a journey 
for the others. So, at a council in Albany in 1691, they renewed 
a previous request, saying: “ We did formerly desire that we 
might have a Smith at Onnondage, whereupon a young Man that | 
was a Smith by Trade, was sent us, and we gave him 20 Beavers | 
for his encouragement to stay, but is gone away; again we re- 
quest that we may have a Smith to mend our Arms, it being 
somewhat dangerous to come downe for every trifle hither, & we — 
desire also that the Smiths here may in the meantime work as | 
cheape as they did formerly.”—O Callaghan, 3:775 . | 
On behalf of all in 1692, Oheda, an Oneida chief, said, “ We | 
desire the blacksmith’s Anvill that is at Onondage may remai | 
there, and that there may be a Smith permitted to goe and live 
there for the mending of our arms, and not to goe away againe 
so soon as they have Traded, as the other Smith did.”—O’Cal 
laghan, 3:844 : 
