ee 
METALLIC IMPLEMENTS OF NEW YORK INDIANS 69 
secure proof of what had been actually done. It silenced the 
| mere braggart, who had no scalps to show. Hideous as they seem 
to us, these were to the Indian what stars, crosses, and honorable 
medals are to the European soldier. Granting its savage 
features it was the plainest record in a savage state. 
The white man changed this. The honorable distinction be- 
came a source of gain. A price was placed on scalps, and men 
and women were killed for money. Fame and distinction became 
of less value than mercenary returns, for the white man paid for 
scalps and beaver skins as kindred commodities. Of this the red 
man had not before thought. 
The French paid scarcely $6 for men’s scalps, but King Louis 
thought they must economize in this. In 1694 he wrote to Fron- 
tenac and Champigny, then in Canada, that ‘ His Majesty desires 
that they conform themselves to the order he gave them last 
year,to cease paying the Christian Indians 10silver écus for every 
Indian killed, 20 écus for each prisoner, and half these sums for 
women; this will be a further diminution of the estimate. This 
expense can not be afforded.”—O’Callaghan, 9 :573 
The New York colonists acted independently and more liberally 
or else the general price had advanced in half a century. Under 
date of May 7, 1747, Col. Johnson wrote to Gov. Clinton: ‘‘ We 
shall soon have abundance of prisoners and scalps, wherefore 
will require a great deal of money, which they expect will be 
_ ready here at their return. I have paid the first who came home 
_ £60 for the six scalps brought from Crown Point which I could 
not avoid, and when the rest come in I must do the same, for they 
look to none else for it & must have it, as they say, punctually 
_ paid according to promise.”—O’Callaghan, 6:361 
Many quotations might be made illustrating this subject. 
Whether bounties were paid by either side during the revolu- 
_ tionary war does not clearly appear, though it is probable. The 
noted account of scalps taken by the Senecas, published in 1782, 
was long believed but is now known to have been written by Dr 
Franklin for political purposes. It has yet a certain value as 
being a good description of how scalps were stretched, dried and 
painted. 
