THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 187 



That great incentive to eloquence, patriotism, was not lacking to these Ciceros of 

 the wilds. No nation of which we have a record was dominated in a larger degree 

 by this lofty sentiment. They were proud of their history and their achievements, 

 devotedly attached to their institutions, and enthusiastic at the mention of the long 

 line of chieftains and sages who, from the era of Hi-a-wa-tha had assisted in erecting 

 this grand Indian empire. The time will come when the institutions, polity, elo- 

 quence, and achievements of this remarkable people will he themes of study for the 

 youth in our schools of learning. The unvarying courtesy, sobriety, and dignity of 

 their convocations led one of their learned Jesuit historians to likeu them to the 

 Roman senate.— W, C. Bryant, Oct. 9, 1884. 



EX-JUDGE G. W. CLINTON ON THE IROQUOIS, BUFFALO, OCT. 9, 1884. 



The histories of the several nations of the great confederacy hefore, and, indeed, 

 long after their league was formed through the influence of Hay en watha (Hiawatha), 

 is very far from clear; and their history from their first contact with the whites, so 

 far as we have it written, is full of doubts, and gaps, and contradictions. Tradition, 

 however, helped by .belts or pictures, dies out, especially in unlettered tribes con- 

 stantly imperiled by migration and by war, and is apt to be degraded into fable and 

 lapse into folk-lore. The disposition of the Indian to withhold his traditions from the 

 white man, or to deliver them to him falsely, or w T ith a biblical covering, has died out. 

 Certainly we cannot believe that it exists in the least degree in the noble representa- 

 tives of each and every tribe of the Six Nations, and in the representative of the 

 famous Lenape, who have this day cheered and gratified the society and the public 

 with their presence and co-operation. They will, I doubt not, willingly and zealously 

 aid the society in recovering whatever now remains unknown to it of their traditions 

 and history, and in detecting falsehood and bringing truth to light. Of course, the 

 so-called tradition of the Senecas that the original people of their nation sprung from 

 the crest of Ge-nun-de-wan-gah, the Great Hill at the head of the Canandaigua Lake, 

 is not a myth, for it covers no meaning and shadows forth no fact in their history. 

 Like all other such stories, it was an invention of some Indian mother, handed down 

 for the entertainment of the children, and never gained credit in the nation. 



The better theory is that God created a primal couple and endowed the race with 

 the same power with which he endowed, though in a less degree, the horse, the dog, 

 the cat, the ox, the fowls, and other animals, which he designed to be the servants 

 and familiars of mankind— the power of varying and adapting himself to climate and 

 to circumstances, as he moved on in his migrations, to conquer and to occupy the whole 

 habitable world. I know not that any nat'on of the Aquanuschioni has any tradition 

 or iixed belief of its origin, or when and whence it reached America, or of its migra- 

 tions. We must remember that without letters history is impossible. Belts, picture 

 writings, and mounds of earth and stone are all perishable, and traditions dependent 

 on them for endurance must in a few years or ages fade away and perish. We must 

 remember, too, that the Iroquois could count but very little, if any, beyond their fin- 

 gers; and, of course, they had no era to date from and no record of the years and cen- 

 turies. Hence their history, prior to its interblending with that of the whites, is, in the 

 main, dark and confused. It is most likely that they and all the peoples of our hemi- 

 sphere derived their origin from Asia. The traditions of the Lenape, as recorded by 

 Heckewelder, may be true— the tradition that they and the Iroquois or Mengwes came 

 from far west, crossed the Mississippi together, expelled the Mound Builders east of it, 

 and so eventually wou their ancient seats. But one fact seems clear, and that is that 

 tlmFi ve Nations, though so near in blood and almost identical in language, in customs, 

 and in spirit, were but fitfully at peace, and waged bloody and demoralizing wars 

 with each other until Hiawatha, than whom the human race has never produced a 

 wiser statesman, in some uncertain time, but probably in about 1460, induced them 

 to form their c6nfederacy, and so laid, broad and deep, the foundations of all their 

 greatness. Their union gave them a strength which defied all invaders. When as- 



