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Isaac Coates Journal of Journeys to the Indian Country

SW_IC1799_Page_30

Brothers, we are thankful to the Great Spirit foropening the way for us to meet here to-day. Ourhearts are made glad when we remember the GreatSpirit has put it into the hearts of our brothers totake notice of us; for we are a poor, destitute people,our lands being almost all gone, and we hope you willexcuse, or not think hard of us, when we open our helpless situation to you. We have sent for JacobTaylor to give us some advice about our saw-mill, itbeing out of order. Now we are convinced the GoodSpirit approves of our request, and has a mind to dous good, because he has so ordered it that ourbrothers, some of the Quaker chiefs, have come alongwith him. Brothers, we have been made glad when weheard from our brothers, the Quakers, that they were willing to take three or four of our boys and instructthem in farming and other useful training and occu-pations. Brothers, we are very thankful to you foryour kind offer, and we have been counselling amongourselves and trying to get some boys about the ageof fifteen, that will be of good dispositions and in-genious in learning; for we think if we could getsome of them instructed as you are, they might bevery useful to our nation, not only in teaching others,but in keeping our accounts, so that we may not becheated. Brothers, we find this is a very hard thing to come at. We have a good many boys that woulddo, but their relations think so much of them they cannot bear to part with them; but here is one, anephew of mine, fifteen years old, who is willing to go, and is a fine boy. His father and mother arealso willing; but his grandfather and his uncle refuse to let him go, and say they cannot part with him, sowe must give him out for the present, for it is of the utmost importance to us to maintain harmony in ournation. There is one about nine years old that I would be glad you would take; he is a fine boy. Then the chief warrior, Wau-un-de-guh-ta,ad-dressed us; although they were not in a very floridstyle, yet his remarks appeared, and we fully believedthem, to be the product of an honest and sincereheart; to this effect: Brothers, I hope you will not think hard of uswhen we open our hearts to you, for we are a poor, destitute people, and our land is now so nearly allsold that we have but a little left for every family; and the deer is become very scarce, so that we oftenmay hunt all day and have nothing at night. Broth- ers, our hearts rejoiced when we heard the Quakerswere taking pity on us, although we could scarcely think there was any people who would do so muchas you are doing for us, without being paid. But now we are convinced that the Quakers have thegood of our nation at heart, for we see you have sent some of your young men to the Allegheny River toteach the Indians to farm, without asking any payfor it; and we see that many of our people arelearning. They live much better than formerly, andwe have seen so much of the conduct of your youngmen that we can rely upon them; and we have foundJacob Taylor to be a true man. Brothers, we are ashamed to ask what we are now going to ask of you, but our necessity makes us willing. We cannot ex- pect you to do so much as to send any of your youngmen to live among us; but we think if you would send us a set of smith's tools, we have a young manthat has learned at Genesinguhta, that can do our smith work. Now we have to go above thirty milesto get it done and often have to wait near a week be-fore we can get it done. And we are determined toget to farming, working our land, and to raising wheatto support our families. Brothers, you have done a great deal for us in sending us saw-mill irons whichhave been of great use to us; but our saw-mill is outof order, and that is the reason we sent for Jacob Taylor to show us how to mend it, as he is a man wecan confide in. But, brothers, do not think hard ofus if we should ask one thing more, for the GreatSpirit has blessed you with wise hearts and you arebecome rich; and that is we have but one plow andmany of us are desirous of becoming farmers andsow wheat, but cannot get a plow. If you would sendus another set of plow-irons, we have two good yokeof oxen and a number of horses, then we think we could do pretty well. Brothers, we have heard your advice or counselto us in time past to refrain from drinking whiskey.We thank you for it, for we see if we do not, we shall come to nothing; and, brothers, you sent us a letterfour years ago wherein you told us that if we did not leave off drinking whiskey you would be discouragedfrom trying to help us, but if we would leave off andbecome sober men, you would be encouraged to as-sist us as you could. That letter we have yet. [Theythen produced the letter to us and we found it waswritten by Thos. Stewardson and myself, and our names were signed to it]. Now, brothers, we areoften counselling together about it, and are determ-ined to refrain from the use of it, and although somefew of our young men sometimes break over our res-olution, we think we are gaining ground or strengthin the good undertaking; and of all the chiefs andwarriors that are now present, we believe not one hasbeen drunk for more than two years past, and somefor a longer time than that, and divers of us have not drunk any; so we are encouraged to be strong in fullhope that we shall banish it altogether. In the evening the chief warrior's daughter, whois an amiable young woman, came home from a visit at Buffalo, accompanied by a young man her rela-tion. On their way they discovered a young deerabout half-grown, in the edge of Lake Erie, whichthey chased with their canoe and killed with theirsetting poles and brought it home. Some of the meat added to the satisfaction of our supper. Aftertheir arrival, Wau-un-de-guh-ta introduced his daugh-ter to us all, one by one, holding her by the hand;and she without any appearance of unbecoming shy-ness shook hands with us all, in a modest manner,which altogether appeared so becomingly polite thatwe could not help noticing it with peculiar pleasure.On taking leave of him in the morning, he in aweighty and feeling manner expressed: "We areglad you have stayed two nights with us, and I hopethe Great Spirit will look down upon you and pre-serve you in your long journey, and favor you with aclear sky, so that you may get home in good health and find your wives and children so."