Indian Biography; Vol. 2 (of 2): Or, An Historical Account of Those Individuals Who Have Been Distinguished among the North American Natives as Orators, Warriors, Statesmen, and Other Remarkable CharactersThatcher, B. B. (Benjamin Bussey)
History
Indian Biography; Vol. 2 (of 2): Or, An Historical Account of Those Individuals Who Have Been Distinguished among the North American Natives as Orators, Warriors, Statesmen, and Other Remarkable Characters
Thatcher, B. B. (Benjamin Bussey)
Indians of North America -- Biography; Indians of North America -- History
In the last of these stanzas is an allusion to the melancholy domestic
circumstances of the subject of them. He had been the father of thirteen
children, during his life-time, and had buried them all.
Red-Jacket is said to have understood English quite well, although he
would never converse in it. We have often heard it from a gentleman well
acquainted with him, that he once met him hastening _out_ of Buffalo when
all the neighboring country was eagerly rushing in to witness the
execution of three culprits; and that the Chieftain recognized him, and
made him understand by signs, that he was hurrying away from the horrid
spectacle which so many thousand had already assembled to enjoy.
Levasseur states, that, in his conference with Lafayette, he evidently
comprehended every thing uttered in his presence, while he would speak
only Indian; and that his former high opinion of the General seemed to be
much increased by a few chance-medley Seneca words, which the latter had
the good fortune to remember, and the courtesy to repeat. We also have
been informed that, many years since, when the notorious Jemima Wilkinson
compassed the country in the business of making proselytes to her
doctrines, she invited some of the Senecas to a conference. Red-Jacket
attended, and listened patiently to the end of a long address. Most of it
he probably understood, but instead of replying to the argument in detail,
he laid the axe at the root of her authority. Having risen very gravely,
and spoken a few words in Seneca, he observed his adversary to enquire
what he was talking about? "Ha!"--he exclaimed, with an arch look,--"She
inspired,--she Jesus Christ,--and not know _Indian?_" The solidity of her
pretensions was at once decided in the minds of at least the heathen part
of her audience.
At the date of his last-mentioned visit to the Atlantic cities, the
Chieftain was more than seventy years of age, and though then habitually
temperate, excess had already hastened the work of time. He died in
January, 1830, at the Seneca village, near Buffalo, where his funeral took
place on the 21st of the month. It was attended by all parties of his own
tribe, and by many Americans, drawn together by a curiosity to witness the
obsequies. His body was removed from his cabin into the mission-house,
where religious services were performed. In these the Pagans took but
little interest. Wrapped in profound and solemn thought, they however
patiently awaited their termination. Some of them then arose, and
successively addressed their countrymen in their own language. They
recounted the exploits and the virtues of him whose remains they were now
about to bear to his last home. They remembered his own prophetic
appeal--"Who shall take my place among my people?" They thought of the
ancient glory of their nation, and they looked around them on its
miserable remnant. The impression was irresistible. Tears trickled down
the cheeks of the grave comrades of the dead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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