this way for advice concerning all important news that comes from the rising of the sun. If they hearken to me you will not be afraid of any danger behind you. However their minds are affected you shall soon know by me. Now I think I can do you more service m this way than by marching off immediately to Boston and staying there; it may be a great while before blood runs. Now, as I said, you are wiser than I; I leave this for your consideration, whether I come down immediately or wait till I hear some blood is spilled.
Brothers: I would not have you think by this that we are falling back from our engagements We are ready to do anything for your relief and shall be guided by your counsels.
Brothers: One thing I ask of you, if you send for me to fight, that you let me fight in my own Indian way. I am not used to fight English fashion, therefore you must not expect I can train like your men. Only point out to me where your enemies keep and that is all that I shall want to know.
After the battle of Lexington, a year later, the Mohican braves marched to the theater of war in Massachusetts, arriving in time to participate in the battle of Bunker Hill. Subsequently, addressing a council which met at German Flats in this State and held adjourned sessions at Albany, Captain Solomon pledged anew the support of the Mohicans to the American cause.
"Depend upon it," he said, " we are true to you and mean to join you. Wherever you go we shall be by your sides. Our bones shall lie with yours. We are determined never to be at peace with the redcoats while they are at variance with you. We have one favor to beg. We should be glad if you would help us to establish a minister amongst us. that when our men are gone to war our women and children may have the advantage of being instructed by him. If we are conquered, our lands go with yours; but if you are victorious, we hope you will help us recover our just rights."
For about five years the Mohicans continued to serve as volunteers in the patriot army. " being generally attached," says Washington, in one of his letters, " to the light corps." And, he adds, conducting themselves " with great propriety and fidelity." They were present, and fought with conspicuous valor, in a number of sanguinary encounters with the enemy in Westchester County. "At White Plains, in October, 17706" says Ruttenber. "their united war cry, Woach, Woach, Ha, Ha, Hach, Woach! rang out as when of old they had disputed the supremacy of the Dutch, and their blood mingled with that of their chosen allies."
In the spring of 1778, as a portion of the forces detached under Lafayette to check the depredations of the British on their retreat from Philadelphia, they assisted in the routing of the enemy in the engagement at Barren Hill. In -Inly and August of the same year, being stationed in Westchester County, they performed highly valuable services, culminating in their memorable fight, August 31, 1778, at Cortlandt's Ridge, in the Town of Yonkers, where, according to the British commander, they lost "near forty killed or desperately wounded," about half their number. In this light they first attacked the British from behind the fences, and then fell back among the rocks, where for some time they defied all efforts made to dislodge Them. They were charged by an overwhelming force of cavalry, but as the horses rode them down "the Indians seized the legs of their foes and dragged them from their saddles." Their chief, Nimham, king of the Wappingers, finally counseled his followers to save themselves, adding, however, " As for myself, I am an aged tree; I will die here." When ridden down by Simcoe he wounded that officer and was about to pull him from his saddle when shot dead by an orderly.
In 1780 the surviving remnant of the Mohican warriors, some twenty men, were honorably discharged from the army, and returned to their homes. It was upon this occasion that Washington wrote the letter above alluded to. which was a communication to congress, requesting that suitable measures be Taken to provide them with necessary clothing.
With the close of the Revolution the history of the Mohicans as a people ends completely, and even their name vanishes. From that time they are known no longer as Mohicans, but as " Stockbridge Indians," from the name of a town in central New York, to which they removed. Leaving their ancient seats at the headwaters of the Hudson, they settled in 1783-88 near the Oneidas. They received a tract of land six miles square in Augusta (Oneida County) and Stockbridge (Madison County ) . This tract they subsequently ceded to white purchasers by twelve different treaties, executed in the years 1818, 1822, 1823, 1825, 1826, 1827, 1829, and 1830. Some of them removed in 1818 to the banks of the White River, in Indiana, and a large number, in 1821, to lands on the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, in Wisconsin, which, with other New York Indians, they had bought from the Menominees and Winnebagoes. The Stockbridge tribe numbered 120 souls in 1785 and 438 in 1818.
Physically the Indians of Westchester County, as of this entire portion of the country, were remarkable specimens of manhood, capable of marvelous feats of endurance and free from most of the diseases incident to civilized society. The early European writers testify without exception that there were none among them afflicted with bodily deformities. The women delivered their young with singular ease, and immediately after labor were able to resume the ordinary duties of life. The appearance and general physical characteristics of the Indians are thus described by Van der Donck:
They are well shaped and strong, having pitch-black and lank hair, as coarse as a horse's tail, broad shoulders, small waist, brown eyes, and snow-white teeth; they are of a sallow color, abstemious in food and drink. Water satisfies their thirst; flesh meat and fish are prepared alike. They observe no set time for meals. Whenever hunger demands the time for eating arrives. Whilst hunting they live some days on roasted corn carried about the person in a bag. . . . Their clothing is most sumptuous. The women ornament themselves more than the men. And although the winters are very severe, they go naked until their thirteenth year; the lower parts of the girls' bodies alone are covered. All wear around the waist a girdle made of seawant (shells). They bedeck themselves with hair tied with small bands. The hair is of a scarlet color and surpassing brilliancy, which is permanent and ineffaceable by rain. The women wear a petticoat down midway the legs, very richly ornamented with seawant. They also wrap the naked body in a deerskin, the tips of which swing with their points. . . . Both go for the most part bareheaded. . Around the neck and arms they wear bracelets of seawant, and some around the waist. Moccasins are made of elk hides. . . . The men paint their faces of many colors. The women lay on a black spot only here and there. . . . Both are uncommonly faithful.
Although their society was upon the monogamous plan, and none of the common people took more than one wife, it was not forbidden the chiefs to follow their inclinations in this respect. " Great and powerful chiefs," says Van der Donck, " frequently have two, three, or four wives, of the neatest and handsomest of women, who live together without variance." As the life of the Indian was spent in constant struggle against most severe conditions of existence, sensuality was quite foreign to his nature. This is powerfully illustrated by the almost uniformly respectful treatment accorded female prisoners of war. As a victor the North American Indian was entirely merciless and cruel. His adult male captives were nearly always doomed to death, and if not slain immediately after the battle were reserved for slow torture. But the women who fell into his hands were seldom violated. Such forbearance was of course dictated in no way by sentiment. The women, in common with the young children, were regarded by the conquerors merely as accessions to their numbers. Unchastity was an exceptionally rare thing among the married females; and in no other particular do the different accounts of the natives given by the earliest observers agree more markedly than in the statement that both the women and the girls were peculiarly modest in their demeanor. The Dutch farmers occasionally took Indian women for their wives, refusing to abandon them for females of their own country.
One of the most curious domestic institutions of the Indians of this region was the sweating bath, " made," says Van der Donck, " of earth and lined with clay." " A small door serves as an entrance. The patient creeps in, seats himself down, and places heated stones around the sides. Whenever he hath sweated a certain time, he immerses himself suddenly in cold water; from which he derives great security
