Preface of the Life and Times of Kateri Tekakwita, The Lily of the Mohawks. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, recording by Carol Pelster. The Life and Times of Kateri Tekakwita, The Lily of the Mohawks by Ellen Walworth. Preface. The life and surroundings of The Lily of the Mohawks, as an undeveloped theme in literature, was first suggested to me by my uncle, the Reverend Clarence A. Walworth. My interest and enthusiasm were at once aroused, the thought of a mere Indian girl reared in the forest among barbarians, yet winning for herself such titles as The Lily of the Mohawks and The Genevieve of New France, recurred to my mind again and again until it led me to a fixed determination to explore so tempting a field of romance and archaeology. The fact that it lay amongst the hills and valleys of my native state, and was little known except to solitary scholars and laborious historians, incited me still more to the task. I became ambitious to gather from the records of two centuries ago every detail relating in any way to my Indian heroine. While engaged in this work, unexpected opportunities opened to gather exact information about her, and more especially concerning the localities connected with her early childhood and her conversion and baptism in the Mohawk Valley. If this book, embodying the result of my researches, should fail to interest the reader, it will not be for any lack of enthusiasm on my part, or of kind encouragement and competent assistance from others. When beginning the work, my first call for advice was upon Dr. John Gilmary Shea, so well versed in Indian annals, as also in the general history of this country. I found him full of interest in my subject, guided by the information received from him, and also by the directions of the Reverend R. S. Dewey, S. J., who has long been familiar with the missionary and Indian traditions of the Mohawk Valley. I went to Montreal and secured from the courteous kindness of Father Terjean, S. J., rector of the Jesuit College there. The use of all the manuscripts I desired. The sisters of the Hotel Dieu furnished me with a room in their hospital, to which the good rector allowed me to transport the entire carton owe. This contained all the unprinted materials relating to my subject that belonged to the college library. There, at the Hotel Dieu, delightfully located with the sisters of an order whose history is closely bound up with that of Montreal, I copied at my leisure the manuscripts most valuable to me. In Montreal also, my good fortune gave me interviews with M. Cooke, the distinguished philologist of Saint-Sopice, whose Indian dictionaries and grammars I had already seen in my uncle's library. Much I owe besides to S. Henrietta, librarian and keeper of the archives at the Villa Maria. It was on the boat which shoots the Lachine Rapids that I met Mr. Hale of Philadelphia, the learned author of The Iroquois Book of Rights, and enjoyed a long conversation with him on matters of deep interest to us both and to my work. My first visit to the Iroquois village at Canawaga, P. Q., occurred at this time. Here my uncle and I found hospitable entertainment for several days at the presbytery of the church, presided over by the reverend Père Bertin, O. M. I. Besides the valuable information acquired from the library of books and manuscripts in his possession, I gathered much from the acquaintance then established with the Iroquois of the Sioux, and in particular with their Grand Chief, Joseph Williams. La prairie was only nine miles distant with its scholarly currée, Père Burgaux, and his valuable collection of ancient maps. And about half way between Canawaga and La prairie lay the grave of Tecaquitha with its tall cross looking over the rapids of the St. Lawrence. An author with a theme like mine in such localities and with such guides was indeed in an enchanted land. In Albany I received valuable assistance and advice from Mr. Holmes and Mr. Hale of the State Library, also from Mr. Mellius of the City Clerk's Office and others. I have reserved for a most a special and grateful acknowledgement the name of General John S. Clark of Auburn, New York. My work is indebted to him for a treasure of information which he alone could give. In the knowledge of Iroquois localities in New York State, particularly those of two centuries ago, and the trails over which missionaries from Canada travelled so painfully to villages where they laboured so hard and yet successfully, he is the undoubted pioneer. Almost all we know in this branch of archaeology is owing to him. It was my privilege, in company with my uncle and with General Clark for pilot, to spend a memorable week in search of Indian localities along the Mohawk, from the mouth of Skohari Creek to the farthest castle of the Wolf Clan opposite Fort Plain. We visited and verified under the General's direction no less than eleven sites in this one week. An account of the most important of these sites can be found in the contributions of General Clark as explanatory footnotes to early chapters of Mohawk history. This work consists of translations into English of selected letters from the relations Zhezhwit. For these translations we are indebted to the lamented Dr. Hawley, late pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Auburn. Guided by the wise advice of General Clark, I was able afterwards to make other independent journeys and familiarize myself with Indian trails passing near my native town. Above all, those followed by Tekukwita and her escape to the Sioux. I owe to General Clark's kindness the valuable map of Mohawk castle sites to be found in this book and drawn expressly for it by his hand. Lastly, I recall with pleasure a conversation with the Reverend Felix Martin S.J., a well-known authority in Canadian and Indian archaeology, to this venerable author, the editor of the famous Jesuit Relations, the biographer of Isaac Jokes of Chaminot and of Tekukwita. I owe a large debt of gratitude. His biography of her, entitled Une Viège Iroquois, is still in manuscript, never having been published. He was the first to gather and keep together all the manuscripts extant, giving contemporary accounts of the Iroquois maiden. He laid a foundation of accumulated facts for others to build upon. I sought him out in Paris in 1885 and found him with some difficulty. The hiding place of this learned old man was in an obscure corner of the city. The schools of his order all broken up, separated from his companions, his books and his manuscripts, and from his old beloved home in the New France, which he would never see again. How his eyes glistened when I came to him from the Western world, a child of the Hudson and Mohawk, to speak to him of Tekukwita, bringing him even the latest news of archaeological discoveries in those valleys. His face beamed with delight at every new detail. It pleased him much to know that Dr. Shea was, at that very time, translating into English, his, Martin's, French Life Ajogues, and to learn that I was writing and hoped soon to have published a full account of Kateri Tekukwita for my own countrymen of the United States. He gave his blessing to me and to my work, a blessing which I prize most highly. His hearty approval is especially gratifying, since I have had occasion to use much of the material he had gathered for publication in French under his own name. Alas, scarcely had I recrossed the Atlantic when the news of his death reached me. In conclusion, let me say, I am conscious of many defects in this work. Others may yet be found better able than I to do justice to my theme, but not any one, I think, who will come to the task more anxious to make known to all the whole truth of history concerning the rare and beautiful character of this lily of our forest. Albany, New York, January 2nd, 1891. End of preface. Chapter 1 of the Life and Times of Kateri Tekukwita, the Lillie of the Mohawks, by Ellen Walworth. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 1. Tekukwita's Spring In the valley of the Mohawk, near the present great highways of the state of New York, is a quiet forest nook where a clear cold spring, gurgles out from the tangled roots of a tree. Connected with this spring is the story of a short girl life, pure, vigorous, sorrow-taught. It is written out in authentic documents, while nature also has kept a record of an Indian maiden's lodge beside the spring. There, on the banks of the Mohawk River at Kanawaga, now called Fonda, in Montgomery County, dwelt the lily of the Mohawks two centuries ago when the state had neither shape nor name. She saw her people build a strong new palisaded village there. She saw, though at rare intervals, the peaceful but adventurous traders of Fort Orange and the black gowns of New France pass in and out on friendly errands. Mohigans came there also in her day to lay siege to the village, but only to be met with fierce defiance and to be driven back. Marks of that very Indian fort can still be found at Fonda, where the Johnstown Railway now branches from the New York Central and turns northward along the margin of the Kaya Dutter Creek. The smoke of the engine as it leaves the town of Fonda mounts to the level of a plateau on which the Mohawk Castle stood. The elevated land, or river terrace, at that point is singularly called the Sand Flats. A rude fort of palisades, well equipped for defense, was completed about the year 1668 on a narrow tongue of this high terrace between the Mohawk River and the creek. The approach to it is very steep, but in one place a wagon road winds up the hill to what is now a field on Reader's Farm. Here unmistakable signs of Indian occupation are to be found, a spring as close at hand in a clump of trees. The castle at that spot was known as Kanawaga, meaning at the rapids, a name still applied to the eastern part of the present town of Fonda. The Mohawk River runs swiftly as it passes this spot, and large stones obstruct its course. The spring at the castle site on the west side of the creek is Tekakwitha's spring. For there beside it she grew to Maidenhood, behind the shelter of the palisades, and beneath the shadow of the overarching forest. Tekakwitha was the lily of the Mohawks, afterwards known as La Bonne Catherine. In the Mohawk Valley, the great artery of our nation's life, the tide of human travel now ebbs and flows with ever-swelling force. Here the New York Central Railway levels out its course of four broad tracks. Here the great canal bears heavy burdens east and west. Here the West Shore Railway skirts the southern terrace. Here the Mohawk River whines and ripples, smiling in an old-time quiet way at these hurrying crowded highways. They have well-nigh filled the generous roadway, cut through high plateaus and mountain spurs in ages past by this same placid river. That was in its younger, busier days. Now it idles on its way from side to side, among the flats or bottoms, with here and there a rapid, till it lasted gathers-force at Far Cahoyes for one great plunge before it joins the Hudson. Then the mingled waters of the two rivers sweep on past the stately capital where once the Indian trading post Fort Orange stood. From Albany the broad, bosomed Hudson bears floating palaces and long lines of canal boats strung together like great beads of wampum. Let its current move them southward while we turn back to the valley when these strings of wampum came. Let us follow up the windings of the Mohawk River westward at Schenectady. It lingers among islands in pretty narrow ways where college boys can take their sweethearts rowing. Right playfully it kisses the feet of the old Dutch town in summer and in winter its frozen bosom sounds with the merry thud of the skaters' steel. Farther west the valley narrows and on a height near Hoffman's Ferry, Mohawk and Mohigun fought their last fierce battle. Techic with a herd there wore who put the castle of Conawaga just before the final conflict came. But she never saw Fort Johnson, which is higher up the river. Old Fort Johnson is too modern for our story. Amsterdam now looms up an important factor in the valley. Two centuries ago a joyous stream cascading down to meet the Mohawk was its only landmark. Techic with a new the spot, however, and had good reason to remember it as we shall see. Westward still and up the valley from Fort Johnson a broader gleam of water comes in sight. It is where the Shohari River creeps in from the south between the dripping archways of a bridge over which canal boats pass. Here the Mohawk shows its teeth in a ridge of angry rapids and here we enter what was once the home country of its people, the fierce Mohawks. We are near the spot where brave Father Isaac Jogues, the discoverer of Lake George, was killed in 1646. In the southwest angle of the Mohawk and Shohari rivers on the Upper Terrace, higher than the modern hamlet of Ariesville, was the eastern castle of the Mohawks known to Jogues as Asernanon. Here three times the hero-hearted black gown came, first a mangled, tortured captive dragging out the weary months in slavery until the Dutchman at Fort Orange ransomed him, next as an ambassador of peace bearing presence, making treaties, and lastly as envoy of the Prince of Peace and wedded to his spouse of blood for so Jogues styled his Mohawk mission. Never was a truer bridegroom, never stranger wedding rights. Bits of his flesh were cut off and devoured while the savage high priest cried, Let us see if this white flesh is the flesh of an octcon, spirit or devil. I am but a man like yourselves, said Jogues, though I fear not death nor your tortures. His head was placed on the northern palisade looking toward the French frontier and his body thrown into the stream but his blood and his earnest words sank deep into the land and the hearts of its people. From Jogues' mystic union with the Mohawk nation trooping from the mission of the martyrs came the Christian Iroquois, one of these a bright soul in a dusky setting and a flower that sprang from martyr's blood was Tecquitha. She grew up, says one who knew her, like a lily among thorns. Ten years after Andesonk had shed the last drop of his blood to make these Mohawks Christians she was born among the people who had seen the black gown die in the village of the Turtles. Some say in the cabin at the door of which the tomahawked priest had fallen. This same stronghold of the Turtles was rebuilt higher up the river during Tecquitha's lifetime near Asernanon, the earliest known site of the Turtle Castle. There is a great bend or loop in the Mohawk river and valley. It extends from the mouth of the Shohari River in the east to the nose near Yos and Sprakers Basin in the west. The nose is at a point where river, railways, and canal are crowded in a narrow pass between two overlapping ridges of high land. Two mountains approaching, or Taianantogun, the Indians called it, and there behind the shelter of the hills they built their largest and best fortified town, the Mohawk capital, or Castle of the Wolves. Other villages and their central castle of the bears called Andagoran, they also built and rebuilt within the great bend. At its northern point where the river now flows between the high perched Staran residence and the town of Fonda, the next important railway station west of Amsterdam, are the rapids and the large stones in the water which gave rise to the name of Kanoaga. From the hills at Fonda one can see for miles both up and down the river, here, as has already been said, just west of Fonda, on the north side of the Mohawk is the Indian village site where Tekakwitha lived. Here is the beautiful hill that was once crowned by the palisaded castle of Kanoaga. It is a spot that anyone who lived there must have loved. Today the plow turns up the rich soil where long Indian cabins stood, and what we see are only darkened patches left to tell us where the hearthfires of the Mohawks burned two hundred years ago. These patches of dark soil still glisten with the pearly mussel shells brought up by the Mohawks to their village from the river that still bears their name. The pipe stems sold to them by the Dutch are strewn in fragments through the field. From graves nearby thrown out on the roadside by the spades of workmen loading their carts with sand the author has seen Indian bones more crumbled than the silly beads and rusty scissors buried with them which they bought so dearly. In a wood nearby on the brow of a ravine there is a row of hollow corn pits where the Kanoaga people stored their charred corn. Low down in the fertile river flats southward from the ancient village site a sunburned farmer, owner of both Hill and Valley still works with horses and with iron implements the very corn fields that the squaws hold with clumsy bone tools. This once castled height breaks abruptly on its eastern side to let the Kaya Dutta Creek wind through. It hurries by on its way to meet the Mohawk and then lags through the flat lost to site just long enough to pass round the skirts of the Tobberg or Tee Mountain. This is a grassy cone topped with pines and so named by Dutch settlers who there in war times made a tea from a wild plant. It partly blocks the entrance to the pretty Kaya Dutta Valley and separates it from the modern town of Fonda. But the farmer's daughters and the village people who now live in site in the Fonda courthouse know well the little valley of the Kaya Dutta. Any of them can point out its brightest gem the never-failing spring that issues from a setback in the hill and so regular in shape as to suggest an amphitheater. This spring wells out from under an old stump hidden in a clump of trees whose topmost branches are below the level of the castle site. Its waters rest a moment in a little shady pool with a round forest mirror then brimming over break away and wander down the steep descent to the creek. The path to the spring leads downward from the higher ground above it known as the sand flats. The field where the castle stood is now often planted thick with grain but when this has been cut and the ground again plowed the Indian relics are readily found. At any season of the year however the limpet spring that has not ceased to flow for centuries will serve to indicate the spot. Standing then at the brink of this spring in the Mohawk Valley let the reader cast a look backward and over the intervening space of two hundred years to the days of Tekakwitha. Let it be understood however that while the imaginative faculty is thus to be called into play it is not for the contemplation of an imaginative but of a real character for whatever side lights may color the narrative they are used to bring out not to impair the picture. Many details of time and place of manners and customs of dress and the arts of industry will be woven into an actual scene rather than given in a tedious enumeration. The scene about to be described and others which follow depicting the early life of Tekakwitha are not to be found actually recorded in so many words in the history of her life and times yet they must have occurred for they are based on the known facts of her life as related in various official and private documents together with such inferences only as may fairly and reasonably be drawn from those facts when brought under the strong light of contemporaneous records. Above the spring at Fonda on the high plateau where is now the well-tilled farm stood two centuries ago the log-built palisades of ancient Kanawaga. In tall and close set ranks they served to hide from view and shield from ambush the long low Indian houses 24 in number double-stockadoed round with four ports as when the traveler Greenhall saw the place in 1677 and a bow-shot from the river stands the strong Mohawk Castle the blackened stumps that now dot the sunny hillside of the Kayadatta change into the old time mighty forest and present a scene that is full of life for down a well-worn footpath come the Indian girls to fill their jugs at the spring afterwards to be known as Tekakwitha's spring these dusky Kanawaga maidens have the well-known Indian features strongly marked the high cheekbones the dull red skin and soft dark eyes but Tekakwitha shields hers with her blanket from the light unlike the rest there is an air of thoughtfulness about her and a touch of mystery excessive shyness in the lily of the Mohawks is strangely blended with a sympathetic nature and with a quiet force of character she leads their chatter half unconsciously to channels of her own choosing a manuscript of the time says She describes the Indian maiden with her well-oiled and neatly parted hair descending in a long plate behind while a fine chemise is at the waist by a neat and well-trimmed petticoat reaching to the knee below this was the rich legging and then the well-fitted moccasin the glory of an Iragoi bell the neck was loaded with beads while the crimson blanket enveloped the whole form this in general is the costume of the merry group with Tekakwitha at the spring the upper garment, however is a kind of tunic nor can it be said that all are equally neat in their appearance some have their dark straight hair tied loosely back and hanging down or else with wampum braided in it a few are clothed in foreign stuff bought from the Dutch for beaver skins and worn in shapeless pieces hung about them with savage carelessness on their dark arms the sunlight flashes back heated wrist and arm bands begged or borrowed from their more industrious companions not like theirs is Tekakwitha's costume it is made of deer and moose skins all of native make and stitched together by a practised hand as every one of the pretty squaws well knew her needle was a small bone from the ankle of the deer her thread the sinews of the same twisted animal whose brain she mixed with moss and used to tan the skins and make the soft brown leather which she shaped so deftly into tunic moccasins and leggings her own skirt was scarce so richly worked with quills of the porcupine as that of her adopted sister there beside her though both were made by Tekakwitha's hands the indian girls about her like her for her generous nature and her merry witty speeches she makes them laugh right heartily while she stands waiting for her jug to fill up at the trickling spring these daughters of the Iroquois are bubbling over with good spirits and their pottery jugs with water when all at once they spy a band of hunters coming homeward down the Kaya Dote Valley from the Sakondaga country knowing there is one among them who but waits his chance to lay his wealth of beaver skins at Tekakwitha's feet and take her for his wife they turn girl-like to tease her but the quick and timid orphan dreading the license of their tongues has bounded up the hill and hastens to her uncle's cabin with her jug leaving her companions to bandy words with the young hunters as they stop beside the little pool for a draft of refreshing water of all the people in the ancient Kanawaga village the only story that has been written out in full and handed down in precious manuscript brown with age is the story of her who bounded up the hill and left her comrades at the spring in a double sense she left them she was far above them she stands today upon a mystic height and many both of her race and our own in these our days do homage to her memory may her home at Kanawaga high above the stones that lie embedded in the Mohawk river and close beside the spring that trickles downward to the Kayadatta soon become familiar ground to all who honour Tekakwitha End of Chapter 1 Chapter 2 of the Life and Times of Kateri Tekakwitha by Ellen Wallworth this LibriVox recording is in the public domain The Mohawk valley and the Mohawks at the time of Tekakwitha's birth Vada Joges was put to death in the year 1646 on the south side of the Mohawk river a few miles to the eastward of Fonda and not far from the mouth of the Skohari river close to the shrine which has been erected at Ariesville in his memory is the very ravine in which during his captivity there he buried his friend and only companion Rene Gupil Rene it will be remembered was cruelly murdered for signing an Indian child with the sign of the cross the description of the place where this occurred is very explicit in Vada Joges published letters and there is no other spot in the whole Mohawk valley to which it can well be applied there was a village a certain river which was a quarter of a league distant from the Indian town of Asernanon where he was held captive this was undoubtedly the Skohari there in that same vicinity after he had escaped from captivity and returned to the Mohawks as a missionary he met his own tragic fate or rather the glorious reward of his zeal there too or very near there ten years after his death Tekakwita was born the exact location of her birthplace has not been determined it was either at the turtle castle of Asernanon described by Joges the name of which was afterwards changed or at a later village site near Aries Creek to which the people of that castle moved and to which they gave the name of Oaga in either case her birthplace was less than a mile from the present Hamlet of Ariesville there Kateri Tekakwita was born in the year 1656 her father was a Mohawk warrior and her mother a Christian Algonquin captive who had been brought up and baptized among the French settlers at three rivers in Canada the Iroquois and the Algonquin tribes and hostile to the French the Mohawks especially were accustomed to make frequent raids on the settlements in Canada leaving desolation behind them on the St. Lawrence and bearing with them to their own valley rich booty and also captives to be tortured and burned and the Mohawks were accustomed to making frequent raids to be tortured and burned or else adopted into the five nations of Iroquois to swell their numbers if Frenchmen these captives were often held as prisoners of war and haughty terms made for their ransom it happened on one of these raids into Canada that Tekakwita's mother the Algonquin was thus captured torn suddenly from a peaceful home and the French friends who were teaching her the prayer she was hurried through the lakes and woods of a strange country along the great war trail that leads from the St. Lawrence to the Mohawk through northeastern New York fast following in the path of Jokes the light canoe that bore her came southward with the braves and their trophies of war through Lake Champlain and then Lake George St. Sacrament little did the captive dream that ever a child of hers would take that same long journey back again an exile from the home that she was then approaching all unconscious of her fate a home indeed awaited her coming in the land of the Mohawks she was saved from the torture and the fire by a fierce pagan Mohawk warrior who took the young Algonquin for his wife the gentle girl had captured the heart of her conqueror their family consisted of one son and an infant daughter known later as Kateri Tekekwitha Per Claude Chauchetier who wrote in 1695 tells us that they dwelt at Gondawaga a little village of the Mohawks there they must have occupied one section of an Iroquois longhouse other kindred families filling up its entire length on both sides of an open space and passageway through the center the occupants of every four sections or alcoves in these houses two families being on each side of the passage shared a common hearthfire with a hole above it in the roof to let in the daylight and let out the smoke there were usually five of these fires but these families in a house about a hundred feet in length these united households gave name and meaning to the Iroquois League of Canonsiani or People of the Longhouse there is reason to believe that Tekekwitha's father took an active part in the affairs both of the Mohawk Nation and the Iroquois League we are told indeed that after his death her uncle who seems to have taken her father's place and responsibilities was one of the chief men of the Turtle Castle whose deputies ranked higher in council than those of the Bear and Wolf castles and Dagoran and Tyon on Togen this was because the turtle was created first according to their genesis of things these three palisaded strongholds and their outlying hamlets made up the Mohawk or Kanianga Nation it was likened in the beautiful figurative language of the Iroquois to a group of families gathered round a hearth or council fire and filling up one end of the Longhouse or great league of the five nations founded by Hayawatha and his friends the duty of the Kaniangas of the Mohawk Valley was to guard the eastern entrance of the Longhouse or the door which looked out on the Hudson their privilege was to furnish the great war chief that should lead the people of the league to battle the proud Seneca's whose portion of the house extended from Seneca Lake to Niagara were the western doorkeepers of this household of nations waging fierce war on their neighbors near Lake Erie the wily Onondaga's wise old politicians in the middle of the Longhouse at Onondaga Lake led in council their leading chief the elected president of this first American Republic lit the central council fire and sat in state among the 50 Oyanders Satchams who formed the Iroquois Senate 10 of these were always Kaniangas or Mohawks and 14 were Onondaga's these two nations and the Seneca's were called brothers while the intermediate Oneidas and Cayugas were always spoken of as nephews because they were younger and less important nations with fewer Oyanders Tachikwitha's father may have been one of the 10 Mohawk Oyanders but there is more reason to believe that he belonged to a class of war chiefs who took part only in councils of war in 1656 these war chiefs were very influential for the Iroquois had set out on a wild career of conquest the war like Mohawks as usual taking the lead the very same year that the little Mohawk Algonquin was born in their land they swept like a tornado over Ile Orléans near Quebec they carried off to their castles with remnant of the Huron people who far from their own land had gathered near the French guns for protection these Hurons from the shores of Lake Huron belonged to the Iroquois stock as distinguished from the Algonquin races in very early times they had come down to the settlements on the St. Lawrence to trade with the French and zealous Jesuit missionaries had accompanied them on their return to the country after great hardships these missionaries had succeeded in making them Christians when as a final result of an old feud these Huron Iroquois as they are often called were driven from their homes in the northwest by the Iroquois of the League and wiped completely out of existence as a nation six of the Jesuits have finished the theme for parkmen's glowing pages were massacred while others were cruelly tortured by the ubiquitous Mohawks during the period of ten short years that elapsed between Jogh's last captivity and Tecuch with his birth could the father of the Mohawk Lily have reddened his hands in their blood it is more than likely for though Andesanc or Jogh's was the only one of these martyrs who had reached the Mohawk Valley they were all slain by Mohawk Braves Jogh's, Daniel Braboof Lalemon, Garnier and Garo nor is this a complete list of the victims to use once more the words of John Gilmary Shea historian of these and their fellow pioneers feign would we pause to follow each in his labours his trials and his toils recount their dangers from the heathen Huron the skulking Iroquois the frozen river hunger, cold and accident to show Garnier wrestling with the floating ice through which he sank on an errand of mercy Shabanel struggling on for years on a mission from which every fiber of his nature shrunk with loathing Shomanel compiling his grammar on the frozen earth or the heroic Braboof paralyzed by a fall with his collar bone broken creeping on his hands and feet along the road and sleeping unsheltered on the snow when the very trees were splitting with cold and later as a martyr one of the most glorious in our annals variety and atrocity of his torments this last mentioned black gown Jean de Braboof called Ichan by the Hurons was a writer of valuable works on the Indian language and customs he belonged to a noble family of Normandy and on account of his great natural courage and soldierly bearing his agony was prolonged by the savages with dish ingenuity till finally failing to ring a sigh of pain from his lips they clove open his chest took out his noble heart and devoured it as a medicine to make them fearless hearted the fortitude of a brave man under torture was a spectacle as keenly appreciated by the Iroquois as were the gladiator fights and martyrdoms of old by the Romans the women in this case however instead of decreeing death by turning down their own thumbs were granted the less fatal and less dainty privilege of sawing off the thumb of the victim as in the case of Jokes at Ossernanon the human torches of Nero who had the early Christians wrapped in straw and placed in his garden on the Palatine Hill to illuminate his evening revels are vividly recalled by the death of Brebouf's companion the delicate and gentle Gabrielle Laliment he was wrapped in pieces of bark which were put in ablaze his writhing frame and quivering flesh contrasted finally with the stoic endurance of Brebouf and the Iroquois kept him alive till morning leaving his body at last a black and shapeless mass these gifted men living and dying in the wilderness were not without devoted followers as can well be imagined and many of their converts the Christian Hurons a now conquered race dwelt with their old foes in the Longhouse with the capture of those of the Hurons who had taken refuge in Saint-Laurelian the long struggle ended between the two branches of a great Indian family or stock the Huron Iroquois and the Iroquois of the League once victorious it was the policy of the five nations of the League to quit all enmity and to give the vanquished a home in their midst though the Hurons lost their national existence and Christian faith they clung to it in the midst of all the wild superstitions of their conquerors they explained it to others as well as they could and they welcomed with glad hearts any black gown who was brave enough to tread in the footsteps of jokes such an one was Father Lemoine who came and went five times among the Onondagas and the Mohawks in 1963 and 1658 even while they were at war with his countrymen on the Saint Lawrence on a hurried visit to Fort Orange the nearest colony of Europeans he told the people there of the Salt Springs which are now a source of wealth at Syracuse but the wealthy burgers were incredulous and put it down in their records as a Jesuit lie these early settlers of our state of such occasional indications of prejudice were a kind hearted and a peace loving people always ready to do friendly offices for men who unlike their rivals the Canadian traders seemed to value the souls of the Indians more than their beaver skins they had already rescued two Jesuits Jokes and Prasani from captivity and they afterwards sent Father Lemoine a bottle of wine with which to say mass at Onondaga this last missionary the Indians now called Andesonc in memory of Jokes he visited the Mohawks in 1656 to console the Huron exiles from Il Orléans and at the same time he reproached the Mohawk warriors for their cruelty this of course was little to the taste of Tecac with his pagan father who took care no doubt that the black gown should have no intercourse with his Algonquin wife for in his opinion she was already too fond of the French Christians he did not wish her to have his tiny newborn daughter signed with the ill Oamond Cross and to have the water of baptism poured on her head so Andesonc came and went passing near but not finding Tecac with his mother who still cherished the Christian faith in her heart when she knew that he was gone it must have been with many a sigh and many a thought of her northern home that she tied her baby to its cradle-board all carved and curtained after the Indian fashion and then loaded with the precious burden went off as usual to her work in the cornfields from time to time she would pause and to smile at her little breathing bundle as it swung from the branch of a tree nearby and we may be sure too that as she gathered in the harvest for the winter she whispered many a prayer for peace and for the coming of the black gown to dwell in the land that her child might grow up a Christian let us hope some distant echo reached her in the Mohawk cornfield from the shores of Onondaga Lake for there where the city of Syracuse now sits among the hills a crowd of Iroquois were gathered at that very time into the rough bark chapel of Saint Mary's of Ganantaha listening to the Christian law of marriage preached then for the first time in their land quick to understand the new dignity it gave them the Onondaga women silently made up their minds to learn the prayer which they meant Christianity all the while that the black gown was speaking the captive Hurons who were in the throng gazed with pent up joy at the face of their beloved Ishan Shoma No the namesake of Brebu whose voice they had often heard at the mission forts in their own country soon after Ishan's visit other fathers came among the Iroquois nations with a colony of Frenchmen these last had been cordially invited to Onondaga the reason for this invitation was that its people hard-pressed by their savage enemies wanted peace with Ononcio the French governor and thought to secure it in this way the Mohawks however took no part in this temporary peace they were angry with the Onondagas for claiming their captives from the Île-Orléans and they continued their raids on the French frontier regardless of a treaty made by their brother-nation it must be remembered though that these Indians while warring with the French were then and always at peace with the Dutch of Fort Orange from them they obtained the firearms that were used so effectively in their warfare in Canada the wife of the Mohawk warrior at Gondawaga may have heard rumors of the treaty made with Ononcio but she saw the great kettle prepared as usual in the turtle village for the annual war dance and all hope of a peace with the French died out once more from her heart it was the custom of the Mohawks to set this kettle to boil in the early winter and from time to time each warrior dropped something in and thus to signify his intention of joining the next expedition by February all was in readiness for the great dance of the nation a war dance among the Indians is conducted in some such way as this stripped of all but the breech cloth gay with war paint and feathers the dried head of a bear if that be the totem of his clan fastened on head or shoulder with rattling deer hoofs strapped to his knees each warrior springs to his place and the wild dance begins accompanied by the beating of a drum wilder and wilder grow their antics and more boastful the words of their chant as they catch the spirit of the dance till at last they seem the very incarnation of war with all the vividness of Indian pantomime they act out the scenes of battle before the eyes of the crouching women and children gathered in silent awe to witness this great savage drama at first the warriors seem to be creeping along the forest trail with every faculty alert and then with fearful whoops they whirl their tomahawk through the air at a senseless post springing back as if in self-defense falling again upon the imaginary foe hacking with violence and mingling shrieks with their victorious shouts till in the flickering light of the fire and the weird shadows of surrounding objects the assembled crowd completely carried away by the vividness of the pantomime see human victims falling beneath their strokes during the progress of the annual war dance at gondawaga a group of Indian boys stand gazing with wide open eyes at the heroes of the khanienke haka whose past and future deeds are thus pictured before them with swelling hearts they listen to the wild refrain wahee! ho-ha! that comes at intervals among the smallest of the group we have in view is teka quitha's little brother and her father is taking part in the dance his voice as it leads a louder swell of the war song that samples her from her baby dreams and she nestles close in her mother's arms later she hears the same voice in the lodge a few brief words rolling from the tongue of the warrior in the low musical tones of the mohawk language and it only lulls her into sounder sleep the dance is over and the crowd scattered but still we linger about a deathlike silence reigns in the village there is not one sentinel on watch it would be well if they were more vigilant but for the present they are safe their foes are far away and the high palisade keeps off the prowling beasts the darkness of night has closed over them it is the hour for dreams and dreams are the religion of the red man and told to the medicine man or sorcerer the influential being who is both priest and doctor in the village when the excitement of the war dance has subsided and the people are all sleeping soundly this mysterious personage with stealthy tread may be seen to issue from the silent cluster of houses and by the light of the moon he gathers his herbs and catches the uncanny creatures of the night to weave his spells he knows that the young warriors will be coming to him for some inkling of their fate on the warpath and besides he must supply a certain cure for their wounds when he has found it for them he will gather them all in the public square at gondawaga and after other exhibitions of his skill will perhaps cut his own lip and when the blood is flowing freely he will stanch it and cure it in a moment by applying his magic drug it will be well for his fame if there be not the keen eye of a French Jesuit in the crowd to watch him as he quickly sucks the blood into his mouth he knows that the warriors are easily duped by his cunning and will probably buy his mixture happy in its possession they will fear no evil effects from their wounds they will start to seek the sorcerer to have their fortunes told and the old men and women come to him with their ailments even the orators are glad of a hint from his fertile brain and the oyander or a matron of rank who is about to nominate a new chief may perhaps consult him if her choice has been already made however it is no easy task to persuade her to change her mind with the month of March comes the dream feast and then the medicine man is in his glory for three days the town is in a hubbub given up to every freak of the imagination all the dreams of its people no matter how foolish and unreasonable must be fulfilled in some way to the dreamer's satisfaction the wiser heads among them have to tax their ingenuity to the utmost to prevent the worst excesses from this crazy celebration the Christian Indians above all dreaded its coming for if the sorcerer's interpretation pointed in their direction they were sure to suffer during the celebration of the dream feast the Algonquin captive would not fail to hide herself and her children in the darkest corner she could find she had a better chance to pass unnoticed however than the more numerous Huron Christians who, like herself, had been captured by the Iroquois against these there was a growing enmity encouraged no doubt by the sorcerers who profited least of all by their presence among the people some months after the time of the dream feast the gathering storm burst over their heads on the 3rd of August 1657 the Hurons who dwelted on Andaga were suddenly massacred the party that had been advocating friendship with the French and which had taken the lead in establishing the French colony at Onondaga headed by Gara Contier the sun that advances were fast losing ground the situation even of the French colonists who were there was becoming critical and in April 1658 when Tekakwatha was in her second year strange things happened in the longhouse of the five nations end of Chapter 2 Chapter 3 of the Life and Times of Katerik Tekakwatha by Ellen Walworth this LibriVox recording is in the public domain a cradle song captives tortured Flight of the French from Onondaga Death in the Mohawk lodges a reader in imagination look into Tekakwatha's home at Gondawagwa on the Mohawk as it appeared in the month of April 1658 and learn if the news that is spreading from nation to nation has yet reached there to find a lodge he wishes to enter he will follow a woman who is passing along the principal street of the village with an energetic step the corners of a long blanket develops her head and whole form flap as if in a breeze from her own quick motion for the air is quite still it is early springtime there are pools of frozen water here and there but the dogs of the village have chosen a sunny spot to gnaw at the bones they have found near the cabin of a fortunate hunter who gave a feast the night before to his more needy neighbors all shared in his good cheer so long as there is food in the village no one is allowed to go hungry such is the Indian law of hospitality take on Hatsihango who will be better known by and by under the name of Anastasia gathers her blanket about her and with the usual greeting Sago she passes a matron at a neighboring doorway who withdraws the heavy bear skin curtain she has placed there for keeping out the cold in order that she may see where to put away the snowshoes now no longer needed she stores them high above her head among the poles that support the snug bark roof the keen eye of take on Hatsihango notes at a glance what the matron is about and as she turns her head for a second look one can see by the lines in her face that she is already on the downward slope of middle age she passes on through an open space where a scaffold is prepared for the exhibition of any captives the warriors may chance to bring back from their raid on Montreal take on Hatsihango scarcely notices these familiar preparations for the torture but directs her steps to the lodge of a chief opening on the square she is about to visit her friend the Algonquin whose brave is away on the warpath the quiet ways of this younger woman have attracted her and won her friendship as she lifts the hanging skin to enter she pauses a moment surprised perhaps and well pleased too to find the Algonquin in a merry mood romping with her baby now more than a year old she stands and watches her catching the child from the clean swept earthen floor the mother holds it laughing and struggling in her lap the Algonquin song of the little owl a pretty picture she makes seated by the nearest fire of faggots in the dim smoky light of the longhouse and these are the words of her cradle song and their literal translation awanane who is this awanane who is this wa yo wa sa giving eye light on the top of my lodge here the young mother looks up as if she really saw the eyes of the little white owl glaring from among the rustic rafters or through the hole in the roof the dark eyes of the dark little baby which follow the direction of hers are opening wide with wonder at this sudden break from song to pantomime and now the Algonquin answers her own questions assuming all at once the tone of the little screech owl cop cop cop it is I the little owl nim bae ae jow coming coming cop cop cop it is I the little owl nim bae ae jow coming kitschy kitschy down down with the last words meaning dodge baby dodge she springs towards the child and down goes the little head this is repeated with the utmost merriment on both sides till their laughter is interrupted by the entrance of Tegon Hatsihongo who seats herself near her friend their talk soon taking a serious turn now for the first time the Algonquin notices that others in the same cabin are putting their heads together and talking in low voices the very air seems full of mystery the busy ones have dropped their accustomed occupations and the idle ones have ceased their noisy talk in their games all are wondering at the strange news from the Indian capital telling of the unaccountable disappearance of the Frenchman who formed the little colony at Onondaga Mohawks who were there on a visit have returned with marvelous tales the few facts of the history are soon known but there is no end to the surmises that are afloat among the Iroquois this is what they are all talking about this is what happened the French colonists whom we have already mentioned 53 in number had given a great feast at their small block fort on the east bank of Onondaga lake all the Onondagas and their guests from other nations who chanced to be there at the time were invited some of Tegon Hatsihongo's friends from the Mohawk valley were present among the rest and knew all about it they were completely carried away with admiration for their French hosts who gave them a right royal feast when it was over they fell into slumber and dreamed strange dreams then, awaking when the sun was high the bewildered guests went about half dazed some of them, straggling near the French enclosure heard the dogs bark and a cock crow within as the day wore on they gathered into groups and wondered why the foreign inmates slept so long none of them were to be seen going to work no voices were heard could they be at prayer or in secret council no one answered when they knocked at the door by afternoon there were strange whisperings misgiving among the onondagas till at last their curiosity outgrew their dread and nerved a few to scale the palisade with cautious step they entered fearing some treacherous snare the Frenchmen could not be asleep they thought for the noisy barking of the dog would almost wake the dead could they have slain one another in the night no was peaceful as they entered no signs of a struggle and the sunlight danced playfully in through utter vacancy every corner of the house and fort was searched no human being dead or living was found yet noisy and more noisy grew the barking of the fastened dog and frightened chickens fluttered about the Indians looked at one another shuddering what had happened with guilty consciences they thought of their deep laid treachery here brought to not for as the Algonquin now learned from the talk in the longhouse they had planned to massacre the colony invited to their land from policy having subjugated their savage foes of the cat nation they were ready to turn their arms once more against the French they had felt quite sure of their prey for even if warned the colonists and missionaries could not have escaped they thought as the rivers were still frozen besides it was out of the question to suppose they had gone by water as no boat was missing had they taken to the woods they would soon have perished in the cold having no guides or else they would see the hands of their enemies who could easily track and overtake them in the forest no trace of them however was anywhere to be found never were the red men more completely baffled Tegan Hatsi Hongo and the others who talked it all over had two favorite explanations of the mystery either the French men had a magic power of walking on the lakes strange creatures seen by onondagas in their dreams had flown through the air bearing the pale faces with them while Tegak with his mother was still wondering at this unaccountable story the Mohawk Braves returned from their raid on Montreal and the people of the village were soon hurrying out with little iron rods to take their stand on either side of the path that they held to the principal opening in the palisade there they were ready to beat the prisoners as they approached running the gauntlet then the crowd eagerly watched the progress of the tortures on the scaffold after which the prisoners were handed over bound hand and foot to the tender mercies of the children these juvenile savages amused themselves by putting hot coals on the naked flesh of the captives and tormented them in every way their mischief loving brains could devise thus early did the warrior's son begin his education but this side of the Indian nature is too horrible to dwell on let it pass at times the Iroquois were like incarnate devils and yet each tale of frightful cruelty that history preserves for us brings with it some redeeming trait some act of kindness or humanity done in the face of savage enmity there were always a few among them ready like Pocahontas to avert the threatened blow or to relieve the sufferers whenever it was possible one of these in days gone by had administered to jokes and one of these in days now soon to come will prove to be our tecquitha there is little more to say about her parents her mother may have learned from some of the captives brought to Gondawaga from Canada the true ending of the French colony at Onondaga at all events the following explanation of their sudden disappearance has been by Aguano who shared the fate of the adventurous little band he says in one of his letters to supply the want of canoes we had built in secret two bateaus of a novel and excellent structure to pass the rapids these bateaus drew but very little water and carried considerable freight 14 or 15 men each amounting to 15 or 1600 weight over four Algonquin and four Iroquois canoes which were to compose our little fleet of 53 Frenchmen but the difficulty was to embark unperceived by the Iroquois who constantly beset us the bateaus, canoes and all the equipage could not be conveyed without great noise and yet without secrecy there was nothing to be expected save a general massacre of all of us the moment it would be discovered that we entertained the least thought of withdrawing on that account we invited all the savages in our neighbourhood to a solemn feast at which we employed all our industry and spared neither the noise of drums nor instruments of music to deceive them by harmless device he who presided at the ceremony played his part with so much address and success that all were desirous to contribute to the public joy everyone vied in uttering the most piercing cries now of war and none of rejoicing the savages through complacence sung and danced after the French fashion and the French in the Indian style to encourage them the more in this fine play presence were distributed among those who acted best their parts and who made the greatest noise to drown that caused by about 40 of our people outside who were engaged in removing all our equipage the embarkation being completed the feast was concluded at a fixed time the guests retired and sleep having soon overwhelmed them we withdrew from our house by a back door and embarked with very little noise without bidding adieu to the savages who were acting cunning parts and were thinking to amuse us to the hour of our massacre with fair appearances and evidences of good will our little lake on which we silently sailed in the darkness of the night froze according as we advanced and caused us to fear being stopped by the ice after having evaded the fires of the Iroquois delivered us and after having advanced all night and all the following day through frightful precipices and waterfalls we arrived finally in the evening at the great lake Ontario twenty leagues from the place of our departure this first day was the most dangerous for had the Iroquois observed our departure they would have intercepted us and had they been it would have been easy for them to have thrown us into disorder the river being very narrow and terminating after travelling ten leagues in a frightful precipice where we were obliged to land and carry our baggage and canoes during four hours through unknown roads covered with a thick forest which could have served the enemy for a fort whence at each step he could have struck and fired on us without being perceived God's protection visibly accompanied us during the remainder of the road in which we walked through perils which made us shudder after we escaped them having at night no other bed except the snow after having passed entire days in the water and amid the ice ten days after our departure we found Lake Ontario which we floated still frozen at its mouth we were obliged to break the ice axe in hand to make an opening to enter two days afterwards a rapid where our little fleet had well-knife foundered for having entered a great zoo without knowing it we found ourselves in the midst of breakers which meeting a quantity of big rocks threw up mountains of water on as many precipices as we gave strokes of paddles our bateaus which drew scarcely half a foot were soon filled with water and all our people in such confusion that their cries mingled with the roar of the torrent presented to us the spectacle of a dreadful wreck it became imperative however to extricate ourselves the violence of the current dragging us despite ourselves into the large rapids and through passes in which we had never been terror redoubled at the sight of one of our canoes being engulfed in a breaker which barred the entire rapid and which notwithstanding was the course that all the others must keep three Frenchmen were drowned there a fourth fortunately escaped mingled on to the canoe and being saved at the foot of the Sioux when at the point of letting go his hold his strength being exhausted the third of April we landed at Montreal in the beginning of the night this escape so wonderful to the Indian mind and so successful made a profound impression at Gondwagwa as among all the Mohawks and produced most important results in the neighborhood of Tekkakwitha's home interrupting the work of the missionary there Ondesank or Lamoine the namesake of Jokes who made a third visit to the Mohawk valley in the fall of 1657 was no longer even tolerated by its people he was held half a hostage, half a prisoner at Tia Nantigan during the time that the French colony were in peril at Onondaga and was finally sent back to Canada he left the Mohawk country for the last time just after Onondaga was abandoned by the French he reached his countrymen on the St. Lawrence in May 1658 to be greeted there with a glad welcome and many inquiries from the newly arrived refugees from Onondaga concerning his experiences among the Mohawks they were anxious to hear whether he had fared any better than themselves not one black gown was now left among the five nations of Iroquois the Algonquin mother at Gondawagwa had been unable to profit by their brief stay in the land and her life grew ever sadder towards its close she was finally laid low by a terrible disease the smallpox which spread like wildfire to the Mohawk nation in 1659 and 1660 her brave an early victim to this red man's plague soon lay cold in death and with aching heart she too bade goodbye to the world leaving her helpless children alone and struggling with the disease in a desolate lodge in a desolate land Chochetierre relates what he learned afterwards from Anesthesia Tegon Hatsihango that in leaving her two little children the mother grieved at having to abandon them without baptism that she was a fervent Christian to the last and that she met death with a prayer on her lips End of Chapter 3 Chapter 4 of the Life and Times of Kateri Tekequitha the Lily of the Mohawks this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Tekequitha with her aunts at Gondawagwa Tekequitha's brother shared the fate of her parents all three died within the space of a few days overshadowed by death and disease when she was only four years old the little Indian child alone remained of the family how she won her name is not known though Indian names have always a meaning they are never arbitrarily given the word Tekequitha as Mishir Kuak the philologist translates it means one who approaches moving something before her Marko the author of a complete Iroquois dictionary renders it one who puts things in order it has been suggested in reference to Mishir Kuak's interpretation that the name may have been given to her on account of a peculiar manner of walking caused by her imperfect sight for it is related that the smallpox so injured her eyes that for a long time she was obliged to shade them from strong light it is possible that in groping or feeling her way while a child she may have had her hands in a way that suggested the pushing of something in front of her and thus have received her name on the other hand the interpretation of Mishir Kuak as given by Shea is thoroughly in keeping with her character she indeed spent a great part of her life as the record shows in putting things in order on the death of Tekequitha's father her uncle according to the Indian laws of descent and the fall heir to the title of chief after having been chosen by the matron or stirps of the family and then duly elected by the men of the turtle clan Tekequitha then became an inmate of her uncle's lodge which was quite natural for indeed she was likely to prove a valuable acquisition to the household this uncle was impoverished no doubt by the plague and also by the custom of making presents a chief is expected to dispense freely and is generally poor in spite of his honors but daughters were always highly prized by the Iroquois as they grew up they were expected to do a large part of the household work and later when wedded to some sturdy hunter the lodge to which a young woman belonged claimed and received whatever her husband brought from the chase so the aunts and uncles of Tekequitha acted quite as much from worldly wisdom as from humanity when they decided to give the young orphan a home forethought was mixed with their kindness and perhaps also a bit of selfishness they had no children of their own but they adopted another young girl besides Tekequitha thus giving to their niece a sister somewhat older than herself the home of this family after the smallpox had spent its force and when the distress it caused had forced the Mohawks to make a treaty of peace with the French was at Gondawagwa on a high point of land in the angle between Ories Creek and the Mohawk River here on the crest of the hill in a wheat field west of the creek there still are signs of an Indian village and just outside of the fence in a patch of woods Indian graves and corn pits are to be seen well does the writer remember a bright summer day when that village site where Tekequitha must have spent her early childhood was visited and examined for traces of Iroquois occupation three of us had driven over from the spring and castle site of Gondawagwa at Fonda to the west side of Ories Creek leaving our carriage we mounted the steep bank stream eager to find the exact site of Gondawagwa to which the people of Asernanon moved before they crossed the river to Kanawaga we stood at last on the hard one summit and there lay the landscape in its tranquil beauty the Mohawk Valley the river a wheat field across a dark wood and often the distance the courthouse of Fonda and dim Kanawaga all bathed in a glory of sunshine nearer at hand and toward the east a little white steeple gleamed through the trees marking the site of the modern village of Oriesville we stood high above it on the upper river terrace where old Gondawagwa had once been and though the rude Indian castle at that spot had long ago been trampled out of existence we seemed to see it rise again from the ashes of its ancient hearthfires then looking off toward the Scoheri in our mind's eye we plainly saw on the broad grassy plateau the still older village of Asernanon with its high palisade that once upheld the ghastly head of the martyred jokes the scene was before us in all its details the past had become like the present that day and what was then present all blended with sunshine that blotted out the tragic and left the heroic parts of the picture has since become past those glorious hours at the castle sites near Oriesville so rich in awakened thought contagious enthusiasm and newly acquired information are only a memory now and mention is made of them here in the hope that others may feel a stir of interest in their hearts and be roused to visit the Mohawk Valley and the places so closely linked to the names of jokes and Tekakritha Asernanon where the shrine is built, Gondawagwa on the banks of Ories Creek and Kanawaga five miles farther up the river Tekakritha was only a little girl when she lived at Gondawagwa it could hardly have been a large castle on such a small bit of high land they had little need at this time of a large castle for many had died of the smallpox the old Dutch records of the time relate that the turtles or people of the lower castle were building a new palisade in the latter part of the year 1659 a task which would necessarily accompany a removal from Asernanon and they asked the Dutchman their neighbors to help them the friendship of these settlers for the Mohawks was put to rather a queer test when they proposed that the Dutch should not only furnish them with horses but should drive them themselves and drag the heavy logs up the hill for the palisade they were not used to such work and it better became the settlers to do it they thought than Mohawk warriors some Dutchmen of Fort Orange were at the Turtle Castle in an embassy when this unpleasant proposal was made to them and they thus shirked it do you not see we are tired they said we have traveled far through the forest our men are few and weary besides you have no roads our horses could never get up there you must excuse us our friends and managed to do it without us see as a token of friendship we have brought you 50 new hatchets then giving the Indians knick-knacks and weapons they bade them farewell and departed journeying back in haste to their homes on the Hudson thus the Indians were left to finish their own palisade or stockade whichever one may choose to call it and the uncle of Tekakwitha doubtless worked with the rest they finished it stood and protected them well for six uneventful years that is to say they were uneventful for Indians though during the whole of that period they were making and breaking treaties of peace with the French and were warring with other tribes during this time while the fighting was all carried on at a distance from the Mohawk castles Tekakwitha lived in greatest seclusion she was cared for and taught by her aunts in one of the cabins closed in by the palisade she was learning the arts of the Indians doing the daily work and shrinking from all observation this unsociable habit of hers for so it must have seemed to her neighbors was due in part to her own disposition modest shy and reserved but more than all perhaps to the fact that the smallpox had injured her eyesight as she could not endure much light she remained indoors and when forced to go out her eyes were shaded by her blanket little by little she grew to love a life of quiet and silence besides she showed a wonderful aptness for learning to make all the curious bark utensils and wooden things that were used in the village much to her aunts satisfaction she had an industrious spirit this they took care to encourage as it made her very useful these aunts were exceedingly vain and a child of less sense than the young Tekakwitha would soon have been spoiled by their foolishness Chauchetierre has told us quaintly in old fashioned French what she did during the first years of her age we cannot do better here than to follow his account translating it almost word for word the natural inclination which girls have to appear well makes them esteem very much whatever adorns the body and that is why the young savages from seven to eight years of age are silly and have a great love for porcelain wampum the mothers are even more foolish for they sometimes spend a great deal of time in combing and dressing the hair of their daughters they take care that their ears burst and commence to pierce them from the cradle they put paint on their faces and fairly cover them with beads when they have occasion to go to the dance those into whose hands Tekakwitha fell when her mother died resolved to have her marry very soon and with this object they brought her up in all these little vanities but the little Tekakwitha who was not yet a Christian in truth nor baptized in the natural indifference for all these things she was like a tree without flowers and without fruit but this little wild olive was budding so well into leaf that it promised some day to bear beautiful fruit or a heaven covered with the darkness of paganism but a heaven indeed for she was far removed from the corruption of the savages she was sweet, patient chaste and innocent sagé comme une fille française bien élevée as good as a French girl well brought up this is the testimony that has been given by those who knew her from a very young age and who in using this expression gave in a few words a beautiful panagyric of Catherine Tekakwitha Anastasia Tegan-Hatsihango said of her that she had no faults her occupation was to carry little bundles of wood with her mother that is to say her aunt the matron of the lodge to put wood on the fire when the mother told her to go for water when those in the cabin had need of it and when they gave her no further commands she amused herself with her little jewels I mean she dressed herself up in the fashion of the other young girls of her age just to pass the time she would put a necklace about her throat she would put bracelets of beads on her arms rings on her fingers and ear rings in her ears she made the ribbons and bands which the savages make with the skins of eels which they redden and render suitable for binding up their hair she wore large and beautiful girdles which they call wampum belts these decorations not only adorn the person but also show the rank of the maiden who wears them there was a sort of child marriage in vogue among the Iroquois certain agreements of theirs were called marriage which amounted to nothing more than a bond of friendship between the parents rendered more firm by giving away a child who was often still in the cradle thus they married a girl to a little boy this was done at a time when Tekukwita was still very small she was given to a child the little girl was only about eight years old the boy was hardly older than herself they were both of the same humor both very good children and the little boy troubled himself no more about the marriage than did the girl it was a mere formality but it shows how early Tekukwita's relatives began to think of establishing her in life End of Chapter 4