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HISTORICAL WRITERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.


=_Cadwallader Colden,[2] 1688-1776._=

From "The History of the Five Nations."

=_6._= CONVICTION OF THEIR SUPERIORITY

The _Five Nations_ think themselves by nature superior to the rest of
mankind.... All the nations round them have, for many years, entirely
submitted to them, and pay a yearly tribute to them in _wampum_; they
dare neither make war nor peace without the consent of the _Mohawks_.
Two old men commonly go, about every year or two, to receive this
tribute; and I have often had opportunity to observe what anxiety the
poor Indians were under while these two old men remained in that part of
the country where I was. An old Mohawk Sachem, in a poor blanket and
a dirty shirt, may be seen issuing his orders with as arbitrary an
authority as a Roman dictator. It is not for the sake of tribute,
however, that they make war, but from the notions of glory which they
have ever most strongly imprinted on their minds; and the farther they
go to seek an enemy, the greater glory they think they gain; there
cannot, I think, be a greater or stronger instance than this, how
much the sentiments impressed on a people's mind conduce to their
grandeur.... The Five Nations, in their love of liberty and of their
country, in their bravery in battle, and their constancy in enduring