Identifier: indianbiography00that (find matches)
Title: Indian Biography
Year: 1800 (1800s)
Authors: Thatcher, B.B. (Benjamin Bussy), 1809-1840
Subjects: Indians of North America
Publisher: Philadelphia : Bowen
Contributing Library: University of Pittsburgh Library System
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

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ither by force or ingenuity, obtain the complete ascendency. Thefiction employed by Neamathla, to convey the ideas entertainedby his people, is of his own invention, and is creditable to hisingenuity. It is a fair specimen of the Lidian style of eloquence.They do not attempt what w^e would call argument; mere abstractrea.soning is beyond their comprehension. But they are expertin the employment of figures, by which the familiar objectsaround them are made to represent their ideas. They have notheories nor traditions, in regard to the creation, which seem to NEAMATHLA. 85 have been derived from any respectable source, or to be veneratedfor their antiquity, nor any, indeed, which have much authorityamong.themselves. Every tribe has its legends, fabricated by thechiefs or prophets to serve some temporary purpose; the most ofwhich are of a puerile and monstrous character. Few of themare of much antiquity; and, being destitute alike of historical andpoetic merit, they are soon forgotten. /
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A SENECA CHIEF. IrrA.t Col^ t PuilijhicL fy J T Bowe^, PMxiJy COEN PLANT The Senecas, as we have already stated in another place, werea tribe of the Iroquois, or Five Nations; and, more recently, theSix Nations, when the Tuscaroras w^ere added to the confederacy,which then consisted of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagoes, Sene-cas, Cayugas, and Tuscaroras. These Indians were among theearliest who were known to the English, who recognized them asa warlike and powerful people, and took no small pains to conciliatetheir friendship. In the year 1710, five chiefs of the Iroquois wereinduced by the British officers to visit England, under the expecta-tion that their savage natures might be softened by kindness, or theirfears alarmed by an exhibition of the power and magnificence ofthe British sovereign. This event excited much attention inLondon. Steele mentioned it in his Tattler of May 13, 1710, whileAddison devoted a number of the Spectator to the same subject.Swift, who was ambitious to be

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