Gertrude of Wyoming.

In 1769, only one hundred and four years ago, Dr. Smollett, who was acknowledged by the enlightened world, as an able writer, in history, science and fiction, issued his edition of "The History of Nations," the eighth volume of which we obtained from Mr. J. G. Noakes, of Hyde Park, Scranton, who purchased it because of its antiquity, at some hidden corner in London, while on his journey to his native countryWales, during the past year.

It must be taken for granted that Smollett who figured in his time with the enlarged minds of the day, had every facility to enable him to set before the then unenlightened reading public, all that was necessary for historical purposes, and accepting this theory, it is to be assumed that he was thorough in his search for statistics, and ample in judgment as to mature conclusions.

Shelley's Queen Mab.

Yet, with but a century between, the present volume enters upon a detailed record of a region entirely unnoticed and altogether unknown to his pen, and which in detail as to enterprise and resource, can eclipse anything in the knowledge of himself or his contemporaries.

The very narrow scope to which the British provinces of Pennsylvania, New York, and the Jerseys, was entitled to, in what was considered. at that time as an universal, yet minute narration of places, men, and events, will scarcely escape the shadow of a broad smile upon its pages, still it is serious and astoundingly magnificent, if viewed with an eye upon the one broad idea of what has transpired in the short space of time, scarcely covering the allotted years of father and

son.

Smollett, with a truly loyal devotion to the

crown, gloried in the province of Pennsylvania, as containing seven counties, four of which are called the upper, and three the lower. "Of the upper, viz. Buckingham, Philadelphia, Chester, and Lancaster, the three first are the lands included in King Charles the Second's grant, and designed Pennsylvania; the lower, viz. those of Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, were called NovaBelgia, before the duke of York sold them to Mr. Penn. The upper counties end at Marcus Hook, four miles below Chester town, where the lower begin, and run along the coast near one hundred miles. Each of these counties has a sheriff, with a quarterly and monthly session, and assizes twice a year. Though some parts of the colony are not yet completely planted and inhabited, yet it is said to have contained, many years ago, upwards of one hundred thousand souls."

If the dreams of one age are realized in the next, the presence of the early English novelist and historian, on the banks of the upper Susquehanna, or in the still later developed region of the Lackawanna, would cause a satisfaction, uninspired by a lewd fancy such as he imagined in Roderick Random's limited adventures, and the scene that would greet him could but stagger the pure romance which his jovial heart once contained.

Even Campbell, one of Britain's gifted bards would gaze with an unalloyed astonishment at the natural transfiguration of scene, comparing the present business hum of Wyoming Valley, with the Elysian loveliness which he portrayed in his "Gertrude of Wyoming :"

"Then, when of Indian hills the daylight takes
His leave, how might you the flamingo see

Disporting like a meteor on the lakes

And playful squirrel on his nut-grown tree:
And every sound of life was full of glee,
From merry mock-bird's song or hum of men;
While hearkening, fearing naught their revelry,

The wild deer arched his neck from glades, and then,
Unhunted, sought his woods and wilderness again."

From where the grand Susquehanna enters upon its ceaseless wash, as musical as it is romantic, at the outlet of Otsego Lake, made immortal by James Fenimore Cooper, as the Glimmerglass of the red men, down through plains of more than ordinary enchantment, until it shimmers away into a calmer and broader flow below Wyoming's classic vale, can no spot on the American

continent compare with it for natural beauty of scenery, boundless mineral resources, majestic growth and historical interest.

Its own intrinsic loveliness has been the theme of poet and tourist since the day when enraptured eyes first beheld it. Its historical incidents have been breathed over the firesides of the entire American nation. Its sudden and giant-like growth has drawn to it the wonder and applause of the world, while its seemingly never-exhausting supply of mineral wealth, challenges the astonishment of the old world, that but a century ago had never dreamed of this El Dorado in the forests of America.

The importance which was manifested toward the region which is included in the scope of this work, in the minds of the natives, is a matter of more than speculative theory. While the forests of the broad Atlantic slope were inhabited by clans, each of which had characteristics peculiar to its own nation or tribe, still it is significant that outward and external influences signalized the deportment of each local band. The corps du esprit of the Pequots and the Naragansetts, who were reared along the "stern rock bound" coast of New England partook of the nature of the surroundings. The Powhatan type of red men were but natural exponents of living ideas of locality, in sentiment, action, and results; yet, in what region, save in the invigorating and bracing latitude of the Mohawks on the north and the Delawares on the south, could a symbolic, natural being be found, who could answer to the ideal forester, which Cooper in his portrayal of a genuine production presents, in whom could be centered, pure, though crude, the perfect, yet unshaped elements of the highest standard of manhood.

The inherent passion for the true and the beautiful is stamped upon the mind of man by the force of external action; whether it be the daring and seemingly reckless conduct of Tell, it is but the inspiration of Switzerland's natural towers which defy man's impotence; whether it be for a human movement which, like an avalanche swoops down upon everything before, it is because a Pontiac has been reared in a mighty northwestern American forest where bounds know no human ends; or whether it be a calm and almost

holy tint in the sky, it is because the artist has dreamed away hours of ecstacy in the golden heavens of Italy.

The Indian of the American forest was never conventional; he was individual in every thought and action. The common ease with which civilized society accepts a position whether for good or evil, because of democratic necessity, was unknown to him, who trod God's footstool with a personal feeling of being.

What more natural then, than that the dusky warrior, who knew the least ripple of aggression moving against his hunting-grounds a hundred miles away, should resent it as though it were an individual affront. What still more becoming then, in an embodiment of all that is noble, than that the sunburnt warrior should cling with an endearing affection to the wild streams and romantie glades where his children had skipped like their types in the forest, from the beautiful lakes of the Mohawks, to the emerald glens of Wyoming, ten thousand times more enrapturing then than now. The grand and the beautiful, acting upon man's nature, were no less pleasing to their appreciative minds than to the white man's studied taste, and

"Strike for your altars and your fires,

God and your native land,"

would have thrilled a Mohawk as effectually as it has moved many a noble heart to deeds less praiseworthy in later days.

It will not appear amiss, it is hoped, in these pages, to transcribe an idea from the pen of Col. onel Stone, the biographer of Brant, who, in treating of the mode of Indian warfare, adds:

"Without pausing to reflect that, even when most cruel they have been practicing the trade of war-always dreadful-as much in conformity to their own usages and laws, as have their more civilized antagonists; the white historian has drawn them with the characters of demons. For getting that the second of the Hebrew monarchs did not scruple to saw his prisoners with saws, and harrow them with harrows of iron; forgetful, likewise, of the scenes at Smithfield, under the direction of our own British ancestors; the historians of the poor, untutored Indians, almost with one accord, have denounced them as monsters sui generis, of unparalleled and unapproach.

able barbarity; as though the summary tomahawk were worse than the iron tortures of the harrow, and the torch of the Mohawk, hotter than the faggots of Queen Mary.

"Nor does it seem to have occurred to the 'palefaced' writers, that the identical cruelties, the records and descriptions of which enter so largely into the composition of the earlier volumes of American history, were not barbarities in the estimation of those who practiced them. The scalp lock was an emblem of chivalry. Every warrior in shaving his head for battle, was careful to leave the lock of defiance upon his crown, as for the bravado, "take it if you can." The stake and the torture were identified with their rude notions of the power of endurance. They were inflicted upon captives of their own race, as well as upon the whites; and with their own braves these trials were courted, to enable the sufferer to exhibit the courage and fortitude with which they could be borne-the proud scorn with which all the pain that a foe might inflict, could be endured."

With these ennobling traits of mind, devout and thankful to the beneficence of their imaginary deity for casting their lot in a land so replete with fascination and charm, we find the swarms of aborigines occupying the territory herein marked out, with none to molest or to make afraid.

Chalmers estimates the number of warriors who controlled the forest in 1660 under the grand sachemship of the renowned Iroquois, or the Five Nations, at twenty-two hundred.

Bancroft, who saw in the strength of their arms, the prolific tendency of the tribes whose numbers constituted their boast, and the vigorous stamp of the race, puts the number at ten thousand.

The impression which one receives from the writings of James Fenimore Cooper would lead to a belief that the forest could summon many more, and this authority upon Indian history should be taken as supreme, for, whether detailing the individual emotion, or the collective capacity of the rulers of the forest, Cooper stands proof against criticism. This assertion is a broad one, and well calculated to draw fire; but the reply is sufficient to silence all, if guaged with the keen pre

cision with which every thought of that eminent writer, whether in description of a forest tree, or the animate subject who made his couch upon its leaves, is most happily inspired, and charmingly accurate.

The advent of the white man into the region comprised in the two prominent valleys, seems to be taken for granted by nearly every historian of Wyoming. It is claimed that Count Zinzendorf, of Saxony, who, in 1742, sought the forests for missionary purposes, was the only white man who had at that time, ever beheld the beauties of this romantic section. Tradition, only, seems to be the authority, upon which writers assume to promulgate this fact. That Zinzendorf was the first distinguished personage who had claims upon the historian cannot be doubted, but, that he was the first white man who visited the Delawares, cannot admit of proof, for this tribe was for years previous in lingual communication with white adventurers and famous hunters, whose exploits were handed down by tradition from the earlier settlements of the Delawares, before their dislodgment by more powerful tribes, and their emigration farther down the Susquehanna.

But, while the pale faced hunter may have for years encountered the high-strung, yet hospitable Delaware, in the forests, and the results may, not have had any perceptible influence upon the general advancement of civilization, yet Zinzendorf in his appearance, brought the first tangible idea of permanent location, by way of coming as a missionary and teacher, from light to darkness, to sow for a harvest.

The Delawares had enjoyed at one time an almost paramount supremacy over the upper waters of the Susquehanna, and the grandeur of the noble red man was never more fully developed than when the manners and customs of this particular tribe were feared and respected by adjoining clans. The sudden assumption of power, and the stern exercise of it by the Iroquois, or the Six Confederate Nations, compelled the Delawares to yield to a pressure, which fate, from that time to the present, has unrelentingly administered; and the proud tribe left the narrow vales and beautiful lakes of their ancestors, and settled on THE LARGE PLAINS, a territory new to the taste of a Delaware, but one well cal

culated to be appreciated by the new monarchs, as it has been ever since by all who study the rare beauties of Wyoming.

The modern name of the valley, Wyoming, signifies in its earlier interpretation, the name which the Indians gave to it viz: THE LARGE PLAINS, or in the original language, Maughwauwame. Maughwau, large, wame, plains. The earliest white settlers, including the German missionaries pronounced, M'chweuwami, but the encroaching elements which swelled the Valley with new ideas as well as numbers, rendered the name Wauwaumie, from thence the cadence was softened to Wiawaumie, which still retained the pure and romantic Indian sweetness; but from this the anglicising sternness of speech, destroyed the native melody by pronouncing the word Wiomie, and a later tendency to soften brings it to us as Wyoming-a name which is suggestive the world over, of romance and fact, beauty and horror, fascinating traditions and wonderful feats of modern enterprise.

The Susquehanna river at this point, as if wearied with its wild and reckless flow in the head waters, betrays an anxiety to move along at ease, as if the enchanting valley was the most desirable point at which it could refresh itself with the charms of nature before it rushes in majesty to the sea to be forever in commotion with strange and uncongenial waters.

The lowlands of the valley inundate at highwater, but in the summer season, when nature's loveliness seems enraptured with its own elegance, the soft green landscape along the river, and stretching away from mountain to mountain. on either side of the winding stream, is one which it would be hard to match under the sun.

This broad expanse of plain, so unusual in a mountainous country, and where the river is comparatively but a thread, induced another name in Indian history for this coveted spot. The Six Nations whose prowess was called to action before the white man could recline in security under his own vine and fig-tree, named Wyoming, Sgahontowano, or THE LARGE FLATS, Gahanto, according to Chapman's History of Wyoming, meaning in the tongue of the Iroquois,— a large piece of ground without trees.

This definition is a peculiarly happy one in

understanding the original forest aspect of the valley, and lends an enchantment to former scenes, which the present generation must forever be deprived of. The development of mineral wealth has marred the face of this beautiful country, and the mammoth undertakings of corporations necessitate the obliteration of many spots of historic interest. Yet, the general contour, the smiling perspective, and unmolested nooks, still furnish food for many eager and poetic na

tures.

It is maintained, and praiseworthily adhered to, by Indian relic hunters, and the best delineators of the early savages, that the possession of this paradise has cost many struggles, and the shedding of blood of thousands, over whose graves can be found no trace of whence they came, why they lived, what their destiny, or whither the ultimate end of their fate. The sad epitaph of fragments, scattered in characters over the plain is the only record from which a worshipping posterity can derive inspiration wherewith to glorify their obscure deeds.

Stone, an enthusiastic admirer of the Indian race, and the biographer of Brant-Thayendanegea in commenting on the earlier ages of Wyoming, adds:

"The possession of this valley has not been an object of the white man's ambition or cupidity alone. It has been the subject of controversy, and the fierce battle-ground of various Indian tribes, within the white man's time, but before his possession; and from the remains of fortifications discovered there, so ancient that the largest oaks and pines have struck root upon the ramparts and in the intrenchments, it must once have been the seat of power, and perhaps of a splendid court, thronged by chivalry, and taste, and beauty-of a race of men far different from the Indians, known to us since the discovery of Columbus."

Chapman, in his History of Wyoming, describes in a graphic manner, which signalizes his work a masterly production, his own research, being the labor which he required to satisfy his own conclusions. He calls attention to the fact that the remains of fortifications which are found, appear to have been constructed by a race of people very different in their habits from those who

occupied the place when first discovered by the whites. The one upon which this early historian dwells most at length, was situated in the township of Kingston, but as late as 1817, the time at which it was inspected by Chapman, the prominent features had been entirely obliterated by the operations of agriculture. It was oval or elliptical in form, built upon a level plain on the north side of Toby's Creek, about one hundred and fifty feet from its bank, and about a half a mile from its confluence with the Susquehanna. The plain upon which it stood not abounding in stone, it was of a necessity constructed of earth, in the shape of a mound, the walls of which were uniform on all sides, and seemed to have served the purpose of ramparts, an evidence of much importance in understanding the mode of warfare of this earlier race. The resistance which was necessary to repel an assault must have been induced by a manner of attack different from the tactics of the Indians the continent over. The weapons and instruments of death were mightier in execution beyond a doubt, as upon the outside of the rampart wall, the modern fortification ditch was built with an idea to repulsing any force which might have been brought against the position.

When the white man first appeared in the valley, this special district was in no manner different from the surrounding forests in its primeval aspect, for even upon the ramparts the trees which had gained firm footing were said to have been as large as those in any other part of the valley; one large oak, particularly, upon being cut down, according to Chapman, was ascertained to be seven hundred years old.

The Delawares, Shawanese and Nanticokes, were entirely ignorant as to the purpose for which these fortifications were built, and in none of the collections of Indian history can there be found any traditions concerning them, which of itself, the latter fact, would strongly argue, that this unknown race had no descendants by blood, remaining upon the Susquehanna.

The same historian adds, that "they were, perhaps, erected about the same time with those upon the waters of the Ohio, and probably by a similar people, and for similar purposes."

The Hon. Charles Miner, whose History of