Dutch Minister Describes the Iroquois (1644) [The Rev. John
Megapolensis was a minister at the Dutch church in
Rensselaerwyck in New Netherlands, and he was a missionary to
the Indians.] The principal Nation of all the Savages and
Indians hereabouts with which we are connected, are the
Mahakuaas [Mohawks], who have laid all the other Indians near us
under Contribution. This Nation has a very heavy Language, and I
find great difficulty in learning it so as to speak and preach
to them fluently: there are no Christians who understand the
Language thoroughly; those who have lived here long can hold a
kind of Conversation, just sufficient to carry on Trade, but
they do not understand the Idiom of the Language. I am making a
Vocabulary of the Mahakuaa Language, and when I am among them I
ask them how Things are called - then, as they are very dumb, I
cannot sometimes get an Explanation of what I want. . . . The
Indians in this Country are of much the same Stature with us
Dutchmen; some of them have very good Featur