



Produced by Roger Burch with scans from the Internet Archive.





{Transcriber's Note: Quotation marks have been standardized to modern
usage. Footnotes have been placed to immediately follow the paragraphs
referencing them. Transcriber's notes are in curly braces; square brackets
and parentheses indicate original content.}

{Illustration: Cover}




                           INDIAN BIOGRAPHY:


                                  OR,

                           AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT
                               OF THOSE
                 INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE BEEN DISTINGUISHED AMONG
                        THE NORTH AMERICAN NATIVES

                                  AS

                       ORATORS, WARRIORS, STATESMEN,
                                 AND
                       OTHER REMARKABLE CHARACTERS.

                              * * * * *

                                  BY
                           B. B. THATCHER, ESQ.

                              * * * * *

                             IN TWO VOLUMES.
                               VOL. I.

                              * * * * *

                              NEW-YORK:

                      PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS,
                          No. 82 CLIFF-STREET

                              * * * * *

                                1836.




   [Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1834, by
   Harper & Brothers in the Clerk's Office of the Southern District
   of New-York.]




                              PREFACE.


The Author does not propose an elaborate explanation, nor an apology of
any kind, for the benefit of the following work. If it absolutely requires
either, he must even be content to have written it in vain, as no
statement or argument can give it any degree of vitality or popularity in
the one case or in the other.

He has regarded it, historically, as an act of mere Justice to the fame
and the memories of many wise, brilliant, brave and generous
men,--patriots, orators, warriors and statesmen,--who ruled over barbarian
communities, and were indeed themselves barbarians, but whose influence,
eloquence and success of every description were _therefore_ but the nobler
objects of admiration and the worthier subjects for record. Nor can
Philosophy look upon them without predilection. Comparatively
unopinionated and unaffected as they were,--governed by impulse and guided
by native sense,--owing little to circumstances, and struggling much
amidst and against them,--their situation was the best possible for
developing both genius and principle, and their education at the sane time
the best for disclosing them. Their Lives, then, should illustrate the
true constitution of man. They should have, above all other history, the
praise and the interest of "philosophy teaching, by example."

The strictly moral inducements which have operated on the Author's mind,
must be too obvious to require dissertation. We owe, and our Fathers owed,
too much to the Indians,--too much from man to man,--too much from race to
race,--to deny them the poor restitution of historical justice at least,
however the issue may have been or may be with themselves. Nor need it be
suggested, that selfishness alone might dictate the policy of a collection
such as the Author has endeavored to make this, were it only for the
collateral light which it constantly throws on the history and biography of
our own nation.

Nothing of the same character is before the public. What may be called an
Indian Biographical Dictionary has indeed recently appeared, and to that
the Author has gladly referred in the course of his researches; but the
extreme difficulty of doing justice to any individuals of the race, and at
the same time to _all,_ may be inferred from the fact that the writer
alluded to has noticed such men as Uncas in some six or eight lines, while
he has wholly omitted characters so important as Buckongahelas, White-eyes,
Pipe, and Occonoetota. On these, and on all their more eminent countrymen,
the Author has intended to bestow the notice they deserve, by passing over
the vast multitude distinguished only by detached anecdote, or described
only in general terms.

In fine, conscious of many imperfections, but also conscious of a strenuous
exertion to render them as few and small as might be, the Author submits
the Biography to the public, and especially to the candor of those whose
own labors, if not the results of them, have shown them the essential
fallibility of every composition like this. He will have reason to be
satisfied if it do good, as he will assuredly be gratified if it give
pleasure.

Boston, Sept. 10, 1832.




                              CONTENTS


 CHAP. I.--The Indian tribes of Virginia at the date of the Jamestown
  settlement; their names, numbers and power--The Powhatan
  confederacy--The Indian Village of that name--Powhatan--The
  circumstances of the first interview between him and the
  English--Opechancanough, his brother--Opitchipan--Reception of Captain
  Smith by Powhatan--Interposition of Pocahontas in his favor--Second
  visit of the colonists--Third visit, and coronation--Entertainment of
  Smith by Pocahontas--Contest of ingenuity between Powhatan and Smith;
  and between the latter and Opechancanough--Smith saved again by
  Pocahontas--Political manoeuvres of Powhatan and Opechancanough--Smith's
  return to Jamestown.

                                                                    page 9


 CHAP. II.--Conduct of Powhatan after Smith's departure for England, and
  causes of it--Hostilities resumed--Peace finally effected by the capture
  of Pocahontas--Manner of gaining this point--Marriage of Pocahontas with
  John Rolfe--Death and character of Powhatan--His person, manner of
  living, talents, influence. His method and means of warfare--The
  discipline of his warriors--The manner in which he availed himself of
  the English arms and science--Causes of his hostility towards the
  colonists--His dignity--Shrewdness--Independence--Courtesy--Liberality--
  Simplicity--Affection for his relatives--A review of various opinions
  entertained of him by various historians.

                                                                        40


 CHAP. III.--The family of Powhatan--His successor--Sequel of the history
  of Pocahontas--Her acts of kindness to the colonists at various times,
  and especially to Smith--His gratitude--Her civilisation, and
  instruction in Christianity--Her visit to England in 1616