observed, "When the Dutch came here, above a hundred years ago, we were so well pleased with them that we tied their ship to the bushes on the shore; and afterwards liking them better the longer they stayed with us, and thinking the bushes too slender, we removed the rope and tied it to the trees; and as the trees were liable to be blown down, or to decay of themselves, we, from the affection that we bore them, again removed the rope, and tied it to a strong and high rock (here the interpreter said they mean the Oneido country); and not content with this, for its further security, we removed the rope to the big mountain (here the interpreter said, they mean the Onondaga country), and there we tied it very fast, and rolled wampum about it, and to make it still more secure, we stood upon the wampum, and sat down upon it to defend it, and to prevent any hurt coming to it, and did our best endeavours that it might remain for ever. During all this time the Dutch acknowledged our right to the lands, and solicited us from time to time, to grant them parts of our country. When the English governor came to Albany, and we were told the Dutch and English were become one people, the governor looked at the rope which tied the ship to the big mountain, and seeing that it was only of wampum and liable to rot, break, and perish in a course of years, he gave us a silver chain, which he told us would be much stronger, and would last for ever.
"We had then," said they pathetically, "room enough and plenty of deer, which was easily caught; and though we had not knives, hatchets, or guns, we had knives of stone, and hatchets of stone, and bows and arrows, which answered our purpose as well as
