October-1997
1747 Abenaki Letter from Fort No.2
In the spring of 1747 (during King George's War) many raids where made along the Connecticut River. Fort No. 2 at Westmoreland was one of many that came into the hands of "the enemy" at this time. We have the following document dictated by several Indians (most likely Abenaki) in control of Fort No. 2 on April 1, 1747, and addressed to the General Assembly.
Gentlemen: Whereas there have been very grievous complaints in the province of ___ with respect to ye support and maintenance of your frontiers in a time of war, we your allies while the peace lasted and so long as we received presents from you; but now as we allways are in time of war subjects to the King of France,
have undertaken to free you from such an extraordinary charge by killing and taking captive the people and driving them off and firing their fortificaton. And so successful have we been in this affair that we have broke up almost all the new settlements in your western frontiers: so yt you need not be half the charge you were in past in maintaining a war in these parts.
For now there are but little else besides the old towns, and if they will not fortifie and defend themselves, we think they ought to be left to our mercy.
And for this good service that we have done the province, we humbly ask a suitable reward; but if your honours prefer we will wait till a peace is concluded and than receive it in presents.
But in the mean time if some small matter of encouragement be given us we will go on to bring your frontiers to a narrower compass still and make your charges still smaller.
But if your honours approve of this our design we humbly request of you to give us information whither it be more acceptable to you that we man your deserted garrisons our selves and eat up the provisions
which your poor distrest neighbors leave in ym when they flee in their hurry and confusion or whether we burn up the forts with the provisions; for we assure you we find much more in them than we want for our own support whilst carrying on this busines.
Gentlemen, however some may look upon us now yet we can assure you we are your very humble obsequious servants.
(signed by)
Old Town
Pene wanse
Chee Hoose
Prish Fore English
In the name and behalf of others.
Transcript by Colin Calloway found in "Dawnland Encounters" pg. 164-5. Document is manuscript #423 at Newberry Library, Chicago,
K'chi Wliwni (Great Thanks) to Robert L. Sohm who brought this document to our attention. Robert is researching this document and would like to hear from anyone with information or interest in the people, places, or time period covered by the document. You can correspond with him by e-mail at:BSHOM@aol.com
I LOVE IT ! A fine example of "Native Humor". I would loved to have been a fly on the wall while they composed this letter. I wonder how much rum flowed that day? My personal interpretation is as follows:
Greetings
We are your faithful allies, except, of course, in time of war - the French give us better presents.
We are saving you from the expense of defending your frontier - It no longer exists! You should reward us - with some of that money you are saving. You can pay us now - OR PAY US LATER! We would be happy to help you save for this - by eliminating your remaining towns.
Do you think we should use your forts or burn them? - We don't really need them for defense from your fleeing settlers. Oh, by the way, thanks for the food - there is more than enough to keep us WELL fed while we continue to assist in lowering your cost for defense. Please let us know if we can be of any further service. - - - APRIL FOOLS! - - -
NL
I don't know when April Fools Day was invented, but if it existed in 1747, I'll bet these Abenaki knew about it. Or maybe they invented it!
By the way, are you still wondering where New Englanders got their famous "dry humor" from?
