(O.) — Letter From H. C. van Schaack, Esq. to Henry R. Schoolcraft
Manlius, July 18th, 1845.
Dear Sir: Yours of yesterday from Jamesville is received. Its enclosure is the first intimation I have of having been chosen a corresponding member of the N. Y. Historical Society. I shall be happy to advance the objects of the Society.
I regret that you have not found it convenient to call, I hope you will still conclude to come. In the interim, I am convinced that Mr. C. can advance your objects better than I can; he has read several addresses on these subjects before the Literary Associations here and at Syracuse within two years past.
I have a collection of interesting papers (found among my father’s papers at Kinderhook) relating chiefly to Indian affairs during the first half of the last century in the colony of New-York. These I am arranging, at my leisure, for the purpose of presentation to the N. Y. H. Society. I hope also to be able to send some papers of my father’s which will advance the object of the society in rescuing the Indian names on the east banks of the Hudson from oblivion, and which last I had intended to forward to the Society through you. But I must take my time to effect those objects.
Excuse the haste with which this letter is written, as I have only this moment received your letter, and I do not wish to lose a mail.
Respectfully yours.
Manlius, Nov. 22nd, 1845.
Dear Sir: I forwarded to Mr. Gibbs, the librarian, a few days ago a volume containing various MSS. selected from my father’s papers, relating chiefly to our aboriginal history, and about which I wrote you some time ago. You will find among them the journal of Conrad Weiser, Indian interpreter, giving an account of a visit to the Six Nations in 1745, at which time he accompanied the Senecas to Oswego, on their way to pay a visit to the Governor of Canada. You will also find among the papers, the original minutes of the Grand Council at Albany, in 1745, at which were present commissioners from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New-York, with Governors from several of those States and the Sachems of the Six Nations. I think you will be interested in some of the papers. When I visit Kinderhook again, I hope to be able to make some additions to the contribution I have made to the Society. Many of the old papers relating to land trials, contain matter throwing light upon Indian names of objects and places. I, however, despair of ever seeing anything like a completeness of that description.
Respectfully yours,
H. C. VAN SCHAACK.