Note 45 — Chapter I

Russell's Modern Europe, vol. iii., p. 279.

"The justly celebrated Sir William Johnson held an office difficult both to define and execute. He might, indeed, be called the Tribune of the Five Nations; their claims he asserted, their rights he protected, and over their minds he possessed a greater sway than any individual had ever attained. He was an uncommonly tall, well-made man, with a fine countenance, which, moreover, had rather an expression of dignified sedateness, approaching to melancholy. He appeared to be taciturn, never wasting words on matters of no importance, but highly eloquent where the occasion called forth his powers. He possessed intuitive sagacity, and the most entire command of temper and of countenance. He did by no means lose sight of his own interest, but, on the contrary, raised himself to power and wealth in an open and active manner, not disdaining any honorable means of benefiting himself. He built two spacious and convenient places of residence on the Mohawk River, known afterward by the name of Johnson Castle and Johnson Hall. The Hall was his summer residence. Here this singular man lived like a little sovereign; kept an excellent table for strangers and officers, whom the course of their duty now frequently led into these wilds; and by confiding entirely in the Indians, and treating them with unwearied truth and justice, without ever yielding to solicitation that he had once refused, he taught them to repose entire confidence in him. So perfect was his dependence on those people, whom his fortitude and other manly virtues had attached to him, that when they returned from their summer excursions, and exchanged the last years furs for fire-arms, &c., they used to pass a few days at the Castle, when his family and most of his domestics were down at the Hall. There they were all liberally entertained by Sir William; and 500 of them have been known for nights together, after drinking pretty freely, to lie around him on the ground, while he was the only white person in a house containing great quantities of every thing that was to them valuable or desirable. Sir William thus united in his mode of life the calm urbanity of a liberal and extensive trader, with the splendid hospitality, the numerous attendance, and the plain though dignified manners of an ancient baron."—Memoirs of an American Lady, vol. ii., p. 61.

Sir William Johnson was regularly appointed and paid by government as Superintendent of Indian Affairs.