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On Monday March 4th 1765 the Gazetteer and New
Daily Advertiser published an advertisement for the public
exhibition of two Mohawks who were in London at the time. The ad
focussed principally on the ‘savage’ and war-like
nature of the visitors.
To the Public: There is to be seen at
the Sun Tavern facing York Buildings in the Strand two
INDIAN WARRIORS of the MOHAWK NATION. The one is the
brother of the noted Capt. Jacobs, a famous warrior, who
has done many exploits in the late wars in America in the
English interest. The above are personally known to many
gentlemen, officers now in town. They wear their country
dress, with belts of Wampum, likewise tomahawks, scalping
knives, Bows, Arrows and other things too tedious to be
mentioned. To be seen from ten in the morning ‘til
six in the evening, each person to pay one shilling.
This advertisement presented the public with a very different
Native American from those who featured in the newspapers of
1710. These were not men of political business, but were in town
principally to be viewed by the public, and their advertised
connections were military, not political or religious. The
ferocity of these ‘Indian Warriors’ was mediated in two
distinct ways. First, it was made explicitly clear that these men
were loyal to the crown, being related to ‘the noted Capt.
Jacobs, a famous warrior, who has done many exploits in the late
wars in America in the English interest.’ Second, the
advertisers came as close as they dared to providing personal
references for their charges, noting that ‘the above are
personally known to many gentlemen, officers now in town.’
Both of these strategies were designed to moderate the savagery
of Sychnecta and Trosrogha without undermining their exoticism.
Hyam Meyers, the organizer of the Mohawks’ voyage to London,
and John Schuppe, the proprietor of the Sun Tavern, had no desire
to undercut their profits by scaring potential customers away.
Details were provided in abundance in order to make these
‘safe’ Native Americans sufficiently exotic to be worth
a look. Except for the weapons and the belts of wampum that they
used to signal war, the other objects brought by the Mohawks were
‘too tedious to be mentioned.’ The list of fearsome
weapons, deliberately presented to attract the attention of the
curious reader, included ‘tomahawks, scalping knives, Bows
[and] Arrows.’ The military power and potential of these
visitors was emphasized in order to increase public interest in
the exhibition. In contrast to the political, cultural or
artistic focus of newspaper articles that circulated in 1710,
articles relating to visits later in the eighteenth century were
preoccupied with the martial skill of the Native American. The
primary focus of British military effort in 1710 was a war in
mainland Europe, and the whole purpose of the visit that year was
to increase the significance of peripheral military issues in the
colonies. By the time of Sychnecta’s visit in 1764 at the
end of the Seven Years War and Joseph Brant’s visits during
a decade of revolutionary upheaval in the colonies, military
operations in North America were very much in the public eye, and
it was the military rather than political or diplomatic power of
the Native American visitor which served to capture the attention
of the British public.
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Last revised: February 19th, 2004.
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