Description
In 1764, a paying public could go and visit the two Mohawk and gawp at their outfits, their wampum belts, tomahawks and other accoutrements””in Bristol and Ireland, and later London. Brought over by the New York entrepreneur Hyam Myers and an interpreter, Lorentz Blessius, they were left in Blessius’s charge for a while””during which time he took them to the Hague and sold Sychnecta for display before they were rescued by a horrified Dutchman. Back in Hyam’s custody, he ignored orders to return them home, instead bringing them back to London where he exhibited them from his lodgings at the Sun Tavern on the Strand. As Thrush notes, the fact that they carried wampum belts suggests a diplomatic purpose, but they clearly did not have the requisite contacts and ended up the centre of a display. Their presence led to the House of Lords declaring an end to the transporting of Natives to England without proper license in 1765. Unlike the PR success of the Cherokee two years earlier, their public display was seen as deeply offensive to the Mohawk when they returned home. We haven’t yet been able to determine either their lodgings or the location of their display, so place them here on Fleet Street, where Mrs Salmon’s Waxworks could be found.
Bibliographic sources
Thrush, Indigenous London, 94; Vaughan, Transatlantic Encounters, 182-186.