Webster f' -'^-y Medicine 
 
 Cumm' iV. ^icineat 
 
 Tutii ^ 
 
V:: 
 
THE 
 
 CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC 
 
 AND THE 
 
 INDIAN WAR 
 
 AFTER 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF CA]S"ADA. 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANCIS PARKJMAN. 
 
 SIXTH EDITION, REVISED, WITH ADDITIONS. 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 
 
 1870. 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by 
 
 FRANCIS PARKMAN, 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON. 
 
TO 
 
 JARED SPARKS, LL.D., 
 
 PRESIDENT OF HARVARD TTNIVERSITY, 
 
 THESE VOLTT3IES ARE DEDICATED 
 
 AS A TESTIMONIAL OF HIGH PERSONAL EEGA.RD, 
 
 AND A TRIBUTE OF RESPECT 
 
 FOR HIS DISTINGUISHED SERVICES TO 
 AMERICAN HISTORY. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE SIXTH EDITION. 
 
 I CHOSE the subject of this book as affording bet- 
 ter opportunities than any other portion of Ameri- 
 can history for portraying forest Hfe and the Indian 
 character ; and I have never seen reason to change 
 this opinion. In the nineteen years that have 
 passed since the first edition was pubhshed, a con- 
 siderable amount of additional material has come 
 to light. This has been carefully collected, and is 
 incorporated in the present edition. The most 
 interesting portion of this new material has been 
 supplied by the Bouquet and Haldimand Papers, 
 added some years ago to the manuscript collections 
 of the British Museum. Among them are several 
 hundred letters from officers engaged in the Pontiac 
 war, some official, others personal and fcmiiliar. 
 affording: verv curious illustrations of the events of 
 the day and of the characters of those engaged in 
 them. Among the facts which they bring to hght, 
 some are sufficiently startling ; as, for example, the 
 proposal of the Commander-in-Chief to infect the 
 
viil PREFACE. 
 
 hostile tribes with the small-pox, and that of a dis- 
 tinguished subordinate officer to take revenge on 
 the Indians by permitting an unrestricted sale of 
 rum. 
 
 The two volumes of the present edition have 
 been made uniform with those of the series '' France 
 and England in North America." I hope to con- 
 tinue that series to the period of the extinction of 
 French power on this continent. " The Conspiracy 
 of Pontiac " will then form a sequel ; and its intro- 
 ductory chapters will be, in a certain sense, a sum- 
 mary of what has preceded. This will involve 
 some repetition in the beginning of the book, but I 
 have nevertheless thought it best to let it remain 
 as originally written. 
 
 Boston, 16 September, 1870. 
 
TPvEFACE 
 
 TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 The conquest of Canada was an event of moment- 
 ous consequence in American history. It changed 
 the political aspect of the continent, prepared a 
 way for the independence of the British colonies, 
 rescued the vast tracts of the interior from the rule 
 of military despotism, and gave them, eventually, 
 to the keeping of an ordered democracy. Yet to 
 the red natives of the soil its results were wholly 
 disastrous. Could the French have maintained 
 their ground, the ruin of the Indian tribes might 
 long have been postponed ; but the victory of Que- 
 bec was the signal of their swift decline. Thence- 
 forth they were destined to melt and vanish before 
 the advancing waves of Anglo-American power, 
 which now rolled westward unchecked and unop- 
 posed. They saw the danger, and, led by a great 
 and daring champion, struggled fiercely to avert it. 
 The history of that epoch, crowded as it is with 
 scenes of tragic interest, with marvels of suffering 
 and vicissitude, of heroism and endurance, has been, 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 as yet, unwritten, buried in the archives of govern- 
 ments, or among the obscurer records of private 
 adventure. To rescue it from obhvion is the object 
 of the following work. It aims to portray the 
 American forest and the American Indian at the 
 period when both received their final doom. 
 
 It is evident that other study than that of the 
 closet is indispensable to success in such an attempt. 
 Habits of early reading had greatly aided to pre- 
 pare me for the task ; but necessary knowledge of 
 a more practical kind has been supplied by the 
 indulgence of a strong natural taste, which, at 
 various intervals, led me to the wild regions of the 
 north and west. Here, by the camp-fire, or in the 
 canoe, I gained familiar acquaintance with the men 
 and scenery of the wilderness. In 1846, I visited 
 various primitive tribes of the Rocky Mountains, 
 and was, for a time, domesticated in a village of 
 the western Dahcotah, on the high plains between 
 Mount Laramie and the range of the Medicine 
 Bow. 
 
 The most troublesome part of the task was the 
 collection of the necessary documents. These con- 
 sisted of letters, journals, reports, and despatches, 
 scattered among numerous public ofiices, and pri- 
 vate families, in Europe and America. When 
 brought together, they amounted to about three 
 thousand four hundred manuscript pages. Con- 
 temporary newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XI 
 
 have also been examined, and careful search made 
 for every book which, directly or indirectly, might 
 throw light upon the subject. I have visited the 
 sites of all the principal events recorded in the 
 narrative, and gathered such local traditions as 
 seemed worthy of confidence. 
 
 I am indebted to the liberality of Hon. Lewis 
 Cass for a curious collection of papers relating to 
 the siege of Detroit by the Indians. Other impor- 
 tant contributions have been obtained from the 
 state paper offices of London and Paris, from the 
 archives of New York, Pennsylvania, and other 
 states, and from the manuscript collections of sev- 
 eral historical societies. The late William L. Stone, 
 Esq., commenced an elaborate biography of Sir 
 William Johnson, which it is much to be lamented 
 he did not live to complete. By the kindness of 
 Mrs. Stone, I was permitted to copy from his exten- 
 sive collection of documents such portions as would 
 serve the purposes of the following History. 
 
 To President Sparks of Harvard University, Gen- 
 eral Whiting, U. S. A., Brantz Mayer, Esq., of 
 Baltimore, Francis J. Fisher, Esq., of Philadelphia, 
 and Eev. George E. Ellis, of Charlestown, I beg to 
 return a warm acknowledgment for counsel and 
 assistance. Mr. Benjamin Perley Poore and Mr. 
 Henry Stevens procured copies of valuable docu- 
 ments from the archives of Paris and London. 
 Henry E. Schoolcraft, Esq., Dr. Elwyn, of Phila- 
 
XU PREFACE. 
 
 delphia, Dr. O'Callaghan, of Albany, George H. 
 Moore, Esq., of New York, Lyman C. Draper, Esq., 
 of Philadelphia, Judge Law, of Vincennes, and 
 many others, have kindly contributed materials to 
 the work. Nor can I withhold an expression of 
 thanks to the aid so freely rendered in the dull task 
 of proof-reading and correction. 
 
 The crude and promiscuous mass of materials 
 presented an aspect by no means inviting. The 
 field of the history was uncultured and unreclaimed, 
 and the labor that awaited me was like that of the 
 border settler, who, before he builds his rugged 
 dwelling, must fell the forest- trees, burn the under- 
 growth, clear the ground, and hew the fallen trunks 
 to due proportion. 
 
 Several obstacles have retarded the progress of 
 the work. Of these, one of the most considerable 
 was the condition of my sight. For about three 
 years, the light of day was insupportable, and every 
 attempt at reading or writing completely debarred. 
 Under these circumstances, the task of sifting the 
 materials and composing the work was begun and 
 finished. The papers were repeatedly read aloud 
 by an amanuensis, copious notes and extracts were 
 made, and the narrative written down from my dic- 
 tation. This process, though extremely slow and 
 laborious, was not without its advantages ; and I 
 am well convinced that the authorities have been 
 even more minutely examined, more scrupulously 
 
PREFACE. xiii 
 
 collated, and more thoroughly digested, than they 
 would have been under ordinary drcumstances. 
 
 In order to escape the tedious circumlocution, 
 which, from the nature of the subject, could not 
 otherwise have been avoided, the name English is 
 applied, throughout the volume, to the British 
 American colonists, as well as to the people of the 
 mother country. The necessity is somewhat to be 
 regretted, since, even at an early period, clear dis- 
 tinctions were visible between the offshoot and the 
 parent stock. 
 
 Boston, August 1, 1851. 
 
CONTENTS OF VOL. L 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Introductory. — Indian Tribes East of the Mississippi. 
 
 General Characteristics. — Tribal Divisions. — Mode of Government. 
 
 — Social Harmony. — The Totem. — Classification of Tribes. — 
 The Iroquois. — Their Position and Character. — Their PoUt- 
 ical Organization. — Traditions of their Confederacy. — Their 
 Myths and Legends. — Their Eloquence and Sagacity. — Arts 
 
 — Agriculture. — Their Dwellings, Villages, and Forts. — Their 
 Winter Life. — The War Path. — Festivals and Pastimes. — 
 Pride of the Iroquois. — The Hurons or Wyandots. — Their 
 Customs and Character. — Their Dispersion. — The Neutral 
 Nation. Its Fate. — The Eries and Andastes. — Triumphs of 
 the Confederacy. — The Adoption of Prisoners. — The Tusca- 
 roras. — Superiority of the Iroquois Race. — The Algonquins. 
 
 — The Lenni Lenape. — Their changing Fortunes. — The 
 Shawanoes. — The Miamis and the Illinois. — The Ojibwas, 
 Pottawattamies, and Ottawas. — The Sacs and Foxes. — The 
 Menomonies and Knisteneaux. — Customs of the Northern 
 Algonquins. — Their Summer and Winter Life. — Legends of 
 the Algonquins. — Religious Faith of the Indians. — The Indian 
 Character. — Its Inconsistencies. — Its Ruling Passions. — '■ 
 Pride. — Hero-worship. — Coldness, Jealousy, Suspicion. — Self- 
 control. — Intellectual Traits. — Inflexibility. — Generous 
 Qualities 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 1663-1763. 
 
 France and England in America. 
 
 Contrast of French and English Colonies. — Feudalism in Canada. 
 
 — Priests and Monks. — Puritanism and Democracy in New- 
 England. — French Life in Canada. — Military Strength of 
 Canada. — Rehgious Zeal. — Missions — The Jesuits. — Brebeuf 
 
XVI CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 and Lallemant. — Martyrdom of Jogues. — Results of the Mis- 
 sions. — French Explorers. — La Salle. — His Plan of Discovery. 
 — His Sufferings — His Heroism. — He discovers the Mouth of 
 the Mississippi. — Louisiana. — France in the West. — Growth 
 of English Colonies. — Approaching Collision 46 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1608-1763. 
 
 The French, the English, and the Indians. 
 
 Champlain defeats the Iroquois. — The Iroquois Wars. — Misery of 
 Canada. — Expedition of Frontenac. — Success of the French. 
 — French Influence in the West. — La Verandrye. — The Eng- 
 lish Fur-trade. — Protestant and Romish Missions. — The 
 English and the Iroquois. — Policy of the French. — The 
 Frenchman in the Wigwam. — Coureurs des Bois. — The White 
 Savage. — The English Fur-trader. — William Penn and his 
 Eulogists. — The Indians and the Quakers. — Injustice of Penn's 
 Successors. — The Walking Purchase. — Speech of Canassa- 
 tego. — Removal of the Delawares. — Intrusion of Settlers. — 
 Success of French Intrigues. — Father Picquet. — Sir Wil- 
 liam Johnson. — Position of Parties 65 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1700-1755. 
 
 Collision op the Rival Colonies. 
 
 The Puritan and the Canadian. — Fort Frederic. — Acadia. — The 
 French on the Ohio. — Mission of Washington. — Trent driven 
 from the Ohio. — Death of Jumonville. — Skirmish at the 
 Great Meadows. — Alarm of the Indians. — Congress at Al- 
 bany. — French and English Diplomacy. — Braddock and 
 Dieskau. — Naval Engagement. — 'The War in Europe and 
 America. — Braddock in Virginia. — March of his Army. — 
 Beaujeu at Fort du Quesne. — Ambuscade at the Monon- 
 gahela. — Rout of Braddock. — Its Consequences. — Acadia, 
 Niagara, and Crown Point. — Battle of Lake George. — Prose- 
 cution of the War. — Oswego — Fort William Henry. — Storm- 
 ing of Ticonderoga. — State of Canada. — Plans for its Reduc- 
 tion. — Progress of the English Arms. — Wolfe before Quebec. 
 Assault at Montmorenci. — Heroism of Wolfe. — The Heights 
 of Abraham. — Battle of Quebec. — Death of Wolfe. — Death 
 of Montcalm. — Surrender of Quebec. — Fall of Canada ... 95 
 
CONTENTS OF VOL. I. Xvii 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1755-.1763. 
 
 The Wilderness and its Tenants at the Close of the 
 French War. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sufferings of the Frontier. — Treaties with the Western Tribes. — 
 Christian Frederic Post. — The Iroquois. — The remote Tribes. 
 
 — The Forest. — Indian Population. — Condition of the Tribes. 
 
 — Onondaga. — The Delawares and neighboring Tribes. — 
 Their Habits and Condition. — The Shawanoes, JNIianiis, 
 Illinois, and Wyandots. — English Settlements. — Forest 
 Thoroughfares. — Fur-traders — Their Habits and Character. — 
 The Forest Traveller. — The French at the Illinois. — Military 
 Life in the Forest. — The Savage and the European. — Hunt- 
 ers and Trappers. — Civilization and Barbarism 142 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 1760. 
 The English take Possession of the Western Posts. 
 
 The victorious Armies at Montreal. — Major Robert Rogers. — His 
 Expedition up tlie Lakes. — His Meeting witli Pontiac. — Am- 
 bitious Views of Pontiac. — He befriends the English. — The 
 English take Possession of Detroit. — Of other French Posts. — 
 British Power Predominant in the West 161 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 1760-1763. 
 Anger of the Indians. — The Conspiracy 
 
 Discontent of the Tribes. — Impolitic Course of the English. — Dis- 
 orders of the Fur-trade. — Military Insolence. — Intrusion of 
 Settlers. — French Intrigue. — The Delaware Prophet. — An 
 abortive Plot. — Pontiac's Conspiracy. — Character of Pontiac. 
 
 — Gloomy Prospects of the Indian Race. — Designs of Pontiac. 
 
 — His War Messengers. — Tribes engaged in the Conspiracy. 
 
 — Dissimulation of the Indians. — The War-belt among the 
 Miamis ' ^'^^ 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 1763. 
 
 Indian Preparation. 
 
 The Indians as a military People. — Their inefficient Organization. 
 -— Their insubordinate Spirit. — Their Improvidence. — Policy 
 6 
 
XVm CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 of the Indian Leaders. — Difficulties of Forest Warfare. — 
 Defenceless Condition of the Colonies. — The Peace of Paris. — 
 Roj'al Proclamation. — The War-chief His Fasts and Vigils. 
 
 — The War-feast. — The War-dance. — Departure of the War- 
 riors. — The Bursting of the Storm 191 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1763, April. 
 
 The Council at the River Ecorces. 
 
 Pontiac musters his Warriors. — They assemble at the River 
 Ecorces. — The Council. — Speech of Pontiac. — Allegory of 
 the Delaware. — The Council dissolves. — Calumet Dance at 
 Detroit. — Plan to surprise the Garrison 200 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 1763, May. 
 
 Detroit. 
 
 Strange Phenomenon. — Origin and History of Detroit. — Its Con- 
 dition in 1763. — Character of its Inhabitants. — French Life 
 at Detroit. — The Fort and Garrison. — Pontiac at Isle a la 
 Peche. — Suspicious Conduct of the Indians. — Catharine, the 
 Ojibwa Girl. — She reveals the Plot. — Precautions of the Com- 
 mandant. — A Night of Anxiety 212 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 1763. 
 
 Treachery of Pontiac. 
 
 The Morning of the Council. — Pontiac enters the Fort. — Address 
 and Courage of the Commandant. — The Plot defeated. — The 
 Chiefs suffered to escape. — Indian Idea of Honor. — Pontiac 
 again visits the Fort. — False Alarm. — Pontiac throws oflf the 
 Mask. — Ferocity of his Warriors. — The Ottawas cross the 
 River. — Fate of Davers and Robertson. — General Attack. — 
 A Truce. — Major Campbell's Embassy. — He is made Pris- 
 oner by Pontiac , . . 223 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 1763. 
 Pontiac at the Siege of Detroit. 
 
 The Christian Wyandots join Pontiac. — Peril of the Garrison. — 
 
 — Indian Courage. — The English threatened with Famine. — 
 
CONTENTS OF VOL. I. XIX 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Pontiac's Council with the French. — His Speech. — He exacts 
 Provision from the French. — He appoints Commissaries. — He 
 issues Promissory Notes. — His Acuteness and Sagacity. — His 
 Authority over his Followers. — His Magnanimity 243 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 1763. 
 
 Rout op Cutler's Detachment. — Fate of the Forest 
 Garrisons. 
 
 Re-enforcement sent to Detroit. — Attack on the Schooner. — Relief 
 at Hand. — Disappointment of the Garrison. — Escape of Pris- 
 oners. — Cuyler's Defeat. — Indian Debauch. — Fate of the 
 Captives. — Capture of Fort Sandusky. — Strength of the 
 Besiegers. — Capture of Fort St. Joseph. — Capture of Fort 
 Michillimackinac. — Capture of Fort Ouatanon. — Capture of 
 Fort Miami. — Defence of Fort Presqu' Isle. — Its Capture . 260 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 1763. 
 
 The Indians continue to blockade Detroit. 
 
 Attack on the Armed Vessel. — News of the Treaty of Paris. — 
 Pontiac summons the Garrison. — Council at the Ottawa Camp. 
 
 — Disappointment of Pontiac. — He is joined by the Coureurs 
 de Bois. — Sortie of the Garrison. — Death of Major Campbell. 
 
 — Attack on Pontiac's Camp. — Fire Rafts. — The Wyandots 
 
 and Pottawattamies beg for Peace 287 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 1763. 
 
 The Fight of Bloody Bridge. 
 
 Dalzell's Detachment. — Dalzell reaches Detroit. — Stratagem of 
 the Wyandots. — Night Attack on Pontiac's Camp. — Indian 
 Ambuscade. — Retreat of the English. — Terror of Dalzell's 
 Troops. — Death of Dalzell. —Defence of Campau's House.— 
 Grant conducts the Retreat. — Exultation of the Indians. — 
 Defence of the Schooner Gladwyn 305 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 1763. 
 
 Michillimackinac. 
 
 The Voyager on the Lakes. — Michillimackinac in 1763. — 
 Green Bay and Ste. Marie. — The Northern Wilderness.— 
 
XX CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Tribes of the Lakes. — Adventures of a Trader. — Speech of 
 Minavavana. — Arrival of English Troops. — Disposition of the 
 Indians. — The Ojibwa War-chief. — Ambassadors from Pon- 
 tiac. — Sinister Designs of the Ojibwas. — Warnings of Danger. 
 
 — Wawatam. — Eve of the Massacre 322 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL 
 
 1763. 
 
 The Massacre. 
 
 The King's Birthday. — Heedlessness of the Garrison. — Indian 
 Ball-play. — The Stratagem. — Slaughter of the Soldiers. — ' 
 Escape of Alexander Henry. — His appalling Situation, — His 
 Hiding-place discovered. — Survivors of the Massacre. — Plan 
 of retaking the Fort. — Adventures of Henry. — Unexpected 
 Behavior of the Ottavvas. — They take Possession of the Fort. 
 
 — Their Council with the Ojibwas. — Henry and his Fellow- 
 prisoners. — He is rescued by Wawatam. — Cannibalism. — 
 Panic among the Conquerors. — They retire to Mackinaw. — 
 The Island of Mackinaw. — Indian Carouse. — Famine among 
 the Indians. — They disperse to their Wintering Grounds. — 
 Green Bay. The neighboring Tribes. — Gorell. His Address 
 and Prudence. — He conciliates the Indians. — He abandons 
 Green Bay. — The English driven from the Upper Lakes . . 338 
 
THE 
 
 CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. — INDIAN TRIBES EAST OF THE 
 MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 The Indian is a true .child of the forest and the 
 desert. The wastes and solitudes of nature are his 
 congenial home. His haughty mind is imbued 
 with the spirit of the wilderness, and the light of 
 civilization falls on him with a blighting power. 
 His unruly pride and untamed freedom are in har- 
 mony with the lonely mountains, cataracts, and 
 rivers among w^hich he dwells; and primitive 
 America, with her savage scenery and savage men, 
 opens to the imagination a boundless world, un- 
 matched in wild sublimity. 
 
 The Indians east of the Mississippi may be di- 
 vided into several great families, each distinguished 
 by a radical peculiarity of language. In their 
 moral and intellectual, their social and political 
 state, these various families exhibit strong shades 
 
 1 
 
2 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 of distinction ; but, before pointing them out, I 
 shall indicate a few prominent characteristics, 
 which, faintly or distinctly, mark the whole in com- 
 mon. 
 
 All are alike a race of hunters, sustaining life 
 wholly, or in part, by the fruits of the chase. Each 
 family is split into tribes ; and these tribes, by the 
 exigencies of the hunter life, are again divided 
 into sub-tribes, bands, or villages, often scattered 
 far asunder, over a wide extent of wilderness. 
 Unhappily for the strength and harmony of the 
 Indian race, each tribe is prone to regard itself, 
 not as the member of a great whole, but as a sov- 
 ereign and independent nation, often arrogating to 
 itself an importance superior to all the rest of man- 
 kind ; ^ and the warrior whose petty horde might 
 muster a few scores of half-starved fighting men, 
 strikes his hand upon his heart, and exclaims, in 
 all the pride of patriotism, " I am a Menomoner 
 
 In an Indian community, each man is his own 
 master. He abhors restraint, and owns no other au- 
 thority than his own capricious will ; and yet this 
 wild notion of liberty is not inconsistent with certain 
 gradations of rank and influence. Each tribe has 
 its sachem, or civil chief, whose oflice is in a man- 
 ner hereditary, and, among many, though by no 
 means among all tribes, descends in the female 
 line ; so that the brother of the incumbent, or the 
 son of his sister, and not his own son, is the right- 
 
 1 Many Indian tribes bear names which in their dialect signify men, 
 indicating that the cliaracter belongs, par excellence, to them. Sometimes 
 the word was used by itself, and sometimes an adjective was joined with 
 it, as original men, men surpassing all others. 
 
Chap. I.] ORGANIZATION. 3 
 
 ful successor to his dignities.^ If, however, in the 
 opinion of the old men and subordinate chiefs, the 
 heir should be disqualified for the exercise of the 
 office by cowardice, incapacity, or any defect of 
 character, they do not scruple to discard him, and 
 elect another in his place, usually fixing their 
 choice on one of his relatives. The office of the 
 sachem is no enviable one. He has neither laws 
 to administer nor power to enforce his commands. 
 His counsellors are the inferior chiefs and principal 
 men of the tribe ; and he never sets himself in 
 opposition to the popular will, which is the sover- 
 eign power of these savage democracies. His 
 province is to advise, and not to dictate ; but, should 
 he be a man of energy, talent, and address, and 
 especially should he be supported by numerous 
 relatives and friends, he may often acquire no small 
 measure of respect and power. A clear distinc- 
 tion is drawn between the civil and military author- 
 ity, though both are often united in the same per- 
 son. The functions of war-chief may, for the most 
 part, be exercised by any one whose prowess and 
 reputation are sufficient to induce the young men 
 to follow him to battle ; and he may, whenever he 
 thinks proper, raise a band of volunteers, and go 
 out against the common enemy. 
 
 We might imagine that a society so loosely 
 framed would soon resolve itself into anarchy ; yet 
 this is not the case, and an Indian village is singu- 
 
 1 The dread of female infidelity has been assigned, and with probable 
 truth, as the origin of this custom. The sons of a chief's sister must ne- 
 cessarily be his kindred ; though his own reputed son may be, in fact, the 
 offspring of another. 
 
4 INDIAN TKIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 larly free from wranglings and petty strife. Sev- 
 eral causes conspire to this result. The necessities 
 of the hunter life, preventing the accumulation of 
 large communities, make more stringent organiza- 
 tion needless ; while a species of self-control, 
 inculcated from childhood upon every individual, 
 enforced by a sentiment of dignity and manhood, 
 and greatly aided by the peculiar temperament of 
 the race, tends strongly to the promotion of har- 
 mony. Though he owns no law, the Indian is 
 inflexible in his adherence to ancient usages and 
 customs ; and the principle of hero-worship, which 
 belongs to his nature, inspires him with deep re- 
 spect for the sages and captains of his tribe. The 
 very rudeness of his condition, and the absence of 
 the passions which wealth, luxury, and the other 
 incidents of civilization engender, are favorable to 
 internal harmony ; and to the same cause must 
 likewise be ascribed too many of his virtues, which 
 would quickly vanish, were he elevated from his 
 savage state. 
 
 A peculiar social institution exists among the 
 Indians, very curious in its character ; and though 
 I am not prepared to say that it may be traced 
 through all the tribes east of the Mississippi, yet 
 its prevalence is so general, and its influence on 
 political relations so important, as to claim especial 
 attention. Indian communities, independently of 
 their local distribution into tribes, bands, and vil- 
 lages, are composed of several distinct clans. Each 
 clan has its emblem, consisting of the figure of 
 some bird, beast, or reptile ; and each is distin- 
 
Chap. I.] TOTEMS. 5 
 
 guished by the name of the animal which it thus 
 bears as its device; as, for example, the clan of 
 the Wolf, the Deer, the Otter, or the Hawk. In 
 the language of the Algonquins, these emblems 
 are known by the name of Totems} The mem- 
 bers of the same clan, being connected, or supposed 
 to be so, by ties of kindred, more or less remote, 
 are prohibited from intermarriage. Thus Wolf 
 cannot marry Wolf ; but he may, if he chooses, 
 take a wife from the clan of Hawks, or any other 
 clan but his own. It follows that when this pro- 
 hibition is rigidly observed, no single clan can live 
 apart from the rest ; but the whole must be min- 
 gled together, and in every family the husband and 
 wife must be of different clans. 
 
 To different totems attach different degrees of 
 rank and dignity ; and those of the Bear, the Tor- 
 toise, and the Wolf are among the first in honor. 
 Each man is proud of his badge, jealously asserting 
 its claims to respect; and the members of the 
 same clan, though they may, perhaps, speak differ- 
 ent dialects, and dwell far asunder, are yet bound 
 together by the closest ties of fraternity. If a 
 man is killed, every member of the clan feels called 
 
 1 Schoolcraft, Oneota, 172. 
 
 The extraordmary figures intended to represent tortoises, deer, snakes, 
 and other animals, which are often seen appended to Indian treaties, are 
 the totems of the chiefs, who employ these devices of their respective 
 clans as their sign manual. The device of his clan is also sometimes tat- 
 toed on the body of the warrior. 
 
 The word tribe might, perhaps, have been employed with as much pro- 
 priety as that of clan, to indicate the totemic division ; but as the former 
 is constantly employed to represent the local or poUtical divisions of the 
 Indian race, hopeless confusion would arise fi-om using it in a double 
 capacity. 
 
b INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 upon to avenge him ; and the wayfarer, the hunter, 
 or the warrior is sure of a cordial welcome in the 
 distant lodge of the clansman whose face perhaps 
 he has never seen. It may be added that certain 
 privileges, highly prized as hereditary rights, some- 
 times reside in particular clans ; such as that of 
 furnishing a sachem to the tribe, or of performing 
 certain religious ceremonies or magic rites. 
 
 The Indians east of the Mississippi may be di- 
 vided into three great families : the Iroquois, the 
 Algonquin, and the Mobilian, each speaking a lan- 
 guage of its own, varied by numerous dialectic 
 forms. To these families must be added a few 
 stragglers from the great western race of the Dah- 
 cotah, besides several distinct tribes of the south, 
 each of which has been regarded as speaking a 
 tongue peculiar to itself.^ The Mobilian group 
 (embraces the motley confederacy of the Creeks, 
 the crafty Choctaws, and the stanch and warlike 
 Chickasaws. Of these, and of the distinct tribes 
 dwelling in their vicinity, or within their limits, I 
 shall only observe that they offer, with many mod- 
 ifications, and under different aspects, the same 
 essential features which mark the Iroquois and 
 the Algon quins, the two great families of the 
 north.^ The latter, who were the conspicuous 
 
 1 For an ample view of these divisions, see the Synopsis of Mr. Gal- 
 latin, Trans. Am. Ant. Soc. II. 
 
 2 It appears from several passages in the writings of Adair, Hawkins, 
 and others, that the totem prevailed among the southern tribes. In a 
 conversation with the late Albert Gallatin, he informed me that he was 
 told by the chiefs of a Choctaw deputation, at Washington, that in their 
 tribe were eight totemic clans, divided into two classes, of four each. 
 It is very remarkable that the same number of clans, and the same di- 
 vision into classes, were to be found among the Five Nations or Iroquois. 
 
Chap. I.] THE IROQUOIS. i 
 
 actors in the events of the ensuing narrative, de- 
 mand a closer attention. 
 
 THE IROQUOIS FAMILY. 
 
 Foremost in war, foremost in eloquence, foremost 
 in their savage arts of policy, stood the fierce peo- 
 ple called by themselves the Hodenosaunee, and 
 by the French the Iroquois, a name which has 
 since been applied to the entire family of which 
 they formed the dominant member.^ They extend- 
 ed their conquests and their depredations from 
 Quebec to the Carolinas, and from the western 
 prairies to the forests of Maine.^ On the south, 
 they forced tribute from the subjugated Delawares, 
 and pierced the mountain fastnesses of the Chero- 
 
 1 A great difficulty in the study of Indian history arises from a redun- 
 dancy ofnames employed to designate the same tnbe ; yet this does not 
 
 nee A;uanu!cio,;i, Aggonnonshioni. Ongwe Honwe, Meogwe, Ma.uas, 
 Mahaquase, Massawomecs, Palenachendch.esktajeet. 
 
 The name of Massawomecs has been apphed to several "l^**" ■»*='] 
 of Mingoes is often restricted toa colony of the Iroquo.s which estahUshed 
 
 ""■fFrrncors^^lUknown Indian belonging to the remnant of the Pe- 
 nobsc!;:rng at Old Town> Maine, told me mt.s^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 that a tradition was cm-rent, among ins P^^t^thm MoTo-st a tribe of 
 ancient times by the Mohawks, or, as - f "^"l^* ^^ ,"„; „,„ ,„<, 
 the Iroquois, who destroyed one of *'='' ™'^''';' , hke apples, before 
 
 with great wrath and earnestness, '' Mohog all devil. 
 
8 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 kees with incessant forays.^ On the north, they 
 uprooted the ancient settlements of the Wyandots ; 
 on the west they exterminated the Eries and the 
 Andastes, and spread havoc and dismay among 
 the tribes of the Illinois ; and on the east, the 
 Indians of New England fled at the first peal of 
 the Mohawk war-cry. Nor was it the Indian race 
 alone who quailed before their ferocious valor. 
 All Canada shook with the fury of their onset; 
 the people fled to the forts for refuge ; the blood- 
 besmeared conquerors roamed like wolves among 
 the burning settlements, and the colony trembled 
 on the brink of ruin. 
 
 The Iroquois in some measure owed their tri- 
 umphs to the position of their country ; for they 
 dwelt within the present limits of the State of New 
 York, whence several great rivers and the inland 
 oceans of the northern lakes opened ready thorough- 
 fares to their roving warriors through all the adja- 
 cent wilderness. But the true fountain of their 
 success is to be sought in their own inherent ener- 
 gies, wrought to the most effective action under a 
 political fabric well suited to the Indian life ; in 
 their mental and moral organization ; in their in- 
 satiable ambition and restless ferocity. 
 
 In their scheme of government, as in their social 
 
 1 The tribute exacted from the Delawares consisted of wampum, or 
 beads of shell, an article of inestimable value with the Indians. " Two 
 old men commonly go about, eA^ery year or two, to receive this tribute ; 
 and I have often had opportunity to observe what anxiety the poor In- 
 dians were under, while these two old men remained in that part of the 
 country where I was. An old Mohawk sachem, in a poor blanket and a 
 dirty shirt, may be seen issuing his orders with as arbitrary an authorit}'' 
 as a Roman dictator." — Golden, Hist. Five Nations, 4. 
 
Chap. L] THE IROQUOIS. 9 
 
 customs and religious observances, the Iroquois dis- 
 played, in full symmetry and matured strength, the 
 same characteristics which in other tribes are found 
 distorted, withered, decayed to the root, or, perhaps, 
 faintly visible in an imperfect germ. They con- 
 sisted of five tribes or nations — the Mohawks, the 
 Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Sen- 
 ecas, to whom a sixth, the Tuscaroras. was after- 
 wards added.-^ To each of these tribes belonged 
 an organization of its own. Each had several 
 sachems, who, with the subordinate chiefs and 
 principal men, regulated all its internal affairs ; 
 but, when foreign powers were to be treated with, 
 or matters involving the whole confederacy re- 
 quired deliberation, all the sachems of the several 
 tribes convened in general assembly at the great 
 council-house, in the Valley of Onondaga. Here 
 ambassadors were received, aUiances were adjusted, 
 and all subjects of general interest discussed with 
 exemplary harmony.^ The order of debate was 
 
 1 The following are synonymous names, gathered from various 
 writers : — 
 
 MohaAvks, Anies, Agniers, Agnierrhonons, Sankhicans, Canungas, 
 Mauguawogs, Ganeagaonoh, 
 
 Oneidas, Oneotas, Onoyats, Anoyints, Onneiouts, Oneyyotecaronoh, 
 Onoiochrhonons. 
 
 Onondagas, Onnontagues, Onondagaonohs. 
 
 Cayugas, Caiyoquos, Goiogoens, Gweugwehonoh. 
 
 Senecas, Sinnikes, Chennessies, Genesees, Chenandoanes, Tsonnon- 
 touans, Jenontowauos, Nundawaronoh. 
 
 2 " In the year 1745, August Gottlieb Spangenburg, a bishop of the 
 United Bretlu-en, spent several weeks in Onondaga, and frequently at- 
 tended tlie great council. The council-house was built of bark. On each 
 side six seats were placed, each containing six persons. No one was ad- 
 mitted besides the members of the council, except a few, who were par- 
 ticularly honored. If one rose to speak, aU the rest sat in profound 
 
10 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 prescribed by time-honored customs ; and, in the 
 fiercest heat of controversy, the assembly main- 
 tained its self-control. 
 
 But the main stay of Iroquois polity was the 
 system of totemshij:). It was this which gave the 
 structure its elastic strength ; and but for this, a 
 mere confederacy of jealous and warlike tribes 
 must soon have been rent asunder by shocks from 
 without or discord from within, xit some early 
 period, the Iroquois probably formed an individual 
 nation ; for the whole people, irrespective of their 
 separation into tribes, consisted of eight totemic 
 clans ; and the members of each clan, to what 
 nation soever they belonged, were mutually bound 
 to one another by those close ties of fraternity 
 which mark this singular institution. Thus the 
 five nations of the confederacy were laced together 
 by an eight-fold band ; and to this hour their slen- 
 der remnants cling to one another with invincible 
 tenacity. 
 
 It was no small security to the liberties of the 
 Iroquois — liberties w^hich they valued beyond any 
 
 silence, smoking their pipes. The speaker uttered his words in a singing 
 tone, always rising a few notes at the close of each sentence. Whatever 
 was pleasing to the council was confirmed b}'- all with the word Nee, or 
 Yes. And, at the end of each speech, the whole company joined in ap- 
 plauding the speaker by calling Hoho. At noon, two men entered bearing 
 a large kettle filled with meat, upon a pole across their shoulders, which 
 was first presented to the guests. A large wooden ladle, as broad and 
 deep as a common bowl, hung with a hook to the side of the kettle, with 
 which every one might at once help himself to as much as he could eat. 
 When the guests had eaten their fill, they begged the counsellors to do 
 the same. The whole was conducted in a very decent and quiet manner. 
 Indeed, now and then, one or the other would lie flat upon his back to rest 
 himself, and sometimes they would stop, joke, and laugh heartily." — 
 Loskiel, Hist. Morav. Miss. 138. 
 
Chap. I.] THE IROQUOIS. H 
 
 Other possession — that by the Indian custom of 
 descent in the female line, which among them was 
 more rigidly adhered to than elsewhere, the office 
 of the sachem must pass, not to his son, but to his 
 brother, his sister's son, or some yet remoter kins- 
 man. His power was constantly deflected into the 
 collateral branches of his family ; and thus one of 
 the strongest temptations of ambition was cut off.^ 
 The Iroquois had no laws ; but they had ancient 
 customs which took the place of laws. Each man, 
 or rather, each clan, was the avenger of its own 
 wrongs ; but the manner of the retaliation was 
 faed by established usage. The tribal sachems, 
 and even the great council at Onondaga, had no 
 power to compel the execution of their decrees ; 
 yet they were looked up to with a respect which 
 the soldier's bayonet or the sheriff's staff would 
 never have commanded ; and it is highly to the 
 
 i The descent of the sachem ship in the female hne was a custom 
 universally prevalent among the Five Nations, or Iroquois proper. Since, 
 among Indian tribes generally, the right of furnishing a sachem was 
 vested in some particular totemic clan, it results of course that the descent 
 of the sachemsliip must follow the descent of the totem ; that is, if the 
 totemship descend in the female line, the sachemship must do the same. 
 This custom of descent in the female line prevailed not only among the 
 Iroquois proper, but also among the Wyandots, and probably among the 
 Andastes and the Eries, extinct members of the great Iroquois family. 
 Thus, among any of these tribes, when a Wolf warrior married a Hawk 
 squaw, their children were Hawks, and not Wolves. With the Creeks 
 of the south, according to the observations of Hawkins ( Georgia Hist. 
 Coll. HI. 69), the rule was the same ; but among the Algonquins, on the 
 contrary, or at least among the northern branches of this family, the 
 reverse took place, the totemships, and consequently the chieftainships, 
 descending in the male line, after the analogy of civilized nations. For 
 this information concerning the northern Algonquins, I am indebted to 
 IVIr. Schoolcraft, whose opportunities of observation among these tribes 
 have surpassed those of any other student of Indian customs and char- 
 acter. 
 
12 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 honor of the Indian character that they could 
 exert so great an authority where there was 
 nothing to enforce it but the w^eight of moral 
 power.^ 
 
 The origin of the Iroquois is lost in hopeless 
 obscurity. That they came from tlie west; that 
 they came from the north ; that they sprang from 
 the soil of New York, are the testimonies of three 
 conflicting traditions, all equally worthless as aids 
 to historic inquiry.^ It is at the era of their con- 
 federacy — the event to which the five tribes owed 
 all their greatness and power, and to which we 
 need assign no remoter date than that of a century 
 before the first arrival of the Dutch in New York 
 — that faint rays of light begin to pierce the 
 gloom, and the chaotic traditions of the earlier 
 epoch mould themselves into forms more palpable 
 and distinct. 
 
 Taounyawatha, the God of the Waters — such is 
 the belief of the Iroquois — descended to the earth 
 
 1 An account of the political institutions of the Iroquois will be found 
 in Mr. Moi-gan's series of letters, published in the American Review for 
 1847. Valuable information may also be obtained from Schoolcraft's Notes 
 on the Iroquois. 
 
 Mr. Morgan is of opinion that these institutions were the result of " a 
 protracted effort of legislation." An examination of the customs prevail- 
 ing among other Indian tribes makes it probable that the elements of the 
 Iroquois poUty existed among them from an indefinite antiquity ; and the 
 legislation of which Mr. Morgan speaks could only involve the arrange- 
 ment and adjustment of already existing materials. 
 
 Since the above chapter was written, Mr. Morgan has published an 
 elaborate and very able work on the institutions of the Iroquois. It forms 
 an invaluable addition to this department of knowledge. 
 
 2 Recorded by Heckewelder, Golden, and Schoolcraft. That the Iro- 
 quois had long dwelt on the spot where they were first discovered by the 
 whites, is rendered probable by several circumstances. See Mr. Squier's 
 work on the Aboriginal Monuments of New York, 
 
Chap. I.] ATOTARIIO. 13 
 
 to instruct his favorite people in the arts of savage 
 life; and when he saw how they were tormented by 
 giants, monsters, and evil spirits, he urged the divi- 
 ded tribes, for the common defence, to band them- 
 selves together in an everlasting league. While 
 the injunction was as yet unfulfilled, the sacred 
 messenger was recalled to the Great Spirit; but, 
 before his departure, he promised that another 
 should appear, empowered to instruct the people in 
 all that pertained to their confederation. And ac 
 cordingly, as a band of Mohawk warriors was 
 threading the funereal labyrinth of an ancient pine 
 forest, they heard, amid its blackest depths, a hoarse 
 voice chanting in measured cadence ; and, following 
 the sound, they saw, seated among the trees, a mon- 
 ster so hideous, that they stood benumbed with ter- 
 ror. His features were wild and frightful. He was 
 encompassed by hissing rattlesnakes, which, Medu- 
 sa-like, hung writhing from his head ; and on the 
 ground around him were strewn implements of in- 
 cantation, ai,id magic vessels formed of human skulls. 
 Eecovering from their amazement, the warriors could 
 perceive that in the mystic words of the chant, which 
 he still poured forth, were couched the laws and 
 principles of the destined confederacy. The tradi- 
 tion further declares that the monster, being sur- 
 rounded and captured, was presently transformed 
 to human shape, that he became a chief of tran- 
 scendent wisdom and prowess, and to the day of his 
 death ruled the councils of the now united tribes. 
 To this hour the presiding sachem of the council at 
 
14 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 Onondaga inherits from him the honored name of 
 Atotarho.^ 
 
 The traditional epoch which preceded the auspi- 
 cious event of the confederacy, though wrapped in 
 clovids and darkness, and defying historic scrutiny, 
 has yet a character and meaning of its own. The 
 gloom is peopled thick with phantoms ; with mon- 
 sters and prodigies, shapes of wild enormity, yet 
 offering, in the Teutonic strength of their concep- 
 tion, the evidence of a robustness of mind unpar- 
 alleled among tribes of a different lineage. In 
 these evil days, the scattered and divided Iroquois 
 were beset with every form of peril and disaster. 
 Giants, cased in armor of stone, descended on them 
 from the mountains of the north. Huge beasts 
 trampled down their forests like fields of grass. 
 Human heads, with streaming hair and glaring eye- 
 balls, shot through the air like meteors, shedding 
 pestilence ai^d death throughout the land. A great 
 horned serpent rose from Lake Ontario ; and only 
 the thunder-bolts of the skies could stay his rava- 
 ges, and drive him back to his native deeps. The 
 skeletons of men, victims of some monster of the 
 forest, were seen swdmming in the Lake of Teungk- 
 too ; and around the Seneca village on the Hill of 
 Genundewah, a two-headed serpent coiled himself, 
 of size so monstrous that the wretched people were 
 unable to ascend his scaly sides, and perished in 
 
 1 This preposterous legend was first briefly related in the pamphlet of 
 Cusick, the Tuscarora, and after him by Mr. Schoolcraft, in his Notes 
 The cm-ious work of Cusick will again be referred to. 
 
Chap. I.] IROQUOIS LEGENDS. 15 
 
 multitudes by his pestilential breath. Mortally 
 wounded at length by the magic arrow of a child, 
 he rolled down the steep, sweeping away the forest 
 with his writhings, and plunging into the lake be- 
 low, where he lashed the black waters till they 
 boiled with blood and foam, and at length, exhaust- 
 ed with his agony, sank, and perished at the bottom. 
 Under the Falls of Niagara dwelt the Spirit of the 
 Thunder, with his brood of giant sons ; and the 
 Iroquois trembled in their villages when, amid the 
 blackening shadows of the storm, they heard his 
 deep shout roll along the firmament. 
 
 The energy of fancy, whence these barbarous 
 creations drew their birth, displayed itself, at a later 
 period, in that peculiar eloquence which the wild 
 democracy of the Iroquois tended to call forth, and 
 to which the mountain and the forest, the torrent 
 and the storm, lent their stores of noble imagery. 
 That to this imaginative vigor was joined mental 
 power of a different stamp, is witnessed by the caustic 
 irony of Garangula and Sagoyewatha, and no less 
 by the subtle policy, sagacious as it was treacherous, 
 which marked the dealings of the Iroquois with 
 surrounding tribes.^ 
 
 1 For traditions of the Iroquois see Schoolcraft, N.otes, Chap. IX. Cu- 
 sick, History of the Five Nations, and Clark, Hist. Onondaga, I. 
 
 Cusick was an old Tuscarora Indian, who, being disabled by an acci- 
 dent from active occupations, essayed to become the historian of his 
 people, and produced a small pamphlet, written in a language almost 
 unintelligible, and filled with a medley of traditions in which a few grains 
 of truth are inextricably mingled with a tangled mass of absurdities. 
 He relates the monstrous legends of his people with an air of implicit 
 faith, and traces the presiding sachems of the confederacy in regular 
 descent from the first Atotarho downwards. His work, which was printed 
 
16 INDIxVN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 With all this mental superiority, the arts of life 
 among them had not emerged from their primitive 
 rudeness ; and their coarse pottery, their spear and 
 arrow heads of stone, were in no way superior to 
 those of many other tribes. Their agriculture de- 
 serves a higher praise. In 1696, the invading 
 army of Count Frontenac found the maize fields 
 extending a league and a half or two leagues from 
 their villages ; and, in 1779, the troops of General 
 Sullivan were filled with amazement at their abun- 
 dant stores of corn, beans, and squashes, and at 
 the old apple orchards which grew around their 
 settlements. 
 
 Their dwellings and works of defence were far 
 from contemptible, either in their dimensions or in 
 their structure ; and though by the several attacks 
 of the French, and especially by the invasion of 
 De Nonville, in 1687, and of Frontenac, nine years 
 later, their fortified towns were levelled to the earth, 
 never again to reappear ; yet, in the works of C iam- 
 plain and other early writers we find abundant evi- 
 dence of theii' pristine condition. Along the banks 
 of the Mohawk, among the hills and hollows of 
 Onondaga, in the forests of Oneida and Ca uga, 
 on the romantic shores of Seneca Lake and the 
 rich borders of the Genessee, surrounded by waving 
 maize fields, and encircled from afar by the green 
 margin of the forest, stood the ancient strongholds 
 of the confederacy. The clustering dwellings were 
 
 at the Tuscarora village, near Lewiston, in 1828, is illustrated bj several 
 rude engravings representing the Stone Giants, the Flying Heads, and 
 other traditional monsters. 
 
Chap. I.] IROQUOIS DWELLINGS. 17 
 
 encompassed by palisades, in single, double, or triple 
 rows, pierced with loopholes, furnished with plat- 
 forms within, for the convenience of the defenders, 
 with magazines of stones to hurl upon the heads of 
 the enemy, and with water conductors to extinguish 
 any fire which might be kindled from without.^ 
 
 The area which these defences enclosed was often 
 several acres in extent, and the dwellings, ranged in 
 order within, were sometimes more than a hundred 
 feet in length. Posts, firmly driven into the ground, 
 with an intervening framework of poles, formed the 
 basis of the structure; and its sides and arched 
 roof were closely covered with layers of elm bark. 
 Each of the larger dwellings contained several dis- 
 tinct families, whose separate fires were built along 
 the central space, while compartments on each side, 
 like the stalls of a stable, afi'orded some degree of 
 privacy. Here, rude couches were prepared, and 
 bear and deer skins spread ; while above, the 
 ripened ears of maize, suspended in rows, formed 
 a golden tapestry.^ 
 
 1 Lafitau, Mceurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, 11. 4-10. 
 
 Frontenac, in his expedition against the Ouondagas, in 1696 (see Offi- 
 cial Journal, Doc. Hist. New York, I. 332), found one of their villages built 
 in an oblong form, with four bastions. The wall was formed of three 
 rows of pahsades, those of the outer row being forty or fifty feet liigh. 
 The usual figure of the Iroquois villages was circular or oval, and in this 
 instance the bastions were no doubt the suggestion of some European 
 adviser. 
 
 2 Bartram gives the following account of the great council-house at 
 Onondaga, which he visited in 1743 : — 
 
 " We alighted at the council-house, where the chiefs were already 
 assembled to receive us, which they did with a grave, cheerful complai- 
 sance, according to their custom ; they shew'd us where to lay our bag- 
 gage, and repose ourselves during our stay with them ; which was in the 
 two end apartments of this large house. The Indians that came with us 
 
 2 
 
18 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 In the long evenings of midwinter, when in the 
 wilderness without the trees cracked with biting 
 cold, and the forest paths were clogged with snow, 
 then, around the lodge-fires of the Iroquois, war- 
 riors, squaws, and restless naked children were 
 clustered in social groups, each dark face brighten- 
 ing in the fickle firelight, while, with jest and laugh, 
 the pipe passed round from hand to hand. Perhaps 
 some shrivelled old warrior, the story-teller of the 
 tribe, recounted to attentive ears the deeds of an- 
 cient heroism, legends of spirits and monsters, or 
 tales of witches and vampires — superstitions not 
 less rife among this all-believing race, than among 
 the nations of the transatlantic world. 
 
 The life of the Iroquois, though void of those 
 multiplying phases which vary the routine of civil- 
 ized existence, w^as one of sharp excitement and 
 sudden contrast. The chase, the war-path, the 
 
 were placed over against us. This cabin is about eighty "feet long and 
 seventeen broad, the common passage six feet wide, and the apartments 
 on each side five feet, raised a foot above the passage by a long sapling, 
 hewed square, and fitted with joists that go from it to the back of the 
 house ; on these joists they lay large pieces of bark, and on extraordinary 
 occasions spread mats made of rushes : this favor we had ; on these floors 
 they set or lye down, every one as he will ; the apartments are divided 
 from each other by boards or bark, six or seven foot long, from the lower 
 floor to the upper, on which they put their lumber ; when they have eaten 
 their homony, as they set in each apartment before the fire, they can put 
 the bowl over head, having not above five foot to reach ; they set on the 
 floor sometimes at each end, but mostly at one ; they have a shed to put 
 their wood into in the winter, or in the summer to set to converse or 
 play, that has a door to the south ; all the sides and roof of the cabin are 
 made of bark, bound fast to poles set in the ground, and bent round on the 
 top, or set aflatt, for the roof, as we set our rafters ; over each fireplace 
 they leave a hole to let out the smoke, which, in rainy weather, they 
 cover with a piece of bark, and this they can easily reach with a pole to 
 push it on one side or quite over the hole ; after this model are most of 
 their cabins built." — Bartram, Observations, 40. 
 
Chap. I.] IROQUOIS LITE. 19 
 
 dance, the festival, the game of hazard, the race of 
 political ambition, all had their votaries. When 
 the assembled sachems had resolved on war against 
 some foreign tribe, and when, from their great coun- 
 cil-house of bark, in the Valley of Onondaga, their 
 messengers had gone forth to invite the warriors to 
 arms, then from east to west, through the farthest 
 bounds of the confederacy, a thousand warlike 
 hearts caught up the summons. With fasting and 
 praying, and consulting dreams and omens ; with 
 invoking the war-god, and dancing the war-dance, 
 the warriors sought to insure the triumph of their 
 arms ; and then, their rites concluded, they be- 
 gan their stealthy progress through the devious 
 pathways of the forest. For days and weeks, in 
 anxious expectation, the villagers awaited the re- 
 sult. And now, as evening closed, a shrill, wild 
 cry, pealing from afar, over the darkening forest, 
 proclaimed the return of the victorious warriors. 
 The village was alive with sudden commotion ; and 
 snatching sticks and stones, knives and hatchets, 
 men, women, and children, yelling like fiends let 
 loose, swarmed out of the narrow portal, to visit 
 upon the captives a foretaste of the deadlier tor- 
 ments in store for them. The black arches of the 
 forest glowed with the fires of death; and with 
 brandished torch and firebrand the frenzied multi- 
 tude closed around their victim. The pen shrinks 
 to write, the heart sickens to conceive, the fierce- 
 ness of his agony ; yet still, amid the din of his 
 tormentors, rose his clear voice of scorn and defi- 
 ance. The work was done ; the blackened trunk 
 
20 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 was flung to the dogs, and, with clamorous shouts 
 and hootmgs, the murderers sought to drive away 
 the spirit of their victim.^ 
 
 The Iroquois reckoned these barbarities among 
 their most exquisite enjoyments ; and yet they had 
 other sources of pleasure, which made up in fre- 
 quency and in innocence what they lacked in 
 intensity. Each passing season had its feasts and 
 dances, often mingling religion with social pastime. 
 The young had their frolics and merry-makings ; 
 and the old had their no less frequent councils, 
 where conversation and laughter alternated with 
 grave deliberations for the public weal. There 
 were also stated periods marked by the recurrence 
 of momentous ceremonies, in which the whole 
 community took part — the mystic sacrifice of the 
 dogs, the orgies of the dream feast, and the loath- 
 some festival of the exhumation of the dead. Yet 
 in the intervals of war and hunting, these resour- 
 ces would often fail ; and, while the women were 
 toiling in the cornfields, the lazy warriors beguiled 
 
 1 "Being at this place the 17 of June, there came fifty prisoners from 
 the south-westward. They were of two nations, some whereof have few 
 guns ; the other none at all. One nation is about ten days' journey from 
 any Christians, and trade onely with one greatt house, nott farr from the 
 sea, and the other trade onely, as they say, with a black people. This day 
 of them was burnt two women, and a man and a child killed with a stone. 
 Att night we heard a great noyse as if y« houses had all fallen, butt itt 
 was only y^ inhabitants driving away y® ghosts of y« murthered. 
 
 " The 18*^ going to Canagorah, that day there were most cruelly 
 burnt four men, four women and one boy. The cruelty lasted aboutt 
 seven hours. When they were almost dead letting them loose to the 
 mercy of y® boys, and taking the hearts of such as were dead to feast on." 
 — Greenhalgh, Journal, 1677. 
 
CuAP. I.] IROQUOIS POPULATION. 21 
 
 the hours with smokmg or sleeping, with gambling 
 or gallantry.^ 
 
 If we seek for a single trait preeminently char- 
 acteristic of the Iroquois, we shall find it in that 
 boundless pride which impelled them to style them- 
 selves, not inaptly as regards their own race, " the 
 men surpassing all others." ^ " Must I," exclaimed 
 one of their great warriors, as he fell wounded 
 among a crowd of Algonquins, — "must I, who 
 have made the whole earth tremble, now die by 
 the hands of children ? " Their power kept pace 
 with their pride. Their war-parties roamed over 
 half America, and their name was a terror from 
 the Atlantic to the Mississippi ; but, when we ask 
 the numerical strength of the dreaded confederacy, 
 when we discover that, in the days of their greatest 
 triumphs, their united cantons could not have mus- 
 tered four thousand warriors, we stand amazed at 
 the folly and dissension which left so vast a region 
 the prey of a handful of bold marauders. Of the 
 cities and villages now so thickly scattered over the 
 lost domain of the Iroquois, a single one might 
 boast a more numerous population than all the five 
 united tribes.^ 
 
 1 For an account of the habits and customs of the Iroquois, the follow- 
 ing works, besides those already cited, may be referred to : — 
 
 Charlevoix, Letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguieres ; Champlain, Voyages 
 de la Nouv. France ; Clark, Hist. Onondaga, I., and several volumes of the 
 Jesuit Relations, especially those of 1656-1657 and 1659-1660. 
 
 2 This is Colden's translation of the word Ongwehonwe, one of the 
 names of the Iroquois. 
 
 3 La Hontan estimated the Iroquois at from five thousand to seven 
 thousand fighting men ; but his means of information were very imper- 
 fect, and the same may be said of several other French writers, who 
 have overrated the force of the confederacy. In 1677, the English sent 
 
22 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 From this remarkable people, who with all the 
 ferocity of their race blended heroic virtues and 
 marked endowments of intellect, I pass to other 
 members of the same great family, wdiose different 
 fortunes may perhaps be ascribed rather to the 
 force of circumstance, than to any intrinsic inferi- 
 ority. 
 
 The peninsula between the Lakes Huron, Erie, 
 and Ontario was occupied by two distinct peoples, 
 speaking dialects of the Iroquois tongue. The 
 Hurons or Wyandots, including the tribe called by 
 the French the Dionondadies, or Tobacco Nation,^ 
 dwelt among the forests which bordered the east- 
 ern shores of the fresh water sea, to which they 
 have left their name ; while the Neutral Nation, so 
 called from their neutrality in the war between the 
 Hurons and the Five Nations, inhabited the north- 
 ern shores of Lake Erie, and even extended their 
 eastern flank across the strait of Niagara. 
 
 The population of the Hurons has been variously 
 stated at from ten thousand to thirty thousand 
 souls, but probably did not exceed the former esti- 
 
 one Greenhalgh to ascertain their numbers. He visited all their towns 
 and villages, and reported their aggregate force at two thousand one hun- 
 dred and fifty fighting men. The report of Colonel Coursey, agent from 
 Virginia, at about the same period, closely corresponds with this state- 
 ment. Greenhalgh's Journal will be found in Chalmers's Political Annals, 
 and in the Documentary History of New York. Subsequent estimates, up 
 to the period of the Revolution, when their strength had much declined, 
 vary from twelve hundred to two thousand one hundred and twenty. 
 Most of these estimates are given by Clinton, in his Discourse on the Five 
 Nations, and several by Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia. 
 
 1 Hurons, Wyandots, Yendots, Ouendaets, Quatogies. 
 
 The Dionondadies are also designated by the following names : 
 Tionontatez, Petuneux — Nation of Tobacco. 
 
Chap. L] THE HURONS. 23 
 
 mate. The Franciscans and the Jesuits were early 
 among them, and from their descriptions it is ap- 
 parent that, in legends and superstitions, manners 
 and habits, religious observances and social cus- 
 toms, they were closely assimilated to their brethren 
 of the Five Nations. Their capacious dwellings 
 of bark, and their palisaded forts, seemed copied 
 after the same model. ^ Like the Five Nations, 
 they were divided into tribes, and cross-divided into 
 totemic clans ; and, as with them, the office of 
 sachem descended in the female line. The same 
 crude materials of a political fabric were to be 
 found in both ; but, unlike the Iroquois, the Wy- 
 andots had not as yet wrought them into a system, 
 and woven them into a harmonious whole. 
 
 Like the Five Nations, the Wyandots were in 
 some measure an agricultural people ; they bartered 
 the surplus products of their maize fields to sur- 
 rounding tribes, usually receiving fish in exchange ; 
 and this traffic was so considerable, that the Jesuits 
 styled their country the Granary of the Algon- 
 quins.^ 
 
 Their prosperity was rudely broken by the 
 hostilities of the Five Nations ; for though the con- 
 flicting parties were not ill matched in point of 
 numbers, yet the united counsels and ferocious 
 energies of the confederacy swept all before them. 
 In the year 16^9, in the depth of winter, their 
 
 1 See Sagard, Hurons, 115. 
 
 2 Bancroft, in his chapter on the Indians east of the Mississippi, falls 
 into a mistake when he says that no trade was carried on by any of the 
 tribes. For an account of the traffic between the Hurons and Algonquins, 
 see Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 1637, p. 171. 
 
24 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. 1. 
 
 warriors invaded the country of the Wyandots, 
 stormed their largest villages, and involved all 
 within in indiscriminate slaughter.^ The survivors 
 fled in panic terror, and the whole nation was 
 broken and dispersed. 
 
 Some found refuge among the French of Canada, 
 where, at the village of Lorette, near Quebec, their 
 descendants still remain ; others were incorporated 
 with their conquerors ; while others again fled 
 northward, beyond Lake Superior, and sought an 
 asylum among the wastes which bordered on the 
 north-eastern bands of the Dahcotah. Driven back 
 by those fierce bison-hunters, they next established 
 themselves about the outlet of Lake Superior, and 
 the shores and islands in the northern parts of 
 Lake Huron. Thence, about the year 1680, they 
 descended to Detroit, where they formed a per- 
 manent settlement, and where, by their superior 
 valor, capacity, and address, they soon acquired an 
 ascendency over the surrounding Algonquins. 
 
 The ruin of the Neutral Nation followed close 
 on that of the Wyandots, to whom, according to 
 Jesuit authority, they bore an exact resemblance in 
 character and manners.^ The Senecas soon found 
 means to pick a quarrel with them ; they were 
 assailed by all the strength of the insatiable con- 
 federacy, and within a few years their destruction 
 as a nation was complete. 
 
 South of Lake Erie dwelt two members of the 
 
 1 See " Jesuits in North America." 
 
 2 According to Lallemant, the population of the Neutral Nation 
 amounted to at least twelve thousand ; but the estimate is probably 
 exaggerated. — Relation cles Hiirons, 1641, p. 50. 
 
Chap. I.] ANDASTES ; ERIES. 25 
 
 Iroquois family. The Andastes built their fortified 
 villages along the valley of the Lower Susque- 
 hanna ; while the Erigas, or Eries, occupied the 
 borders of the lake which still retains their name. 
 Of these two nations little is known, for the Jesuits 
 had no missions among them, and few traces of 
 them survive beyond their names and the record 
 of their destruction. The war with the Wyandots 
 was scarcely over, when the Five Nations turned 
 their arms against their Erie brethren. 
 
 In the year 1655, using their canoes as scaling 
 ladders, they stormed the Erie stronghold, leaped 
 down like tigers among the defenders, and butch- 
 ered them without mercy.-^ The greater part of 
 the nation was involved in the massacrp, and the 
 remnant was incorporated with the conquerors, or 
 with other tribes, to which they fled for refuge. 
 The ruin of the Andastes came next in turn ; but 
 this brave people fought for twenty years against 
 their inexorable assailants, and their destruction 
 was not consummated until the year 1672, w^hen 
 they shared the fate of the rest.^ 
 
 Thus, within less than a quarter of a century, 
 four nations, the most brave and powerful of the 
 North American savages, sank before the arms of 
 the confederates. Nor did their triumphs end 
 here. Within the same short space they subdued 
 
 1 The Iroquois traditions on this subject, as related to thfe writer by 
 a chief of the Cayugas, do not agree with the narratives of the Jesuits. 
 It is not certain that the Eries were of the Iroquois family. There is 
 some reason to beheve them Algonquins, and possibly identical with the 
 Shawanoes. 
 
 2 Charlevoix, Nouvelle France, I. 443. 
 
26 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 their southern neighbors the Lenape/ the leading 
 members of the Algonquin family, and expelled 
 the Ottawas, a numerous people of the same lin- 
 eage, from the borders of the river which bears 
 their name. In the north, the west, and the south, 
 their conquests embraced every adjacent tribe ; and 
 meanwhile their war parties were harassing the 
 French of Canada with reiterated inroads, and 
 yelling the war-whoop under the walls of Quebec. 
 They were the worst of conquerors. Inordinate 
 pride, the lust of blood and dominion, were the 
 mainsprings of their warfare ; and their victories 
 were stained with every excess of savage passion. 
 That their triumphs must have cost them dear ; 
 that, in spite of their cautious tactics, these multi- 
 plied conflicts must have greatly abridged their 
 strength, would appear inevitable. Their losses 
 were, in fact, considerable ; but every breach was 
 repaired by means of a practice to which they, in 
 common with other tribes, constantly adhered. 
 When their vengeance was glutted by the sacrifice 
 of a sufficient number of captives, they spared the 
 lives of the remainder, and adopted them as mem- 
 bers of their confederated tiibes, separating wives 
 from husbands, and children from parents, and dis- 
 tributing them among different villages, in order 
 that old ties and associations might be more com- 
 pletely broken up. This policy is said to have 
 been designated among them by a name which 
 signifies " flesh cut into pieces and scattered among 
 the tribes." 
 
 1 Gallatin places the final subjection of the Lenape at about the year 
 1750 — a printer's error for 1650. — Synopsis, 48. 
 
Chap. I] IROQUOIS FAMILY. 27 
 
 In the years 1714-15, the confederacy received 
 a great accession of strength. Southwards, about 
 the headwaters of the rivers Neuse and Tar, and 
 separated from their kindred tribes by intervening 
 Algonquin communities, dwelt the Tuscaroras, a 
 warlike people belonging to the generic stock of 
 the Iroquois. The WTongs inflicted by white set- 
 tlers, and their own undistinguishing vengeance, 
 involved them in a war wdth the colonists, which 
 resulted in their defeat and expulsion. They emi- 
 grated to the Five Nations, whose allies they had 
 been in former wars with southern tribes, and who 
 now gladly received them, admitting them as a 
 sixth nation, into their confederacy. 
 
 It is a remark of Gallatin, that, in their career 
 of conquest, the Five Nations encountered more 
 stubborn resistance from the tribes of their own 
 family, than from those of a different lineage. In 
 truth, all the scions of this warlike stock seem 
 endued with singular vitality and force, and among 
 them we must seek for the best type of the Indian 
 character. Few tribes could match them in prow^- 
 ess, constancy, moral energy, or intellectual vigor. 
 The Jesuits remarked that they were more intelli- 
 gent, yet less tractable, than other savages ; and 
 Charlevoix observes that, though the Algonquins 
 were readily converted, they made but fickle prose- 
 lytes ; while the Hurons, though not easily w^on 
 over to the church, were far more faithful in their 
 adherence.^ Of this tribe, the Hurons or Wyan- 
 dots, a candid and experienced observer declares, 
 
 1 Nouvelk France, I. 196. 
 
28 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 that of .all the Indians with -whom he was conver- 
 sant, they alone held it disgraceful to turn from the 
 face of an enemy when the fortunes of the fight 
 were adverse.^ 
 
 Besides these inherent qualities, the tribes of the 
 Iroquois race derived great advantages from their 
 superior social organization. They were all, more 
 or less, tillers of the soil, and were thus enabled 
 to concentrate a more numerous population than 
 the scattered tribes who live by the chase alone. In 
 their well-peopled and well-constructed villages, 
 they dwelt together the greater part of the year; 
 and thence the religious rites and social and po- 
 litical usages, which elsewhere existed only in the 
 germ, attained among them a full development. 
 Yet these advantages were not without alloy, and 
 the Jesuits were not slow to remark that the sta- 
 tionary and thriving Iroquois were more loose in 
 their observance of social ties, than the wandering 
 and starving savages of the north.^ 
 
 THE ALGONQUIN FAMH^Y. 
 
 Except the detached nation of the Tuscaroras, 
 and a few smaller tribes adhering to them, the Iro- 
 quois family was confined to the region south of 
 the Lakes Erie and Ontario, and the peninsula east 
 
 1 William Henry Harrison, Discourse on the Aborigines of the Ohio. See 
 Ohio Hist. Trans. Part Second, I. 257. 
 
 2 " Here y^^ Indyans were very desirous to see us ride our horses, w^h 
 wee did : they made great feasts and dancing, and invited us y* when all 
 y« maides were together, both wee and our Indyans might choose such as 
 lyked us to ly with." — Greenhalgh, Journal. 
 
Chap. I.] ALGONQUINS. 29 
 
 of Lake Huron. They formed, as it were, an 
 island in the vast expanse of Algonquin population, 
 extending from Hudson's Bay on the north to the 
 Carolinas on the south ; from the Atlantic on the 
 east to the Mississippi and Lake Winnipeg on the 
 west. They were Algonquins who greeted Jacques 
 Cartier, as his ships ascended the St. Lawrence. 
 The first British colonists found savages of the 
 same race hunting and fishing along the coasts and 
 inlets of Virginia; and it was the daughter of an 
 Algonquin chief who interceded with her father 
 for the life of the adventurous Englishman. They 
 were Algonquins who, under Sassacus the Pequot, 
 and Philip of Mount Hope, waged war against 
 the Puritans of New England; who dwelt at 
 Penacook, under the rule of the great magician, 
 Passaconaway, and trembled before the evil spirits 
 of the White Hills ; and who sang aves and told 
 their beads in the forest chapel of Father Rasles, 
 by the banks of the Kennebec. They were Algon- 
 quins who, under the great tree at Kensington, 
 made the covenant of peace with William Penn ; 
 and when French Jesuits and fur-traders explored 
 the Wabash and the Ohio, they found their val- 
 leys tenanted by the same far-extended race. At 
 the present day, the traveller, perchance, may find 
 them pitching their bark lodges along the beach 
 at Mackinaw, spearing fish among the rapids of 
 St. Mary's, or skimming the waves of Lake Supe- 
 rior in their birch canoes. 
 
 Of all the members of the Algonquin family, 
 those called by the English the Dela wares, by the 
 
30 " INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 French the Loups, and by themselves Lenni Le- 
 nape, or Original Men, hold the first claim to 
 attention ; for their traditions declare them to be 
 the parent stem whence other Algonquin tribes Jhave 
 sprung. The latter recognized the claim, and, at 
 all solemn councils, accorded to the ancestral tribe 
 the title of Grandfather.^ 
 
 The first European colonists found the conical 
 lodges of the Lenape clustered in frequent groups 
 about the waters of the Delaware and its tributary 
 streams, within the present limits of New Jersey, 
 and Eastern Pennsylvania. The nation was sepa- 
 rated into three divisions, and three sachems formed 
 a triumvirate, who, with the council of old men, 
 regulated all its affairs.^ They were, in some small 
 measure, an agricultural people ; but fishing and 
 the chase were their chief dependence, and through 
 a great part of the year they were scattered abroad, 
 among forests and streams, in search of sustenance. 
 
 When WilUam Penn held his far-famed council 
 with the sachems of the Lenape, he extended the 
 hand of brotherhood to a people as unwarlike in 
 their habits as his own pacific followers. This is 
 by no means to be ascribed to any inborn love of 
 peace. The Lenape were then in a state of degrad- 
 ing vassalage to the Five Nations, who, that they 
 might drain to the dregs the cup of humiliation, 
 
 1 The Lenape, on their part, call the other Algonquin tribes Children, 
 Grandchildren, Nephews, or Younger Brothers ; but they confess the 
 superiority of the Wyandots and the Five Nations, by yielding them the 
 title of Uncles. They, in return, call the Lenape Nephews, or more fre- 
 quently Cousins. 
 
 2 Loskiel, Part I. 130. 
 
Chap. I.J DELA WARES. 31 
 
 had forced them to assume the name of Women, 
 and forego the use of arms.^ DweUing under the 
 shadow of the tyrannical confederacy, they were 
 long unable to Avipe out the blot ; but at length, 
 pushed from their ancient seats by the encroach- 
 ments of white men, and removed westward, par- 
 tially beyond the reach of their conquerors, their 
 native spirit began to revive, and they assumed a 
 tone of defiance. During the Old French War 
 they resumed the use of arms, and while the Five 
 Nations fought for the English, they espoused the 
 cause of France. At the opening of the Ee volu- 
 tion, they boldly asserted their freedom from the 
 yoke of their conquerors ; and a few years after, 
 the Five Nations confessed, at a public council, that 
 the Lenape were no longer women, but men.^ 
 Ever since that period, they have stood in high 
 repute for bravery, generosity, and all the savage 
 virtues ; and the settlers of the frontier have often 
 found, to their cost, that the loomen of the Iroquois 
 have been transformed into a race of formidable 
 warriors. At the present day, the small remnant 
 settled beyond the Mississippi are among the bravest 
 marauders of the west. Their war-parties pierce the 
 farthest wilds of the Eocky Mountains ; and the 
 
 1 The story told by the Lenape themselves, and recorded with the 
 utmost good faith by Loskiel and Heckewelder, that the Five Nations 
 had not conquered them, but, by a cunning artifice, had cheated them 
 into subjection, is wholly unworthy of credit. It is not to be believed that 
 a people so acute and suspicious could be the dupes of so palpable a trick ; 
 and it is equally incredible that a high-spirited tribe could be induced, by 
 the most persuasive rhetoric, to assume the name of Women, which in 
 Indian eyes is the last confession of abject abasement. 
 
 2 Heckewelder, Hist. Ind. Nat. 53. 
 
32 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. L 
 
 prairie traveller may sometimes meet the Delaware 
 warrior returning from a successful foray, a gaudy 
 handkerchief bound about his brows, his snake 
 locks fluttering in the wind, and his rifle resting 
 across his saddle-bow, while the tarnished and 
 begrimed equipments of his half-wild horse bear 
 witness that the rider has waylaid and plundered 
 some Mexican cavalier. 
 
 Adjacent to the Lenape, and associated with them 
 in some of the most notable passages of their his- 
 tory, dwelt the Shawanoes, the Chaouanons of the 
 French, a tribe of bold, roving, and adventurous 
 spirit. Their eccentric wanderings, their sudden 
 appearances and disappearances, perplex the anti- 
 quary, and defy research ; but from various scat- 
 tered notices, we may gather that at an early 
 period they occupied the valley of the Ohio ; that, 
 becoming embroiled with the Five Nations, they 
 shared the defeat of the Andastes, and about the 
 year 1672 fled to escape destruction. Some found 
 an asylum in the country of the Lenape, where 
 they lived tenants at will of the Five Nations ; 
 others sought refuge in the Carolinas and Florida, 
 where, true to their native instincts, they soon came 
 to blows with the owners of the soil. Agam, turn- 
 ing northwards, they formed new settlements in the 
 valley of the Ohio, where they were now suffered 
 to dwell in peace, and where, at a later period, they 
 were joined by such of their brethren as had found 
 refuge among the Lenape.^ 
 
 1 The evidence concerning the movements of the Shawanoes is well 
 Bummed up by Gallatin, Synopsis, 65. See also Drake, Life of Tecumseh, 10 
 
Chap. I.] ILLINOIS. 33 
 
 Of the tribes which, single and detached, or co- 
 hering in loose confederacies, dwelt within the 
 limits of Lower Canada, Acadia, and New England, 
 it is needless to speak ; for they offered no distinc- 
 tive traits demanding notice. Passing the country 
 of the Lenape and the Shawanoes, and descending 
 the Ohio, the traveller would have found its valley 
 chiefly occupied by two nations, the Miamis or 
 Twightwees, on the AVabash and its branches, and 
 the Illinois, who dwelt in the neighborhood of the 
 river to which they have given their name, while 
 portions of them extended beyond the Mississippi. 
 Though never subjugated, as were the Lenape, both 
 the Miamis and the Illinois were reduced to the last' 
 extremity by the repeated attacks of the Five Na- 
 tions ; and the Illinois, in particular, suffered so 
 much by these and other wars, that the population 
 of ten or twelve thousand, ascribed to them by the 
 early French writers, had dwindled, during the first 
 quarter of the eighteenth century, to a few small 
 villages.^ According to Marest, they were a people 
 sunk in sloth and licentiousness ; but that priestly 
 father had sujffered much at their hands, and viewed 
 them with a jaundiced eye. Their agriculture was 
 not contemptible ; they had permanent dwellings 
 as well as portable lodges ; and though wandering 
 through many months of the year among their 
 broad prairies and forests, there were seasons when 
 their whole population was gathered, with feastings 
 
 1 Father Rasles, 1723, says that there were eleven. Marest, in 1712, 
 found only three. 
 
 3 
 
34 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 and merry-making, within the limits of their vil- 
 lages. 
 
 Turning his course northward, traversing Lakes 
 Michigan and Superior, and skirting the western 
 margin of Lake Huron, the voyager would have 
 found the solitudes of the wild waste around him 
 broken by scattered lodges of the Ojibwas, Potta- 
 wattamies, and Ottawas. About the bays and rivers 
 west of Lake Michigan, he would have seen the 
 Sacs, the Foxes, and the Menomonies ; and pene- 
 trating the frozen wilderness of the north, he would 
 have been welcomed by the rude hospitality of the 
 wandering Crees or Knisteneaux. 
 
 The Ojibwas, with their kindred, the Pottawatta- 
 mies, and their friends the Ottawas, — the latter of 
 whom were fugitives from the eastward, whence 
 they had fled from the wrath of the L'oquois, — 
 were banded into a sort of confederacy.^ They 
 were closely allied in blood, language, manners and 
 character. The Ojibwas, by far the most numerous 
 of the three, occupied the basin of Lake Superior, 
 and extensive adjacent regions. In their bounda- 
 ries, the career of Iroquois conquest found at length 
 a check. The fugitive Wyandots sought refuge in 
 the Ojibwa hunting-grounds ; and tradition relates 
 that, at the outlet of Lake Superior, an Iroquois 
 war-party once encountered a disastrous repulse. 
 
 In their mode of life, they were far more rude 
 than the Iroquois, or even the southern Algonquin 
 tribes. The totemic system is found among them 
 
 A Morse, Report, Appendix, 141. 
 
Chap. I.] OJIBWAS. 35 
 
 in its most imperfect state. The original clans 
 have become broken into fragments, and indefi- 
 nitely multiplied ; and many of the ancient customs 
 of the institution are but loosely regarded. Agri- 
 culture is little known, and, through summer and 
 winter, they range the wilderness with restless wan- 
 dering, now gorged to repletion, and now perishing 
 wdth want. In the calm days of summer, the 
 Ojibwa fisherman pushes out his birch canoe upon 
 the great inland ocean of the north ; and, as he 
 gazes down into the pellucid depths, he seems like 
 one balanced between earth and sky. The watch- 
 ful fish-hawk circles above his head ; and below, 
 farther than his line will reach, he sees the trout 
 glide shadowy and silent over the glimmering peb- 
 bles. The little islands on the verge of the horizon 
 seem now starting into spires, now melting from 
 the sight, now shaping themselves into a thousand 
 fantastic forms, with the strange mirage of the 
 waters ; and he fancies that the evil spirits of the 
 lake lie basking their serpent forms on those unhal- 
 lowed shores. Again, he explores the watery laby- 
 rinths where the stream sweeps among pine-tufted 
 islands, or runs, black and deep, beneath the shad- 
 ows of moss-bearded firs ; or he drags his canoe 
 upon the sandy beach, and, while his camp-fire 
 crackles on the grass-plat, reclines beneath the 
 trees, and smokes and laughs away the sultry hours, 
 in a lazy luxury of enjoyment. 
 
 But when winter descends upon the north, seal- 
 ing up the fountains, fettering the streams, and 
 turning the green-robed forests to shivering naked- 
 
36 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 ness, then, bearing their frail dwellings on their 
 backs, the Ojibwa family wander forth into the 
 wilderness, cheered only on their dreary track by 
 the whistling of the north wind, and the hungry 
 howl of wolves. By the banks of some frozen 
 stream, women and children, men and dogs, lie 
 crouched together around the fire. They spread 
 their benumbed fingers over the embers, while the 
 wind shrieks through the fir-trees like the gale 
 through the rigging of a frigate, and the narrow 
 concave of the wigwam sparkles with the frost- 
 work of their congealed breath. In vain they beat 
 the magic drum, and call upon their guardian man- 
 itoes ; — the wary moose keeps aloof, the bear lies 
 close in his hollow tree, and famine stares them in 
 the face. And now the hunter can fight no more 
 against the nipping cold and blinding sleet. Stiff 
 and stark, with haggard cheek and shrivelled lip, 
 he lies among the snow drifts ; till, with tooth and 
 claw, the famished wildcat strives in vain to pierce 
 the frigid marble of his limbs. Such harsh school- 
 ing is thrown away on the incorrigible mind of the 
 northern Algonquin. He lives in misery, as his 
 fathers lived before him. Still, in the brief hour 
 of plenty he forgets the season of want ; and still 
 the sleet and the snow descend upon his houseless 
 head.^ 
 
 I have thus passed in brief review the more prom- 
 
 1 See Tanner, Long, and Henry. A comparison of Tanner with the 
 accounts of the Jesuit Le Jeune will show that Algonquin life in Lower 
 Canada, two hundred years ago, was essentially the same with Algonquin 
 life on the Upper Lakes within the last half century. 
 
CiiAP. I.] THEIR LEGENDARY LORE. 37 
 
 inent of the Algonquin tribes ; those whose strug- 
 gles and sufferings form the theme of the ensuing 
 History. In speaking of the Iroquois, some of the 
 distinctive peculiarities of the Algonquins have 
 already been hinted at. It must be admitted that, 
 in moral stability and intellectual vigor, they are 
 inferior to the former; though some of the most 
 conspicuous offspring of the wilderness, Metacom, 
 Tecumseh, and Pontiac himself, o^\Tied their blood 
 and language. 
 
 The fireside stories of every primitive people are 
 faithful reflections of the form and coloring of the 
 national mind ; and it is no proof of sound philos- 
 ophy to turn with contempt from the study of a 
 fairy tale. The legendary lore of the Iroquois, 
 black as the midnight forests, awful in its gloomy 
 strength, is but another manifestation of that spirit 
 of mastery which uprooted whole tribes from the 
 earth, and deluged the wilderness with blood. The 
 traditionary tales of the Algonquins wear a differ- 
 ent aspect. The credulous circle around an Ojibwa 
 lodge-fire listened to wild recitals of necromancy 
 and witchcraft — men transformed to beasts, and 
 beasts transformed to men, animated trees, and 
 birds who spoke with human tongue. They heard 
 of malignant sorcerers dwelling among the lonely 
 islands of spell-bound lakes ; of grisly iveendigoes, 
 and bloodless geebi ; of evil manitoes lurking in the 
 dens and fastnesses of the woods ; of pygmy cham- 
 pions, diminutive in stature but mighty in soul, who, 
 by the potency of charm and talisman, subdued the 
 direst monsters of the waste ; and of heroes, who, 
 
38 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. L 
 
 not by downright force and open onset, but by sub- 
 tle strategy, tricks, or magic art, achieved marvellous 
 triumphs over the brute force of their assailants. 
 Sometimes the tale will breathe a different spirit, 
 and tell of orphan children abandoned in the heart 
 of a hideous wilderness, beset with fiends and can- 
 nibals. Some enamored maiden, scornful of earth- 
 ly suitors, plights her troth to the graceful manito 
 of the grove ; or bright aerial beings, dwellers of 
 the sky, descend to tantalize the gaze of mortals 
 with evanescent forms of loveliness. 
 
 The mighty giant, the God of the Thunder, who 
 made his home among the caverns, beneath the cat- 
 aract of Niagara, was a characteristic conception 
 of Iroquois imagination. The Algonquins held a 
 simpler faith, and maintained that the thunder was 
 a bird who built his nest on the pinnacle of tow- 
 ering mountains. Two daring boys once scaled the 
 height, and thrust sticks into the eyes of the por- 
 tentous nestlings ; which hereupon flashed forth 
 such wrathful scintillations, that the sticks were 
 shivered to atoms. ^ 
 
 1 For Algonquin legends, see Schoolcraft, in Algic Researches and 
 Oneota. Le Jeiine early discovered these legends among the tribes of his 
 mission. Two centuries ago, among the Algonquins of Lower Canada, a 
 tale was related to him, which, in its principal incidents, is identical with 
 the story of the " Boy who set a Snare for the Sun," recently found by 
 Mr. Schoolcraft among the tribes of the Upper Lakes. Compare Relation, 
 1637, p. 172, and Oneota, p. 75. The coincidence affords a curious proof 
 of the antiquity and wide diffusion of some of these tales. 
 
 The Dacotah, as weU as the Algonquins, believe that the thunder is 
 produced by a bird. A beautiful illustration of this idea will be found in 
 Mrs. Eastman's Legends of the Sioux. An Indian propounded to Le Jeune 
 a doctrine of his own. According to his theory, the thunder is produced 
 by the eructations of a monstrous giant, who had unfortunately swallowed 
 
Chap. I.] THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEF. 39 
 
 The religious belief of the Algonquins — and 
 the remark holds good, not of the Algonquins only, 
 but of all the hunting tribes of America — is a 
 cloudy bewilderment, where we seek in vain for 
 system or coherency. Among a primitive and sav- 
 age people, there were no poets to vivify its images, 
 and no priests to give distinctness and harmony to 
 its rites and symbols. To the Indian mind, all 
 nature was instinct with deity. A spirit was em- 
 bodied in every mountain, lake, and cataract ; every 
 bird, beast, or reptile, every tree, shrub, or grass- 
 blade, was endued with mystic influence ; yet this 
 untutored pantheism did not exclude the conception 
 of certain divinities, of incongruous and ever shift- 
 ing attributes. The sun, too, was a god, and the 
 moon was a goddess. Conflicting powers of good 
 and evil divided the universe : but if, before the 
 arrival of Europeans, the Indian recognized the ex- 
 istence of one, almighty, self-existent Being, the 
 Great Spirit, the Lord of Heaven and Earth, the 
 belief was so vague and dubious as scarcely to de- 
 serve the name. His perceptions of moral good 
 and evil were perplexed and shadowy ; and the be- 
 lief in a state of future reward and punishment 
 was by no means universal.^ 
 
 Of the Indian character, much has been written 
 foolishly, and credulously beHeved. By the rhap- 
 sodies of poets, the cant of sentimentalists, and the 
 
 a quantity of snakes ; and the latter faUing to the earth, caused the 
 appearance of hghtning. " Voila une philosophie bien nouvelle ! " 
 exclaims the astonished Jesuit. 
 
 1 Le Jeune, Schoolcraft, James, Jarvis, Charlevoix, Sagard, Bre'beuf, 
 Mercier, Vimont, Lallemant, Lafitau, De Smet, &c. 
 
40 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 extravagance of some who should have known bet- 
 ter, a counterfeit image has been tricked out, which 
 might seek in vain for its likeness through every 
 corner of the habitable earth ; an image bearing no 
 more resemblance to its original, than the monarch 
 of the tragedy and the hero of the epic poem bear 
 to their living prototypes in the palace and the 
 camp. The shadows of his wilderness home, and 
 the darker mantle of his own inscrutable reserve, 
 have made the Indian warrior a wonder and a mys- 
 tery. Yet to the eye of rational observation there 
 is nothing unintelligible in him. He is full, it is 
 true, of contradiction. He deems himself the cen- 
 tre of greatness and renown ; his pride is proof 
 against the fiercest torments of fire and steel ; and 
 yet the same man would beg for a dram of whiskey, 
 or pick up a crust of bread thrown to him like a 
 dog, from the tent door of the traveller. At one 
 moment, he is wary and cautious to the verge of 
 cowardice ; at the next, he abandons himself to a 
 very insanity of recklessness ; and the habitual 
 self-restraint which throws an impenetrable veil 
 over emotion is joined to the unbridled passions of 
 a madman or a beast. 
 
 Such inconsistencies, strange as they seem in our 
 eyes, when viewed under a novel aspect, are but the 
 ordinary incidents of humanity. The qualities of 
 the mind are not uniform in their action through all 
 the relations of life. With different men, and dif- 
 ferent races of men, pride, valor, prudence, have 
 difi'erent forms of manifestation, and where in one 
 instance they lie dormant, in another they are keen- 
 
Chap. L] THE INDIAN CHARACTER. 41 
 
 ly awake. The conjunction of greatness and little- 
 ness, meanness and pride, is older than the days of 
 the patriarchs ; and such antiquated phenomena, 
 displayed under a new form in the unreflecting, un- 
 disciplined mind of a savage, call for no special 
 Avonder, but should rather be classed with the other 
 enigmas of the fathomless human heart. The dis- 
 secting knife of a Hochefoucault might lay bare 
 matters of no less curious observation in the breast 
 of every man. 
 
 Nature has stamped the Indian with a hard and 
 stern physiognomy. Ambition, revenge, envy, jeal- 
 ousy, are his ruling passions ; and his cold temper- 
 ament is little exposed to those effeminate vices 
 which are the bane of milder races. With him 
 revenge is an overpowering instinct ; nay, more, it 
 is a point of honor and a duty. His pride sets all 
 language at defiance. He loathes the thought of 
 coercion ; and few of his race have ever stooped to 
 discharge a menial office. A wild love of liberty, 
 an utter intolerance of control, lie at the basis of 
 his character, and fire his whole existence. Yet, 
 in spite of this haughty independence, he is a de- 
 vout hero-worshipper ; and high achievement in 
 war or policy touches a chord to which his nature 
 never fails to respond. He looks up with admiring 
 reverence to the sages and heroes of his tribe ; and 
 it is this principle, joined to the respect for age 
 springing from the patriarchal element in his 
 social system, which, beyond all others, contributes 
 union and harmony to the erratic members of an 
 Indian community. With him the love of glory 
 
42 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 kindles into a burning passion ; and to allay its 
 cravings, he will dare cold and famine, fire, tempest, 
 torture, and death itself. 
 
 These generous traits are overcast by much that 
 is dark, cold, and sinister, by sleepless distrust, and 
 rankling jealousy. Treacherous himself, he is al- 
 ways suspicious of treachery in others. Brave as 
 he is, — and few of mankind are braver, — he will 
 vent his passion by a secret stab rather than an 
 open blow. His warfare is full of ambuscade and 
 stratagem; and he never rushes into battle with 
 that joyous self-abandonment, with which the war- 
 riors of the Gothic races flung themselves into the 
 ranks of their enemies. In his feasts and his drink- 
 ing bouts we find none of that robust and full-toned 
 mirth, which reigned at the rude carousals of our 
 barbaric ancestry. He is never jovial in his cups, 
 and maudlin sorrow or maniacal rage is the sole 
 result of his potations. 
 
 Over all emotion he throws the veil of an iron 
 self-control, originating in a peculiar form of pride, 
 and fostered by rigorous discipline from childhood 
 upward. He is trained to conceal passion, and not 
 to subdue it. The inscrutable warrior is aptly im- 
 aged by the hackneyed figure of a volcano covered 
 with snow ; and no man can say when or where the 
 wild-fire will burst forth. This shallow self-mastery 
 serves to give dignity to public deliberation, and 
 harmony to social life. Wrangling and quarrel are 
 strangers to an Indian dwelling ; and while an as- 
 sembly of the ancient Gauls was garrulous as a 
 convocation of magpies, a Eoman senate might have 
 
Chap. I.] THE INDIAN CHARACTER. 43 
 
 taken a lesson from the grave solemnity of an 
 Indian council. In the midst of his family and 
 friends, he hides affections, by nature none of the 
 most tender, under a mask of icy coldness ; and 
 in the torturing fires of his enemy, the haughty 
 sufferer maintains to the last his look of grim 
 defiance. 
 
 His intellect is as peculiar as his moral organiza- 
 tion. Among all savages, the powers of perception 
 preponderate over those of reason and analysis ; 
 but this is more especially the case with the Indian. 
 An acute judge of character, at least of such parts 
 of it as his experience enables him to comprehend ; 
 keen to a proverb in all exercises of war and the 
 chase, he seldom traces effects to their causes, or 
 follows out actions to their remote results. Though 
 a close observer of external nature, he no sooner 
 attempts to account for her phenomena than he in- 
 volves himself in the most ridiculous absurdities; 
 and quite content with these puerilities, he has not 
 the least desire to push his inquiries further. His 
 curiosity, abundantly active within its own narrow 
 circle, is dead to all things else ; and to attempt 
 rousing it from its torpor is but a bootless task. He 
 seldom takes cognizance of general or abstract 
 ideas ; and his language has scarcely the power to 
 express them, except through the medium of fig- 
 ures drawn from the external world, and often 
 highly picturesque and forcible. The absence of 
 reflection makes him grossly improvident, and unfits 
 him for pursuing any complicated scheme of war 
 or policy. 
 
44 INDIAN TRIBES. [Chap. I. 
 
 Some races of men seem moulded in wax, soft 
 and melting, at once plastic and feeble. Some 
 races, like some metals, combine the greatest flexi- 
 bility with the greatest strength. But the Indian 
 is hewn out of a rock. You can rarely change the 
 form without destruction of the substance. Races 
 of inferior energy have possessed a power of expan- 
 sion and assimilation to which he is a stranger ; 
 and it is this fixed and rigid quality which has 
 proved his ruin. He will not learn the arts of civ- 
 ihzation, and he and his forest must perish together. 
 The stern, unchanging features of his mind excite 
 our admiration from their very immutabiUty ; and 
 we look with deep interest on the fate of this irre^ 
 claimable son of the wilderness, the child who 
 will not be weaned from the breast of his rugged 
 mother. And our interest increases when we dis- 
 cern in the unhappy wanderer the germs of heroic 
 virtues mingled among his vices, — a hand boun- 
 tiful to bestow as it is rapacious to seize, and 
 even in extremest famine, imparting its last morsel 
 to a fellow-sufferer ; a heart which, strong in 
 friendship as in hate, thinks it not too much to lay 
 down life for its chosen comi-ade ; a soul true to 
 its own idea of honor, and burning wdth an un- 
 quenchable thirst for greatness and renown. 
 
 The imprisoned lion in the showman's cage dif- 
 fers not more widely from the lord of the desert, 
 than the beggarly frequenter of frontier garrisons 
 and dramshops difl'ers from the proud denizen of 
 the woods. It is in his native wilds alone that the 
 Indian must be seen and studied. Thus to depict 
 
Chap. I] THE INDIAN CHARACTER. 45 
 
 him is the aim of the ensuing History; and if, 
 from the shades of rock and forest, the savage 
 features should look too grimly forth, it is because 
 the clouds of a tempestuous war have cast upon the 
 picture their murky shadows and lurid fires. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 1608-1763. 
 FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN AMERICA. 
 
 The American colonies of France and England 
 grew up to maturity under widely different auspices. 
 Canada, the offspring of Church and State, nursed 
 from infancy in the lap of power, its puny strength 
 fed with artificial stimulants, its movements guided 
 by rule and discipline, its limbs trained to martial 
 exercise, languished, in spite of all, from the lack 
 of vital sap and energy. The colonies of England, 
 outcast and neglected, but strong in native vigor 
 and self-confiding courage, grew yet more strong 
 with conflict and with striving, and developed the 
 rugged proportions and unwieldy strength of a 
 youthful giant. 
 
 In the valley of the St. Lawrence, and along the 
 coasts of the Atlantic, adverse principles contended 
 for the mastery. Feudalism stood arrayed against 
 Democracy ; Popery against Protestantism ; the 
 sword against the plougshare. The priest, the 
 soldier, and the noble, ruled in Canada. The 
 ignorant, light-hearted Canadian peasant knew 
 nothing and cared nothing about popular rights 
 
1663-1763.] THE FRENCH CANADIANS. 47 
 
 and civil liberties. Born to obey, he lived in con- 
 tented submission, without the wish or the capacity 
 for self-rule. Power, centered in the heart of the 
 system, left the masses inert. The settlements 
 along the margin of the St. Lawrence were like a 
 camp, where an army lay at rest, ready for the 
 march or the battle, and where war and adventure, 
 not trade and tillage, seemed the chief aims of life. 
 The lords of the soil were petty nobles, for the 
 most part soldiers, or the sons of soldiers, proud 
 and ostentatious, thriftless and poor ; and the peo- 
 ple were their vassals. Over every cluster of small 
 white houses glittered the sacred emblem of the 
 cross. The church, the convent, and the roadside 
 shrine were seen at every turn ; and in the towns 
 and villages, one met each moment the black robe 
 of the Jesuit, the gray garb of the Recollet, and 
 the formal habit of the Ursuline nun. The names 
 of saints, St. Joseph, St. Ignatius, St. Francis, were 
 perpetuated in the capes, rivers, and islands, the 
 forts and villages of the land ; and with every day, 
 crowds of simple worshippers knelt in adoration 
 before the countless altars of the Roman faith. 
 
 If we search the world for the sharpest contrast 
 to the spiritual and temporal vassalage of Canada, 
 we shall find it among her immediate neighbors, 
 the Puritans of New England, where the spirit of 
 non-conformity was sublimed to a fiery essence, 
 and where the love of liberty and the hatred of 
 power burned with sevenfold heat. The English 
 colonist, with thoughtful brow and limbs hardened 
 with toil ; calling no man master, yet bowing rev- 
 
48 FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN AMERICA. [1663-1763. 
 
 erently to the law which he himself had made ; 
 patient and laborious, and seeking for the solid 
 comforts rather than the ornaments of life ; no 
 lover of war, yet, if need were, fighting with a 
 stubborn, indomitable courage, and then bending 
 once more with steadfast energy to his farm, or his 
 merchandise, — such a man might well be deemed 
 the very pith and marrow of a commonwealth. 
 
 In every quality of efficiency and strength, the 
 Canadian fell miserably below his rival ; but in all 
 that pleases the eye and interests the imagination, 
 he far surpassed him. Buoyant and gay, like his 
 ancestry of France, he made the frozen wilderness 
 ring with merriment, answered the surly howling 
 of the pine forest with peals of laughter, and 
 warmed with revelry the groaning ice of the St. 
 Lawrence. Careless and thoughtless, he lived 
 happy in the midst of poverty, content if he could 
 but gain the means to fill his tobacco-pouch, and 
 decorate the cap of his mistress with a ribbon. 
 The example of a beggared nobility, who, proud 
 and penniless, could only assert their rank by 
 idleness and ostentation, was not lost upon him. 
 A rightful heir to French bravery and French rest- 
 lessness, he had an eager love of wandering and 
 adventure ; and this propensity found ample scope 
 in the service of the fur-trade, the engrossing occu- 
 pation and chief source of income to the colony. 
 When the priest of St. Ann's had shrived him of 
 his sins ; when, after the parting carousal, he em- 
 barked with his comrades in the deep-laden canoe ; 
 when their oars kept time to the measured cadence 
 
1663-1763.] THE FRENCH CANADIANS. 49 
 
 of their song, and the blue, sunny bosom of the 
 Ottawa opened before them ; when their frail bark 
 quivered among the milky foam and black rocks 
 of the rapid ; and when, around their camp-fii'e, 
 they wasted half the night with jests and laughter, — 
 then the Canadian was in his element. His foot- 
 steps explored .the farthest hiding-places of the 
 wilderness. In the evening dance, his red cap 
 mingled wdth the scalp-locks and feathers of the 
 Indian braves ; or, stretched on a bear-skin by the 
 side of his dusky mistress, he watched the gambols 
 of his hybrid offspring, in happy oblivion of the 
 partner whom he left unnumbered leagues behind. 
 The fur-trade engendered a pecuHar class of rest- 
 less bush-rangers, more akin to Indians than to 
 white men. Those who had once felt the fascina- 
 tions of the forest were unfitted ever after for a life 
 of quiet labor ; and with this spirit the whole 
 colony was infected. From this cause, no less than 
 from occasional wars with the English, and re- 
 peated attacks of the Iroquois, the agriculture of 
 the country was sunk to a low ebb ; while feudal 
 exactions, a ruinous system of monopoly, and the 
 intermeddlings of arbitrary power, cramped every 
 branch of industry.^ Yet, by the zeal of priests 
 and the daring enterprise of soldiers and explorers, 
 Canada, though sapless and infii'm, spread forts 
 
 1 Eaynal. Hist. Indies, VII. 87 (Lond. 1783). 
 
 Charlevoix, Voyages, Letter X. 
 
 The Swedish traveller Kalm gives an interesting account of manners 
 in Canada, about the middle of the eighteenth century. For the feudal 
 tenure as existing in Canada, see Bouchette, I. Cliap. XIV. (Lond. 1831), 
 and Garneau, Hist. Canada, Book III. Chap. HI. 
 
 4 
 
50 FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN AMERICA. [1608-1663. 
 
 and missions through all the western wilderness. 
 Feebly rooted in the soil, she thrust out branches 
 which overshadowed half America ; a magnificent 
 object to the eye, but one which the first whirl- 
 wind would prostrate in the dust. 
 
 Such excursive enterprise was alien to the genius 
 of the British colonies. Daring activity was rife 
 among them, but it did not aim at the founding of 
 military outposts and forest missions. By the force 
 of energetic industry, their population swelled with 
 an unheard-of rapidity, their wealth increased in a 
 yet greater ratio, and their promise of future great- 
 ness opened with every advancing year. But it 
 was a greatness rather of peace than of war. The 
 free institutions, the independence of authority, 
 which were the source of their increase, were ad- 
 verse to that unity of counsel and promptitude of 
 action which are the soul of war. It was far other- 
 wise with their military rival. France had her 
 Canadian forces well in hand. They had but one 
 will, and that was the will of a misti-ess. Now 
 here, now there, in sharp and rapid onset, they 
 could assail the cumbrous > masses and unwieldy 
 strength of their antagonists, as the king-bird 
 attacks the eagle, or the sword-fish the whale. 
 Between two such combatants the strife must 
 needs be a long one. 
 
 Canada was a true child of the Church, baptized 
 in infancy and faithful to the last. Cliamplain, the 
 founder of Quebec, a man of noble spirit, a states- 
 man and a soldier, was deeply imbued with fervid 
 piety. " The saving of a soul," he would often 
 
1608-1663.] RELIGIOUS ZEAL OF CANADA. 51 
 
 say, " is worth more than the conquest of an em- 
 pire ; " ^ and to forward the work of conversion, 
 he brought with him four Franciscan monks from 
 France. At a later period, the task of coloniza- 
 tion would have been abandoned, but for the hope 
 of casting the pure light of the faith over the 
 gloomy wastes of heathendom.^ All France was 
 filled with the zeal of proselytism. Men and wo- 
 men of exalted rank lent their countenance to the 
 holy work. From many an altar daily petitions 
 were offered for the well-being of the mission ; 
 and in the Holy House of Mont-Martre, a nun lay 
 prostrate day and night before the shrine, praying 
 for the conversion of Canada.^ In one convent, 
 thirty nuns offered themselves for the labors of the 
 wdlderness ; and priests flocked in crowds to the 
 colony.^ The powers of darkness took alarm ; and 
 when a ship, freighted with the apostles of the 
 faith, was tempest-tost upon her voyage, the storm 
 was ascribed to the malice of demons, trembling 
 for the safety of their ancient empire. 
 
 The general enthusiasm was not without its 
 fruits. The Church could pay back with usury all 
 that she received of aid and encouragement from 
 the temporal power ; and the ambition of Riche- 
 lieu could not have devised a more efficient 
 enginery for the accomplishment of its schemes, 
 
 1 Charlevoix, Nouv. France, I. 197. 
 
 2 Charlevoix, I. 198. 
 
 3 A. D. 1635. Rchtion cles Hurons, 1636, p. 2. 
 
 * " Vivre en la Nouvelle France c'est a vray dire vivre dans le sein 
 de Dieu." Such are the extravagant words of Le Jeune, in his report of 
 the year 1636. 
 
52 EKA^CE AND ENGLAND IN AMERICA. [1608-1673. 
 
 than that supplied by the zeal of the devoted prop- 
 agandists. The priest and the soldier went hand 
 in hand ; and the cross and the jleur cle lis were 
 planted side by side. 
 
 Foremost among the envoys of the faith were 
 the members of that mighty order, who, in another 
 hemisphere, had already done so much to turn 
 back the advancing tide of religious freedom, and 
 strengthen the arm of Rome. To the Jesuits was 
 assigned, for many years, the entire charge of the 
 Canadian missions, to the exclusion of the Francis- 
 cans, early laborers in the same barren field. In- 
 spired with a self-devoting zeal to snatch souls from 
 perdition, and win new empires to the cross ; cast- 
 ing from them every hope of earthly pleasure or 
 earthly aggrandizement, the Jesuit fathers buried 
 themselves in deserts, facing death with the courage 
 of heroes, and enduring torments with the constancy 
 of martyrs. Their story is replete with marvels — 
 miracles of patient suffering and daring enterprise. 
 They were the pioneers of Northern iVmerica.^ 
 We see them among the frozen forests of Acadia, 
 struggling on snow-shoes, with some wandering 
 Algonquin horde, or crouching in the crowded 
 hunting-lodge, half stifled in the smoky den, and 
 battling with troops of famished dogs for the last 
 morsel of sustenance. Again we see the black- 
 robed priest wading among the white rapids of 
 the Ottawa, toiling with his savage comrades to 
 
 1 See Jesuit Relations and Lettres Edijiantes : also, Charlevoix, passim ; 
 Garneau, Hist. Canada, Book IV. Chap. 11. ; and Bancroft, Hist. U. S, 
 Chap. XX. 
 
1640-1649.] JESUIT MISSIONARIES. 53 
 
 drag the canoe against the headlong water. Again, 
 radiant in the vestments of his priestly office, he 
 administers the sacramental bread to kneelinfir 
 crowds of plumed and painted proselytes in the 
 forests of the Hurons ; or, bearing his life in his 
 hand, carries his sacred mission into the stronsr- 
 holds of the Iroquois, like one who invades un- 
 armed a den of angry tigers. Jesuit explorers 
 traced the St. Lawrence to its source, and said 
 masses among the solitudes of Lake Superior, 
 where the boldest fur-trader scarcely dared to fol- 
 low. They planted missions at St. Mary's and 
 at Michillimackinac ; and one of their fraternity, 
 the illustrious Marquette, discovered the Missis- 
 sippi, and opened a new theatre to the boundless 
 ambition of France. 
 
 The path of the missionary was a thorny and a 
 bloody one ; and a life of weary apostleship was 
 often crowned with a frightful martyrdom. Jean 
 de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lallemant preached the 
 faith among the villages of the Hurons, when their 
 terror-stricken Hock were overwhelmed by an irrup- 
 tion of the Iroquois. The missionaries might have 
 fled ; but, true to their sacred function, they re- 
 mained behind to aid the wounded and baptize the 
 dying. Both were made captive, and both were 
 doomed to the fiery torture. Brebeuf, a veteran 
 soldier of the cross, met his fate with an undaunted 
 composure, which amazed his murderers. With 
 unflinching constancy he- endured torments too 
 horrible to be recorded, and died calmly as a 
 
54 FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN AMERICA. [1640-1649. 
 
 martyr of the early church, or a war-chief of the 
 Mohawks. 
 
 The slender frame of Lallemant, a man younger 
 in years and gentle m spirit, was enveloped in blaz- 
 ing savin-bark. Again and again the fire was extin- 
 guished ; again and again it was kindled afresh ; 
 and with such fiendish ingenuity were his torments 
 protracted, that he lingered for seventeen hours 
 before death came to his relief.^ 
 
 Isaac Jogues, taken captive by the Iroquois, was 
 led from canton to canton, and village to village, 
 enduring fresh torments and indignities at every 
 stage of his progress.^ Men, women, and children 
 vied with each other in ingenious malignity^ Re- 
 deemed, at length, by the humane exertions of a 
 Dutch ofiicer, he repaired to France, where his 
 disfigured person and mutilated hands told the 
 story of his suff*erings. But the promptings of a 
 sleepless conscience urged him to return and com- 
 plete the work he had begun ; to illumine the 
 moral darkness upon which, during the months of 
 his disastrous captivity, he fondly hoped that he 
 had thrown some rays of light. Once more he 
 bent his footsteps towards the scene of his living 
 martyrdom, saddened with a deep presentiment 
 that he was advancing to his death. Nor were his 
 forebodings untrue. In a village of the Mohawks, 
 the blow of a tomahawk closed his mission and 
 his life. 
 
 Such intrepid self-devotion may well call forth 
 
 1 Charlevoix, I. 292. 2 Charlevoix, I. 238-276. 
 
1632-1700.] JESUIT MISSIONARIES. 55 
 
 our highest admiration ; but when we seek for the 
 results of these toils and sacrifices, we shall seek 
 in vain. Patience and zeal were thrown away upon 
 lethargic minds and stubborn hearts. The repoits 
 of the Jesuits, it is true, display a copious list of 
 conversions ; but the zealous fathers reckoned the 
 number of conversions by the number of baptisms ; 
 and, as Le Clercq observes, with no less truth than 
 candor, an Indian would be baptized ten times a 
 day for a pint of brandy or a pound of tobacco. 
 Neither can more flattering conclusions be drawn 
 from the alacrity which they showed to adorn their 
 persons with crucifixes and medals. The glitter 
 of the trinkets pleased the fancy of the warrior ; 
 and, with the emblem of man's salvation pendent 
 from his neck, he was often at heart as thorough a 
 heathen as when he wore in its place a necklace 
 made of the dried forefingers of his enemies. At 
 the present day, with the exception of a few insig- 
 nificant bands of converted Indians in Lower Can- 
 ada, not a vestige of early Jesuit influence can be 
 found among the tribes. The seed was sown upon 
 a rock.^ 
 
 While the church was reaping but a scanty har- 
 vest, the labors of the missionaries were fruitful 
 of profit to the monarch of France. The Jesuit 
 led the van of French colonization ; and at Detroit, 
 Michillimackinac, St. Mary's, Green Bay, and other 
 outposts of the west, the establishment of a mission 
 was the precursor of military occupancy. In other 
 
 1 For remarks on the futility of Jesuit missionary efforts, see Halkett, 
 Historical Notes, Chap. IV. 
 
56 FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN AMERICA. [1663-1673. 
 
 respects no less, the labors of the wandering mis- 
 sionaries advanced the welfare of the colony. 
 Sagacious and keen of sight, with faculties stimu- 
 lated by zeal and sharpened by peril, they made 
 faithful report of the temper and movements of 
 the distant tribes among whom they were distribu- 
 ted. The influence which they often gained was 
 exerted in behalf of the government under whose 
 auspices their missions were carried on ; and they 
 strenuously labored to win over the tribes to the 
 French alliance, and alienate them from the heretic 
 English. In all things they approved themselves 
 the stanch and steadfast auxiliaries of the imperial 
 power ; and the Marquis du Quesne observed of 
 the missionary Picquet, that in his single person 
 he Wias worth ten regiments.^ 
 
 Among the English colonies, the pioneers of civ- 
 ilization were for the most part rude, yet vigorous 
 men, impelled to enterprise by native restlessness, 
 or lured by the hope of gain. Their range was 
 limited, and seldom extended far beyond the out- 
 skirts of the settlements. With Canada it was far 
 otherwise. There was no energy in the bulk of 
 her people. The court and the army supplied the 
 mainsprings of her vital action, and the hands 
 which planted the lilies of France in the heart of 
 the wilderness had never guided the ploughshare 
 or wielded the spade. The love of adventure, the 
 ambition of new discovery, the hope of military ad- 
 vancement, urged men of place and culture to em- 
 
 1 Picquet was a priest of St. Sulpice. For a sketch of liis life, see 
 Let.L Edif. XIV. 
 
1666-1678.] LA SALLE. 57 
 
 bark on bold and comprehensive enterprise. Many 
 a gallant gentleman, many a nobleman of France, 
 trod the black mould and oozy mosses of the forest 
 with feet that had pressed the carpets of Versailles. 
 They whose youth had passed in camps and courts 
 grew gray among the wigwams of savages ; and the 
 lives of Castine, Joncaire, and Priber^ are invested 
 with all the interest of romance. 
 
 Conspicuous in the annals of Canada stands the 
 memorable name of E-obert Cavelier de La Salle, 
 the man who, beyond all his compeers, contributed 
 to expand the boundary of French empire in the 
 west. La Salle commanded at Fort Frontenac, 
 erected near the outlet of Lake Ontario, on its 
 northern shore, and then forming the most ad- 
 vanced military outpost of the colony. Here he 
 dwelt among Indians, and half-breeds, traders, 
 voyageurs, bush-rangers, and Franciscan monks, 
 ruling his little empire with absolute sway, en- 
 forcing respect by his energy, but offending many 
 by his rigor. Here he brooded upon the grand de- 
 sign which had long engaged his thoughts. He 
 had resolved to complete the achievement of Father 
 Marquette, to trace the unknown Mississippi to its 
 mouth, to plant the standard of his king in the 
 newly-discovered regions, and found colonies which 
 should make good the sovereignty of France from 
 the Frozen Ocean to Mexico. Ten years of his 
 
 1 For an account of Priber, see Adair, 240. I have seen mention of 
 this man in contemporary provincial newspapers, where he is sometimes 
 spoken of as a disguised Jesuit. He took up his residence among tlie 
 Cherokees about the year 1736, and labored to gain them over to tlie 
 French interest. 
 
58 FRANCE A^D ENGLAJs^D IN A3IERICA. [1679-1680. 
 
 early life had passed, it is said, in connection with 
 the Jesnits, and his strong mind had hardened to 
 iron under the discipline of that relentless school. 
 To a sound judgment, and a penetrating sagacity, 
 he joined a boundless enterprise and an adamantine 
 constancy of purpose. But his nature was stern 
 and austere ; he was prone to rule by fear rather 
 than by love ; he took counsel of no man, and 
 chilled all who approached him by his cold 
 reserve. 
 
 At the close of the year 1678, his preparations 
 were complete, and he despatched his attendants to 
 the banks of the river Niagara, whither he soon 
 followed in person. Here he began a little fort of 
 palisades, and was the first military tenant of a spot 
 destined to momentous consequence in future wars. 
 Two leagues above the cataract, on the eastern 
 bank of the river, he built the first vessel which 
 ever explored the waters of the upper lakes. ^ Her 
 name was the Griffin, and her burden was forty- 
 five tons. On the seventh of August, 1679, she 
 began her adventurous voyage amid the speechless 
 wonder of the Indians, who stood amazed, alike at 
 the unwonted size of the wooden canoe, at the flash 
 and roar of the cannon from her decks, and at the 
 carved figure of a griffin, which sat crouched 
 upon her prow. She bore on her course along the 
 virgin waters of Lake Erie, through the beautiful 
 windings of the Detroit, and among the restless 
 billows of Lake Huron, where a furious tempest 
 had well nigh ingulphed her. La Salle pursued 
 
 1 Sparks, Life of La Salle, 21. 
 
1680-1682.] LA SALLE. 59 
 
 his voyage along Lake Michigan in birch canoes, 
 and after protracted suffering from famine and 
 exposure reached its southern extremity on the 
 eighteenth of October.^ 
 
 He led his followers to the banks of the river 
 now called the St. Joseph. Here, again, he built 
 a fort ; and here, in after years, the Jesuits placed 
 a mission and the government a garrison. Thence 
 he pushed on into the unknown region of the Illi- 
 nois ; and now dangers and difficulties began to 
 thicken about him. Indians threatened hostility ; 
 his men lost heart, clamored, grew mutinous, and 
 repeatedly deserted ; and worse than all, nothing 
 was heard of the vessel which had been sent back 
 to Canada for necessary supplies. Weeks wore on, 
 and doubt ripened into certainty. She had foun- 
 dered among the storms of these wilderness oceans ; 
 and her loss seemed to involve the ruin of the 
 enterprise, since it was vain to proceed farther 
 without the expected supplies. In this disastrous 
 crisis, La Salle embraced a resolution character- 
 istic of his intrepid temper. Leaving his men in 
 charge of a subordinate at a fort w^hich he had 
 built on the river Illinois, he turned his face 
 again towards Canada. He traversed on foot more 
 than a thousand miles of frozen forest, crossing 
 rivers, toiling through snow-diifts, wading ice- 
 encumbered swamps, sustaining life by the fruits of 
 the chase, and threatened day and night by lurking 
 enemies. He gained his destination, but it was 
 only to encounter a fresh storm of calamities. His 
 enemies had been busy in his absence ; a malicious 
 
 1 Hennepin, New Discovery, 98 (Lond. 1698.) 
 
60 FRANCE A^D ENGLAND IN AMERICA. [1682-1684. 
 
 report had gone abroad that he was dead ; his 
 creditors had seized his property ; and the stores on 
 which he most relied had been wrecked at sea, or 
 lost among the rapids of the St. Lawrence. Still 
 he battled against adversity with his wonted vigor, 
 and in Count Frontenac, the governor of the prov- 
 ince, — a spirit kindred to his o^vn, — he found a 
 firm friend. Every difficulty gave way before him ; 
 and with fresh supplies of men, stores, and ammu- 
 nition, he again embarked for the Illinois. Eound- 
 ing the vast circuit of the lakes, he reached the 
 mouth of the St. Joseph, and hastened with anxious 
 speed to the fort where he had left his followers. 
 The place was empty. Not a man remained. 
 Terrified, despondent, mutinous, and embroiled in 
 Indian wars, they had fled to seek peace and 
 safety, he knew not whither. 
 
 Once more the dauntless discoverer turned back 
 towards Canada. Once more he stood before Count 
 Frontenac, and once more bent all his resources 
 and all his credit to gain means for the prosecution 
 of his enterprise. He succeeded. With his little 
 flotilla of canoes, he left his fort, at the outlet of 
 Lake Ontario, and slowly retraced those intermi- 
 nable waters, and lines of forest-bounded shore, 
 which had grown drearily familiar to his eyes. Fate 
 at length seemed tired of the conflict with so stub- 
 born an adversaiy. All went prosperously with the 
 voyagers. They passed the lakes in safety, crossed 
 the rough portage to the waters of the Illinois, fol- 
 lowed its winding channel, and descended the turbid 
 eddies of the Mississippi, received with various wel- 
 come by the scattered tribes who dwelt along its 
 
1684-1754.] LOUISUI^A. 61 
 
 banks. Now the waters grew bitter to the taste ; 
 now the trampling of the surf was heard ; and now 
 the broad ocean opened upon their sight, and their 
 goal was won. On the ninth of April, 1682, with 
 his followers under arms, amid the tiring of mus- 
 ketry, the chanting of the Te Deiim, and shouts 
 of " Vive le roi," La Salle took formal possession 
 of the vast valley of the Mississippi, in the name of 
 Louis the Great, King of France and Navarre.^ 
 
 The first stage of his enterprise was accom- 
 plished, but labors no less arduous remained behind. 
 Repairing to the court of France, he was welcomed 
 with richly merited favor, and soon set sail for 
 the mouth of the Mississippi, with a squadron 
 of vessels freighted with men and material for 
 the projected colony. But the folly and obstinacy 
 of a jealous naval commander blighted his fairest 
 hopes. The squadron missed the mouth of the 
 river ; and the wreck of one of the vessels, and the 
 desertion of the commander, completed the ruin of 
 the expedition. La Salle landed with a band of half- 
 famished followers on the coast of Texas ; and, 
 while he was toiling with untired energy for their 
 relief, a few vindictive miscreants conspired against 
 him, and a shot from a traitor's musket closed the 
 career of the iron-hearted discoverer. 
 
 It was left with another to complete the enter- 
 prise on which he had staked his life ; and, in the 
 year 1699, Lemoine d'lberville planted the germ 
 whence sprang the colony of Louisiana.^ 
 
 1 Proces Verbal, in appendix to Sparks's La Salle. 
 
 2 Du Pratz, Hist. Louisiana, 5. Charlevoix, II. 259. 
 
62 FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN AMERICA. [1730-1754. 
 
 Years passed on. In spite of a vicious plan of 
 government, in spite of the bursting of the memora- 
 ble Mississippi bubble, the new colony grew in wealth 
 and strength. And now it remained for France to 
 unite the two extremities of her broad American do- 
 main, to extend forts and settlements across the fertile 
 solitudes between the valley of the St. Lawrence and 
 the mouth of the Mississippi, and intrench herself 
 among the forests which lie west of the Allegha- 
 nies, before the swelling tide of British colonization 
 could overflow those mountain barriers. At the 
 middle of the eighteenth century, her great project 
 was ftist advancing towards completion. The lakes 
 and streams, the thoroughfares of the wilderness, 
 were seized and guarded by a series of posts dis- 
 tributed with admirable skill. A fort on the strait 
 of Niagara commanded the great enti'ance to the 
 whole interior country. Another at Detroit con- 
 trolled the passage from Lake Erie to the north. 
 Another at St. Mary's debarred all hostile access to 
 Lake Superior. Another at Michillimackinac 
 secured the mouth of Lake Michigan. A post at 
 Green Bay, and one at St. Joseph, guarded the 
 two routes to the Mississippi, by way of the rivers 
 Wisconsin and Illinois ; while two posts on the 
 Wabash, and one on the Maumee, made France 
 the mistress of the great trading highway from 
 Lake Erie to the Ohio. At Kaskaskia, Cahokia, 
 and elsewhere in the Illinois, little French settle- 
 ments had sprung up ; and as the canoe of the 
 voyager descended the Mississippi, he saw% at rare 
 intervals, along its swampy margin, a few small 
 
1730-1754.] THEIK APPROACHING COLLISION. 63 
 
 stockade forts, half buried amid the redundancy of 
 forest vegetation, until, as he approached Natchez, 
 the dwellings of the hahitans of Louisiana began 
 to ap])ear. 
 
 The forest posts of France were not exclusively 
 of a military character. Adjacent to most of them, 
 one would have found a little cluster of Canadian 
 dwellings, w^hose tenants hved under the protection 
 of the garrison, and obeyed the arbitrary will of 
 the commandant; an authority which, however, 
 was seldom exerted in a despotic spirit. In these 
 detached settlements, there was no principle of 
 increase. The character of the people, and of 
 the government which ruled them, were alike 
 unfavorable to it. Agriculture w^as neglected for 
 the more congenial pursuits of the fur-trade, and 
 the restless, roving Canadians, scattered abroad on 
 their wdld vocation, allied themselves to Indian 
 Avomen, and filled the woods with a mongrel race 
 of bush-rangers. 
 
 Thus far secure in the west, France next essayed 
 to gain foothold upon the sources of the Ohio ; and 
 about the year 1748, the sagacious Count Galiss- 
 onniere proposed to bring over ten thousand peas- 
 ants from France, and plant them in the valley of 
 that beautiful river, and on the borders of the lakes.^ 
 But while at Quebec, in the Castle of St. Louis, 
 soldiers and statesmen were revolving schemes like 
 this, the slowly-moving power of England bore on 
 with silent progress from the east. Already the 
 
 J Smith, Hist. Canada, I. 208. 
 
64 FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN AMERICA. [1754. 
 
 British settlements were creeping along the valley 
 of the Mohawk, and ascending the eastern slopes 
 of the Alleghanies. Forests crashing to the axe, 
 dark spires of smoke ascending from autumnal fires, 
 were heralds of the advancing host ; and while, on 
 one side of the mountains, Celeron de Bienville was 
 burying plates of lead, engraved with the arms of 
 France, the ploughs and axes of Virginian woods- 
 men were enforcing a surer title on the other. The 
 adverse powers were drawing near. The hour of 
 collision was at hand. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 1608-1763. 
 THE FRENCH, THE ENGLISH, AND THE INDIANS. 
 
 The French colonists of Canada held, from the 
 beginning, a peculiar intimacy of relation with the 
 Indian tribes. With the English colonists it was 
 far otherwise ; and the difference sprang from 
 several causes. The fur-trade was the life of Can- 
 ada ; agriculture and commerce were the chief 
 sources of wealth to the British provinces. The 
 Eomish zealots of Canada burned for the conver- 
 sion of the heathen ; their heretic rivals were fired 
 with no such ardor. And finally while the ambi- 
 tion of France grasped at empire over the farthest 
 deserts of the west, the steady industry of the Eng- 
 lish colonists was contented to cultivate and improve 
 a narrow strip of seaboard. Thus it happened that 
 the farmer of Massachusetts and the Virginian 
 planter were conversant with only a few bordering 
 tribes, while the priests and emissaries of France 
 were roaming the prairies with the buffalo-hunting 
 Pawnees, or lodo^insf in the winter cabins of the 
 Dahcotah ; and swarms of savages, whose uncouth 
 names were strange to English ears, descended 
 
66 THE FEENCH, ENGLISH, AND INDIANS. [1609. 
 
 yearly from the north, to bring their beaver and 
 otter skins to the market of Montreal. 
 
 The position of Canada invited intercourse with 
 the interior, and eminently favored her schemes of 
 commerce and policy. The river St. Lawrence, 
 and the chain of the great lakes, opened a vast 
 extent of inland navigation ; while their tributary 
 streams, interlocking with the branches of the 
 Mississippi, afforded ready access to that mighty 
 river, and gave the restless voyager free range 
 over half the continent. But these advantages 
 were well nigh neutralized. Nature opened the 
 way, but a watchful and terrible enemy guarded the 
 portal. The forests south of Lake Ontario gave 
 harborage to the five tribes of the L'oquois, impla- 
 cable foes of Canada. They waylaid her trading 
 parties, routed her soldiers, murdered her mission- 
 aries, and spread havoc and woe through all her 
 settlements. 
 
 It was an evil hour for Canada, when, on the 
 twenty-eighth of May, 1609,^ Samuel de Champlain, 
 impelled by his own adventurous spirit, departed 
 from the hamlet of Quebec to follow a war-party 
 of Algonquins against their hated enemy, the Iro- 
 quois. Ascending the Sorel, and passing the rapids 
 at Chambly, he embarked on the lake which bears 
 his name, and with two French attendants, steered 
 southward, with his savage associates, toward the 
 rocky promontory of Ticonderoga. They moved 
 with all the precaution of Indian warfare ; when, 
 
 J Champlain, Voyages, 136 (Paris, 1632). Charlevoix, I. 142. 
 
1609-1700.] EXPEDITION OF CHAMPLAIN. 67 
 
 at length, as night was closing in, they descried a 
 band of the Iroquois in their large canoes of elm 
 bark approaching through the gloom. Wild yells 
 from either side announced the mutual discovery. 
 The Iroquois hastened to the shore, and all night 
 long the forest resounded with their discordant war- 
 songs and fierce whoops of defiance. Day dawned, 
 and the fight began. Bounding from tree to tree, 
 the Iroquois pressed forward to the attack ; but 
 when Champlain advanced from among the Algon- 
 quins, and stood full in sight before them, with his 
 strange attire, his shining breastplate, and features 
 unlike their own, — when, they saw the flash of his 
 arquebuse, and beheld two of their chiefs fall dead, 
 — they could not contain their terror, but fled for 
 shelter into the depths of the wood. The Algon- 
 quins pursued, slaying many in the flight, and the 
 victory was complete. 
 
 Such was the first collision between the white 
 men and the Iroquois ; and Champlain flattered 
 himself that the latter had learned for the future 
 to respect the arms of France. He was fatally 
 deceived. The Iroquois recovered from their 
 terrors, but they never forgave the injury ; and yet 
 it would be unjust to charge upon Champlain the 
 origin of the desolating wars which w^ere soon to 
 scourge the colony. The Indians of Canada, friends 
 and neighbors of the French, had long been har- 
 assed by inroads of the fierce confederates, and 
 under any circumstances the French must soon 
 have become parties to the quarrel. 
 
 Whatever may have been its origin, the war 
 
68 THE FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND INDIANS. [1609-1700. 
 
 was fruitful of misery to the youthful colony. 
 The passes were beset by ambushed war-parties. 
 The routes between Quebec and Montreal were 
 watched with tiger-like vigilance. Bloodthirsty 
 warriors prowled about the outskirts of the settle- 
 ments. Again and again the miserable people, 
 driven within the palisades of their forts, looked 
 forth upon wasted harvests and blazing roofs. The 
 Island of Montreal was swept with fire and steel. 
 The fur-trade was interrupted, since for months 
 together all communication was cut off with the 
 friendly tribes of the west. Agriculture was 
 checked ; the fields lay fallow, and frequent fam- 
 ine was the necessary result.^ The name of the 
 Iroquois became a by-word of horror through the 
 colony, and to the sufi'ering Canadians they seemed 
 troops of incarnate fiends. Revolting rites and 
 monstrous superstitions were imputed to them ; 
 and, among the rest, it was currently believed that 
 they cherished the custom of immolating young 
 children, burning them, and drinking the ashes 
 mixed with water to increase their bravery.^ Yet 
 the wildest imaginations could scarcely exceed the 
 truth. At the attack of Montreal, they placed 
 infants over the embers, and forced the wretched 
 mothers to turn the spit ; ^ and those who fell 
 within their clutches endured torments too hideous 
 for description. Their ferocity was equalled only 
 by their courage and address. 
 
 1 Vimont, Golden, Gharlevoix, passim. 
 
 2 Vimont seems to believe the story. — Rel. de la N. F. 1640, 195. 
 
 3 Charlevoix, I. 549. 
 
1696-1700.] EXPEDITION OE ERONTENAC. 69 
 
 At intervals, the afflicted colony found respite 
 from its sufferings ; and, through the efforts of the 
 Jesuits, fair hopes began to rise of propitiating 
 the terrible foe. At one time, the influence of the 
 priests availed so far, that under their auspices a 
 French colony was formed in the very heart of the 
 Iroquois country ; but the settlers were soon forced 
 to a precipitate flight, and the war broke out 
 afresh.^ The French, on their part, were not idle ; 
 they faced their assailants with characteristic gal- 
 lantry. Courcelles, Tracy, De la Barre, and De 
 Nonville invaded by turns, with various success, 
 the forest haunts of the confederates ; and at 
 length, in the year 1696, the veteran Count Fron- 
 tenac marched upon their cantons with all the 
 force of Canada. Stemming the surges of La Chine, 
 gliding through the romantic channels of the 
 Thousand Islands, and over the glimmering surface 
 of Lake Ontario, and trailing in long array up the 
 current of the Oswego, they disembarked on the 
 margin of the Lake of Onondaga ; and, startling 
 the woodland echoes with the clangor of their 
 trumpets, urged their march through the mazes of 
 the forest. Never had those solitudes beheld so 
 strange a pageantry. The Indian allies, naked to 
 the waist and horribly painted, adorned with 
 streaming scalp-locks and fluttering plumes, stole 
 crouching among the thickets, or peered with 
 lynx-eyed vision through the labyrinths of foliage. 
 Scouts and forest-rangers scoured the woods in 
 front and flank of the marching columns — men 
 
 i A. D. 1654-1658. — Doc. Hist. N. Y. I. 47. 
 
70 THE FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND INDIANS. [1696-1700. 
 
 trained among the hardships of the fur-trade, thin, 
 sinewy, and strong, arrayed in wild costume of 
 beaded moccason, scarlet leggin, and frock of buck- 
 skin, fantastically garnished with many-colored 
 embroidery of porcupine. ' Then came the levies 
 of the colony, in gray capotes and gaudy sashes, 
 and the trained battalions from old France in 
 cuirass and head-piece, veterans of European wars. 
 Plumed cavaliers were there, who had followed 
 the standards of Conde or Turenne, and who, even 
 in the depths of a wilderness, scorned to lay aside 
 the martial foppery which bedecked the camp and 
 court of Louis the Magnificent. The stern com- 
 mander was borne along upon a litter in the midst, 
 his locks bleached with years, but his eye kindling 
 with the quenchless fire which, like a furnace, 
 burned hottest w^hen its fuel was almost spent. 
 Thus, beneath the sepulchral arches of the forest, 
 through tangled thickets, and over prostrate trunks, 
 the aged nobleman advanced to wreak his ven- 
 geance upon empty wdgwams and deserted maize- 
 fields.^ 
 
 Even the fierce courage of the Iroquois began to 
 quail before these repeated attacks, while the grad- 
 ual growth of the colony, and the arrival of troops 
 from France, at length convinced them that they 
 could not destroy Canada. With the opening of 
 the eighteenth century, their rancor showed signs 
 of abating ; and in the year 1726, by dint of skil- 
 ful intrigue, the French succeeded in establishing 
 a permanent military post at the important pass of 
 
 1 Official Papers of the Expedition. —Doc. Hist. N. Y. I. 323. 
 
1700-1740.] TEIUMPHS OF THE FRENCH. 71 
 
 Niagara, within the limits of the confederacy.^ 
 Meanwhile, in spite of every obstacle, the power 
 of France had rapidly extended its boundaries in 
 the west. French influence diffused itself through 
 a thousand channels, among distant tribes, hostile, 
 for the most part, to the domineering Iroquois. 
 Forts, mission-houses, and armed trading stations 
 secured the principal passes. Traders, and cou- 
 rears de hois pushed their adventurous traffic into 
 the wildest deserts ; and French guns and hatchets, 
 French beads and cloth, French tobacco and 
 brandy, were known from where the stunted Es- 
 quimaux burrowed in their snow caves, to where 
 the Camanches scoured the plains of the south with 
 their banditti cavalry. Still this far-extended com- 
 merce continued to advance westward. In 1738, 
 La Verandye essayed to reach those mysterious 
 mountains which, as the Indians alleged, lay be- 
 yonrl the arid deserts of the Missouri and the Sas- 
 katchawan. Indian hostility defeated his enterprise, 
 but not before he had struck far out into these 
 unknown wilds, and formed a line of trading posts, 
 one of which. Fort de la Reine, was planted on 
 the Assinniboin, a hundred leagues beyond Lake 
 Winnipeg. At that early period, France left her 
 footsteps upon the dreary wastes which even now 
 have no other tenants than the Indian buffalo- 
 hunter or the roving trapper. 
 
 The fur-trade of the English colonists opposed 
 but feeble rivah-y to that of their hereditary foes. 
 At an early period, favored by the friendship of 
 
 1 Doc. Hist. N. Y. I. 446. 
 
72 THE FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND INDIANS. [1687-1750. 
 
 the Iroquois, they attempted to open a traffic with 
 the Algonquin tribes of the great lakes ; and in 
 the year 1687, Major McGregory ascended with a 
 boat load of goods to Lake Huron, where his 
 appearance excited great commotion, and where 
 he was seized and imprisoned by the French.^ 
 From this time forward, the English fur-trade lan- 
 guished, until the year 1725, when Governor 
 Burnet, of New York, established a post on Lake 
 Ontario, at the mouth of the river Oswego ; 
 whither, lured by the cheapness and excellence 
 of the English goods, crowds of savages soon con- 
 gregated from every side, to the unspeakable 
 annoyance of the French.^ Meanwhile, a consid- 
 erable commerce was springing up with the Cher- 
 okees and other tribes of the south ; and during 
 the first half of the century, the people of Penn- 
 sylvania began to cross the Alleghanies, and carry 
 on a lucrative traffic with the tribes of the Ohio. 
 In 1749, La Jonquiere, the Governor of Canada, 
 learned, to his great indignation, that several 
 English traders had reached Sandusky, and were 
 exerting a bad influence upon the Indians of that 
 quarter ; ^ and two years later, he caused four of 
 the intruders to be seized near the Ohio, and sent 
 prisoners to Canada.^ 
 
 These early efforts of the English, considerable 
 as they were, can ill bear comparison with the 
 vast extent of the French interior commerce. In 
 
 1 La Hontan, Voyages, I. 74. Golden, Memorial on the Fur-Trade. 
 
 2 Doc. Hist. N. Y. 1. 444. 
 
 8 Smith, Hist. Canada, I. 214. 
 * Pr€cis des Faits, 89. 
 
1625-1750.] THE ENGLISH AND THE IROQUOIS. 73 
 
 respect also to missionary enterprise, and the polit- 
 ical influence resulting from it, the French had 
 every advantage over rivals whose zeal for conver- 
 sion was neither kindled by fanaticism nor fostered 
 by an ambitious government. Eliot labored within 
 call of Boston, while the heroic Brebeuf faced the 
 ghastly perils of the western wilderness ; and the 
 wanderings of Brainerd sink into insignificance 
 compared with those of the devoted Rasles. Yet, 
 in judging the relative merits of the Eomish and 
 Protestant missionaries, it must not be forgotten 
 that while the former contented themselves with 
 sprinkling a few drops of water on the forehead 
 of the proselyte, the latter sought to wean him 
 from his barbarism and penetrate his savage heart 
 with the truths of Christianity. 
 
 In respect, also, to direct political influence, the 
 advantage was wholly on the side of France. The 
 English colonies, broken into separate governments, 
 w^ere incapable of exercising a vigorous and consist- 
 ent Indian policy ; and the measures of one gov- 
 ernment often clashed with those of another. Even 
 in the separate provinces, the popular nature of 
 the constitution and the quarrels of governors and 
 assemblies were unfavorable to efficient action ; and 
 this was more especially the case in the province 
 of New York, where the vicinity of the Iroquois 
 rendered strenuous yet prudent measures of the 
 utmost importance. The powerful confederates, 
 hating the French with bitter enmity, naturally 
 inclined to the English alliance ; and a proper treat- 
 ment would have secured theu' firm and lasting 
 
74 THE FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND INDIANS. [1625-1750. 
 
 friendship. But, at the early periods of her history, 
 the assembly of New York was made up in great 
 measure of narrow-minded men, more eager to 
 consult their own petty interests than to pursue 
 any far-sighted scheme of public welfare.^ Other 
 causes conspired to injure the British interest in 
 this quarter. The annual present sent from Eng- 
 land to the Iroquois was often embezzled by corrupt 
 governors or their favorites.^ The proud chiefs 
 were disgusted by the cold and haughty bearing of 
 the English officials, and a pernicious custom pre- 
 vailed of conducting Indian negotiations through 
 the medium of the fur-traders, a class of men held 
 in contempt by the Iroquois, and known among 
 them by the significant title of " rum carriers."^ 
 In short, through all the counsels of the province 
 Indian affairs were grossly and madly neglected.^ 
 
 With more or less emphasis, the same remark 
 holds true of all the other English colonies.'^ With 
 
 1 Smith, Hist. N. Y. passim. 
 
 2 Rev. Military Operations, Mass. Hist. Coll. 1st Series, VII. 67. 
 
 3 Golden, Hist. Five Nat. 161. 
 
 4 MS. Papers of Cadwallader C olden. MS. Papers of Sir William 
 Johnson. 
 
 " We find the Indians, as far back as the very confused manuscript 
 records in my possession, repeatedly upbraiding this province for tlieir 
 negligence, their avarice, and their want of assisting them at a time when 
 it was certainly in their power to destroy the infant colony of Ganada, 
 altliough supported by many nations ; and this is likewise confessed by 
 the writings of the managers of tliese times." — MS. Letter — Johnson to 
 the Board of Trade, May 'M, 1765. 
 
 5 " I apprehend it will clearly appear to you, that the colonies had all 
 along neglected to cultivate a proper understanding with the Indians, 
 and from a mistaken notion have greatly despised them, without consider- 
 ing that it is in tlieir power to lay waste and destroy the frontiers. This 
 opinion arose from our confidence in our scattered numbers, and the par- 
 simony of our people, who, from an error in politics, would not expend 
 five pounds to save twenty." — MS. Letter — Johnson to the Board of Trade, 
 November 13, 1763. 
 
1625-1750.] POLICY OF THE FRENCH. 75 
 
 those of France, it was far otherwise ; and this 
 difference between the rival powers was naturally 
 incident to their different forms of government, and 
 different conditions of development. France labored 
 with eager diligence to conciliate the Indians and 
 w^in them to espouse her cause. Her agents were 
 busy in every village, studying the language of the 
 inmates, complying with their usages, flattering 
 their prejudices, caressing them, cajoling them, and 
 whispering friendly warnings in their ears against 
 the wicked designs of the English. When a party 
 of Indian chiefs visited a French fort, they were 
 greeted with the firing of cannon and rolling of 
 drums ; they were regaled at the tables of the 
 officers, and bribed with medals and decorations, 
 scarlet uniforms and French flags. Far wiser than 
 their rivals, the French never ruffled the self-com- 
 placent dignity of their guests, never insulted their 
 religious notions, nor ridiculed their ancient cus- 
 toms. They met the savage half way, and showed 
 an abundant readiness to mould their own features 
 after his likeness.^ Count Frontenac himself, 
 plumed and painted like an Indian chief, danced 
 the war-dance and yelled the war-song at the camp 
 fires of his delighted allies. It would have been 
 well had the French been less exact in their imita- 
 tions, for at times they copied their model with 
 infamous fidelity, and fell into excesses scarcely cred- 
 ible but for the concurrent testimony of their own 
 writers. Frontenac caused an Iroquois prisoner to 
 
 I Adair, Post's Journals, Croghan's Journal, MSS. of Sir W. Johnson, 
 etc., etc. 
 
76 THE FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND INDIANS. [1625-1750. 
 
 be burnt alive to strike terror into his countrymen ; 
 and Louvigny, French commandant at Michillimac- 
 kinac, in 1695, tortured an Iroquois ambassador to 
 death, that he might break off a negotiation between 
 that people and the WyandotsJ Nor are these 
 the only well-attested instances of such execrable 
 inhumanity. But if the French were guilty of 
 these cruelties against their Indian enemies, they 
 were no less guilty of unworthy compliance with 
 the demands of their Indian friends, in cases where 
 Christianity and civilization would have dictated a 
 prompt refusal. Even Montcalm stained his bright 
 name by abandoning the hapless defenders of 
 Oswego and William Henry to the tender mercies 
 of an Indian mob. 
 
 In general, however, the Indian policy of the 
 French cannot be charged with obsequiousness. 
 Complaisance was tempered with dignity. At an 
 early period, they discerned the peculiarities of the 
 native character, and clearly saw that while on 
 the one hand it was necessary to avoid giving 
 offence, it was not less necessary on the other to 
 assume a bold demeanor and a show of power ; to 
 caress with one hand, and grasp a drawn sword 
 with the other.^ Every crime against a Frenchman 
 was promptly chastised by the sharp agency of 
 military law ; while among the English, the offender 
 
 1 La Hontan, I. 177. Potherie, Hist. Am. Sept. 11. 298 (Paris, 1722). 
 
 These facts afford no ground for national reflections, when it is recol- 
 lected that while Iroquois prisoners were tortured in the wilds of Canada, 
 Elizabeth Gaunt was burned to death at Tyburn for yielding to the dic- 
 tates of compassion, and giving shelter to a political offender. 
 
 2 Le Jeune, Rel. de la N. F. 1636, 193. 
 
1625-1750.] AMALGAMATION. 77 
 
 could only be reached through the medium of the 
 civil courts, whose delays, uncertainties and evasions 
 excited the wonder and provoked the contempt of 
 the Indians. 
 
 It was by observance of the course indicated 
 above, that the French w^ere enabled to maintain 
 themselves in small detached posts, far aloof from 
 the parent colony, and environed by barbarous 
 tribes where an English garrison would have been 
 cut off in a twelvemonth. They professed to hold 
 these posts, not in their own right, but purely 
 through the grace and condescension of the sur- 
 rounding savages ; and by this conciliating assurance 
 they sought to make good their position, until, with 
 their growing strength, conciliation should no more 
 be needed. 
 
 In its efforts to win the friendship and alliance 
 of the Indian tribes, the French government found 
 every advantage in the peculiar character of its 
 subjects — that pliant and plastic temper which 
 forms so marked a contrast to the stubborn spirit 
 of the Englishman. From the beginning, the 
 French showed a tendency to amalgamate with the 
 forest tribes. " The manners of the savages," 
 writes the Baron La Hontan, " are perfectly agree- 
 able to my palate ; " and many a restless adventurer 
 of high oy low degree might have echoed the words 
 of the erratic soldier. At first, great hopes were 
 entertained that, by the mingling of French and 
 Indians, the latter would be won over to civilization 
 and the church ; but the effect was precisely the 
 reverse ; for, as Charlevoix observes, the savages 
 
78 THE FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND INDIANS. [1625-1750. 
 
 did not become French, but the French became 
 savages. Hundreds betook themselves to the forest, 
 never more to return. These outflowings of French 
 civilization were merged in the waste of barbarism, 
 as a river is lost in the sands of the desert. The 
 wandering Frenchman chose a wife or a concu- 
 bine among his Indian friends ; and, in a few 
 generations, scarcely a tribe of the west was free 
 from an infusion of Celtic blood. The French 
 empire in x^merica could exhibit among its subjects 
 every shade of color from white to red, every gra- 
 dation of culture from the highest civilization of 
 Paris to the rudest barbarism of the wigwam. 
 
 The fur-trade engendered a peculiar class of 
 men, known by the appropriate name of bush- 
 rangers, or coureitrs de hois^ half-civilized vagrants, 
 whose chief vocation was conducting the canoes of 
 the traders along the lakes and rivers of the interior ; 
 many of them, however, shaking loose every tie of 
 blood and kindred, identified themselves with the 
 Indians, and sank into utter barbarism. In many 
 a squalid camp among the plains and forests of 
 the west, the traveller would have encountered 
 men owning the blood and speaking the language 
 of France, yet, in their swarthy visages and bar- 
 barous costume, seeming more akin to those with 
 whom they had cast their lot. The renegade of 
 civilization caught the habits and imbibed the pre- 
 judices of his chosen associates. He loved to 
 decorate his long hair with eagle feathers, to make 
 his face hideous with vermilion, ochre, and soot, 
 and to adorn his greasy hunting frock with horse- 
 
1625-1750.] ENGLISH FUK-TKADERS. 79 
 
 hair fringes. His dwelling, if he had one, was a 
 wigwam. He lounged on a bear-skin while his 
 squaw boiled his venison and lighted his pipe. In 
 hunting, in dancing, in singing, in taking a scalp, 
 he rivalled the genuine Indian. His mind was 
 tinctured with the superstitions of the forest. He 
 had faith in the magic drum of the conjuror; he 
 was not sure that a thunder cloud could not be 
 frightened away by whistling at it through the wing 
 bone of an eagle ; he carried the tail of a rattle- 
 snake in his bullet pouch by way of amulet ; and 
 he placed implicit trust in his dreams. This class 
 of men is not yet extinct. In the cheerless wilds 
 beyond the northern lakes, or among the mountain 
 solitudes of the distant w^est, they may still be 
 found, unchanged in life and character since the 
 day when Louis the Great claimed sovereignty over 
 this desert empire. 
 
 The borders of the English colonies displayed 
 no such phenomena of mingling races ; for here a 
 thorny and impracticable barrier divided the white 
 man from the red. The English fur-traders, and 
 the rude men in their employ, showed it is true 
 an ample alacrity to fling off the restraints of civil- 
 ization ; but though they became barbarians, they 
 did not become Indians ; and scorn on the one side 
 and hatred on the other still marked the intercourse 
 of the hostile races. With the settlers of the 
 frontier it was much the same. Rude, fierce and 
 contemptuous, they daily encroached upon the 
 hunting-grounds of the Indians, and then paid them 
 for the injury with curses and threats. Thus the 
 
80 THE FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND INDIANS. [1625-1750. 
 
 native population shrank back from before the Eng- 
 lish, as from before an advancing pestilence ; while, 
 on the other hand, in the very heart of Canada, 
 Indian communities sprang up, cherished by the 
 government, and favored by the easy-tempered 
 people. At Lorette, at Caughnawaga, at St. Fran- 
 cis, and elsewhere within the province, large bands 
 were gathered together, consisting in part of fugi- 
 tives from the borders of the hated English, and 
 aiding in time of war to swell the forces of the 
 French in repeated forays against the settlements 
 of New York and New England. 
 
 There was one of the English provinces marked 
 out from among the rest by the peculiar character 
 of its founders, and by the course of conduct 
 which was there pursued towards the Indian tribes. 
 William Penn, his mind warmed with a broad 
 philanthropy, and enlightened by liberal views of 
 human government and human rights, planted on 
 the banks of the Delaw^are the colony which, vivi- 
 fied by the principles it embodied, grew into the 
 great commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Penn's 
 treatment of the Indians was equally prudent and 
 humane, and its results were of high advantage 
 to the colony ; but these results have been exag- 
 gerated, and the treatment which produced them 
 made the theme of inordinate praise. It required 
 no great benevolence to urge the Quakers to deal 
 kindly with their savage neighbors. They were 
 bound in common sense to propitiate them ; since, 
 by incurring their resentment, they would involve 
 themselves in the dilemma of submitting their necks 
 
1625-1750.] THE QUAKERS AND THE INDIANS. 81 
 
 to the tomahawk, or wielding the carnal weapon, 
 in glaring defiance of their pacific principles. In 
 paying the Indians for the lands which his colo- 
 nists occupied, — a piece of justice which has heen 
 greeted w4th a general clamor of applause, — Penn, 
 as he himself confesses, acted on the prudent coun- 
 sel of Compton, Bishop of London.^ Nor is there 
 any truth in the representations of Kaynal and 
 other eulogists of the Quaker legislator, who hold 
 him up to the world as the only European who 
 ever acquired Indian lands by purchase, instead of 
 seizing them by fraud or violence. The example 
 of purchase had been set fifty years before by the 
 Puritans of New England ; and several of the other 
 colonies had more recently pursued the same just 
 and prudent course.^ 
 
 With regard to the alleged results of the pacific 
 conduct of the Quakers, our admiration will dimin- 
 ish on closely viewing the circumstances of the 
 case. The position of the colony was a most for- 
 tunate one. Had the Quakers planted their colony 
 on the banks' of the St. Lawrence, or among the 
 warlike tribes of New England, their shaking of 
 hands and assurances of tender regard would not 
 
 1 " I have exactly followed the Bishop of London's counsel, by buy- 
 ing, and not taking away, the natives' land." — Penn's Letto- to the Min- 
 istry, Aug. 14, 1683. See Chalmer's Polit. Ann. 666. 
 
 '-^ " If any of the salvages pretend right of inheritance to all or any part 
 of the lands granted in our patent, we pray you endeavor to purchase 
 their tytle, that we may avoid the least scruple of intrusion." —/nsfruc- 
 tions to Endicot, 1629. See Hazard, State Papers, I. 263. 
 
 " The inhabitants of New England had never, except in the territory 
 of the Pequods, taken possession of a foot of land without first obtaining 
 a title from the Indians." — Bancroft, Hist. U. S. II. 98. 
 
 6 
 
82 THE FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND INDIANS. [1682-1755. 
 
 long have availed to save them from the visitations 
 of the scalping-knife. But the Delawares, the 
 people on whose territory they had settled, were 
 like themselves debarred the use of arms. The 
 Iroquois had conquered them, disarmed them, and 
 forced them to adopt the opprobrious name of 
 women. The humble Delawares were but too 
 happy to receive the hand extended to them, and 
 dwell in friendship with their pacific neighbors ; 
 since to have lifted the hatchet would have brought 
 upon their heads the vengeance of their conquerors, 
 whose good will Penn had taken pains to secure.^ 
 
 The sons of Penn, his successors in the proprie- 
 torship of the province, did not evince the same 
 kindly feeling towards the Indians w^hich had dis- 
 tinguished their father. Earnest to acquire new 
 lands, they commenced through their agents a 
 series of unjust measures, which gradually alien- 
 ated the Indians, and, after a peace of seventy 
 years, produced a disastrous rupture. The Quaker 
 population of the colony sympathized in the kind- 
 ness which its founder had cherished towards the 
 benighted race. This feeling was strengthened 
 by years of friendly intercourse ; and except where 
 private interest was concerned, the Quakers made 
 good their reiterated professions of attachment. 
 Kindness to the Indian was the glory of their sect. 
 As years wore on, this feeling was wonderfully 
 reenforced by the influence of party spirit. The 
 time arrived when, alienated by English encroach- 
 
 1 He paid twice for his lands ; once to the Iroquois, who claimed them 
 by right of conquest, and once to their occupants, the Delawares. 
 
1682-1763.] QUAKERS AND INDIANS. 83 
 
 ment on the one hand and French seduction on 
 the other, the Indians began to assume a threaten- 
 ing attitude towards the province ; and many 
 voices urged the necessity of a resort to arms. 
 This measure, repugnant alike to their pacific 
 principles and to their love of the Indians, was 
 strenuously opposed by the Quakers. Their affec- 
 tion for the injured race was now inflamed into a 
 sort of benevolent fanaticism. The more rabid of 
 the sect would scarcely confess that an Indian 
 could ever do wrong. In their view, he was al- 
 ways sinned against, always the innocent victim of 
 injury and abuse; and in the days of the final 
 rupture, when the woods were full of furious war- 
 parties, and the German and Irish settlers on the 
 frontier were butchered by hundreds ; when the 
 western sky was darkened with the smoke of burn- 
 ing settlements, and the wretched fugitives were 
 flying in crowds across the Susquehanna, a large 
 party among the Quakers, secure by their Phila- 
 delphia firesides, could not see the necessity of 
 waging even a defensive war against their favorite 
 people.^ 
 
 The encroachments on the part of the proprie- 
 tors, which have been alluded to above, and which 
 many of the Quakers viewed with disapproval, 
 
 1 1755-1763. The feelings of the Quakers at this time may be gath- 
 ered from the following sources : MS. Account of the Rise and Progress of the 
 Friendly Association for gaining and preserving Peace with the Indians by 
 pacific Pleasures. Address of the Friendly Association to Governor Denny. 
 See Proud, Hist. Pa., appendix. Haz., Pa. Reg. VIII. 273, 293, 323. But 
 a much livelier picture of the prevailing excitement will be found in a 
 series of party pamplilets, published at Philadelphia in the year 1764. 
 
84 THE FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND INDIANS. [1737-1763. 
 
 consisted in the fraudulent interpretation of Indian 
 deeds of conveyance, and in the granting out of 
 lands without any conveyance at all. The most 
 notorious of these transactions, and the one most 
 lamentable in its results, was commenced in the 
 year 1737, and was known by the name of the 
 walking 'purchase. An old, forgotten deed was 
 raked out of the dust of the previous century ; a 
 deed which was in itself of doubtful validity, and 
 which had been virtually cancelled by a subsequent 
 agreement. On this rotten title the proprietors 
 laid claim to a valuable tract of land on the right 
 bank of the Delaware. Its western boundary was 
 to be defined by a line drawn from a certain point 
 on Neshaminey Creek, in a north-westerly direction, 
 as far as a man could walk in a day and a half. 
 From the end of the walk, a line drawn eastward 
 to the river Delaware was to form the northern 
 limit of the purchase. The proprietors sought out 
 the most active men who could be heard of, and 
 put them in training for the walk ; at the same time 
 laying out a smooth road along the intended course, 
 that no obstructions might mar their speed. By 
 this means an incredible distance was accomplished 
 within the limited time. And now it only remained 
 to adjust the northern boundary. Instead of run- 
 ning the line directly to the Delaware, according 
 to the evident meaning of the deed, the proprietors 
 inclined it so far to the north as to form an acute 
 angle with the river, and enclose many hundred 
 thousand acres of valuable land, which would 
 otherwise have remained in the hands of the Iiidi- 
 
] 737-1742.] THE WALKING PURCHASE. 85 
 
 ans/ The land thus obtained lay in the Forks of 
 the Delaware, above Easton, and was then occupied 
 by a powerful branch of the Delawares, who, to 
 their amazement, now heard the summons to quit 
 for ever their populous village and fields of half- 
 grown maize. In rage and distress they refused 
 to obey, and the proprietors were in a perplexing 
 dilemma. Force was necessary ; but a Quaker 
 legislature would never consent to fight, and espe- 
 cially to fight against Indians. An expedient was 
 hit upon, at once safe and effectual. The Iro- 
 quois were sent for. A deputation of their chiefs 
 appeared at Philadelphia, and having been well 
 bribed, and deceived by false accounts of the 
 transaction, they consented to remove the refrac- 
 tory Delawares. The delinquents were summoned 
 before their conquerors, and the Iroquois orator, 
 Canassatego, a man of tall stature and imposing 
 presence,^ looking with a grim countenance on his 
 cowering auditors, addressed them in the follow- 
 ing words : — 
 
 '' You ought to be taken by the hair of the head 
 and shaken soundly till you recover your senses. 
 You don't know what you are doing. Our brother 
 
 1 Causes of the Alienation of the Delaware and Shawnoe Indians from the 
 British Interest, 33, 68, (Lond. 1759). This work is a pamphlet written by 
 Charles Thompson, afterwards secretary of Congress, and designed to 
 explain the causes of the rupture which took place at the outbreak of the 
 French war. The text is supported by copious references to treaties and 
 documents. I have seen a copy in the possession of Francis Fisher, Esq., 
 of Philadelphia, containing marginal notes in the handwriting of James 
 Hamilton, who was twice governor of the province under the proprietary 
 instructions. In these notes, though he cavils at several unimportant 
 points of the relation, he suffers the essential matter to pass unchallenged. 
 
 2 Wifham Marshe's Journal, 
 
86 THE FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND INDIANS. [1737-1742. 
 
 Onas's ^ cause is very just. On the other hand, 
 your cause is bad, and you are bent to break the 
 chain of friendship. How came you to take upon 
 you to sell land at all ? We conquered you ; we 
 made women of you ; you know you are women, 
 and can no more sell land than women. This land 
 you claim is gone down your throats; you have 
 been furnished with clothes, meat, and drink, by 
 the goods paid you for it, and now you want it 
 again, like children as you are. What makes you 
 sell land in the dark 1 Did you ever tell us you 
 had sold this land ? Did we ever receive any part, 
 even the value of a pipe-shank, from you for it? 
 We charge you to remove instantly ; we don't give 
 you the liberty to think about it. You are women. 
 Take the advice of a wise man and remove im- 
 mediately. You may return to the other side of 
 Delaware, where you came from ; but we do not 
 know whether, considering how you have demeaned 
 yourselves, you will be permitted to live there ; or 
 whether you have not swallowed that land down 
 your throats as well as the land on this side. We 
 therefore assign you two places to go, either to 
 Wyoming or Shamokin. We shall then have you 
 more under our eye, and shall see how you behave. 
 Don't deliberate, but take this belt of wampum, 
 and go at once." ^ 
 
 The unhappy Delawares dared not disobey. They 
 left their ancient homes, and removed, as they had 
 
 1 Onas was the name given by the Indians to William Penn and his 
 successors. 
 
 2 Minutes of Indian council held at Philadelphia, 1742. 
 
1700-1755.] ENCROACHMENT OF SETTLERS. 87 
 
 been ordered, to the Susquehanna, where some 
 settled at Sharnokin, and some at Wyoming.^ From 
 an early period, the Indians had been annoyed by 
 the unlicensed intrusion of settlers upon their lauds, 
 and, in 1728, they had bitterly complained of the 
 wrong.^ The evil continued to increase. Many 
 families, chiefly German and Irish, began to cross 
 the Susquehanna and build their cabins along the 
 valleys of the Juniata and its tributary waters. The 
 Delawares sent frequent remonstrances from their 
 new abodes, and the Iroquois themselves made 
 angry complaints, declaring that the lands of the 
 Juniata were theirs by right of conquest, and that 
 they had given them to their cousins, the Delawares, 
 for hunting-grounds. Some 05*0 rts at redress were 
 made ; but the remedy proved inefl'ectual, and the 
 discontent of the Indians increased with every year. 
 The Shawanoes, with many of the Delawares, 
 removed westward, where for a time they would 
 be safe from intrusion ; and by the middle of the 
 century, the Delaware tribe was separated into two 
 divisions, one of which remained upon the Susque- 
 hanna, while the other, in conjunction with the 
 Shawanoes, dwelt on the waters of the Alleghany 
 and the Muskingum. 
 
 But now the French began to push their advanced 
 posts into the valley of the Ohio. Unhappily for 
 the English interest, they found the irritated minds 
 of the Indians in a state which favored their efl'orts 
 at seduction, and held forth a flattering promise 
 
 1 Chapman, Hist. Wyoming, 19. 
 
 2 Colonial Records, III. 340. 
 
88 THE FRENCH, ENCxLISH, AND INDIANS. [1700-1755 
 
 that tribes so long faithful to the English might 
 soon be won over to the cause of France. 
 
 While the English interests wore so inauspicious 
 an aspect in this quarter, their prospects were not 
 much better among the Iroquois. Since the peace 
 of Utrecht, in 1713, these powerful tribes had so 
 far forgotten their old malevolence against the 
 French, that the latter were enabled to bring all 
 their machinery of conciliation to bear upon them. 
 They turned the opportunity to such good account, 
 as not only to smooth away the asperity of the 
 ancient grudge, but also to rouse in the minds of 
 their former foes a growing jealousy against the 
 English. Several accidental circumstances did 
 much to aggravate this feeling. The Iroquois 
 were in the habit of sending out frequent war- 
 parties against their enemies, the Cherokees and 
 Catawbas, who dwelt near the borders of Carolina 
 and Virginia ; and in these forays the invaders 
 often became so seriously embroiled with the white 
 settlers, that sharp frays took place, and an open 
 war seemed likely to ensue.^ 
 
 It was with great difficulty that the irritation 
 caused by these untoward accidents was allayed ; 
 and even then enough remained in the neglect 
 of governments, the insults of traders, and the 
 haughty bearing of officials, to disgust the proud 
 confederates with their English allies. In the war 
 of 1745, they yielded but cold and doubtful aid; 
 and fears were entertained of their final estrange- 
 
 1 Letter of Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, Jan. 25, 1720. See 
 Colonial Records of Pa. III. 75. 
 
1749-1755.] DEFECTION OF THE IROQUOIS. 89 
 
 ment.' This result became still more imminent, 
 when, in the year 1749, the French priest Picquet 
 established his mission of La Presentation on the 
 St. Lawrence, at the site of Ogdensburg.^ This 
 pious father, like the martial churchmen of an 
 earlier day, deemed it no scandal to gird on earthly 
 armor against the enemies of the faith. He built 
 a fort and founded a settlement ; he mustered the 
 Indians about him from far and near, organized 
 their governments, and marshalled their war-parties. 
 From the crenelled walls of his mission-house the 
 warlike apostle could look forth upon a military 
 colony of his own creating, upon farms and clear- 
 ings, white Canadian cabins, and the bark lodges 
 of Indian hordes which he had gathered under his 
 protecting w^ing. A chief object of the settlement 
 was to form a barrier against the English ; but the 
 purpose dearest to the missionary's heart was to 
 gain over the Iroquois to the side of France ; and 
 in this he succeeded so well, that, as a writer of 
 good authority declares, the number of their war- 
 riors within the circle of his influence surpassed 
 the whole remaining force of the confederacy.^ 
 
 Thoughtful men in the English colonies saw with 
 anxiety the growing defection of the Iroquois, and 
 dreaded lest, in the event of a war with France, her 
 ancient foes might now be found her friends. But 
 in this ominous conjuncture, one strong influence 
 was at work to bind the confederates to their old 
 
 1 Minutes of Indian Council, 1746. 
 
 2 Doc. Hist N. Y. I. 423. 
 
 3 MS. Letter — Colden to Lord Halifax, no date. 
 
90 THE FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND INDIANS. [1734-1755. 
 
 alliance ; and this influence was wielded by a man 
 so remarkable in his character, and so conspicuous 
 an actor in the scenes of the ensuing history, as to 
 demand at least some passing notice. 
 
 About the year 1734, in consequence it is said 
 of the hapless issue of a love affair, William John- 
 son, a young Irishman, came over to America at 
 the age of nineteen, where he assumed the charge 
 of an extensive tract of wild land in the province 
 of New York, belonging to his uncle. Admiral Sir 
 Peter Warren. Settling in the valley of the Mo- 
 hawk, he carried on a prosperous traffic with the 
 Indians ; and while he rapidly rose to wealth, he 
 gained, at the same time, an extraordinary influence 
 over the neighboring Iroquois. As his resources 
 increased, he built two mansions in the valley, 
 known respectively by the names of Johnson Castle 
 and Johnson Hall, the latter of which, a well-con- 
 structed building of wood and stone, is still standing 
 in the village of Johnstown. Johnson Castle was 
 situated at some distance higher up the river. Both 
 were fortified against attack, and the latter was 
 surrounded with cabins built for the reception of 
 the Indians, who often came in crowds to visit the 
 proprietor, invading his dwelling at all unseasonable 
 hours, loitering in the doorways, spreading their 
 blankets in the passages, and infecting the air with 
 the fumes of stale tobacco. 
 
 Johnson supplied the place of his former love 
 by a young Dutch damsel, who bore him several 
 children ; and, in justice to them, he married 
 her upon her death-bed. Soon afterwards he 
 
1734-1763.] SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON: 91 
 
 found another favorite in the person of Molly 
 Brant, sister of the celebrated Mohawk war-chief, 
 whose black eyes and laughing face caught his 
 fancy, as, fluttering with ribbons, she galloped past 
 him at a muster of the Tryon county militia. 
 
 Johnson's importance became so conspicuous, 
 that when the French war broke out in 1755, he 
 was made a major general ; and, soon after, the 
 colonial troops under his command gained the 
 battle of Lake George against the French forces 
 of Baron Dieskau. For this success, for which 
 however he was entitled to little credit, he was 
 raised to the rank of baronet, and rewarded with a 
 gift of five thousand pounds from the king. About 
 this time, he was appointed superintendent of In- 
 dian affairs for the northern tribes, a station in 
 which he did signal service to the country. In 
 1759, when General Prideaux was killed by the 
 bursting of a cohorn in the trenches before Niag- 
 ara, Johnson succeeded to his command, routed the 
 French in another pitched battle, and soon raised 
 the red cross of England on the ramparts of the 
 fort. After the peace of 1763, he lived for many 
 years at Johnson Hall, constantly enriched by the 
 increasing value of his vast estate, and surrounded 
 by a hardy Highland tenantry, devoted to his in- 
 terests ; but when the tempest which had long 
 been brewing seemed at length about to break, and 
 signs of a speedy rupture with the mother country 
 thickened with every day, he stood wavering in 
 an agony of indecision, divided between his loy- 
 alty to the sovereign who was the source of all his 
 
92 THE FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND INDIANS. [1734-1774. 
 
 honors, and his reluctance to become the agent of 
 a murderous Indian warfare against his country- 
 men and friends. His final resolution was never 
 taken. In the summer of 1774, he was attacked 
 with a sudden illness, and died within a few hours, 
 in the sixtieth year of his age, hurried to his 
 grave by mental distress, or, as many believed, by 
 the act of his own hand. 
 
 Nature had well fitted him for the position in 
 which his propitious stars had cast his lot. His 
 person was tall, erect, and strong; his features 
 grave and manly. His direct and upright dealings, 
 his courage, eloquence, and address, were sure pass- 
 ports to favor in Indian eyes. He had a singular 
 facility of adaptation. In the camp, or at the 
 council-board, in spite of his defective education, 
 he bore himself as became his station ; but at 
 home he was seen drinking flip and smoking to- 
 bacco with the Dutch boors, his neighbors, and 
 talking of improvements or the price of beaver- 
 skins ; while in the Indian villages he would feast 
 on dog's flesh, dance with the warriors, and har- 
 angue his attentive auditors with all the dignity of 
 an Iroquois sachem. His temper was genial ; he 
 encouraged rustic sports, and was respected and 
 beloved alike by whites and Indians. 
 
 His good qualities, however, were alloyed with 
 serious defects. His mind was as coarse as it was 
 vigorous ; he was vain of his rank and influence, 
 and being quite free from any scruple of delicacy, 
 he lost no opportunity of proclaiming them. His 
 nature was eager and ambitious ; and in pushing 
 
1734-1755.] POSITION OF PARTIES. 93 
 
 his own way, he was never distinguished by an 
 anxious sohcitude for the rights of others.^ 
 
 At the time of which we speak, his fortunes had 
 not reached their zenith ; yet his influence was 
 great; and during the war of 1745, when he held 
 the chief control of Indian afl'airs in New York, 
 it was exercised in a manner most beneficial to the 
 province. After the peace of Aix la Chapelle, in 
 1748, finding his measures ill supported, he threw 
 up his office in disgust. Still his mere personal 
 influence sufficed to embarrass the intrigues of 
 the busy priest at La Presentation ; and a few 
 years later, when the public exigency demanded 
 his utmost eff'orts, he resumed, under better aus- 
 pices, the official management of Indian aff"airs. 
 
 And now, when the blindest could see that be- 
 tween the rival claimants to the soil of America 
 nothing was left but the arbitration of the sword, 
 no man friendly to the cause of England could ob- 
 serve without alarm how France had strengthened 
 herself in Indian alliances. The Iroquois, it is true, 
 had not quite gone over to her side ; nor had the 
 Delawares wholly forgotten their ancient league with 
 William Penn. The Miamis, too, in the valley of 
 the Ohio, had lately taken umbrage at the conduct 
 of the French, and betrayed a leaning to the side of 
 England, while several tribes of the south showed 
 a similar disposition. But, with few and slight 
 exceptions, the numerous tribes of the great lakes 
 
 1 Allen, Am. Biog. Diet, and authorities there referred to. Campbell, 
 Annals of Tryon County, appendix. Sabine, Am. Loyalists, 398. Papers 
 relating to Sir W. Johnson. See Doc. Hist. New York, II. MS. Papers of 
 Sir W. Johnson, etc., etc. 
 
94 THE FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND INDIANS. [1734-1755. 
 
 and the Mississippi, besides a host of domiciliated 
 savages in Canada itself, stood ready at the bidding 
 of France to grind their tomahawks and turn loose 
 their ravenous war-parties ; while the British colo- 
 nists had too much reason to fear that even those 
 tribes which seemed most friendly to their cause, 
 and which formed the sole barrier of their unpro- 
 tected borders, might, at the first sound of the 
 war-whoop, be found in arms against them. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1700-1755. 
 COLLISION OF THE EIVAL COLONIES. 
 
 The people of the northern English colonies had 
 learned to regard their Canadian neighbors with 
 the bitterest enmity. With them, the very name 
 of Canada called up horrible recollections and 
 ghastly images : the midnight massacre of Schen- 
 ectady, and the desolation of many a New Eng- 
 land hamlet ; blazing dwellings and reeking scalps ; 
 and children snatched from their mothers' arms, to 
 be immured in convents and trained up in the 
 abominations of Popery. To the sons of the Puri- 
 tans, their enemy was doubly odious. They hated 
 him as a Frenchman, and they hated him as a 
 Papist. Hitherto he had waged his ' murderous 
 warfare from a distance, wasting their settlements 
 with rapid onsets, fierce and ti'ansient as a summer 
 storm ; but now, with enterprising audacity, he was 
 intrenching himself on their very borders. The 
 English hunter, in the lonely wilderness of Ver- 
 mont, as by the warm glow of sunset he piled the* 
 spruce boughs for his woodland bed, started as a 
 deep, low sound struck faintly on his ear, the even- 
 ing gun ot Fort Frederic, booming over lake and 
 
96 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1700-1755. 
 
 forest. The erection of this fort, better known 
 among the English as Crown Point, was a piece of 
 daring encroachment which justly kindled resent- 
 ment in the northern colonies. But it was not here 
 that the immediate occasion of a final rupture was 
 to arise. By an article of the treaty of Utrecht, 
 confirmed by that of Aix la Chapelle, Acadia had 
 been ceded to England ; but scarcely was the latter 
 treaty signed, when debates sprang up touching 
 the limits of the ceded province. Commissioners 
 were named on either side to adjust the disputed 
 boundary ; but the claims of the rival powers proved 
 utterly irreconcilable, and all negotiation was 
 fruitless.^ Meantime, the French and English 
 forces in Acadia began to assume a belligerent 
 attitude, and indulge their ill blood in mutual ag- 
 gression and reprisal.^ But while this game was 
 played on the coasts of the Atlantic, interests of 
 far greater ;noment were at stake in the west. 
 
 The people of the middle colonies, placed by 
 their local position beyond reach of the French, 
 had heard with great composure of the sufferings 
 of their New England brethren, and felt little con- 
 cern at a danger so doubtful and remote. There 
 were those among them, however, who with greater 
 foresight had been quick to perceive the ambitious 
 projects of the rival nation ; and, as early as 1716, 
 Spotswood, governor of Virginia, had urged the 
 expediency of securing the valley of the Ohio by 
 
 1 Garaeau, Book VIII. Chap. III. 
 
 2 Holmes, Annals, II. 183. M€inoire contenant Le Precis des Fails, 
 Pieces Justijicatives, Part I. 
 
1748-1753.] MISSION OF WASHINGTON. 97 
 
 a series of forts and settlements.^ His proposal 
 was coldly received, and his plan fell to the 
 ground. The time at length was come when the 
 danger was approaching too near to be slighted 
 longer. In 1748, an association, called the Ohio 
 Company, -was formed with the view of making 
 settlements in the region beyond the AUeghanies ; 
 and two years later. Gist, the company's surveyor, 
 to the great disgust of the Indians, carried chain 
 and compass down the Ohio as far as the falls at 
 Louisville.^ But so dilatory were the English, that 
 before any effectual steps were taken, their agile 
 enemies appeared upon the scene. 
 
 In the spring of 1753, the middle provinces 
 were startled at the tidings that French troops had 
 crossed Lake Erie, fortified themselves at the point 
 of Presqu'-Isle, and pushed forward to the northern 
 branches of the Ohio.^ Upon this, Governor Din- 
 widdle, of Virginia, resolved to despatch a message 
 requiring their removal from territories which he 
 claimed as belonging to the British crown; and 
 looking about him for the person best qualified to 
 act as messenger, he made choice of George Wash- 
 ington, a young man twenty-one years of age, adju- 
 tant general of the Virginian militia. 
 
 Washington departed on his mission, crossed the 
 mountains, descended to the bleak and leafless 
 valley of the Ohio, and thence continued his jour- 
 
 1 Smollett, III. 370 (Edinburgh, 1805). 
 
 2 Sparks's Life and Writings of Washington, II. 478. Gist's Journal. 
 
 3 Olden Time, II. 9, 10. This excellent antiquarian publication con- 
 tains documents relating to this period which are not to be found else- 
 where. 
 
 7 
 
98 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1754. 
 
 ney up the banks of the Alleghany until the fourth 
 of December. On that day he reached Venango, 
 an Indian town on the Alleghany, at the mouth of 
 French Creek. Here was the advanced post of the 
 French ; and here, among the Indian log-cabins and 
 huts of bark, he saw their flag flying above the 
 house of an English trader, whom the military 
 intruders had unceremoniously ejected. They gave 
 the young envoy a hospitable reception,^ and referred 
 him to the commanding officer, whose headquarters 
 were at Le Bceuf, a fort which they had just built 
 on French Creek, some distance above Venango. 
 Thither Washington repaired, and on his arrival 
 was received with stately courtesy by the officer, 
 Legardeur de St. Pierre, whom he describes as an 
 elderly gentleman of very soldier-like appearance. 
 To the message of Dinwiddle, St. Pierre replied 
 that he would forward it to the governor general 
 of Canada ; but that, in the mean time, his orders 
 were to hold possession of the country, and this he 
 should do to the best of his ability. With this 
 answer Washington, through all the rigors of the 
 
 1 " He invited us to sup with them, and treated us with the greatest 
 complaisance. The wine, as they dosed themselves pretty plentifully 
 with it, soon banished the restraint which at first appeared in their con- 
 versation, and gave a license to their tongues to reveal their sentiments 
 more treely. They told me that it was their absolute design to take pos- 
 session of the Ohio, and by G — d they would do it ; for that, although 
 they were sensible the Enghsh could raise two men for their one, yet they 
 knew their motions were too slow and dilatory to prevent any under- 
 taking of theirs. They pretend to have an undoubted right to the river 
 from a discovery made by one La Salle, sixty years ago ; and the rise of 
 this expedition is, to prevent our settling on the river or waters of it, as 
 they heard of some families moving out in order thereto." — Washington, 
 Journal. 
 
1754.] DEATH OF JUMONVILLE. 99 
 
 midwinter forest, retraced his steps, with one attend- 
 ant, to the Enghsh borders. 
 
 With the first opening of spring, a newly raised 
 company of Virginian backwoodsmen, under Cap- 
 tain Trent, hastened across the mountains, and 
 began to build a fort at the confluence of the 
 Monongahela and Alleghany, where Pittsburg now 
 stands ; when suddenly they found themselves 
 invested by a host of French and Indians, who, 
 with sixty bateaux and three hundred canoes, had 
 descended from Le Boeuf and Venango.^ The 
 English were ordered to evacuate the spot ; and, 
 being quite unable to resist, they obeyed the sum- 
 mons, and withdrew in great discomfiture towards 
 Virginia. Meanwhile Washington, with another 
 party of backwoodsmen, was advancing from the 
 borders ; and, hearing of Trent's disaster, he 
 resolved to fortify himself on the Monongahela, 
 and hold his ground, if possible, until fresh troops 
 could arrive to support him. The French sent out 
 a scouting party under M. Jumonville, with the 
 design, probably, of watching his movements ; but, 
 on a dark and stormy night, Washington surprised 
 them, as they lay lurking in a rocky glen not far 
 from his camp, killed the officer, and captured the 
 whole detachment.^ Learning that the French, 
 enraged by this reverse, were about to attack him 
 in great force, he thought it prudent to fall back, 
 and retired accordingly to a spot called the Great 
 
 1 Sparks, Life and Writings of Washington, II. 6. 
 
 2 Sparks, II. 447. The conduct of Washington in this affair is 
 regarded by French writers as a stain on his memorj. 
 
100 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1754. 
 
 Meadows, where he had before thrown up a slight 
 intrenchment. Here he found himself assailed by 
 nine hundred French and Indians, commanded by 
 a brother of the slain Jumonville. From eleven in 
 the morning till eight at night, the backwoodsmen,- 
 who were half famished from the failure of their 
 stores, maintained a stubborn defence, some fight- 
 ing within the intrenchment, and some on the plain 
 without. In the evening, the French sounded a 
 parley, and offered terms. They were accepted, 
 and on the following day Washington and his men 
 retired across the mountains, leaving the disputed 
 territory in the hands of the French.^ 
 
 While the rival nations were beginning to quarrel 
 for a prize which belonged to neither of them, the 
 unhappy Indians saw, with alarm and amazement, 
 their lands becoming a bone of contention between 
 rapacious strangers. The first appearance of the 
 French on the Ohio excited the wildest fears in the 
 tribes of that quarter, among whom were those 
 who, disgusted by the encroachments of the Penn- 
 sylvanians, had fled to these remote retreats to 
 escape the intrusions of the white men. Scarcely 
 was their fancied asylum gained, when they saw 
 themselves invaded by a host of armed men from 
 Canada. Thus placed between two fires, they knew 
 not which way to turn. There was no union in 
 their counsels, and they seemed like a mob of bewil- 
 
 1 For the French account of these operations, see M^moire contenant le 
 Precis des Fails. This volume, an official pubUcation of the French 
 court, contains numerous documents, among which are the papers of the 
 unfortunate Braddock, left on the field of battle by his defeated army. 
 
1754.] FRENCH AND ENGLISH DIPLOMACY. 101 
 
 dered children. Their native jealousy was roused 
 to its utmost pitch. Many of them thought that 
 the two white nations had conspired to destroy 
 them, and then divide their lands. " You and the 
 French," said one of them, a few years afterwards, 
 to an English emissary, " are like the two edges of 
 a pair of shears, and we are the cloth which is cut 
 to pieces between them." ^ 
 
 The French labored hard to conciliate them, ply- 
 ing them with gifts and flatteries,^ and proclaiming 
 themselves their champions against the English. 
 At first, these arts seemed in vain, but their effect 
 soon began to declare itself; and this effect was 
 greatly increased by a singular piece of infatuation 
 on the part of the proprietors of Pennsylvania. 
 During the summer of 1754, delegates of the sev- 
 eral provinces met at Albany, to concert measures 
 of defence in the war which now seemed inevitable. 
 It was at this meeting that the memorable plan of 
 a union of the colonies was brought forward; a 
 plan, the fate of which was curious and significant, 
 for the crown rejected it as giving too much power 
 to the people, and the people as giving too much 
 
 1 First Journal of C. F. Post. 
 
 2 Letters of Robert Stobo, an English hostage at Fort du Quesne. 
 
 " Shamokin Daniel, who came with me, went over to the fort [du 
 Quesne] by himself, and counselled with the governor, who presented 
 him with a laced coat and hat, a blanket, shirts, ribbons, a new gun, pow- 
 der, lead, &c. When he returned he was quite changed, and said, ' See 
 here, you fools, what the French have given me. I was in Philadelphia, 
 and never received a farthing ; ' and (directing himself to me) said, ' The 
 EngUsh are fools, and so are you.'" — Post, First Journal. 
 
 Washington, while at Fort Le Boeuf, was much annoyed by the con- 
 duct of the French, who did their utmost to seduce his Indian escort by 
 bribes and promises. 
 
102 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1756. 
 
 power to the crown.-^ A council was also held with 
 the Iroquois, and though they were found but luke- 
 warm in their attachment to the English, a treaty 
 of friendship and alliance was concluded with their 
 deputies.^ It would have been well if the matter 
 had ended here ; but, with ill-timed rapacity, the 
 proprietary agents of Pennsylvania took advantage 
 of this great assemblage of sachems to procure 
 from them the grant of extensive tracts, including 
 the lands inhabited by the very tribes whom the 
 French were at that moment striving to seduce.^ 
 AVhen they heard that, without their consent, their 
 conquerors and tyrants, the Iroquois, had sold the 
 soil from beneath their feet, their indignation was 
 extreme ; and, convinced that there was no limit to 
 English encroachment, many of them from that 
 hour became fast allies of the French. 
 
 The courts of London and Versailles still main- 
 tained a diplomatic intercourse, both protesting 
 their earnest wish that their conflicting claims might 
 be adjusted by friendly negotiation ; but while each 
 disclaimed the intention of hostility, both were 
 hastening to prepare for war. Early in 1755, an 
 English fleet sailed from Cork, having on board 
 two regiments destined for Virginia, and commanded 
 by General Braddock ; and soon after, a French 
 
 1 Trumbull, Hkt. Conn. II. 355. Holmes, Annals, II. 201. 
 
 2 At this council an Iroquois sachem upbraided tlie English, with great 
 boldness, for their neglect of the Indians, their invasion of their lands, and 
 their dilatory conduct with regard to the French, who, as the speaker 
 averred, had behaved like men and warriors. — Minutes of Conferences at 
 Albany, 1754. 
 
 ^ Causes of the Alienation of the Delaware and Shawanoe Indians from the 
 British Interest, 77. 
 
1755.] THE WAR IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. 103 
 
 fleet put to sea from the port of Brest, freighted 
 with munitions of war and a strong body of troops 
 under Baron Dieskau, an officer who had distin- 
 guished himself in the campaigns of Marshal Saxe. 
 The English fleet gained its destination, and landed 
 its troops in safety. The French were less fortu- 
 nate. Two of their ships, the Lys and the Alcide, 
 became involved in the fogs of the banks of New- 
 foundland ; and when the weather cleared, they 
 found themselves under the guns of a superior Brit- 
 ish force, belonging to the squadron of Admiral 
 Boscawen, sent out for the express purpose of 
 intercepting them. " Are we at peace or war i " 
 demanded the French commander. A broadside 
 from the Englishman soon solved his doubts, and 
 after a stout resistance the French struck their 
 colors.^ News of the capture caused great excite- 
 ment in England, but the conduct of the aggres- 
 sors was generally approved ; and under pretence 
 that the French had begun the war by their alleged 
 encroachments in America, orders were issued for 
 a general attack upon their marine. So successful 
 were the British cruisers, that, before the end of 
 the year, three hundred French vessels and nearly 
 eight thousand sailors were captured and brought 
 into port.^ The French, unable to retort in kind, 
 
 1 Garneau, II. 551. Gent, Mag. XXV. 330. 
 
 2 SmoUett, III. 436. 
 
 " The French inveighed against the capture of their ships, before any 
 declaration of war, as flagrant acts of piracy ; and some neutral powers of 
 Europe seemed to consider them in the same point of view. It was cer- 
 tainly high time to check the insolence of the French by force of arms ; 
 and surely this might have been as eflectually and expeditiously exerted 
 
104 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1755. 
 
 raised an outcry of indignation, and Mirepoix their 
 ambassador withdrew from the court of London. 
 
 Thus began that memorable war which, kindhng 
 among the forests of America, scattered its fires 
 over the kingdoms of Europe, and the sultry empire 
 of the Great Mogul ; the war made glorious by 
 the heroic death of Wolfe, the victories of Fred- 
 eric, and the exploits of Clive ; the war which 
 controlled the destinies of America, and was first 
 in the chain of events which led on to her Eevo- 
 lution with all its vast and undeveloped conse- 
 quences. On the old battle-ground of Europe, the 
 contest bore the same familiar features of violence 
 and horror which had marked the strife of former 
 generations — fields ploughed by the cannon ball, 
 and walls shattered by the exploding mine, sacked 
 towns and blazing suburbs, the lamentations of 
 women, and the license of a maddened soldiery. 
 But in America, war assumed a new and striking 
 aspect. A wilderness was its sublime arena. Army 
 met army under the shadows of primeval woods ; 
 their cannon resounded over wastes unknown to 
 civilized man. And before the hostile powers 
 could join in battle, endless forests must be trav- 
 ersed, and morasses passed, and everywhere the 
 axe of the pioneer must hew a path for the bayonet 
 of the soldier. 
 
 Before the declaration of war, and before the 
 breaking off" of negotiations between the courts of 
 
 under the usual sanction of a formal declaration, the omission of which 
 exposed the administration to the censure of our neighbors, and fixed the 
 imputation of fraud and freebooting on the beginning of the war." — 
 Smollett, III. 481. See also Mahon, Hist. England, IV. 72. 
 
1755.] THE WAR IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. 105 
 
 France and England, the English ministry formed 
 the plan of assailing the French in America on all 
 sides at once, and repelling them, by one bold push, 
 from all their encroachments.^ A provincial army 
 was to advance upon Acadia, a second was to 
 attack Crown Point, and a third Niagara ; while 
 the two regiments which had lately arrived in Vir- 
 ginia under General Braddock, aided by a strong 
 body of provincials, were to dislodge the French 
 from their newly-built fort of Du Quesne. To 
 Braddock was assigned the chief command of all 
 the British forces in ximerica ; and a person worse 
 fitted for the office could scarcely have been found. 
 His experience had been ample, and none could 
 doubt his courage ; but he was profligate, arro- 
 gant, perverse, and a bigot to military rules. ^ On 
 
 1 Instructions of General Braddock. See Precis des Fails, 160, 168. 
 
 2 The following is Horace Walpole's testimony, and writers of better 
 authority have expressed themselves, with less liveliness and piquancy, 
 to the same effect : — 
 
 " Braddock is a very Iroquois in disposition. He had a sister, who, 
 having gamed away all her little fortune at Bath, hanged herself with a 
 truly English deliberation, leaving only a note upon the table with those 
 lines, ' To die is landing on some silent shore,' &c. When Braddock was 
 told of it, he only said, ' Poor Fanny ! I always thought she would play 
 till she would be forced to tack herself up.' " 
 
 Here follows a curious anecdote of Braddock's meanness and profligacy, 
 which I omit. The next is more to his credit. " He once had a duel with 
 Colonel Gumley, Lady Bath's brother, who had been his great friend. As 
 they were going to engage, Gumley, who had good humor and wit (Brad- 
 dock had the latter), said, ' Braddock, you are a poor dog ! Here, take my 
 purse. If you kill me, you will be forced to run away, and then you will 
 not have a shiUing to support you.* Braddock refused the purse, insisted 
 on the duel, was disarmed, and would not even ask his life. However, 
 with all his brutality, he has lately been governor of Gibraltar, where 
 he made himself adored, and where scarce any governor was endured 
 before."— Letters fo Sir H. Mann, CCLXV. CCLXVI. 
 
 Washington's opinion of Braddock may be gathered from his Writings, 
 11. 77. 
 
106 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1755. 
 
 his first arrival in Virginia, he called together the 
 governors of the several provinces, in order to 
 explain his instructions and adjust the details of 
 the projected operations. These arrangements 
 complete, Braddock advanced to the borders of 
 Virginia, and formed his camp at Fort Cumberland, 
 where he spent several weeks in training the raw 
 backwoodsmen, who joined him, into such disci- 
 pline as they seemed capable of; in collecting 
 horses and wagons, which could only be had with 
 the utmost difficulty; in railing at the contractors, 
 who scandalously cheated him ; and in venting his 
 spleen by copious abuse of the country and the 
 people. All at length was ready, and early in 
 June, 1755, the army left civilization behind, and 
 struck into the broad wilderness as a squadron puts 
 out to sea. 
 
 It was no easy task to force their way over that 
 rugged ground, covered with an unbroken growth 
 of forest ; and the difficulty was increased by the 
 needless load of baggage which encumbered their 
 march. The crash of falling trees resounded in 
 the front, where a hundred axemen labored with 
 ceaseless toil to hew a passage for the army.^ 
 The horses strained their utmost strength to drag 
 the ponderous wagons over roots and stumps, 
 through gullies and quagmires ; and the regular 
 troops were daunted by the depth and gloom of 
 the forest w^hich hedged them in on either hand, 
 and closed its leafy arches above their heads. So 
 tedious was their progress, that, by the advice of 
 
 1 MS. Diary of the Expedition, in the British Museum. 
 
1755.] MARCH OF BRADDOCK. 107 
 
 Washington, twelve hundred chosen men moved 
 on in advance with the lighter baggage and artil- 
 lery, leaving the rest of the army to follow, by 
 slower stages, with the heavy wagons. On the 
 eighth of July, the advanced body reached the 
 Monongahela, at a point not far distant from Fort 
 du Quesne. The rocky and impracticable ground 
 on the eastern side debarred their passage, and the 
 general resolved to cross the river in search of a 
 smoother path, and recross it a few miles lower 
 down, in order to gain the fort. The first passage 
 was easily made, and the troops moved, in glitter- 
 ing array, down the western margin of the water, 
 rejoicing that their goal was well nigh reached, 
 and the hour of their expected triumph close at 
 hand. 
 
 Scouts and Indian runners had brought the tid- 
 ings of Braddock's approach to the French at Fort 
 du Quesne. Their dismay was great, and Contre- 
 coeur, the commander, thought only of retreat ; 
 when Beaujeu, a captain in the garrison, made the 
 bold proposal of leading out a party of French 
 and Indians to waylay the English in the woods, 
 and harass or interrupt their march. The offer 
 was accepted, and Beaujeu hastened to the Indian 
 camps. 
 
 Around the fort and beneath the adjacent forest 
 were the bark lodges of savage hordes, whom the 
 French had mustered from far and near ; Ojibwas 
 and Ottawas, Hurons and Caughnawagas, Abena- 
 kis and Delawares. Beaujeu called the warriors 
 together, flung a hatchet on the ground before 
 
108 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1755. 
 
 them, and invited them to follow him out to battle ; 
 but the boldest stood aghast at the peril, and none 
 would accept the challenge. A second interview 
 took place with no better success ; but the French- 
 man was resolved to carry his point. " I am de- 
 termined to go," he exclaimed. " What, will you 
 suffer your father to go alone ] " ^ His daring 
 proved contagious. The warriors hesitated no 
 longer ; and when, on the morning of the ninth 
 of July, a scout ran in with the news that the 
 English army was but a few miles distant, the In- 
 dian camps were at once astir with the turmoil of 
 preparation. Chiefs harangued their yelling fol- 
 lowers, braves bedaubed themselves with war-paint, 
 smeared themselves with grease, hung feathers in 
 their scalp-locks, and whooped and stamped till 
 they had wrought themselves into a delirium of 
 valor. 
 
 That morning, James Smith, an English prisoner 
 recently captured on the frontier of Pennsylvania, 
 stood on the rampart, and saw the half-frenzied 
 multitude thronging about the gateway, where kegs 
 of bullets and gunpowder were broken open, that 
 each might help himself at will.^ Then band after 
 band hastened away towards the forest, followed 
 and supported by nearly two hundred and fifty 
 French and Canadians, commanded by Beaujeu. 
 
 1 Sparks's Life and Writings of Washington, II. 473. I am indebted to 
 the kindness of President Sparks for copies of several French manuscripts, 
 which throw much light on the incidents of the battle. These manu- 
 scripts are alluded to in the Life and Writings of Washington. 
 
 2 Smith's Narrative. This interesting account has been several times 
 published. It may be found in Drake's Tragedies of the Wilderness. 
 
1755.] THE AMBUSCADE. 109 
 
 There were the Ottawas, led on, it is said, by the 
 remarkable man whose name stands on the title- 
 page of this history ; there were the Hnrons of 
 Lorette under their chief, whom the French called 
 Athanase,^ and many more, all keen as hounds on 
 the scent of blood. At about nine miles from the 
 fort, they reached a spot where the narrow road 
 descended to the river through deep and gloomy 
 woods, and where two ravines, concealed by trees 
 and bushes, seemed formed by nature for an am- 
 buscade. Beaujeau well knew the ground ; and it 
 was here that he had resolved to fight ; but he and 
 his followers were well nigh too late ; for as they 
 neared the ravines, the woods were resounding 
 with the roll of the British drums. 
 
 It was past noon of a day brightened with the 
 clear sunlight of an American midsummer, when 
 the forces of Braddock began, for a second time, 
 to cross the Monongahela, at the fording-place, 
 which to this day bears the name of their ill-fated 
 leader. The scarlet columns of the British regu- 
 lars, complete in martial appointment, the rude 
 backwoodsmen with shouldered rifles, the trains of 
 artillery and the white-topped wagons, moved on 
 in long procession through the shallow current, 
 and slowly mounted the opposing bank.^ Men 
 
 1 " Went to Lorette, an Indian village about eight miles from Quebec. 
 Saw the Indians at mass, and heard them sing psalms tolerably well — a 
 dance. Got well acquainted with Athanase, who was commander of the 
 Indians who defeated General Braddock, in 1756 — a very sensible fel- 
 low." — MS. Journal of an English Gentleman on a Tour through Canada, in 
 1765. 
 
 2 " My feelings were heightened by the warm and glowing narration 
 of that day's events, by Dr. Walker, who was aja eye-witness. He pointed 
 
110 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1755. 
 
 were there whose names have become historic : 
 Gage, who, twenty years later, saw his routed 
 battalions recoil in disorder from before the breast- 
 work on Bunker Hill ; Gates, the future conqueror 
 of Burgoyne ; and one destined to a higher fame, 
 — George Washington, a boy in years, a man in 
 calm thought and self-ruling wisdom. 
 
 With steady and well ordered march, the troops 
 advanced into the great labyrinth of woods which 
 shadowed the eastern borders of the river. Rank 
 after rank vanished from sight. The forest swal- 
 lowed them up, and the silence of the wilderness 
 sank down once more on the shores and waters of 
 the Monongahela. 
 
 Several engineers and guides and six light horse- 
 men led the way ; a body of grenadiers under Gage 
 was close behind, and the army followed in such 
 order as the rough ground would permit, along a 
 narrow road, twelve feet wide, tunnelled through 
 the dense and matted foliage. There were flank- 
 ing parties on either side, but no scouts to scour 
 the woods in front, and with an insane confidence 
 Braddock pressed on to meet his fate. The van 
 had passed the low grounds that bordered the river, 
 and were now ascending a gently rising ground, 
 where, on either hand, hidden by thick trees, by 
 
 out the ford where the army crossed the Monongahela (below Turtle 
 Creek, 800 yards). A finer sight could not have been beheld, — the 
 shining barrels of the muskets, the excellent order of the men, the clean- 
 liness of their appearance, the joy depicted on every face at being so near 
 Fort du Quesne — the highest object of their wishes. The music re- 
 echoed through the hills. How brilliant the morning — how melancholy 
 the evening!" — Letter of Judge YecUes, dated August, 1776. See Haz., 
 Pa. Reg., VI. 104. 
 
1755.] BKADDOCKS DEFEAT. Ill 
 
 tangled undergrowth and rank grasses, lay the two 
 fatal ravmes. Suddenly, Gordon, an engineer in 
 advance, saw the French and Indians bounding 
 forward through the forest and along the narrow 
 track, Beaujeau leading them on, dressed in a fringed 
 hunting-sliirt, and wearing a silver gorget on his 
 breast. He stopped, turned, and waved his hat, 
 and his French followers, crowding across the road, 
 opened a murderous fire upon the head of the 
 British column, while, screeching their war-cries, 
 the Indians thronged into the ravines, or crouched 
 behind rocks and trees on both flanks of the advan- 
 cing troops. The astonished grenadiers returned 
 the fire, and returned it with good efi'ect ; for a 
 random shot struck down the brave Beaujeau, and 
 the courage of the assailants was staggered by his 
 fall. Dumas, second in command, rallied them to 
 the attack ; and while he, with the French and 
 Canadians, made good the pass in front, the Indians 
 from their lurking places opened a deadly fire on 
 the right and left. In a few moments, all was 
 confusion. The advance guard fell back on the 
 main body, and every trace of subordination van- 
 ished. The fire soon extended along the whole 
 length of the army, from front to rear. Scarce 
 an enemy could be seen, though the forest re- 
 sounded with their yells ; though every bush and 
 tree was alive with incessant flashes ; though the 
 lead flew like a hailstorm, and the men went down 
 by scores. The regular troops seemed bereft of 
 their senses. They huddled together in the road 
 like flocks of sheep ; and happy did he think him- 
 
112 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1755 
 
 self who could wedge his way into the midst of 
 the crowd, and place a barrier of human flesh 
 between his life and the shot of the ambushed 
 marksmen. Many were seen eagerly loading their 
 muskets, and then firing them into the air, or shoot- 
 ing their own comrades in the insanity of their 
 terror. The officers, for the most part, displayed a 
 conspicuous gallantry ; but threats and commands 
 were wasted alike on the panic-stricken multitude. 
 It is said that at the outset Braddock showed signs 
 of fear ; but he soon recovered his wonted intre- 
 pidity. Five horses were shot under him, and five 
 times he mounted afresh.^ He stormed and shouted, 
 and, while the Virginians were fighting to good 
 purpose, each man behind a tree, like the Indians 
 themselves, he ordered them with furious menace 
 to form in platoons, where the fire of the enemy 
 mowed them down like grass. At length, a mortal 
 shot silenced him, and two provincials bore him 
 off the field. Washington rode through the tumult 
 calm and undaunted. Two horses were killed 
 under him, and four bullets pierced his clothes ; ^ 
 but his hour was not come, and he escaped with- 
 out a wound. Gates was shot through the body, 
 and Gage also was severely wounded. Of eighty- 
 six officers, only twenty- three remained unhurt ; 
 and of twelve hundred soldiers who crossed the 
 Monongahela, more than seven hundred were killed 
 and wounded. None suffered more severely than 
 the Virginians, who had displayed throughout a 
 
 1 Letter — Captain Orme, his aide-de-camp, to , July 18. 
 
 2 Sparks, I. 67. 
 
1755.J RESULTS OF BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. 113 
 
 degree of courage and steadiness which put the 
 cowardice of the regulars to shame. The havoc 
 among them was terrible, for of their whole num- 
 ber scarcely one-fifth left the field alive. ^ 
 
 The slaughter lasted three hours ; when, at 
 length, the survivors, as if impelled by a general 
 impulse, rushed tumultously from the place of car- 
 nage, and with dastardly precipitation fled across 
 the Monongahela. The enemy did not pursue 
 beyond the river, flocking back to the field to col- 
 lect the plunder, and gather a rich harvest of scalps. 
 The routed troops pursued their flight until they 
 met the rear division of the army, under Colonel 
 Dunbar ; and even then their senseless terrors did 
 not abate. Dunbar's soldier's caught the infection. 
 Cannon, baggage, provisions and wagons were des- 
 troyed, and all fled together, eager to escape from 
 the shadows of those awful woods, whose horrors 
 haunted their imagination. They passed the 
 defenceless settlements of the border, and hurried 
 on to Philadelphia, leaving the unhappy people to 
 defend themselves as they might against the toma^ 
 hawk and scalping-knife. 
 
 The calamities of this disgraceful rout did not 
 
 1 " The Virginia troops showed a good deal of bravery, a;id were 
 nearly all killed ; for I believe, out of three companies that were there, 
 scarcely thirty men are left ahve Captain Peyrouny, and aU his officers, 
 down to a corporal, were killed. Captain Poison had nearly as hard a 
 fate, for only one of his was left. In short, the dastardly behavior of those 
 they call regulars exposed all others, that were inclined to do their duty, 
 to almost certain death ; and at last, in despite of all the efforts of the 
 officers to the contrary, they ran, as sheep pursued by dogs, and it was 
 impossible to rally them." — Writings of Washington, II. 87. 
 
 The English themselves bore reluctant testimony to the good conduct 
 of the Virginians. — See Entick, Hist. Late War, 147. 
 
 8 
 
114 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1755. 
 
 cease with the loss of a few hundred soldiers on 
 the field of battle ; for it brought upon the prov- 
 inces all the miseries of an Indian war. Those 
 among the tribes who had thus far stood neutral, 
 wavering between the French and English, now 
 hesitated no longer. Many of them had been dis- 
 gusted by the contemptuous behavior of Braddock. 
 All had learned to despise the courage of the 
 English, and to regard their own prowess with 
 unbounded complacency. It is not in Indian 
 nature to stand quiet in the midst of war ; and 
 the defeat of Braddock was a signal for the 
 western savages to snatch their tomahawks and 
 assail the English settlements with one accord, 
 murdering and pillaging with ruthless fury, and 
 turning the frontier of Pennsylvania and Virginia 
 into one wide scene of havoc and desolation. 
 
 The three remaining expeditions which the 
 British ministry had planned for that year's cam- 
 paign were attended with various results. Acadia 
 was quickly reduced by the forces of Colonel 
 Monkton ; but the glories of this easy victory 
 were tarnished by an act of cruelty. Seven thou- 
 sand of the unfortunate people, refusing to take 
 the prescribed oath of allegiance, were seized by 
 the conquerors, torn from their homes, placed on 
 shipboard like cargoes of negro slaves, and trans- 
 ported to the British provinces.^ The expedition 
 against l^iagara was a total failure, for the troops 
 did not even reach their destination. The move- 
 ment against Crown Point met with no better 
 
 1 Haliburton, Hist. Nova Scotia, I. Chap. IV. 
 
1755.] BATTLE OF LAKE GEOKGE. 115 
 
 success, as regards the main object of the enter- 
 prise. Owing to the lateness of the season, and 
 other causes, the troops proceeded no farther than 
 Lake George ; but the attempt was marked by a 
 feat of arms, which, in that day of failures, was 
 greeted, both in England and America, as a signal 
 victory. 
 
 General Johnson, afterwards Sir William John- 
 son, had been charged with the conduct of the 
 Crown Point expedition ; and his little army, a 
 rude assemblage of hunters and farmers from New 
 York and New England, officers and men alike 
 ignorant of war, lay encamped at the southern 
 extremity of Lake George. Here, while they 
 languidly pursued their preparations, their active 
 enemy anticipated them. Baron Dieskau, who, 
 with a body of troops, had reached Quebec in the 
 squadron which sailed from "Brest in the spring, 
 had intended to take forcible possession of the 
 English fort of Oswego, erected upon ground 
 claimed by the French as a part of Canada. 
 Learning Johnson's movements, he changed his 
 plan, crossed Lake Champlain, made a circuit by 
 way of Wood Creek, and gained the rear of the 
 English army, with a force of about two thousand 
 French and Indians. At midnight, on the seventh 
 of September, the tidings reached Johnson that the 
 army of the French baron was but a few miles 
 distant from his camp. A council of war was 
 called, and the resolution formed of detaching a 
 thousand men to reconnoitre. " If they are to be 
 killed," said Hendrick, the Mohawk chief, " they 
 
116 COLLISION OF THE EIVAL COLONIES. [1755 
 
 are too many ; if they are to fight, they are too 
 few." His remonstrance was unheeded ; arid the 
 brave old savage, unable from age and corpulence 
 to fight on foot, mounted his horse, and joined 
 the English detachment with two hundred of his 
 warriors. At sunrise, the party defiled from the 
 camp, and entering the forest disappeared from 
 the eyes of their comrades. 
 
 Those who remained behind labored with all the 
 energy of alarm to fortify their unprotected camp. 
 An hour elapsed, when from the distance was 
 heard a sudden explosion of musketry. The 
 excited soldiers suspended their work to listen. 
 A rattling fire succeeded, deadened among the 
 woods, but growing louder and nearer, till none 
 could doubt that their comrades had met the 
 French, and were defeated. 
 
 This was indeed the case. Marching through 
 thick woods, by the narrow and newly-cut road 
 which led along the valley southward from Lake 
 George, Williams, the English commander, had 
 led his men full into an ambuscade, where all 
 Dieskau's army lay in wait to receive them. From 
 the woods on both sides rose an appalling shout, 
 followed by a storm of bullets. Williams was 
 soon shot down ; Hendrick shared his fate ; many 
 officers fell, and the road was strewn with dead 
 and wounded soldiers. The English gave way at 
 once. Had they been regular troops, the result 
 would have been worse ; but every man was a 
 woodsman and a hunter. Some retired in bodies 
 along the road ; while the greater part spread 
 
1755.] BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. 117 
 
 themselves through the forest, opposing a wide 
 front to the enemy, fighting stubbornly as they 
 retreated, and shooting back at the French from 
 behind every tree or bush that could afford a cover. 
 The Canadians and Indians pressed them closely, 
 darting, with shrill cries, from tree to tree, while 
 Dieskau's regulars, with steadier advance, bore all 
 before them. Far and wide through the forest rang 
 shout and shriek and Indian whoop, mingled with 
 the deadly rattle of guns. Retreating and pur- 
 suing, the combatants passed northward towards 
 the English camp, leaving the ground behind them 
 strewn with dead and dying. 
 
 A fresh detachment from the camp came in aid 
 of the English, and the pursuit was checked. Yet 
 the retreating men were not the less rejoiced when 
 they could discern, between the brown columns 
 of the woods, the mountains and waters of Lake 
 George, with the white tents of their encampments 
 on its shore. The French followed no farther. 
 The blast of their trumpets was heard recalling 
 their scattered men for a final attack. 
 
 During the absence of Williams's detachment, 
 the main body of the army had covered the front 
 of their camp with a breastwork, — if that name 
 can be applied to a row of logs, — behind which the 
 marksmen lay flat on their faces. This preparation 
 was not yet complete, when the defeated troops 
 appeared issuing from the woods. Breathless and 
 perturbed, they entered the camp, and lay down 
 with the rest ; and the army waited the attack in 
 a frame of mind which boded ill for the result. 
 
118 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1755. 
 
 Soon, at the edge of the woods which bordered 
 the open space in front, painted Indians were seen, 
 and bayonets glittered among the foliage, shining, 
 in the homely comparison of a New-England 
 soldier, like a row of icicles on a January morn- 
 ing. The French regulars marched in column to 
 the edge of the clearing, and formed in line, con- 
 fronting the English at the distance of a hundred 
 and fifty yards. Their complete order, their white 
 uniforms and bristling bayonets, were a new and 
 startling sight to the eyes of Johnson's rustic 
 soldiers, who raised but a feeble cheer in answer 
 to the shouts of their enemies. Happily, Dieskau 
 made no assault. The regulars opened a distant 
 lire of musketry, throwing volley after volley against 
 the English, while the Canadians and Indians, dis- 
 persing through the morasses on each flank of the 
 camp, fired sharply, under cover of the trees and 
 bushes. In the rear, the English were protected 
 by the lake ; but on the three remaining sides, 
 they were hedged in by the flash and smoke of 
 musketry. 
 
 The fire of the French had little effect. The 
 English recovered from their first surprise, and 
 every moment their confidence rose higher and 
 their shouts grew louder. Levelling their long 
 hunting guns with cool precision, they returned a 
 fire which thinned the ranks of the French, and 
 galled them beyond endurance. Two cannon were 
 soon brought to bear upon the morasses which 
 sheltered the Canadians and Indians ; and though 
 the pieces were served with little skill, the assail- 
 
1755.] BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. 119 
 
 ants were so terrified by the crashing of the balls 
 among the trunks and branches, that they gave 
 way at once. Dieskau still persisted in the attack. 
 From noon until past four o'clock, the firing was 
 scarcely abated, when at length the French, who 
 had suffered extremely, showed signs of wavering. 
 At this, with a general shout, the English broke 
 from their camp, and rushed upon their enemies, 
 striking them down with the huts of their guns, 
 and driving them through the woods like deer. 
 Dieskau was taken prisoner, dangerously wounded, 
 and leaning for support against the stump of a 
 tree. The slaughter would have been great, had 
 not the English general recalled the pursuers, and 
 suffered the French to continue their flight unmo- 
 lested. Fresh disasters still awaited the fugitives ; 
 for, as they approached the scene of that morning's 
 ambuscade, they were greeted by a volley of mus- 
 ketry. Two companies of New York and New 
 Hampshire rangers, who had come out from Fort 
 Edward as a scouting party, had lain in wait to 
 receive them. Favored by the darkness of the 
 woods, — for night was now approaching, — they 
 made so sudden and vigorous an attack, that the 
 French, though far superior in number, were totally 
 routed and dispersed.^ 
 
 1 Holmes, II. 210. Trumbull, Hist. Conn. II. 368. Dwight, Travels, 
 III. 861. Hoyt, Indian Wars, 279. Entick, Hist. Late War, I. 153. Re- 
 view of Military Operations in North America. Johnson's Letter to the Pro- 
 vincial Governors. Blodgett's Prospective View of the Battle near Lake 
 George. 
 
 Blodgett's pamphlet is accompanied by a curious engraving, giving a 
 bird's eye view of the battle, including the surprise of Williams' detach- 
 ment, and the subsequent attack on the camp of Johnson. In the first 
 
120 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1755. 
 
 This memorable conflict has cast its dark associ- 
 ations over one of the most beautiful spots in 
 America. Near the scene of the evening fight, a 
 pool, half overgrown by weeds and water lilies, and 
 darkened by the surrounding forest, is pointed out 
 to the tourist, and he is told that beneath its stag- 
 nant waters lie the bones of three hundred French- 
 men, deep buried in mud and slime. 
 
 The war thus begun was prosecuted for five 
 succeeding years with the full energy of both 
 nations. The period was one of suffering and 
 anxiety to the colonists, who, knowing the full 
 extent of their danger, spared no exertion to avert 
 it. In the year 1758, Lord Abercrombie, who then 
 commanded in America, had at his disposal a force 
 amounting to fifty thousand men, of whom the 
 greater part were provincials.^ The operations of 
 the war embraced a wide extent of country, from 
 Cape Breton and Nova Scotia to the sources of the 
 
 half of the engraving, the French army is represented lying in ambus- 
 cade in the form of a horseshoe. Hendrick is conspicuous among the 
 English, from being mounted on horseback, while all the others are on 
 foot. In the view of the battle at the lake, the English are represented 
 lying flat on their faces, behind their breastwork, and busily firing at the 
 French and Indians, who are seen skulking among the woods and 
 thickets. 
 
 I am again indebted to President Sparks for the opportunity of exam- 
 ining several curious manuscripts relating to the battle of Lake George. 
 Among them is Dieskau's official account of the affair, and a curious 
 paper, also written by the defeated general, and containing the story of 
 his disaster, as related by himself in an imaginary conversation with his 
 old commander, Marshal Saxe, in the Elysian Fields. Several writers 
 have stated that Dieskau died of his wounds. This, however, was not 
 the case. He was carried prisoner to England, wliere he lived for several 
 years, but returned to France after the peace of 1763. 
 
 1 Hohnes, II. 226. 
 
1756-1758.] LAKE GEORGE. 121 
 
 Ohio ; but nowhere was the contest so actively car- 
 ried on as in the neighborhood of Lake George, 
 the waters of which, joined with those of Lake 
 Champlain, formed the main avenue of communi- 
 cation between Canada and the British provinces. 
 Lake George is more than thirty miles long, but of 
 width so slight that it seems like some broad and 
 placid river, enclosed between ranges of lofty moun- 
 tains ; now contracting into narrows, dotted with 
 islands and shadowed by cliffs and crags, now 
 spreading into a clear and open expanse. It had 
 long been known to the French. The Jesuit Isaac 
 Jogues, bound on a fatal mission to the ferocious 
 Mohawks, had reached its banks on the eve of 
 Corpus Christi Day, and named it Lac St. Sac- 
 rement. Its solitude was now rudely invaded. 
 Armies passed and repassed upon its tranquil 
 bosom. At its northern point the French planted 
 their stronghold of Ticonderoga ; at its southern 
 stood the English fort William Henry, while the 
 mountains and waters between were a scene of 
 ceaseless ambuscades, surprises, and forest skir- 
 mishing. Through summer and winter, the crack 
 of rifles and the cries of men gave no rest to their 
 echoes ; and at this day, on the field of many a for- 
 gotten fight, are dug up rusty tomahawks, corroded 
 bullets, and human bones, to attest the struggles of 
 the past. 
 
 The earlier years of the war were unpropitious 
 to the English, whose commanders displayed no 
 great degree of vigor or ability. In the summer of 
 1756, the French general Montcalm advanced upon 
 
122 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1756-1758 
 
 Oswego, took it, and levelled it to the ground. In 
 August of the following year, he struck a heavier 
 blow. Passing Lake George with a force of eight 
 thousand men, including about two thousand In- 
 dians, gathered from the farthest parts of Canada, 
 he laid siege to Fort WilUam Henry, close to the 
 spot where Dieskau had been defeated two years 
 before. Planting his batteries against it, he beat 
 down its ramparts and dismounted its guns, until 
 the garrison, after a brave defence, were forced to 
 capitulate. They marched out with the honors of 
 war ; but scarcely had they done so, when Mont- 
 calm's Indians assailed them, cutting down and 
 scalping them without mercy. Those who escaped 
 came in to Fort Edward with exaggerated accounts 
 of the horrors from which they had fled, and a 
 general terror was spread through the country. 
 The inhabitants were mustered from all parts to 
 repel the advance of Montcalm ; but the French 
 general, satisfied with what he had done, repassed 
 Lake George, and retired behind the walls of 
 Ticonderoga. 
 
 In the year 1758, the war began to assume a dif- 
 ferent aspect,! for Pitt was at the head of the gov- 
 ernment. Sir Jeffrey Amherst laid siege to the 
 strong fortress of Louisburg, and at length reduced 
 it ; while in the south, General Forbes marched 
 against Fort du Quesne, and, more fortunate than 
 his predecessor, Braddock, drove the French from 
 that important point. Another successful stroke 
 was the destruction of Fort Frontenac, which was 
 taken by a provincial army under Colonel Brad- 
 
1758.] ATTACK ON TICONDEROGA. 123 
 
 street. These achievements were counterbalanced 
 by a great disaster. Lord Abercrombie, with an 
 army of sixteen thousand men, advanced to the 
 head of Lake George, the place made memorable 
 by Dieskau's defeat and the loss of Fort William 
 Henry. On a brilliant July morning, he embarked 
 his whole force for an attack on Ticonderoga. 
 Many of those present have recorded with admi- 
 ration the beauty of the spectacle, the lines of 
 boats filled with troops stretching far down the 
 lake, the flashing of oars, the glitter of weapons, 
 and the music ringing back from crags and rocks, 
 or dying in mellowed strains among the distant 
 mountains. At night, the army landed, and, driv- 
 ing in the French outposts, marched through the 
 woods towards Ticonderoga. One of their col- 
 umns, losing its way in the forest, fell in with a 
 body of the retreating French ; and in the conflict 
 that ensued, Lord Howe, the favorite of the army, 
 was shot dead. On the eighth of July, they pre- 
 pared to storm the lines which Montcalm had 
 drawn across the peninsula in front of the fortress. 
 Advancing to the attack, they saw before them a 
 breastwork of uncommon height and thickness. 
 The French army were drawn up behind it, their 
 heads alone visible, as they levelled their muskets 
 against the assailants, while, for a hundred yards in 
 front of the work, the ground was covered with 
 felled trees, with sharpened branches pointing out- 
 ward. The signal of assault was given. In vain 
 the Highlanders, screaming with rage, hewed with 
 their broadswords among the branches, struggling 
 
124 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1759. 
 
 to get at the enemy. In vain the English, with 
 their deep-toned shout, rushed on in heavy columns. 
 A tempest of musket balls met them, and Mont- 
 calm's cannon swept the whole ground with terrible 
 carnage. A few officers and men forced their way 
 through the branches, passed the ditch, climbed 
 the breastwork, and, leaping among the enemy, 
 were instantly bayonetted. The English fought 
 four hours with determined valor, but the position 
 of the French was impregnable ; and at length, 
 having lost two thousand of their number, the 
 army drew off, leaving many of their dead scattered 
 upon the field. A sudden panic seized the defeated 
 troops. They rushed in haste to their boats, and, 
 though no pursuit was attempted, they did not 
 regain their composure until Lake George was 
 between them and the enemy. The fatal lines of 
 Ticonderoga were not soon forgotten in the prov- 
 inces ; and marbles in Westminster Abbey preserve 
 the memory of those who fell on that disastrous day. 
 This repulse, far from depressing the energies of 
 the British commanders, seemed to stimulate them 
 to new exertion ; and the campaign of the next 
 year, 1759, had for its object the immediate and 
 total reduction of Canada. This unhappy country 
 was full of misery and disorder. Peculation and 
 every kind of corruption prevailed among its civil 
 and military chiefs, a reckless licentiousness was 
 increasing among the people, and a general famine 
 seemed impending, for the population had of late 
 years been drained away for military service, and 
 the fields were left untilled. In spite of their suf- 
 
1759.] INVASION OF CANADA. 125 
 
 fe rings, the Canadians, strong in rooted antipathy 
 to the English, and highly excited by their priests, 
 resolved on fighting to the last. Prayers were 
 offered up in the churches, masses said, and pen- 
 ances enjoined, to avert the wrath of God from the 
 colony, while every thing was done for its defence 
 which the energies of a great and patriotic leader 
 could effect. 
 
 By the plan of this summer's campaign, Canada 
 was to be assailed on three sides at once. Upon 
 the west, General Prideaux was to attack Niagara ; 
 upon the south. General Amherst was to advance 
 upon Ticonderoga and Crown Point ; while upon 
 the east. General Wolfe was to besiege Quebec ; 
 and each of these armies, having accomplished its 
 particular object, was directed to push forward, if 
 possible, until all three had united in the heart of 
 Canada. In pursuance of the plan. General Pri- 
 deaux moved up Lake Ontario and invested Niagara. 
 This post was one of the greatest importance. Its 
 capture would cut off the French from the whole 
 interior country, and they therefore made every 
 effort to raise the siege. An army of seventeen 
 hundred French and Indians, collected at the dis- 
 tant garrisons of Detroit, Presqu' Isle, Le Boeuf, 
 and Venango, suddenly appeared before Niagara.^ 
 Sir William Johnson was now in command of the 
 English, Prideaux having been killed by the biu'st- 
 ing of a cohorn. Advancing in order of battle, he 
 met the French, charged, routed, and pursued them 
 
 1 Annual Register, 1759, p. 33. 
 
126 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1759. 
 
 for five miles through the woods. This success was 
 soon followed by the surrender of the fort. 
 
 In the mean time, Sir Jeffrey Amherst had 
 crossed Lake George, and appeared before Ticon- 
 deroga ; upon which the French blew up their 
 works, and retired down Lake Champlain to Crown 
 Point. Retreating from this position also, on the 
 approach of the English army, they collected all 
 their forces, amounting to little more than three 
 thousand men, at Isle Aux Noix, where they 
 intrenched themselves, and prepared to resist the 
 farther progress of the invaders. The lateness of 
 the season prevented Amherst from carrying out the 
 plan of advancing into Canada, and compelled him 
 to go into winter-quarters at Crown Point. The 
 same cause had withheld Prideaux's army from 
 descending the St. Lawrence. 
 
 While the outposts of Canada were thus success- 
 fully attacked, a blow was struck at a more vital 
 part. Early in June, General Wolfe sailed up the 
 St. Lawrence with a force of eight thousand men, 
 and formed his camp immediately below Quebec, 
 on the Island of Orleans.^ From thence he could 
 discern, at a single glance, how arduous was the 
 task before him. Piles of lofty cliffs rose with 
 sheer ascent on the northern border of the river ; 
 and from their summits the boasted citadel of Can- 
 ada looked down in proud security, with its churches 
 and convents of stone, its ramparts, bastions, and 
 batteries ; while over them all, from the brink of 
 
 1 Mante, Hist. Late War, 238. 
 
1759.] WOLFE BEFORE QUEBEC. 127 
 
 the precipice, towered the massive walls of the 
 Castle of St. Louis. Above, for many a league, the 
 bank was guarded by an unbroken range of steep 
 acclivities. Below, the Kiver St. Charles, flowing 
 into the St. Lawrence, washed the base of the 
 rocky promontory on which the city stood. Lower 
 yet lay an army of fourteen thousand men, under 
 an able and renowned commander, the Marquis of 
 Montcalm. His front was covered by intrench- 
 ments and batteries, which lined the bank of the 
 St. Lawrence ; his right wing rested on the city 
 and the St. Charles ; his left, on the cascade 
 and deep gulf of Montmorenci ; and thick forests 
 extended along his rear. Opposite Quebec rose 
 the high promontory of Point Levi ; and the St. 
 Lawrence, contracted to less than a mile in width, 
 flowed between, with deep and powerful current. 
 To a chief of less resolute temper, it might well 
 have seemed that art and nature were in league to 
 thwart his enterprise ; but a mind like that of 
 Wolfe could only have seen in this majestic combi- 
 nation of forest and cataract, mountain and river, a 
 fitting theatre for the great drama about to be 
 enacted there. 
 
 Yet nature did not seem to have formed the 
 young English general for the conduct of a doubt- 
 ful and almost desperate enterprise. His person 
 was slight, and his features by no means of a mar- 
 tial cast. His feeble constitution had been under- 
 mined by years of protracted and painful disease.^ 
 
 1 " I have this day signified to Mr. Pitt that he may dispose of my 
 slight carcass as he pleases ; and that I am ready for any undertaking 
 
128 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1759 
 
 His kind and genial disposition seemed better fitted 
 for the quiet of domestic life than for the stern 
 duties of military command ; but to these gentler 
 traits he joined a high enthusiasm, and an uncon- 
 querable spirit of daring and endurance, which 
 made him the idol of his soldiers, and bore his 
 slender frame through every hardship and exposure. 
 The work before him demanded all his courage. 
 How to invest the city, or even bring the army of 
 Montcalm to action, was a problem which might 
 have perplexed a Hannibal. A French fleet lay in 
 the river above, and the precipices along the north- 
 ern bank were guarded at every accessible point by 
 sentinels and outposts. Wolfe would have crossed 
 the Montmorenci by its upper ford, and attacked 
 the French army on its left and rear ; but the plan 
 was thwarted by the nature of the ground and the 
 vigilance of his adversaries. Thus baffled at every 
 other point, he formed the bold design of storming 
 Montcalm's position in front ; and on the afternoon 
 of the thirty-first of July, a strong body of troops 
 was embarked in boats, and, covered by a furious 
 cannonade from the English ships and batteries, 
 landed on the beach just above the mouth of the 
 Montmorenci. The grenadiers and Royal Ameri- 
 cans were the first on shore, and their ill-timed 
 
 within the reach and compass of my skill and cunning. I am in a very 
 bad condition, both with the gravel and rheumatism; but I had much 
 rather die than decline any kind of service that offers : if I followed my 
 own taste, it would lead me into Germany ; and if my poor talent was 
 consulted, they should place me to the cavalry, because nature has given 
 me good eyes, and a warmth of temper to follow the first impressions. 
 However, it is not our part to choose, but to obey." — Letter — Wolfe to 
 William Rickson, Salisbury, December 1, 1758. 
 
1759.] ASSAULT AT MONTMORENCI. 129 
 
 impetuosity proved the ruin of the plan. Without 
 waiting to receive their orders or form their ranks, 
 they ran, pell-mell, across the level ground, and 
 with loud shouts began, each man for himself, to 
 scale the heights which rose in front, crested with 
 intrenchments and bristling with hostile arms. The 
 French at the top threw volley after volley among 
 the hot-headed assailants. The slopes were soon 
 covered with the fallen ; and at that instant a 
 storm, which had long been threatening, burst with 
 sudden fury, drenched the combatants on both sides 
 with a deluge of rain, extinguished for a moment 
 the fire of the French, and at the same time made 
 the steeps so slippery that the grenadiers fell repeat- 
 edly in their vain attempts to climb. Night was 
 coming on with double darkness. The retreat was 
 sounded, and, as the English re-embarked, troops of 
 Indians came whooping down the heights, and hov- 
 ered about their rear, to murder the stragglers and 
 the wounded ; while exulting cries of Vive le roi, 
 from the crowded summits, proclaimed the triumph 
 of the enemy. 
 
 With bitter agony of mind, Wolfe beheld the 
 headlong folly of his men, and saw more than four 
 hundred of the flower of his army fall a useless 
 sacrifice.^ The anxieties of the siege had told 
 severely upon his slender constitution ; and not 
 long after this disaster, he felt the first symptoms 
 of a fever, which soon confined him to his couch. 
 Still his mind never wavered from its purpose ; 
 and it was while lying helpless in the chamber of a 
 
 1 Knox, Journals, I. 358. 
 9 
 
130 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1759. 
 
 Canadian house, where he had fixed his head- 
 quarters, that he embraced the plan of the enter- 
 prise which robbed him of Hfe, and gave him 
 immortal fame. 
 
 This plan had been first proposed during the 
 height of Wolfe's illness, at a council of his subor- 
 dinate generals, Monkton, Townshend, and Murray. 
 It was resolved to divide the little army ; and, while 
 one portion remained before Quebec to alarm the 
 enemy by false attacks, and distract their attention 
 from the scene of actual operation, the other was 
 to pass above the town, land under cover of dark- 
 ness on the northern shore, climb the guarded 
 heights, gain the plains above, and force Montcalm 
 to quit his vantage-ground, and perhaps to offer 
 battle. The scheme was daring even to rashness ; 
 but its audacity was the secret of its success. 
 
 Early in September, a crowd of ships and trans- 
 ports, under Admiral Holmes, passed the city 
 under the hot fire of its batteries ; while the 
 troops designed for the expedition, amounting to 
 scarcely five thousand, marched upward along the 
 southern bank, beyond reach of the cannonade. 
 All were then embarked ; and on the evening of 
 the twelfth, Holmes's fleet, with the troops on 
 board, lay safe at anchor in the river, several 
 leagues above the town. These operations had 
 not failed to awaken the suspicions of Montcalm ; 
 and he had detached M. Bougainville to watch the 
 movements of the English, and prevent their land- 
 ing on the northern shore. 
 
 The eventful night of the twelfth was clear and 
 
1759.] HEROISM OF WOLFE. 131 
 
 calm, with no light but that of the stars. Within 
 two hours before daybreak, thirty boats, crowded 
 with sixteen hundred soldiers, cast off from the 
 vessels, and floated downward, in perfect order, 
 with the current of the ebb tide. To the boundless 
 joy of the army, Wolfe's malady had abated, and 
 he was able to command in person. His ruined 
 health, the gloomy prospects of the siege, and the 
 disaster at Montmorenci, had oppressed him with 
 the deepest melancholy, but never impaired for a 
 moment the promptness of his decisions, or the 
 impetuous energy of his action.^ He sat in the 
 stera of one of the boats, pale and weak, but borne 
 up to a calm height of resolution. Every order 
 had been given, every arrangement made, and it 
 only remained to face the issue. The ebbing tide 
 sufl[iced to bear the boats along, and nothing broke 
 the silence of the night but the gurgling of the 
 river, and the low voice of Wolfe, as he repeated 
 to the officers about him the stanzas of Gray's 
 " Elegy in a Country Churchyard," which had 
 
 1 Entick, IV. 111. 
 
 In his letter to the Ministry, dated Sept. 2, Wolfe writes in these 
 desponding words : — 
 
 " By the nature of the river, the most formidable part of this arma- 
 ment is deprived of the power of acting ; yet we have almost the whole 
 force of Canada to oppose. In this situation there is such a choice of 
 difficuUies, that I own myself at a loss how to determine. The affairs of 
 Great Britain I know require the most vigorous measures, but then the 
 courage of a handful of brave troops should be exerted only where tliere 
 is some hope of a favorable event. However, you may be assured, that 
 the small part of the campaign which remains shall be employed (as far 
 as I am able) for the honor of his Majesty, and the interest of the nation ; 
 in which I am sure of being well seconded by the admiral and by the 
 generals : happy if our efforts here can contribute to the success of his 
 Majesty's arms in any other part of America." 
 
132 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1759. 
 
 recently appeared and which he had just received 
 from England. Perhaps, as he uttered those 
 strangely appropriate words, — 
 
 " The paths of glory lead but to the grave," 
 
 the shadows of his own approaching fate stole with 
 mournful prophecy across his mind. " Gentlemen," 
 he said, as he closed his recital, " I would rather 
 have written those lines than take Quebec to- 
 morrow." ^ 
 
 As they approached the landing-place, the boats 
 edged closer in towards the northern shore, and 
 the woody precipices rose high on their left, like a 
 wall of undistinguished blackness. 
 
 " Qui Vive ? " shouted a French sentinel, from 
 out the impervious gloom. 
 
 " La France !" answered a captain of Eraser's 
 Highlanders, from the foremost boat. 
 
 " A quel regiment f " demanded the soldier. 
 
 " Z)e la Reine ! " promptly replied the Highland 
 captain, who chanced to know that the regiment 
 so designated formed part of Bougainville's com- 
 mand. As boats were frequently passing down 
 the river with supplies for the garrison, and as a 
 
 1 " This anecdote was related bj the late celebrated John Eobison, 
 Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, who, in 
 his youth, was a midshipman in the British navy, and was in the same 
 boat with Wolfe. His son, my kinsman, Sir John Robison, commu- 
 nicated it to me, and it has since been recorded in the Transactions of the 
 Eoyal Society of Edinburgh. 
 
 ♦ The paths of glory lead but to the grave ' 
 
 is one of the lines which Wolfe must have recited as he strikingly exem- 
 pUfied its appUcation." — Grahame, Hist. U. S. IV. 50. See also Play- 
 /air'sWorks,lY. 12Q. 
 
1759. j WOLFE'S COVE. 133 
 
 convoy from Bougainville was expected that very 
 night, the sentinel was deceived, and allowed the 
 English to proceed. 
 
 A few moments after, they were challenged 
 again, and this time they could discern the soldier 
 running close down to the water's edge, as if all 
 his suspicions were aroused ; but the skilful replies 
 of the Highlander once more saved the party from 
 discovery.^ 
 
 They reached the landing-place in safety, — an 
 indentation in the shore, about a league above the 
 city, and now bearing the name of Wolfe's Cove. 
 Here a narrow path led up the face of the heights, 
 and a French guard was posted at the top to defend 
 the pass. By the force of the current, the fore- 
 most boats, including that which carried Wolfe 
 himself, were borne a little below the spot. The 
 general was one of the first on shore. He looked 
 upward at the rugged heights which towered above 
 him in the gloom. " You can try it," he coolly 
 observed to an officer near him ; " but I don't think 
 you'll get up." ^ 
 
 At the point where the Highlanders landed, one 
 of their captains, Donald Macdonald, apparently 
 the same whose presence of mind had just saved 
 the enterprise from ruin, was climbing in advance 
 of his men, when he was challenged by a sentinel. 
 
 1 Smollett, V. 56, note (Edinburgh, 1805). Mante simply mentions 
 that the English were challenged by the sentinels, and escaped discovery 
 by replying in French. 
 
 2 This incident is mentioned in a manuscript journal of the siege of 
 Quebec, by John Johnson, clerk and quartermaster in the 58th regiment. 
 The journal is written with great care, and abounds in curious details. 
 
134 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1759. 
 
 He replied in French, by declaring that he had 
 been sent to relieve the guard, and ordering the 
 soldier to withdraw.^ Before the latter was unde- 
 ceived, a crowd of Highlanders were close at hand, 
 while the steeps below were thronged with eager 
 climbers, dragging themselves up by trees, roots, 
 and bushes.^ The guard turned out, and made a 
 brief though brave resistance. In a moment, they 
 w^ere cut to pieces, dispersed, or made prisoners ; 
 while men after men came swarming up the height, 
 and quickly formed upon the plains above. Mean- 
 while, the vessels had dropped downward with the 
 current, and anchored opposite the landing-place. 
 The remaining troops were disembarked, and, with 
 the dawn of day, the whole were brought in safety 
 to the shore. 
 
 The sun rose, and, from the ramparts of Quebec, 
 the astonished people saw the Plains of Abraham 
 glittering with arms, and the dark-red lines of the 
 English forming in array of battle. Breathless 
 messengers had borne the evil tidings to Montcalm, 
 and far and near his wide-extended camp resounded 
 with the rolling of alarm drums and the din of 
 startled preparation. He, too, had had his struggles 
 and his sorrows. The civil power had thwarted 
 him ; famine, discontent, and disaffection were rife 
 among his soldiers ; and no small portion of the 
 Canadian militia had dispersed from sheer starva- 
 tion. In spite of all, he had trusted to hold out 
 till the winter frosts should drive the invaders from 
 
 1 Knox, Journal, 11. 68, note. 
 
 2 Despatch of Admiral Saunders, Sept. 20, 1759. 
 
1759.] BATTLE OF QUEBEC. 135 
 
 before the town ; when, on that disastrous morning, 
 the news of their successful temerity fell like a 
 cannon shot upon his ear. Still he asssumed a 
 tone of confidence. " They have got to the weak 
 side of us at last," he is reported to have said, 
 " and we must crush them with our numbers." 
 With headlong haste, his troops were pouring over 
 the bridge of the St. Charles, and gathering in 
 heavy masses under the western ramparts of the 
 town. Could numbers give assurance of success, 
 their triumph would have been secure ; for five 
 French battalions and the armed colonial peasantry 
 amounted in all to more than seven thousand five 
 hundred men. Full in sight before them stretched 
 the long, thin lines of the British forces, — the 
 half- wild Highlanders, the steady soldiery of Eng- 
 land, and the hardy levies of the provinces, — less 
 than five thousand in number, but all inured to 
 battle, and strong in the full assurance of success. 
 Yet, could the chiefs of that gallant army have 
 pierced the secrets of the future, could they have 
 foreseen that the victory which they burned to 
 achieve would have robbed England of her proud- 
 est boast, that the conquest of Canada would pave 
 the way for the independence of America, their 
 swords would have dropped from their hands, and 
 the heroic fire have gone out within their hearts. 
 
 It was nine o'clock, and the adverse armies stood 
 motionless, each gazing on the other. The clouds 
 hung low, and, at intervals, warm light showers 
 descended, besprinkling both alike. The coppice 
 and cornfields in front of the British troops were 
 
136 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1759. 
 
 filled with French sharpshooters, who kept up a 
 distant, spattering fire. Here and there a soldier 
 fell in the ranks, and the gap was filled in silence. 
 At a little before ten, the British could see that 
 Montcalm was preparing to advance, and, in a few 
 moments, all his troops appeared in rapid motion. 
 They came on in three divisions, shouting after the 
 manner of their nation, and firing heavily as soon 
 as they came within range. In the British ranks, 
 not a trigger was pulled, not a soldier stirred ; 
 and their ominous composure seemed to damp the 
 spirits of the assailants. It was not till the French 
 were within forty yards that the fatal word was 
 given, and the British muskets blazed forth at once 
 in one crashing explosion. Like a ship at full 
 career, arrested with sudden ruin on a sunken 
 rock, the ranks of Montcalm staggered, shivered, 
 and broke before that wasting storm of lead. The 
 smoke, rolling along the field, for a moment shut 
 out the view ; but when the white wreaths were 
 scattered on the wind, a wretched spectacle was 
 disclosed ; men and officers tumbled in heaps, bat- 
 talions resolved into a mob, order and obedience 
 gone ; and when the British muskets were levelled 
 for a second volley, the masses of the militia were 
 seen to cower and shrink with uncontrollable panic. 
 For a few minutes, the French regulars stood their 
 ground, returning a sharp and not ineff'ectual fire. 
 But now, echoing cheer on cheer, redoubling vol- 
 ley on volley, trampling the dying and the dead, 
 and driving the fugitives in crowds, the British 
 troops advanced and swept the field before them. 
 
1759.] DEATH OF WOLFE. 137 
 
 The ardor of the men burst all restraint. They 
 broke into a run, and with unsparing slaughter 
 chased the flying multitude to the gates of Quebec. 
 Foremost of all, the light-footed Highlanders dashed 
 along in furious pursuit, hewing down the French- 
 men w^ith their broadswords, and slaying many 
 in the very ditch of the fortifications. Never was 
 victory more quick or more decisive.^ 
 
 In the short action and pursuit, the French lost 
 fifteen hundred men, killed, wounded, and taken. 
 Of the remainder, some escaped within the city, 
 and others fled across the St. Charles to rejoin their 
 comrades who had been left to guard the camp. 
 The pursuers were recalled by sound of trumpet ; 
 the broken ranks were formed afresh, and the Ens:- 
 lish troops withdrawn beyond reach of the cannon 
 of Quebec. Bougainville, with his corps, arrived 
 from the upper country, and, hovering about their 
 rear, threatened an attack ; but when he saw what 
 greeting was prepared for him, he abandoned his 
 purpose and withdrew. Townshend and Murray, 
 the only general officers who remained unhurt, 
 passed to the head of every regiment in turn, and 
 thanked the soldiers for the bravery they had 
 shown ; yet the triumph of the victors was min- 
 gled with sadness, as the tidings went from rank to 
 rank that Wolfe had fallen. 
 
 In the heat of the action, as he advanced at the 
 head of the grenadiers of Louisburg, a bullet shat- 
 
 1 Despatch of General Townshend, Sept. 20. Gardiner, Memoirs of the 
 Siege of Quebec, 28. Journal of the Siege of Quebec, by a Gentleman in an 
 Eminent Station on the Spot, 40. Letter to a Right Honorable Patriot on the 
 Glorious Success of Quebec. Annual Register for 1759, 40. 
 
138 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1759. 
 
 tered his wrist ; but he wrapped his handkerchief 
 about the wound, and showed no sign of pain. A 
 moment more, and a ball pierced his side. Still 
 he pressed forward, waving his sword and cheer- 
 ing his soldiers to the attack, when a third shot 
 lodged deep within his breast. He paused, reeled, 
 and, staggering to one side, fell to the earth. 
 Brown, a lieutenant of the grenadiers, Henderson, 
 a volunteer, an officer of artillery, and a private 
 soldier, raised him together in their arms, and, 
 bearing him to the rear, laid him softly on the 
 grass. They asked if he would have a surgeon ; 
 but he shook his head, and answered that all 
 w^as over with him. His eyes closed with the 
 torpor of approaching death, and those around 
 sustained his fainting form. Yet they could not 
 withhold their gaze from the wild turmoil before 
 them, and the charging ranks of their companions 
 rushing through fire and smoke. " See how they 
 run," one of the officers exclaimed, as the French 
 fled in confusion before the levelled bayonets. 
 "Who run]" demanded Wolfe, opening his eyes 
 like a man aroused from sleep. " The enemy, 
 sir," was the reply ; " they give way everywhere." 
 " Then," said the dying general, " tell Colonel 
 Burton to march Webb's regiment down to Charles 
 River, to cut off their retreat from the bridge. 
 Now, God be praised, I will die in peace," he mur- 
 mured ; and, turning on his side, he calmly breathed 
 his last.^ 
 
 1 Knox, II. 78. Knox derived his information from the person who 
 supported Wolfe in his dying moments. 
 
1759.] DEATH OF MONTCALM. 139 
 
 Almost at the same moment fell his great adver- 
 sary, Montcalm, as he strove, with vain bravery, 
 to rally his shattered ranks. Struck down with 
 a mortal wound, he was placed upon a litter and 
 borne to the General Hospital on the banks of the 
 St. Charles. The surgeons told him that he could 
 not recover. " I am glad of it," was his calm 
 reply. He then asked how long he might survive, 
 and was told that he had not many hours remain- 
 ing. " So much the better," he said ; " I am 
 happy that I shall not live to see the surrender of 
 Quebec." Officers from the garrison came to his 
 bedside to ask his orders and instructions. " I will 
 give no more orders," replied the defeated soldier ; 
 " I have much business that must be attended to, 
 of greater moment than your ruined garrison and 
 this wretched country. My time is very short ; 
 therefore, pray leave me." The officers withdrew, 
 and none remained in the chamber but his con- 
 fessor and the Bishop of Quebec. To the last, he 
 expressed his contempt for his own mutinous and 
 half-famished troops, and his admiration for the 
 disciplined valor of his opponents.^ He died 
 before midnight, and was buried at his own desire 
 in a cavity of the earth formed by the bursting of 
 a bombshell. 
 
 The victorious army encamped before Quebec, 
 and pushed their preparations for the siege with 
 zealous energy ; but before a single gun was 
 brought to bear, the white flag was hung out, and 
 
 1 Knox, II. 77. 
 
140 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1759-1760. 
 
 the garrison surrendered. On the eighteenth of 
 September, 1759, the rock-built citadel of Canada 
 passed forever from the hands of its ancient 
 masters. 
 
 The victory on the Plains of Abraham and the 
 downfall of Quebec filled all England with pride 
 and exultation. From north to south, the land 
 blazed with illuminations, and resounded with the 
 ringing of bells, the firing of guns, and the shouts 
 of the multitude. In one village alone all was 
 dark and silent amid the general joy; for here 
 dwelt the widowed mother of Wolfe. The popu- 
 lace, with unwonted delicacy, respected her lonely 
 sorrow, and forbore to obtrude the sound of their 
 rejoicings upon her grief for one who had been 
 through life her pride and solace, and repaid her 
 love with a tender and constant devotion.^ 
 
 Canada, crippled and dismembered by the dis- 
 asters of this year's campaign, lay waiting, as it 
 were, the final sti'oke which was to extinguish her 
 last remains of life, and close the eventful story 
 of French dominion in America. Her limbs and 
 her head were lopped away, but life still fluttered 
 at her heart. Quebec, Niagara, Frontenac, and 
 Crown Point had fallen ; but Montreal and the 
 adjacent country still held out, and thither, with 
 the opening season of 1760, the British command- 
 ers turned all their energies. Three armies were 
 to enter Canada at three several points, and, con- 
 quering as they advanced, converge towards Mon- 
 
 1 Annual Register for 1759, 43. 
 
1760] SURRENDER OF QUEBEC. 141 
 
 treal as a common centre. In accordance with this 
 plan, Sir Jeffrey Amherst embarked at Oswego, 
 crossed Lake Ontario, and descended the St. Law- 
 rence with ten thousand men ; while Colonel Havi- 
 land advanced by way of Lake Champlain and the 
 River Sorel, and General Murray ascended from 
 Quebec, with a body of the veterans who had 
 fought on the Plains of Abraham. 
 
 By a singular concurrence of fortune and skill, 
 the three armies reached the neighborhood of 
 Monti*eal on the same day. The feeble and dis- 
 heartened garrison could offer no resistance, and 
 on the eighth of September, 1760, the Marquis 
 de Vaudreuil surrendered Canada, with all its 
 dependencies, to the British crown. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 1755-1763. 
 
 THE WILDERNESS AND ITS TENANTS AT THE CLOSE 
 OF THE FRENCH WAR. 
 
 We have already seen how, after the defeat of 
 Braddock, the western tribes rose with one accord 
 against the English. Then, for the first time, 
 Pennsylvania felt the scourge of Indian war ; and 
 her neighbors, Maryland and Virginia, shared her 
 misery. Through the autumn of 1755, the storm 
 raged with devastating fury ; but the following year 
 brought some abatement of its violence. This may 
 be ascribed partly to the interference of the Iro- 
 quois, who, at the instances of Sir William Johnson, 
 urged the Dela wares to lay down the hatchet, and 
 partly to the persuasions of several prominent men 
 among the Quakers, who, by kind and friendly 
 treatment, had gained the confidence of the 
 Indians.^ By these means, that portion of the 
 Delawares and their kindred tribes who dwelt 
 upon the Susquehanna, were induced to send a 
 deputation of chiefs to Easton, in the summer of 
 
 1 Gordon, Hist, Pcnn. 321. Causes of the Alienation a/the Delaware and 
 Shawanese Indians from the British Interest. MS. Johnson Papers. 
 
1758] THE DELAWAllES AND SIIAWANOES. 143 
 
 1757, to meet the provincial delegates ; and here, 
 after much delay and difficulty, a treaty of peace 
 was concluded. 
 
 This treaty, however, did not embrace the Indians 
 of the Ohio, who comprised the most formidable 
 part of the Dela wares and Shawanoes, and who 
 still continued their murderous attacks. It was 
 not till the summer of 1758, when General Forbes, 
 with a considerable army, was advancing against 
 Fort du Quesne, that these exasperated savages 
 could be brought to reason. Well knowing that, 
 should Forbes prove successful, they might expect 
 a summary chastisement for their misdeeds, they 
 began to waver in their attachment to the French ; 
 and the latter, in the hour of peril, found them- 
 selves threatened with desertion by allies who had 
 shown an ample alacrity in the season of prosperity. 
 This new tendency of the Ohio Indians was fos- 
 tered by a wise step on the part of the English. A 
 man was found bold and hardy enough to venture 
 into the midst of their villages, bearing the news 
 of the treaty at Easton, and the approach of 
 Forbes, coupled with proposals of peace from the 
 governor of Pennsylvania. 
 
 This stout-hearted emissary was Christian Fred- 
 eric Post, a Moravian missionary, who had long 
 lived with the Indians, had twice married among 
 them, and, by his upright dealings and plain good 
 sense, had gained their confidence and esteem. 
 His devout and conscientious spirit, his fidelity to 
 what he deemed his duty, his imperturbable cour- 
 age, his prudence and his address, well fitted him 
 
144 THE WILDERNESS AND ITS TENANTS. [1758 
 
 for the critical mission. His journals, written in 
 a style of quaint simplicity, are full of lively 
 details, and afford a curious picture of forest life 
 and character. He left Philadelphia in July, 
 attended by a party of friendly Indians, on whom 
 he relied for protection. Reaching the Ohio, he 
 found himself beset with perils from the jealousy 
 and malevolence of the savage warriors, and the 
 machinations of the French, who would gladly 
 have destroved him.^ Yet he found friends where- 
 
 1 The following are extracts from his journals : — 
 
 " We set out from Kuslikushkee for Sankonk ; my company consisted 
 of twenty-five horsemen and fifteen foot. We arrived at Sankonk in the 
 afternoon. The people of the town were much disturbed at my coming, 
 and received me in a very rough manner. They surrounded me with 
 drawn knives in their hands, in such a manner that I could hardly get 
 along ; running up against me with their breasts open, as if they wanted 
 some pretence to kill me. I saw by their countenances they sought my 
 death. Their faces were quite distorted with rage, and they went so far 
 as to say, I should not live long ; but some Indians, with whom I was 
 formerly acquainted, coming up and saluting me in a friendly manner, 
 their behavior to me was quickly changed." ..." Some of my party 
 desired me not to stir from the fire, for that the French had offered a 
 great reward for my scalp, and that there were several parties out on that 
 purpose. Acccordingly I stuck constantly as close to the fire as if I had 
 been chained there. . . . 
 
 " In the afternoon, all the captains gathered together in the middle 
 town ; they sent for us, and desired we should give them information of 
 our message. Accordingly we did. We read the message with great 
 satisfaction to them. It was a great pleasure both to them and us. The 
 number of captains and counsellors were sixteen. In the evening, mes- 
 sengers arrived from Fort Duquesne, with a string of wampum from the 
 commander ; upon which they all came together in the house where we 
 lodged. The messengers delivered their string, with these words from 
 their father, the French king : — 
 
 " ' My children, come to me, and hear what I have to say. The Eng- 
 lish are coming with an array to destroy both you and me. I therefore 
 desire you immediately, my children, to hasten with all the young men ; 
 we will drive the English and destroy them. I, as a father, will tell you 
 always what is best.' He laid the sti-ing before one of the captains. 
 After a little conversation, the captain stood up, and said, ' I have just 
 
1758.] WESTERN INDIANS. 145 
 
 ever he went, and finally succeeded in convincing 
 the Indians that their true interest lay in a strict 
 neutrality. When, therefore, Forbes appeared 
 before Fort du Quesne, the French found them- 
 selves abandoned to their own resources ; and, 
 unable to hold their ground, they retreated down 
 the Ohio, leaving the fort an easy conquest to the 
 invaders. During the autumn, the Ohio Indians 
 sent their deputies to Easton, where a great council 
 was held, and a formal peace concluded with the 
 provinces.^ 
 
 While the friendship of these tribes was thus 
 lost and regained, their ancient tyrants, the Iro- 
 quois, remained in a state of very doubtful attach- 
 ment. At the outbreak of the war, they had 
 shown, it is true, many signs of friendship ; ^ but 
 the disasters of the first campaign had given them 
 
 heard something of our brethren, the Enghsh, which pleaseth me much 
 better. I will not go. Give it to the others ; maybe they will go.' The 
 messenger took up again the string, and said, ' He won't go ; he has 
 heard of the English.' Then all cried out, ' Yes, yes, we have heard 
 from the English.' He then threw the string to the other fireplace, where 
 the other captains were ; but they kicked it from one to another, as if it 
 was a snake. Captain Peter took a stick, and with it flung the string 
 from one end of the room to the other, and said, ' Give it to the French 
 captain, and let him go with his young men ; he boasted much of his 
 fighting; now let us see his fighting. We have often ventured our lives 
 for him ; and had hardly a loaf of bread -when we came to him ; and now 
 he thinks we should jump to serve him.' Then we saw the French cap- 
 tain mortified to the uttermost ; he looked as pale as death. The Indians 
 discoursed and joked till midnight ; and the French captain sent messen- 
 gers at midnight to Fort Duquesne." 
 
 The kicking about of the wampum belt is the usual indication of con- 
 tempt for the message of which the belt is the token. The uses of wam- 
 pum will be described hereafter. 
 
 1 Minutes of Council at Easton, 1758. 
 
 2 Account of Conferences between Major- General Sir W. Johnson and the 
 Chief Sachems and Warriors of the Six Nations (Lond. 1756). 
 
 10 
 
146 THE WILDERNESS AND ITS TENANTS. [1758-1760. 
 
 a contemptible idea of British prowess. This 
 impression was deepened, when, in the following 
 year, they saw Oswego taken by the French, and 
 the British general, Webb, retreat with dastardly 
 haste from an enemy who did not dream of pursu- 
 ing him. At this time, some of the confederates 
 actually took up the hatchet on the side of France, 
 and there was danger that the rest might follow 
 their example.^ But now a new element was 
 infused into the British counsels. The fortunes 
 of the conflict began to change. Du Quesne and 
 Louisburg were taken, and the Iroquois conceived 
 a better opinion of the British arms. Their friend- 
 ship was no longer a matter of doubt ; and in 1760, 
 when Amherst was preparing to advance on Mon- 
 treal, the warriors flocked to his camp like vultures 
 to the carcass. Yet there is little doubt, that, had 
 their sachems and orators followed the dictates of 
 their cooler judgment, they would not have aided 
 in destroying Canada ; for they could see that in 
 the colonies of France lay the only barrier against 
 the growing power and ambition of the English 
 provinces. 
 
 The Hurons of Lorette, the Abenakis, and 
 other domiciliated tribes of Canada, ranged them- 
 selves ,on the side of France throughout the war ; 
 and at its conclusion, they, in common with the 
 Canadians, may be regarded in the light of a con- 
 quered people. 
 
 The numerous tribes of the remote west had, 
 with few exceptions, played the part of active 
 
 1 MS. Johnson Papers. 
 
1760.] THE FOREST. 147 
 
 allies of the French ; and warriors might be 
 found on the farthest shores of Lake Superior who 
 garnished their war-dress with the scalp-locks of 
 murdered Englishmen. With the conquest of 
 Canada, these tribes subsided into a state of inac- 
 tion, which was not long to continue. 
 
 And now, before launching into the story of the 
 sanguinary war which forms our proper and imme- 
 diate theme, it will be well to survey the grand 
 arena of the strife, the goodly heritage which the 
 wretched tribes of the forest struggled to retrieve 
 from the hands of the spoiler. 
 
 One vast, continuous forest shadowed the fertile 
 soil, covering the land as the grass covers a garden 
 lawn, sweeping over hill and hollow in endless 
 undulation, burying mountains in verdure, and 
 mantling brooks and rivers from the light of day. 
 Green intervals dotted with browsing deer, and 
 broad plains alive with buffalo, broke the same- 
 ness of the woodland scenery. Unnumbered rivers 
 seamed the forest with their devious windings. 
 Vast lakes washed its boundaries, where the Indian 
 voyager, in his birch canoe, could descry no land 
 beyond the world of waters. Yet this prolific 
 wilderness, teeming with waste fertility, was but a 
 hunting-ground and a battle-field to a few fierce 
 hordes of savages. Here and there, in some rich 
 meadow opened to the sun, the Indian squaws 
 turned the black mould with their rude imple- 
 ments of bone or iron, and sowed their scanty 
 stores of maize and beans. Human labor drew no 
 other tribute from that exhaustless soil. 
 
148 THE WILDERNESS AKD ITS TENANTS. [1760-1763. 
 
 So thin and scattered was the native population, 
 that, even in those parts which were thought well 
 peopled, one might sometimes journey for days 
 together through the twilight forest, and meet no 
 human form. Broad tracts were left in solitude. 
 All Kentucky was a vacant waste, a mere skirmish- 
 ing ground for the hostile war-parties of the north 
 and south. A great part of Upper Canada, of 
 Michigan, and of Illinois, besides other portions 
 of the west, were tenanted by wild beasts alone. 
 To form a close estimate of the numbers of the 
 erratic bands who roamed this wilderness would 
 be impossible ; but it may be affirmed that, be- 
 tween the Mississippi on the west and the ocean 
 on the east, between the Ohio on the south and 
 Lake Superior on the north, the whole Indian 
 population, at the close of the French war, did 
 not greatly exceed ten thousand lighting men. 
 Of these, following the statement of Sir William 
 Johnson, in 1763, the Iroquois had nineteen hun- 
 dred and fifty, the Delawares about six hundred, 
 the Shawanoes about three hundred, the Wyandots 
 about four hundred and fifty, and the Miami tribes, 
 with their neighbors the Kickapoos, eight hun- 
 dred ; while the Ottawas, the Ojibwas, and other 
 wandering tribes of the north, defy all eff'orts at 
 enumeration.^ 
 
 A close survey of the condition of the tribes at 
 this period will detect some signs of improvement, 
 
 1 The estimates given by Croghan, Bouquet, and Hutchins, do not 
 quite accord with that of Johnson. But the discrepancy is no greater 
 than might have been expected from the difficulties of the case. 
 
1760-1763.] NATIVE POPULATION. 149 
 
 but many more of degeneracy and decay. To 
 commence with the Iroquois, for to them with jus- 
 tice the priority belongs : Onondaga, the ancient 
 capital of their confederacy, where their council- 
 fire had burned from immemorial time, was now 
 no longer what it had been in the days of its great- 
 ness, when Count Frontenac had mustered all 
 Canada to assail it. The thickly clustered dwell- 
 ings, with their triple rows of palisades, had van- 
 ished. A little stream, twisting along the valley, 
 choked up with logs and driftwood, and half hid- 
 den by woods and thickets, some forty houses of 
 bark, scattered along its banks, amid rank grass, 
 neglected clumps of bushes, and ragged patches 
 of corn and peas, — such was Onondaga when 
 Bartram saw it, and such, no doubt, it remained at 
 the time of w^hich I write. ^ Conspicuous among 
 the other structures, and distinguished only by its 
 superior size, stood the great council-house, whose 
 bark walls had often sheltered the congregated 
 wisdom of the confederacy, and heard the highest 
 efforts of forest eloquence. The other villages of 
 the Iroquois resembled Onondaga ; for though sev- 
 eral were of larger size, yet none retained those 
 defensive stockades which had once protected them.^ 
 From their European neighbors the Iroquois had 
 borrowed many appliances of comfort and subsist- 
 ence. Horses, swine, and in some instances cattle, 
 
 1 Bartram, Observations, 41. 
 
 '^ I am indebted to the kindness of Rev. S. K. Lothrop for a copy of 
 the journal of Mr. Kirkland on his missionary tour among the Iroquois 
 in 1765. The journal contains much information respecting their man- 
 ners and condition at this period. 
 
150 THE WILDERNESS AND ITS TENANTS. [1760-1763. 
 
 were to be found among them. Guns and gun- 
 powder aided them in the chase. Knives, hatchets, 
 kettles, and hoes of iron, had supplanted their rude 
 household utensils and implements of tillage ; but 
 with all this, English whiskey had more than can- 
 celled every benefit which English civilization had 
 conferred. 
 
 High up the Susquehanna were seated the Nanti- 
 cokes, Conoys, and Mohicans, with a portion of the 
 Delawares. Detached bands of the western Iro- 
 quois dwelt upon the head waters of the Alle- 
 ghany, mingled with their neighbors, the Delawares, 
 who had several villages upon this stream. The 
 great body of the latter nation, however, lived 
 upon the Beaver Creeks and the Muskingum, in 
 numerous scattered towns and hamlets, whose bar- 
 barous names it is useless to record. Squalid log 
 cabins and conical wigwams of bark were clustered 
 at random, or ranged to form rude streets and 
 squares. Starveling horses grazed on the neigh- 
 boring meadows ; girls and children bathed and 
 laughed in the adjacent river ; warriors smoked 
 their pipes in haughty indolence ; squaws labored 
 in the cornfields, or brought fagots from the forest, 
 and shrivelled hags screamed from lodge to lodge. 
 In each village one large building stood prominent 
 among the rest, devoted to purposes of public 
 meeting, dances, festivals, and the entertainment 
 of strangers. Thither the traveller would be con- 
 ducted, seated on a bear-skin, and plentifully 
 regaled with hominy and venison. 
 
 The Shawanoes had sixteen small villages upon 
 
1760-1763.] NATIVE POPULATION. 151 
 
 the Scioto and its branches. Farther towards the 
 west, on the waters of the Wabash and the 
 Maumee, dwelt the Miamis, who, less exposed, 
 from their position, to the poison of the whiskey- 
 keg, and the example of debauched traders, re- 
 tained their ancient character and customs in 
 greater purity than their eastern neighbors. This 
 cannot be said of the Illinois, who dwelt near the 
 borders of the Mississippi, and who, having lived 
 for more than half a century in close contact with 
 the French, had become a corrupt and degenerate 
 race. The Wyandots of Sandusky and Detroit far 
 surpassed the surrounding tribes in energy of 
 character and in social progress. Their log dwell- 
 ings were strong and commodious, their agriculture 
 was very considerable, their name stood high in 
 war and policy, and they were regarded with 
 deference by all the adjacent Indians. It is need- 
 less to pursue farther this catalogue of tribes, 
 since the position of each will appear hereafter as 
 they advance in turn upon the stage of action. 
 
 The English settlements lay like a narrow strip 
 between the wilderness and the sea, and, as the sea 
 had its ports, so also the forest had its places of 
 rendezvous and outfit. Of these, by far the most 
 important in the northern provinces was the frontier 
 city of Albany. From thence it was that traders 
 and soldiers, bound to the country of the Iroquois, 
 or the more distant wilds of the interior, set out 
 upon their arduous journey. Embarking in a 
 bateau or a canoe, rowed by the hardy men who 
 earned their livelihood in this service, the traveller 
 
152 THE WILDERNESS AND ITS TENANTS. [1760-1763. 
 
 would ascend the Mohawk, passmg the old Dutch 
 town of Schenectady, the two seats of Sir William 
 Johnson, Fort Hunter at the mouth of the Scoharie, 
 and Fort Herkimer at the German Flats, until he 
 reached Fort Stanwix at the head of the river 
 navigation. Then crossing over land to Wood 
 Creek, he would follow its tortuous course, over- 
 shadowed by the dense forest on its banks, until 
 he arrived at the little fortification called the Royal 
 Blockhouse, and the waters of the Oneida Lake 
 spread before him. Crossing to its western ex- 
 tremity, and passing under the wooden ramparts 
 of Fort Brewerton, he would descend the River 
 Oswego to Oswego,^ on the banks of Lake Ontario. 
 Here the vast navigation of the Great Lakes would 
 
 1 MS. Journal of Lieutenant Gorell, 17C3. Anonymous MS. Journal of a 
 Tour to Niagara in 1765. The following is an extract from the latter: — 
 
 "July 2d. Dined with Sir Wm. at Johnson Hall. The office of 
 Superintendent very troublesome. Sir Wm. continually plagued with 
 Indians about him — generally from 300 to 900 in number — spoil his 
 garden, and keep his house always dirty. . . . 
 
 " 10th. Punted and rowed up the Mofhawk River against the stream, 
 which, on account of the rapidity of the current, is \ery hard work for 
 the poor soldiers. Encamped on the banks of the river, about 9 miles 
 from Harkimer's. 
 
 " The inconveniences attending a married Subaltern strongly appear in 
 this tour. What with the sickness of their wives, the squeahng of their 
 children, and the smallness of their pay, I think the gentlemen discover no 
 common share of philosophy in keeping themselves from running mad. 
 Officers and soldiers, with their waves and children, legitimate and ille- 
 gitimate, make altogether a pretty compound oglio, which does not tend 
 towards showing military matrimony off to any great advantage. . . • 
 
 " Monday, 14th. Went on horseback by the side of Wood Creek, 20 
 miles, to the Royal Blockhouse, a kind of wooden castle, proof against 
 any Indian attacks. It is now abandoned by the troops, and a sutler 
 lives there, who keeps rum, milk, rackoons, etc., which, though none of 
 the most elegant, is comfortable to strangers passing that way. The 
 Blockhouse is situated on the east end of the Oneida Lake, and is sur- 
 rounded by the Oneida Indians, one of the Six Nations." 
 
1760-1763.] THE FUR TRADERS. 153 
 
 be open before him, interrupted only by the difficult 
 portage at the Cataract of Niagara. 
 
 The chief thoroughfare from the middle colonies 
 to the Indian country was from Philadelphia west- 
 ward, across the Alleghanies, to the valley of the 
 Ohio. Peace was no sooner concluded with the 
 hostile tribes, than the adventurous fur-traders, 
 careless of risk to life and property, hastened 
 over the mountains, each eager to be foremost in 
 the wilderness market. Their merchandise was 
 sometimes carried in wagons as far as the site of 
 Fort du Quesne, which the English rebuilt after its 
 capture, changing its name to Fort Pitt. From 
 this point the goods were packed on the backs 
 of horses, and thus distributed among the various 
 Indian villages. More commonly, however, the 
 whole journey was performed by means of trains, 
 or, as they were called, brigades of packhorses, 
 which, leaving the frontier settlements, climbed the 
 shadowy heights of the Alleghanies, and threaded 
 the forests of the Ohio, diving through thickets, 
 and wading over streams. The men employed in 
 this perilous calling were a rough, bold, and 
 intractable class, often as fierce and truculent as 
 the Indians themselves. A blanket coat, or a 
 frock of smoked deer-skin, a rifle on the shoulder, 
 and a knife and tomahawk in the belt, formed 
 their ordinary equipment. The principal trader, 
 the owner of the merchandise, would fix his head- 
 quarters at some large Indian town, whence he 
 would despatch his subordinates to the surrounding 
 villages, with a suitable supply of blankets and 
 
154 THE WILDERNESS AND ITS TENANTS. [1760-1763. 
 
 red cloth, guns and hatchets, liquor, tobacco, paint, 
 beads, and hawks' bells. This wild traffic was 
 liable to every species of disorder ; and it is not to 
 be wondered at that, in a region where law was 
 unknown, the jealousies of rival traders should 
 become a fruitful source of broils, robberies, and 
 murders. 
 
 In the backwoods, all land travelling was on 
 foot, or on horseback. It was no easy matter for 
 a novice, embarrassed with his cumbrous gun, to 
 urge his horse through the thick trunks and under- 
 growth, or even to ride at speed along the narrow 
 Indian trails, where at every yard the impending 
 branches switched him across the face. At night, 
 the camp would be formed by the side of some 
 rivulet or spring ; and, if the traveller was skilful 
 in the use of his rifle, a haunch of venison would 
 often form his evening meal. If it rained, a shed 
 of elm or bass-wood bark was the ready work of 
 an hour, a pile of evergreen boughs formed a bed, 
 and the saddle or the knapsack a pillow. A party 
 of Indian wayfarers would often be met journeying 
 through the forest, a chief, or a warrior, perhaps, 
 with his squaws and family. The Indians would 
 usually make their camp in the neighborhood of 
 the white men ; and at meal-time the warrior 
 would seldom fail to seat himself by the traveller's 
 fire, and gaze with solemn gravity at the viands 
 before him. If, when the repast was over, a frag- 
 ment of bread or a cup of coffee should be handed 
 to him, he would receive these highly prized 
 rarities with an ejaculation of gratitude ; for 
 
1760-17G3.] THE FOREST TRAVELLER. 155 
 
 nothing is more remarkable in the character of 
 this people than the union of inordinate pride and 
 a generous love of glory with the mendicity of a 
 beggar or a child. 
 
 He who wished to visit the remoter tribes of the 
 Mississippi valley — an attempt, however, which, 
 until several years after the conquest of Canada, 
 no Englishman could have made without great 
 risk of losing his scalp — would find no easier 
 course than to descend the Ohio in a canoe or 
 bateau. He might float for more than eleven 
 hundred miles down this liquid highway of the 
 wilderness, and, except the deserted cabins of 
 Logsto^vn, a little below Fort Pitt, the remnant 
 of a Shawanoe village at the mouth of the Scioto, 
 and an occasional hamlet or solitary wigwam along 
 the deeply wooded banks, he would discern no 
 trace of human habitation through all this vast 
 extent. The body of the Indian population lay 
 to the northward, about the waters of the tributary 
 streams. It behooved the voyager to observe a sleep- 
 less caution and a hawk-eyed vigilance. Some- 
 times his anxious scrutiny would detect a faint 
 blue smoke stealing upward above the green bosom 
 of the forest, and betraying the encamping place of 
 some lurking war-party. Then the canoe would 
 be drawn in haste beneath the overhanging bushes 
 which skirted the shore ; nor would the voyage be 
 resumed until darkness closed, when the little 
 vessel would drift swiftly and safely by the point 
 of danger.^ 
 
 1 Mitchell, Contest in America. Pouchot, Guerre de VAm&ique. Expe- 
 dition against the Ohio Indians, appendix. Hutchins, Topographical Descrip- 
 
156 THE WILDERNESS AND ITS TENANTS. [1760-1763 
 
 Within the nominal limits of the Illinois Indians, 
 and towards the southern extremity of the present 
 state of Illinois, were those isolated Canadian set- 
 tlements, which had subsisted here since the latter 
 part of the preceding century. Kaskaskia, Caho- 
 kia, and Vincennes were the centres of this scat- 
 tered population. From Vincennes one might 
 paddle his canoe northward up the Wabash, until 
 he reached the little wooden fort of Ouatanon. 
 Thence a path through the woods led to the banks 
 of the Maumee. Two or three Canadians, or half- 
 breeds, of whom there were numbers about the fort, 
 would carry the canoe on their shoulders, or, for a 
 bottle of whiskey, a few Miami Indians might be 
 bribed to undertake the task. On the Maumee, at 
 the end of the path, stood Fort Miami, near the 
 spot where Fort Wayne was afterwards built. 
 From this point one might descend the Maumee to 
 Lake Erie, and visit the neighboring fort of San- 
 dusky, or, if he chose, steer through the Strait of 
 Detroit, and explore the watery wastes of the 
 northern lakes, finding occasional harborage at the 
 little military posts which commanded their impor- 
 tant points. Most of these western posts were 
 transferred to the English, during the autumn of 
 1760 ; but the settlements of the Illinois remained 
 several years longer under French control. 
 
 Eastward, on the waters of Lake Erie, and the 
 Alleghany, stood three small forts, Presqu Isle, Le 
 
 tion of Virginia, etc. Pownall, Topographical Description of North America. 
 Evans, Analysis of a Map of the Middle British Colonies. Beatty, Journal of 
 a Tour in America.. Smith, Narrative. M'Cullough, Narrative. Jemmison, 
 Narrative. Post, Journals. Washington, Journals, 1753-1770. Gist, 
 Journal, 1750. Croghan, Journal, 1765, etc., etc. 
 
1760-1763.] THE FOREST GARRISONS. 157 
 
 Boeuf, and Venango, which had passed into the 
 hands of the English soon after the capture of 
 Fort du Quesne. The feeble garrisons of all these 
 western posts, exiled from civilization, lived in the 
 solitude of military hermits. Through the long, 
 hot days of summer, and the protracted cold of 
 winter, time hung heavy on their hands. Their 
 resources of employment and recreation were few 
 and meagre. They found partners in their loneli- 
 ness among the young beauties of the Indian camps. 
 They hunted and fished, shot at targets, and played 
 at games of chance ; and when, by good fortune, a 
 traveller found his way among them, he was greeted 
 with a hearty and open-handed welcome, and plied 
 with eager questions touching the great world from 
 which they were banished men. Yet, tedious as it 
 was, their secluded life w^as seasoned wdth stirring 
 danger. The surrounding forests were peopled 
 with a race dark and subtle as their own sunless 
 mazes. At any hour, those jealous tribes might 
 raise the war-cry. No human foresight could pre- 
 dict the sallies of their fierce caprice, and in cease- 
 less watching lay the only safety. 
 
 When the European and the savage are brought 
 in contact, both are gainers, and both are losers. 
 The former loses the refinements of civilization, 
 but he gains, in the rough schooling of the wil- 
 derness, a rugged independence, a self-sustaining 
 energy, and powers of action and perception before 
 unthought of. The savage gains new means of 
 comfort and support, cloth, iron, and gunpowder ; 
 yet these apparent benefits have often proved but 
 
158 THE WILDERNESS AND ITS TENANTS. [1760-1763. 
 
 instruments of ruin. They soon become necessi- 
 ties, and the unhappy hunter, forgetting the wea- 
 pons of his fathers, must thenceforth depend on the 
 white man for ease, happiness, and life itself. 
 
 Those rude and hardy men, hunters and traders, 
 scouts and guides, who ranged the woods beyond 
 the English borders, and formed a connecting link 
 between barbarism and civilization, have been 
 touched upon already. They were a distinct, 
 peculiar class, marked with striking contrasts of 
 good and evil. Many, though by no means all, 
 were coarse, audacious, and unscrupulous ; yet, 
 even in the worst, one might often have found a 
 vigorous growth of warlike virtues, an iron endur- 
 ance, an undespairing courage, a wondrous sagacity, 
 and singular fertility of resource. In them was 
 renewed, with all its ancient energy, that wild and 
 daring spirit, that force and hardihood of mind, 
 which marked our barbarous ancestors of Germany 
 and Norway. These sons of the wilderness still 
 survive. We may find them to this day, not in the 
 valley of the Ohio, nor on the shores of the lakes, 
 but far westward on the desert range of the buffalo, 
 and among the solitudes of Oregon. Even now, 
 while I write, some lonely trapper is climbing the 
 perilous defiles of the Rocky Mountains, his strong 
 frame cased in time-worn buck-skin, his rifle griped 
 in his sinewy hand. Keenly he peers from side to 
 side, lest Blackfoot or Arapahoe should ambuscade 
 his path. The rough earth is his bed, a morsel of 
 dried meat and a draught of water are his food and 
 drink, and death and danger his companions. No 
 
1760-1763.] THE PRACTISED WOODSMAN. 159 
 
 anchorite could fare worse, no' hero could dare 
 more ; yet his wild, hard life has resistless charms ; 
 and, while he can wield a rifle, he will never leave 
 it. Go with him to the rendezvous, and he is a 
 stoic no more. Here, rioting among his comrades, 
 his native appetites break loose in mad excess, in 
 deep carouse, and desperate gaming. Then follow 
 close the quarrel, the challenge, the fight, ■ — two 
 rusty rifles and fifty yards of prairie. 
 
 The nursling of civilization, placed in the midst 
 of the forest, and abandoned to his own resources, 
 is helpless as an infant. There is no clew to the 
 labyrinth. Bewildered and amazed, he circles 
 round and round in hopeless wanderings. Despair 
 and famine make him their prey, and unless the 
 birds of heaven minister to his wants, he dies in 
 misery. Not so the practised woodsman. To him, 
 the forest is a home. It yields him food, shelter, 
 and • raiment, and he threads its trackless depths 
 with undeviating foot. To lure the game, to cir- 
 cumvent the lurking foe, to guide his course by the 
 stars, the wind, the streams, or the trees, — such 
 are the arts which the white man has learned from 
 the red. Often, indeed, the pupil has outstripped 
 his master. He can hunt as well ; he can fight 
 better ; and yet there are niceties of the woods- 
 man's craft in which the white man must yield the 
 palm to his savage rival. Seldom can he boast, in 
 equal measure, that subtlety of sense, more akin to 
 the instinct of brutes than to human reason, which 
 reads the signs of the forest as the scholar reads 
 the printed page, to which the whistle of a bird 
 
160 THE WILDERNESS AND ITS TENANTS. [1760-1763. 
 
 can speak clearly as the tongue of man, and the 
 rustle of a leaf give knowledge of life or death. ^ 
 With us the name of the savage is a byword of 
 reproach. The Indian would look with equal scorn 
 on those who, buried in useless lore, are blind and 
 deaf to the great world of nature. 
 
 A striking example of Indian acuteness once came under my obser- 
 vation. Travelling in company with a Canadian named Raymond, and 
 an Ogillallah Indian, we came at nightfall to a small stream called Chug- 
 water, a branch of Laramie Creek. As we prepared to encamp, we ob- 
 served the ashes of a fire, the footprints of men and horses, and other 
 mdications that a party had been upon the spot not many days before. 
 Having secured our horses for the night, Raymond and I sat down and 
 lighted our pipes, my companion, who had spent his whole life in the 
 Indian country, hazarding various conjectures as to the numbers and 
 character of our predecessors. Soon after, we were joined by the Indian, 
 who, meantime, had been prowling about the place. Raymond asked 
 what discovery he had made. He answered, that the party were friendly, 
 and that they consisted of eight men, both whites and Indians, several of 
 whom he named, affirming that he knew them well. To an inquiry how 
 he gained his information, he would make no intelligible reply. On the 
 next day, reaching Fort Laramie, a post of the American Fur Company, 
 we found that he was correct in every particular, — a circumstance the 
 more remarkable, as he had been with us for three weeks, and could have 
 had no other means of knowledge than we ourselves. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1760. 
 
 THE ENGLISH TAKE POSSESSION OF THE WESTERN 
 POSTS. 
 
 The war was over. The plains around Montreal 
 were dotted with the white tents of three victorious 
 armies, and the work of conquest was complete. 
 Canada, with all her dependencies, had yielded to 
 the British crown ; but it still remained to carry 
 into full effect the terms of the surrender, and take 
 possession of those western outposts, where the 
 lilies of France had not as yet descended from the 
 flagstaff. The execution of this task, neither an 
 easy nor a safe one, was assigned to a provincial 
 officer, Major Eobert Rogers. 
 
 Rogers was a native of New Hampshire. He 
 commanded a body of provincial rangers, and stood 
 in high repute as a partisan officer. Putnam and 
 Stark were his associates ; and it was in this wood- 
 land warfare that the former achieved many of 
 those startling adventures and hair-breadth escapes 
 which have made his name familiar at every New- 
 England fireside. Rogers's Rangers, half hunters, 
 
 half woodsmen, trained in a discipline of their 
 
 11 
 
162 THE ENGLISH IN THE WEST. [1760. 
 
 own, and armed, like Indians, with hatchet, knife, 
 and gnn, were employed in a service of peculiar 
 hardship. Their chief theatre of action was the 
 mountainous region of Lake George, the debatable 
 ground between the hostile forts of Ticonderoga 
 and William Henry. The deepest recesses of 
 these romantic solitudes had heard the French and 
 Indian yell, and the answering shout of the hardy 
 New-England men. In summer, they passed down 
 the lake in whale boats or canoes, or threaded the 
 pathways of the woods in single file^ like the 
 savages themselves. In winter, they journeyed 
 through the swamps on snowshoes, skated along 
 the frozen surface of the lake, and bivouacked at 
 night among the snow-drifts. They intercepted 
 French messengers, encountered French scouting 
 parties, and carried off prisoners from under the 
 very walls of Ticonderoga. Their hardships and 
 adventures, their marches and countermarches, 
 their frequent skirmishes and midwinter battles, 
 had made them famous throughout America ; and 
 though it was the fashion of the day to sneer at 
 the efforts of provincial troops, the name of 
 Rogers's Rangers was never mentioned but with 
 honor. 
 
 Their commander was a man tall and strong in 
 person, and rough in feature. He was versed 
 in all the arts of woodcraft, sagacious, prompt, and 
 resolute, yet so cautious withal that he sometimes 
 incurred the unjust charge of cowardice. His 
 mind, naturally active, was by no means uncul- 
 tivated ; and his . books and unpublished letters 
 
1760. J MAJOR ROBERT ROGERS. 163 
 
 bear witness that his style as a writer was not 
 contemptible. But his vain, restless, and grasping 
 spirit, and more than doubtful honesty, proved the 
 ruin of an enviable reputation. Six years after 
 the expedition of which I am about to speak, he 
 was tried by a court-martial for a meditated act of 
 treason, the surrender of Fort Michillimackinac 
 into the hands of the Spaniards, who were at that 
 time masters of Upper Louisiana.^ Not long after, 
 if we may trust his own account, he passed over 
 to the Barbary States, entered the service of the 
 Dey of Algiers, and fought two battles under his 
 banners. At the opening of the war of inde- 
 pendence, he returned to his native country, where 
 he made professions of patriotism, but was strongly 
 suspected by many, including Washington himself, 
 of acting the part of a spy. In fact, he soon 
 openly espoused the British cause, and received a 
 colonel's commission from the crown. His ser- 
 vices, however, proved of little consequence. In 
 1778, he was proscribed and banished, under the 
 act of New Hampshire, and the remainder of his 
 life was passed in such obscurity that it is difficult 
 to determine when and where he died.^ 
 
 1 MS. Gage Papers. 
 
 2 Sabine, American Loyalists, 576. Sparks, Writings of Washington, 
 III. 208, 244, 439 ; IV. 128, 520, 524. 
 
 Although Rogers, especially where his pecuniary interest was con- 
 cerned, was far from scrupulous, I have no hesitation in following his 
 account of the expedition up the lakes. The incidents of each day are 
 minuted down in a dry, unambitious style, bearing the clear impress of 
 truth. Extracts from the orderly books and other oflScial papers are 
 given, while portions of the narrative, verified by contemporary docu- 
 ments, may stand as earnests for the truth of the whole. 
 
 Rogers's published works consist of the Journals of his ranging service 
 
164 THE ENGLISH IN THE WEST. [17G0. 
 
 On the twelfth of September, 1760, Rogers, then 
 at the height of his reputation, received orders 
 from Sir Jeffrey Amherst to ascend the lakes with 
 a detachment of rangers, and take possession, in 
 the name of his Britannic Majesty, of Detroit, 
 Michillimackinac, and other western posts included 
 in the late capitulation. He left Montreal, on the 
 following day, with two hundred rangers, in fifteen 
 whale boats. Stemming the surges of La Chine 
 and the Cedars, they left behind them the straggling 
 hamlet which bore the latter name, and formed at 
 that day the western limit of Canadian settlement.^ 
 They gained Lake Ontario, skirted its northern 
 shore, amid rough and boisterous weather, and 
 crossing at its western extremity, reached Fort 
 Niagara on the first of October. Carrying their 
 
 and his Concise Account of North America, a small volume containing much 
 valuable information. Both appeared in London in 1765. To these may 
 be added a curious drama, called Ponteach, or the Savages of A7ne7-ica, which 
 appears to have been written, in part, at least, by him. It is very rare, 
 and besides the copy in my possession, I know of but one other, which 
 may be found in the library of the British Museum. For an account of 
 this curious production, see Appendix, B. An engraved full-length por- 
 trait of Rogers was published in London in 1776. He is represented as a 
 tall, strong man, dressed in the costume of a ranger, with a powder-horn 
 slung at his side, a gun resting in the hollow of his arm, and a coun- 
 tenance by no means prepossessing. Behind him, at a little distance, 
 stand his Indian followers. 
 
 The steep mountain called Rogers' Slide, near the northern end of 
 Lake George, derives its name from the tradition that, during the French 
 war, being pursued by a party of Indians, he slid on snowshoes down its 
 precipitous front, for more than a thousand feet, to the frozen lake below. 
 On beholding the achievement, the Indians, as well they might, believed 
 him under the protection of the Great Spirit, and gave over the chase. 
 The story seems unfounded ; yet it was not far from this mountain that 
 the rangers fought one of their most desperate winter battles, against a 
 force of many times their number. 
 
 1 Henry, Travels and Adventures, 9. 
 
1760.] THE RANGERS ON THE LAKES. 165 
 
 boats over the portage, they launched them once 
 more above the cataract, and slowly pursued their 
 voyage ; while Eogers, with a few attendants, 
 hastened on in advance to Fort Pitt, to deliver 
 despatches, with which he was charged, to General 
 Monkton. This errand accomplished, he rejoined 
 his command at Presqu' Isle, about the end of the 
 month, and the whole proceeded together along 
 the southern margin of Lake Erie. The season 
 was far advanced. The wind was chill, the lake 
 was stormy, and the woods on shore were tinged 
 with the fading hues of autumn. On the seventh 
 of November, they reached the mouth of a river 
 called by Eogers the Chogage. No body of troops 
 under the British flag had ever before penetrated 
 so far. The day was dull and rainy, and, resolving 
 to rest until the weather should improve, Eogers 
 ordered his. men to prepare their encampment in 
 the neighboring forest. 
 
 Soon after the arrival of the rangers, a party 
 of Indian chiefs and warriors entered the camp. 
 They proclaimed themselves an embassy from 
 Pontiac, ruler of all that country, and directed, 
 in his name, that the English should advance no 
 farther until they had had an interview with the 
 great chief, who was already close at hand. In 
 truth, before the day closed, Pontiac himself 
 appeared ; and it is here, for the first time, that 
 this remarkable man stands forth distinctly on 
 the page of history. He greeted Eogers with the 
 haughty demand, what was his business in that 
 country, and how he dared enter it without his 
 
166 THE ENGLISH IN THE WEST. [1760. 
 
 permission. Rogers informed him that the French 
 were defeated, that Canada had surrendered, and 
 that he was on his way to take possession of 
 Detroit, and restore a general peace to white men 
 and Indians ahke. Pontiac listened with attention, 
 but only replied that he should stand in the path 
 of the English until morning. Having inquired if 
 the strangers were in need of any thing which his 
 country could afford, he withdrew, with his chiefs, 
 at nightfall, to his own encampment ; while the 
 English, ill at ease, and suspecting treachery, stood 
 well on their guard throughout the night.^ 
 
 In the morning, Pontiac returned to the camp 
 with his attendant chiefs, and made his reply to 
 Eogers's speech of the previous day. He was 
 willing, he said, to live at peace with the English, 
 and suffer them to remain in his country as long 
 as they treated him with due respect and deference. 
 The Indian chiefs and provincial officers smoked 
 the calumet together, and perfect harmony seemed 
 established between them.^ 
 
 Up to this time, Pontiac had been, in word and 
 deed, the fast ally of the French ; but it is easy to 
 discern the motives that impelled him to renounce 
 his old adherence. The American forest never pro- 
 duced a man more shrewd, politic, and ambitious. 
 Ignorant as he was of what was passing in the 
 world, he could clearly see that the French power 
 
 1 There can be no reasonable doubt, that the interview with Pontiac, 
 described by Rogers in his Account of North America, took place on the 
 occasion indicated in his Journals, under date of the 7th of November. 
 The Indians whom he afterwards met are stated to have been Hurons. 
 
 2 Rogers, Journals, 214; Account of North America, 240, 243. 
 
1760.] VIEWS OF PONTIAC. 167 
 
 was on the wane, and he knew his own interest 
 too well to prop a falling cause. By making 
 friends of the English, he hoped to gain powerful 
 allies, who would aid his ambitious projects, and 
 give him an increased influence over the tribes ; 
 and he flattered himself that the new-comers would 
 treat him with the same respect which the French 
 had always observed. In this, and all his other 
 expectations of advantage from the English, he 
 was doomed to disappointment. 
 
 A cold storm of rain set in, and the rangers 
 were detained several days in their encampment. 
 During this time, Rogers had several interviews 
 with Pontiac, and was constrained to admire the 
 native vigor of- his intellect, no less than the sin- 
 gular control which he exercised over those around 
 him. 
 
 On the twelfth of November, the detachment was 
 again in motion, and within a few days they had 
 reached the western end of Lake Erie. Here they 
 heard that the Indians of Detroit were in arms 
 against them, and that four hundred warriors lay 
 in ambush at the entrance of the river to cut them 
 05". But the powerful influence of Pontiac was 
 exerted in behalf of his new friends. The warriors 
 abandoned their design, and the rangers continued 
 their progress towards Detroit, now within a short 
 distance. 
 
 In the mean time. Lieutenant Brehm had been 
 sent forward with a letter to Captain Beletre, the 
 commandant at Detroit, informing him that Canada 
 had capitulated, that his garrison was included in 
 
168 THE ENGLISH IN THE WEST. [1760. 
 
 the capitulation, and that an English detachment 
 was approaching to relieve it. The Frenchman, 
 in great wrath at the tidings, disregarded the mes- 
 sage as an informal communication, and resolved 
 to keep a hostile attitude to the last. He did his 
 best to rouse the fury of the Indians. x\mong 
 other devices, he displayed upon a pole, before the 
 yelling multitude, the effigy of a crow pecking a 
 man's head ; the crow representing himself, and 
 the head, observes Rogers, " being meant for my 
 own." All his efforts were unavailing, and his 
 faithless allies showed unequivocal symptoms of 
 defection in the hour of need. 
 
 Rogers had now entered the mouth of the River 
 Detroit, whence he sent forward Captain Campbell 
 with a copy of the capitulation, and a letter from 
 the Marquis de Vaudreuil, directing that the place 
 should be given up, in accordance with the terms 
 agreed upon between him and General Amherst. 
 Beletre was forced to yield, and with a very ill 
 grace declared himself and his garrison at the 
 disposal of the English commander. 
 
 The whale boats of the rangers moved slowly 
 upwards between the low banks of the Detroit, 
 until at length the green uniformity of marsh and 
 forest was relieved by the Canadian houses, which 
 began to appear on either bank, the outskirts of 
 the secluded and isolated settlement. Before them, 
 on the right side, they could see the village of the 
 Wyandots, and on the left the clustered lodges of 
 the Pottawattamies ; while, a little beyond, the 
 flag of France was flying for the last time above 
 
1760.] THE RANGERS AT DETROIT. 169 
 
 the bark roofs and weather-beaten palisades of the 
 little fortified town. 
 
 The rangers landed on the opposite bank, and 
 pitched their tents upon a meadow, while two 
 officers, with a small detachment, went across the 
 river to take possession of the place. In obedience 
 to their summons, the French garrison defiled upon 
 the plain, and laid down their arms. The Jleur de 
 lis was lowered from the flagstaff, and the cross of 
 St. George rose aloft in its place, while seven hun- 
 dred Indian warriors, lately the active allies of 
 France, greeted the sight with a burst of tri- 
 umphant yells. The Canadian militia were next 
 called together and disarmed. The Indians looked 
 on with amazement at their obsequious behavior, 
 quite at a loss to understand why so many men 
 should humble themselves before so few. Nothing 
 is more effective in gaining the respect, or even 
 attachment, of Indians than a display of power. 
 The savage spectators conceived the loftiest idea 
 of English prowess, and were astonished at the 
 forbearance of the conquerors in not killing their 
 vanquished enemies on the spot. 
 
 It was on the twenty-ninth of November, 1760, 
 that Detroit fell into the hands of the English. 
 The garrison were sent as prisoners down the lake, 
 but the Canadian inhabitants were allowed to retain 
 their farms and houses, on condition of swearing 
 allegiance to the British crown. An officer was 
 sent southward to take possession of the forts 
 Miami and Ouatanon, which guarded the commu- 
 nication between Lake Erie and the Ohio ; while 
 
170 THE ENGLISH IN THE WEST. [1760. 
 
 Kogers himself, with a small party, proceeded 
 northward to relieve the French garrison of 
 Michillimackinac. The storms and gathering ice 
 of Lake Huron forced him back without accom- 
 plishing his object ; and Michillimackinac, with the 
 three remoter posts of St. Marie, Green Bay, and 
 St. Joseph, remained for a time in the hands of the 
 French. During the next season, however, a 
 detachment of the 60th regiment, then called the 
 Royal xlmericans, took possession of them ; and 
 nothing now remained within the power of the 
 French, except the few posts and settlements on 
 the Mississippi and the Wabash, not included in 
 the capitulation of Montreal. 
 
 The work of conquest was finished. The fertile 
 wilderness beyond the Alleghanies, over which 
 France had claimed sovereignty, — that boundless 
 forest, with its tracery of interlacing streams, which, 
 like veins and arteries, gave it life and nourishment, 
 — had passed into the hands of her rival. It was 
 by a few insignificant forts, separated by oceans of 
 fresh water and uncounted leagues of forest, that 
 the two great European powers, France first, and 
 now England, endeavored to enforce their claims 
 to this vast domain. There is something ludicrous 
 in the disparity between the importance of the 
 possession and the slenderness of the force em- 
 ployed to maintain it. A region embracing so 
 many thousand miles of surface was consigned 
 to the keeping of some fire or six hundred men. 
 Yet the force, small as it was, appeared adequate 
 to its object, for there seemed no enemy to contend 
 
1760.] CONQUEST OF THE WEST. 171 
 
 with. The hands of the French were tied by the 
 capitulation, and little apprehension was felt from 
 the red inhabitants of the woods. The lapse of 
 two years sufficed to show how complete and fatal 
 was the mistake. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 1760-1763. 
 ANGER OF THE INDIAls^S. — THE CONSPIRACY. 
 
 The country was scarcely transferred to the 
 English, when smothered murmurs of discontent 
 began to be audible among the Indian tribes. 
 From the head of the Potomac to Lake Superior, 
 and from the xllleghanies to the Mississippi, in 
 every wigwam and hamlet of the forest, a deep- 
 rooted hatred of the English increased with rapid 
 growth. Nor is this to be wondered at. We have 
 seen with what sagacious policy the French had 
 labored to ingratiate themselves with the Indians ; 
 and the slaughter of the Monongahela, with the 
 horrible devastation of the western frontier, the 
 outrages perpetrated at Oswego, and the massacre 
 at Fort Wilham Henry, bore witness to the suc- 
 cess of their efforts. Even the Delawares and 
 Shawanoes, the faithful allies of William Penn, 
 had at length been seduced by their blandishments ; 
 and the Iroquois, tbe ancient enemies of Canada, 
 had half forgotten their former hostility, and well- 
 nigh taken part against the British colonists. The 
 remote nations of the west had also joined in the 
 
1760-1763.] INDIFFERENCE OF THE ENGLISH. 173 
 
 war, descending in their canoes for hundreds of 
 miles, to fight against the enemies of France. All 
 these tribes entertained towards the English that 
 rancorous enmity which an Indian always feels 
 against those to whom he has been opposed in 
 war. 
 
 Under these circumstances, it behooved the Eng- 
 lish to use the utmost care in their conduct towards 
 the tribes. But even when the conflict with France 
 was impending, and the alliance with the Indians 
 was of the last importance, they had treated them 
 with indifference and neglect. They were not likely 
 to adopt a different course now that their friendship 
 seemed a matter of no consequence. In truth, the 
 intentions of the English were soon apparent. In 
 the zeal for retrenchment, which prevailed after the 
 close of hostilities, the presents which it had always 
 been customary to give the Indians, at stated inter- 
 vals, were either withheld altogether, or doled out 
 with a niggardly and reluctant hand; while, to 
 make the matter worse, the agents and officers of 
 government often appropriated the presents to 
 themselves, and afterwards sold them at an exorbi- 
 tant price to the Indians.^ When the French had 
 possession of the remote forts, they were accus- 
 tomed, with a wise liberality, to supply the sur- 
 rounding Indians with guns, ammunition, and 
 clothing, until the latter had forgotten the weapons 
 and garments of their forefathers, and depended on 
 the white men for support. The sudden withhold- 
 ing of these supplies was, therefore, a grievous 
 
 1 MS. Johnson Papers. 
 
174 ANGER OE THE INDIANS. [1760-1763. 
 
 calamity. Want, suffering, and death, were the 
 consequences ; and this cause alone would have 
 been enough to produce general discontent. But, 
 unhappily, other grievances were superadded.^ 
 
 The English fur-trade had never been well regu- 
 lated, and it was now in a worse condition than 
 ever. Many of the traders, and those in their 
 
 1 Extract from a MS. letter — Sir W. Johnson to Governor Colden, 
 Dec. 24, 1763. 
 
 " I shall not take upon me to point out the Originall Parsimony &c. to 
 w^ the first defection of the Indians can with justice & certainty be at- 
 tributed, but only observe, as I did in a former letter, that the Indians 
 (whose friendship was never cultivated by the English with that atten- 
 tion, expense, & assiduity with w*» y« French obtained their favour) were 
 for many years jealous of our growing power, were repeatedly assured by 
 the French (who were at y« pains of having many proper emissaries 
 among them) that so soon as we became masters of this country, we 
 should immediately treat them with neglect, hem them in with Posts & 
 Forts, encroach upon their Lands, and finally destroy them. All w^ after 
 the reduction of Canada, seemed to appear too clearly to the Indians, who 
 thereby lost the great advantages resulting from the possession w^* the 
 French formerly had of Posts & Trade in their Country, neither of which 
 they could have ever enjoyed but for the notice they took of the Indians, 
 & the presents they bestowed so bountifully upon them, w^ however 
 expensive, they wisely foresaw was infinitely cheaper, and much more 
 efiectual than the keeping of a large body of Regular Troops, in their sev- 
 eral Countrys, ... a Plan which has endeared their memory to most of 
 the Indian Nations, who would I fear generally go over to them in case 
 they ever got footing again in this Country, & who were repeatedly ex- 
 horted, & encouraged by the French (from motives of Interest & dislike 
 \7^ they will always possess) to fall upon us, by representing that their 
 liberties & Country were in y« utmost danger." In January, 1768, 
 Colonel Bouquet, commanding in Pennsylvania, writes to General Am- 
 herst, stating the discontent produced among the Indians by the sup- 
 pression of presents. The commander-in-chief repUes, " As to appro- 
 priating a particular sum to be laid out yearly to the warriors in presents, 
 &c., that I can by no means agree to; nor can I think it necessary to give 
 them any presents by way of Bribes, for if they do not behave properly 
 they are to be punished." And again, in February, to the same ofiicer, 
 " As you are thoroughly acquainted with my sentiments regarding the 
 treatment of the Indians in general, you will of course order Cap. Ecuyer 
 . . . not to give those who are able to provide for their famiUes any 
 encouragement to loiter away their time in idleness about the Fort.'*^ 
 
1760-1763.] DISORDERS OF THE FUR-TRADE. 175 
 
 employ, were ruffians of the coarsest stamp, who 
 vied with each other in rapacity, violence, and 
 profligacy. They cheated, cursed, and plundered 
 the Indians, and outraged their families ; offering, 
 w^hen compared with the French traders, who were 
 under better regulation, a most unfavorable example 
 of the character of their nation. 
 
 The officers and soldiers of the garrisons did 
 their full part in exciting the general resentment. 
 Formerly, when the warriors came to the forts, 
 they had been welcomed by the French with atten- 
 tion and respect. The inconvenience which their 
 presence occasioned had been disregarded, and 
 their peculiarities overlooked. But now they were 
 received with cold looks and harsh words from the 
 officers, and with oaths, menaces, and sometimes 
 blows, from the reckless and brutal soldiers. 
 When, after their troublesome and intrusive fash- 
 ion, they were lounging everywhere about the fort, 
 or lazily reclining in the shadow of the walls, 
 they were met with muttered ejaculations of impa- 
 tience, or abrupt orders to be gone, enforced, per- 
 haps, by a touch from the butt of a sentinel's 
 musket. These marks of contempt were unspeak- 
 ably galling to their haughty spirit.^ 
 
 1 Some of tlie principal causes of the war are exhibited with spirit and 
 truth in the old tragedy of Ponteach, writt-en probably by Major Rogers. 
 The portion of the play referred to is given in Appendix, B. 
 
 " The English treat us with much Disrespect, and we have the greatest 
 Reason to believe, by their Behavior, they intend to Cut us off en- 
 tirely ; They have possessed themselves of our Country, it is now in our 
 power to Dispossess them and Recover it, if we will but Embrace the 
 opportunity before they have time to assemble together, and fortify 
 themselves, there is no time to be lost, let us Strike immediately." — 
 Speech of a Seneca chief to the Wyandots and Ottawas of Detroit, July, 1761. 
 
176 ANGER OF THE INDIANS. [1760-1763. 
 
 But what most contributed to the growing dis- 
 content of the tribes was the intrusion of settlers 
 upon their lands, at all times a fruitful source of 
 Indian hostility. Its effects, it is true, could only 
 be felt by those whose country bordered upon the 
 English settlements ; but among these were the 
 most powerful and influential of the tribes. The 
 Delawares and Shawanoes, in particular, had by 
 this time been roused to the highest pitch of exas- 
 peration. Their best lands had been invaded, and 
 all remonstrance had been fruitless. They viewed 
 with wrath and fear the steady progress of the 
 white man, whose settlements had passed the Sus- 
 quehanna, and were fast extending to the Allegha- 
 nies, eating away the forest like a spreading canker. 
 The anger of the Delawares was abundantly shared 
 by their ancient conquerors, the Six Nations. The 
 threatened occupation of Wyoming by settlers from 
 Connecticut gave great umbrage to the confederacy.^ 
 The Senecas were more especially incensed at Eng- 
 lish intrusion, since, from their position, they were 
 farthest removed from the soothing influence of Sir 
 William Johnson, and most exposed to the seduc- 
 tions of the French ; while the Mohawks, another 
 member of the confederacy, were justly alarmed at 
 seeing the better part of their lands patented out 
 without their consent. Some Christian Indians of 
 the Oneida tribe, in the simplicity of their hearts, 
 sent an earnest petition to Sir William Johnson, 
 that the English forts within the limits of the Six 
 
 1 Minutes of Conference with the Six Nations at Hartford, 1763, MS. 
 Letter — Hamilton to Amherst, Maj 10, 1761. 
 
1760-1763.] SINISTER MOVEMENTS OF THE FRENCH. 177 
 
 Nations might be removed, or, as the petition 
 expresses it, kicked out of the ivay.^ 
 
 The discontent of the Indians gave great satis- 
 faction to the French, who saw in it an assurance 
 of safe and bloody vengeance on their conquerors. 
 Canada, it is true, was gone beyond hope of recov- 
 ery ; but they still might hope to revenge its loss. 
 Interest, moreover, as well as passion, prompted 
 them to inflame the resentment of the Indians ; for 
 most of the inhabitants of the French settlements 
 upon the lakes and the Mississippi were engaged 
 in the fur-trade, and, fearing the English as formid- 
 able rivals, they would gladly have seen them driven 
 out of the country. Traders, hahitans, coureurs de 
 hois, and all classes of this singular population, 
 accordingly dispersed themselves among the vil- 
 lages of the Indians, or held councils with them in 
 the secret places of the woods, urging them to take 
 up arms against the English. They exhibited the 
 conduct of the latter in its worst light, and spared 
 neither misrepresentation nor falsehood. They told 
 their excited hearers that the English had formed 
 a deliberate scheme to root out the whole Indian 
 race, and, with that design, had already begun to 
 
 1 " We are now left in Peace, and have nothing to do but to plant our 
 Corn, Hunt tlie wild Beasts, smoke our Pipes, and mind Religion. But 
 as these Forts, which are built among us, disturb our Peace, & are a great 
 hurt to Rehgion, because some of our Warriors are fooUsh, & some of our 
 Brother Soldiers don't fear God, we therefore desire that these Forts may 
 be puU'd down, & kick'd out of the way." 
 
 At a conference at Philadelphia, in August, 1761, an Iroquois sachem 
 said, " We, your Brethren of the several Nations, are penned up like 
 Hoggs. There are Forts all around us, and therefore we are apprehensive 
 that Death is commg upon U8." 
 
 12 
 
178 ANGER OF THE INDIANS. [1760-1763. 
 
 hem them in with settlements on the one hand, and 
 a chain of forts on the other. Among other atro- 
 cious plans for their destruction, they had instigated 
 the Cherokees to attack and destroy the tribes of 
 the Ohio valley.-^ These groundless calumnies 
 found ready belief. The French declared, in addi- 
 tion, that the King of France had of late years 
 fallen asleep ; that, during his slumbers, the Eng- 
 lish had seized upon Canada ; but that he was now 
 awake again, and that his armies were advancing 
 up the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, to drive 
 out the intruders from the country of his red chil- 
 dren. To these fabrications was added the more 
 substantial encouragement of arms, ammunition, 
 clothing, and provisions, which the French trading 
 companies, if not the officers of the crown, distrib- 
 uted with a liberal hand.^ 
 
 The fierce passions of the Indians, excited by 
 their wrongs, real or imagined, and exasperated by 
 
 1 Croghan, Journal. See Hildreth, Pioneer History, 68. Also Butler, 
 Hist. Kentucky, Appendix. 
 
 2 Examination of Gershom Hicks, a spy. See Pennsylvania Gazette, 
 No. 1846. 
 
 Many passages from contemporary fetters and docmnents might be 
 cited in support of the above. The following extract from a letter of 
 Lieut. Edward Jenkins, commanding at Fort Ouatanon on the Wabash, to 
 Major Gladwin commanding at Detroit, is a good example. The date is 
 28 March, 1763. " The Canadians here are eternally telling Hes to the 
 Indians. . . One La Pointe told the Indians a few days ago that we should 
 all be prisoners in a short time (showing when the corn was about a foot 
 high), that there was a great army to come from the Mississippi, and that 
 they were to have a great number of Indians with them ; therefore advised 
 them not to help us. That they would soon take Detroit and these small 
 posts, and then they would take Quebec, Montreal, &c., and go into our 
 country. This, I am informed, they tell them from one end of tlie year 
 to the other." He adds that the Indians will rather give six beaver-skins 
 for a blanket to a Frenchman than three to an Englishman. 
 
1760-1763.] DELAWARE PROPHET. 179 
 
 the representations of the French, were yet farther 
 wrought upon by influences of another kind. A 
 prophet rose among the Delawares. This man 
 may serve as a counterpart to the famous Shawanoe 
 prophet, who figured so conspicuously in the Indian 
 outbreak, under Tecumseh, immediately before the 
 war with England in 1812. Many other parallel 
 instances might be shown, as the great suscepti- 
 bility of the Indians to superstitious impressions 
 renders the advent of a prophet among them no 
 very rare occurrence. In the present instance, the 
 inspired Delaware seems to have been rather an 
 enthusiast than an impostor; or perhaps he com- 
 bined both characters. The objects of his mission 
 were not wholly political. By means of certain 
 external observances, most of them sufficiently friv- 
 olous and absurd, his disciples were to strengthen 
 and purify their natures, and make themselves 
 acceptable to the Great Spirit, whose messenger 
 he proclaimed himself to be. He also enjoined 
 them to lay aside the weapons and clothing which 
 they received from the white men, and return to 
 the primitive life of their ancestors. By so doing, 
 and by strictly observing his other precepts, the 
 tribes would soon be restored to their ancient great- 
 ness and power, and be enabled to drive out the 
 white men who infested their territory. The pro- 
 phet had many followers. Indians came from far 
 and near, and gathered together in large encamp- 
 ments to listen to his exhortations. His fame 
 spread even to the nations of the northern lakes ; 
 but though his disciples followed most of his 
 
180 ANGER OF THE INDIANS. [1760-1763. 
 
 injunctions, flinging away flint and steel, and mak- 
 ing copious use of emetics, with other observances 
 equally troublesome, yet the requisition to abandon 
 the use of fire-arms was too inconvenient to be 
 complied with.^ 
 
 With so many causes to irritate their restless and 
 warlike spirit, it could not be supposed that the 
 Indians would long remain quiet. Accordingly, in 
 the summer of the year 1761, Captain Campbell, 
 then commanding at Detroit, received information 
 that a deputation of Senecas had come to the 
 neighboring village of the Wyandots for the pur- 
 pose of instigating the latter to destroy him and 
 his garrison.^ On farther inquiry, the plot proved 
 
 1 WCuUough's Narrative, See Incidents of Border Life, 98. M'Cul- 
 lough was a prisoner among the Delawares, at the time of the prophet's 
 appearance. 
 
 2 MS. Minutes of a Council held by Deputies of the Six Nations, with the 
 Wyandots, Ottaivas, Ojibivas, and Pottawattamies, at the Wyandot town, near 
 Detroit, July 3, 1761. 
 
 Extract from a MS. Letter — Captain Campbell, commanding at Detroit, 
 to Major Walters, commanding at Niagara. 
 
 \ "Detroit, June 17th. 1761, 
 ( two o'clock in the morning. 
 ^'Sir: 
 
 " I had the favor of Yours, with General Amherst's Dispatches. 
 
 " I have sent You an Express with a very Important piece of Intelli- 
 gence I have had the good fortune to Discover. I have been Lately 
 alarmed with Reports of the bad Designs of the Indian Nations against 
 this place and the English in General ; I can now Inform You for certain 
 it Comes from the Six Nations ; and that they have Sent Belts of Wam- 
 pum & Deputys to all the Nations, from Nova Scotia to the lUinois, to take 
 up the hatchet against the English, and have employed the Messagues to 
 send Belts of Wampum to the Northern Nations. . . . 
 
 " Their project is as follows : the Six Nations — at least the Senecas 
 — are to Assemble at the head of French Creek, within five and twenty 
 Leagues of Presqu' Isle, part of the Six Nations, the Delawares and 
 Shanese, are to Assemble on the Ohio, and all at the same time, about the 
 latter End of this Month, to surprise Niagara & Fort Pitt, and Cut off the 
 Communication Every where ; I hope this will Come time Enough to put 
 
1760-1763.] • CONSPIRACIES. 181 
 
 to be general ; and Niagara, Fort Pitt, and other 
 posts, were to share the fate of Detroit. Campbell 
 instantly despatched messengers to Sir Jeffrey 
 Amherst, and the commanding officers of the dif- 
 ferent forts ; and, by this timely discovery, the 
 conspiracy was nipped in the bud. During the 
 following summer, 1762, another similar design 
 was detected and suppressed. They proved to be 
 the precursors of a tempest. When, early in 1763, 
 it was announced to the tribes that the King of 
 France had ceded all their country to the King 
 of England, without even asking their leave, a 
 ferment of indignation at once became apparent 
 among them ; ^ and, within a few weeks, a plot 
 was matured, such as was never, before or since, 
 conceived or executed by a Xorth- American Indian. 
 It was determined to attack all the English forts 
 upon the same day ; then, having destroyed their 
 garrisons, to turn upon the defenceless frontier, 
 and ravage and lay waste the settlements, until, as 
 
 You on Your Guard and to send to Oswego, and all the Posts on that 
 communication, they Expect to be Joined by the Nations that are Come 
 from the Xorth by Toronto." 
 
 1 Letter, Geo. Croghan to Sir J. Amherst, Fort Pitt, April 30, 1763, 
 MS. Amherst replies characteristically, " Whatever idle notions they 
 may entertain in regard to the cessions made by the French Crown can be 
 of very little consequence." 
 
 Croghan, Sir William Johnson's deputy, and a man of experience, had 
 for some time been anxious as to the results of the arrogant policy of Am- 
 herst. On March 19th he ^vrote to Colonel Bouquet : "How they {the 
 Indians) may behave I can't pretend to say, but I do not approve of Gen^- 
 Amherst's plan of distressing them too much, as in my opinion they will 
 not consider consequences if too much distrest, tho' Sir Jeffrey thinks they 
 will." 
 
 Croghan urges the same views, with emphasis, in other letters ; but 
 Amherst was deaf to all persuasion. 
 
182 a:nger of the Indians. [1760-i763. 
 
 many of the Indians fondly believed, the English 
 should all be driven into the sea, and the country 
 restored to its primitive owners. 
 
 It is difficult to determine which tribe was first 
 to raise the cry of war. There were many who 
 might have done so, for all the savages in the back- 
 w^oods were ripe for an outbreak, and the movement 
 seemed almost simultaneous. The Delawares and 
 Senecas were the most incensed, and Kiashuta, a 
 chief of the latter, was perhaps foremost to apply 
 the torch ; but, if this was the case, he touched 
 fire to materials already on the point of igniting. 
 It belonged to a greater chief than he to give 
 method and order to what would else have been a 
 wild burst of fury, and convert desultory attacks 
 into a formidable and protracted war. But for 
 Pontiac, the whole might have ended in a few 
 troublesome inroads upon the frontier, and a little 
 whooping and yelling under the walls of Fort Pitt. 
 
 Pontiac, as already mentioned, was principal 
 chief of the Ottawas. The Ottawas, Ojibwas, and 
 Pottawattamies, had long been united in a loose 
 kind of confederacy, of which he was the virtual 
 head. Over those around him his authority was 
 almost despotic, and his power extended far beyond 
 the limits of the three united tribes. His influence 
 was great among all the nations of the Illinois 
 country ; while, from the sources of the Ohio to 
 those of the Mississippi, and, indeed, to the farthest 
 boundaries of the wide-spread Algonquin race, his 
 name was known and respected. 
 
 The fact that Pontiac was born the son of a 
 
1760-1763.] PONTIAC. 183 
 
 chief would in no degree account for the extent of 
 his power ; for, among Indians, many a chief's son 
 sinks back into insignificance, while the offspring 
 of a common warrior may succeed to his place. 
 Among all the wild tribes of the continent, per- 
 sonal merit is indispensable to gaining or preserving 
 dignity. Courage, resolution, address, and elo- 
 quence are sure passports to distinction. With 
 all these Pontiac was pre-eminently endowed, and 
 it was chiefly to them, urged to their highest 
 activity by a vehement ambition, that he owed 
 his greatness. He possessed a commanding energy 
 and force of mind, and in subtlety and craft could 
 match the best of his wily race. But, though 
 capable of acts of magnanimity, he w^as a thorough 
 savage, with a wider range of intellect than those 
 around him, but sharing all their passions and 
 prejudices, their fierceness and treachery. His 
 faults were the faults of his race ; and they cannot 
 eclipse his nobler qualities. His memory is still 
 cherished among the remnants of many Algon- 
 quin tribes, and the celebrated Tecumseh adopted 
 him for his model, proving himself no unworthy 
 imitatorJ 
 
 1 Drake, Life of Tecumseh, 138. 
 
 Several tribes, the Miami s. Sacs, and others, have claimed connection 
 ■with the great chief ; but it is certain that he was, by adoption at least, 
 an Ottawa. Henry Conner, formerly government interpreter for the 
 northern tribes, declared, on the faith of Indian tradition, that he was 
 born among the Ottawas of an Ojibwa mother, a circumstance which 
 proved an advantage to him by increasing his influence over both tribes. 
 An Ojibwa Indian told the writer that some portion of his power was to 
 be ascribed to his being a chief of the Metai, a magical association among 
 the Indians of the lakes, in which character he exerted an influence on 
 the superstition of his followers. 
 
184 THE CONSPIRACY. [1760-1763. 
 
 Pontiac was now about fifty years old. Until 
 Major Rogers came into the country, he had been^ 
 from motives probably both of interest and incli- 
 nation, a firm friend of the French. Not long 
 before the French war broke out, he had saved the 
 garrison of Detroit from the imminent peril of an 
 attack from some of the discontented tribes of the 
 north. During the war, he had fought on the side 
 of France. It is said that he commanded the 
 Ottawas at the memorable defeat of Braddock ; 
 and it is certain that he was treated with much 
 honor by the French officers, and received especial 
 marks of esteem from the Marquis of Montcalm.^ 
 
 We have seen how, when the tide of aff'airs 
 changed, the subtle and ambitious chief trimmed 
 his bark to the current, and gave the hand of 
 friendship to the English. That he was dis- 
 appointed in their treatment of him, and in all 
 the hopes that he had formed from their alliance, 
 is sufficiently evident from one of his speeches. 
 A new light soon began to dawn upon his untaught 
 but powerful mind, and he saw the altered posture 
 of aff'airs under its true aspect. 
 
 It was a momentous and gloomy crisis for the 
 Indian race, for never before had they been exposed 
 to such imminent and pressing danger. With the 
 downfall of Canada, the tribes had sunk at once 
 from their position of importance. Hitherto the 
 two rival European nations had kept each other 
 
 1 The venerable Pierre Chouteau, of St. Louis, remembered to have 
 seen Pontiac, a few days before his death, attired in the complete uni- 
 form of a French officer, which had been given him by the Marquis of 
 Montcalm not long before the battle on the Plains of Abraham. 
 
1760-1763.] GLOOMY PROSPECTS OF THE INDIANS. 185 
 
 in check upon the American continent, and the 
 Indians had, in some measure, held the balance of 
 power between them. To conciliate their good 
 will and gain their alliance, to avoid offending 
 them by injustice and encroachment, was the 
 policy both of the French and English. But now 
 the face of affairs was changed. The English had 
 gained an undisputed ascendency, and the Indians, 
 no longer important as allies, w^ere treated as mere 
 barbarians, who might be trampled upon with im- 
 punity. Abandoned to their own feeble resources 
 and divided strength, they must fast recede, and 
 dwindle away before the steady progress of the 
 colonial power. Already their best hunting- 
 grounds were invaded, and from the eastern 
 ridges of the Alleghanies they might see, from 
 far and near, the smoke of the settlers' clearings, 
 rising in tall columns from the dark-green bosom 
 of the forest. The doom of the race was sealed, 
 and no human power could avert it ; but they, in 
 their ignorance, believed otherwise, and vainly 
 thought that, by a desperate effort, they might 
 yet uproot and overthrow the growing strength 
 of their destroyers. 
 
 It would be idle to suppose that the great mass 
 of the Indians understood, in its full extent, the 
 danger which threatened their race. With them, 
 the war was a mere outbreak of fury, and they 
 turned against their enemies with as little reason 
 or forecast as a panther when he leaps at the throat 
 of the hunter. Goaded by wrongs and indignities, 
 they struck for revenge, and for relief from the evil 
 
186 THE CONSPIRACY. [1760-17G3. 
 
 of the moment. But the mind of Pontiac could 
 embrace a wider and deeper view. The peril of 
 the times was unfolded in its full extent before 
 him, and he resolved to unite the tribes in one 
 grand effort to avert it. He did not, like many 
 of his people, entertain the absurd idea that the 
 Indians, by their unaided strength, could drive 
 the English into the sea. He adopted the only 
 plan consistent with reason, that of restoring the 
 French ascendency in the west, and once more 
 opposing a check to British encroachment. With 
 views like these, he lent a greedy ear to the 
 plausible falsehoods of the Canadians, who assured 
 him that the armies of King Louis were already 
 advancing to recover Canada, and that the French 
 and their red brethren, fighting side by side, would 
 drive the English dogs back within their own 
 narrow limits. 
 
 Revolving these thoughts, and remembering that 
 his own ambitious views might be advanced by the 
 hostilities he meditated, Pontiac no longer hesitated. 
 Kevenge, ambition, and patriotism wrought upon 
 him alike, and he resolved on war. At the close 
 of the year 1762, he sent ambassadors to the dif- 
 ferent nations. They visited the country of the 
 Ohio and its tributaries, passed northward to the 
 region of the upper lakes, and the borders of 
 the E-iver Ottawa ; and far southward towards the 
 mouth of the Mississippi.^ Bearing with them 
 the war-belt of wampum,^ broad and long, as the 
 
 1 MS. Letter — M. D'Ahhadie to M. Neyon, 1764. 
 
 2 Wampum was an article much in use among many tribes, not only 
 for ornament, but for the graver purposes of councils, treaties, and embas- 
 
1760-1763.] AMBASSADORS OF PONTIAC. 187 
 
 importance of the message demanded, and the toma- 
 hawk stained red, in token of war, they went from 
 camp to camp, and village to village. Wherever 
 they appeared, the sachems and old men assembled, 
 to hear the words of the great Pontiac. Then the 
 chief of the embassy flung down the tomahawk on 
 the ground before them, and holding the war-belt 
 in his hand, delivered, with vehement gesture, word 
 for word, the speech with which he was charged. 
 It was heard everywhere with approval ; the belt 
 was accepted, the hatchet snatched up, and the 
 assembled chiefs stood pledged to take part in 
 the war. The blow was to be struck at a certain 
 time in the month of May following, to be indicated 
 by the changes of the moon. The tribes were to 
 rise together, each destroying the English garrison 
 in its neighborhood, and then, with a general rush, 
 the whole were to turn against the settlements 
 of the frontier. 
 
 The tribes, thus banded together against the Eng- 
 lish, comprised, with a few unimportant exceptions, 
 the whole Algonquin stock, to whom were united 
 the Wyandots, the Senecas, and several tribes of 
 the lower Mississippi. The Senecas were the only 
 members of the Iroquois confederacy who joined 
 in the league, the rest being kept quiet by the 
 influence of Sir William Johnson, whose utmost 
 
 sies. In ancient times it consisted of small shells, or fragments of shells, 
 rudely perforated, and strung together ; but more recently, it was manu- 
 factured by the white men, from the inner portions of certain marine and 
 fresh water shells. In shape, the grains or beads resembled small pieces of 
 broken pipe-stem, and were of various sizes and colors, black, purple, and 
 white. When used for ornament, they were arranged fancifully in neck- 
 
188 THE CONSPIRACY. [1760-1763. 
 
 exertions, however, were barely sufficient to allay 
 their irritation.^ 
 
 While thus on the very eve of an outbreak, the 
 Indians concealed their designs with the dissimu- 
 lation of their race. The warriors still lounged 
 about the forts, with calm, impenetrable faces, 
 begging, as usual, for tobacco, gunpowder, and 
 whiskey. Now and then, some slight intimation 
 of danger would startle the garrisons from their 
 security. An English trader, coming in from the 
 Indian villages, would report that, from their man- 
 ner and behavior, he suspected them of brooding 
 mischief; or some scoundrel half-breed would be 
 heard boasting in his cups, that before next sum- 
 mer he would have English hair to fringe his hunt- 
 
 laces, collars, and embroidery ; but when employed for public purposes, 
 they were disposed in a great variety of patterns and devices, which, to 
 the minds of the Indians, had all the significance of hieroglyphics. An 
 Indian orator, at every clause of his speech, delivered a belt or string of 
 wampum, varying in size, according to the importance of what he had 
 said, and, by its figures and coloring, so arranged as to perpetuate the 
 remembrance of his words. These belts were carefully stored up like 
 written documents, and it was generally the office of some old man to 
 interpret their meaning. 
 
 When a wampum belt was sent to summon the tribes to join in war, its 
 color was always red or black, while the prevailing color of a peace-belt 
 was white. Tobacco was sometimes used on such occasions as a substi- 
 tute for wampum, since in their councils the Indians are in the habit of 
 constantly smoking, and tobacco is therefore taken as the emblem of 
 deliberation. With the tobacco or the belt of wampum, presents are not 
 unfrequently sent to conciliate the good will of the tribe whose alliance is 
 sought. In the summer of the year 1846, when the western bands of the 
 DahcotaJi were preparing to go in concert against their enemies the 
 Crows, the chief who was at the head of the design, and of whose village 
 the writer was an inmate, impoverished himself by sending most of his 
 horses as presents to the chiefs of the surrounding villages. On this 
 occasion, tobacco was the token borne by the messengers, as wampum is 
 not in use among the tribes of that region. 
 1 MS. Johnson Papers. 
 
1763.] DISSIMULATION OF THE INDIANS. 189 
 
 ing-frock. On one occasion, the plot was nearly 
 discovered. Early in March, 1763, Ensign Holmes, 
 commanding at Fort Miami, was told by a friendly 
 Indian that the warriors in the neighboring village 
 had lately received a war-belt, with a message urg- 
 ing them to destroy him and his garrison, and that 
 this they were preparing to do. Holmes called the 
 Indians together, and boldly charged them with 
 their design. They did as Indians on such occa- 
 sions have often done, confessed their fault with 
 much apparent contrition, laid the blame on a 
 neighboring tribe, and professed eternal friendship 
 to their brethren, the English. Holmes writes to 
 report his discovery to Major Gladwyn, who, in his 
 turn, sends the information to Sir Jeffrey Amherst, 
 expressing his opinion that there has been a general 
 irritation among the Indians, but that the affair will 
 soon blow over, and that, in the neighborhood of 
 his own post, the savages were perfectly tranquil.^ 
 Within cannon shot of the deluded officer's pali- 
 sades, was the village of Pontiac himself, the arch 
 
 1 MS. Speech of a Miami Chief to Ensign Hdmes. MS. Letter — Holmes 
 to Gladwj/n, March 16, 1763. Gladioyn to Amherst, March 21, 1763. 
 
 Extract from a MS. Letter — Ensign Holmes commanding at Miamis, to 
 Major Gladwyn : — 
 
 {" Fort Miamis. 
 March 30th, 1763. 
 
 "Since my Last Letter to You, wherein I Acquainted You of the 
 
 Bloody Belt being in this Village, I have made all the search I could 
 
 about it, and have found it out to be True ; Whereon I Assembled all 
 
 the Chiefs of this Nation, & after a long and troublesome Spell with them, 
 
 I Obtained the Belt, with a Speech, as You will Receive Enclosed ; This 
 
 Affair is very timely Stopt, and I hope the News of a Peace will put a 
 
 Stop to any further Troubles with these Indians, who are the Principal 
 
 Ones of Setting Mischief on Foot. I send you the Belt, with this Packet, 
 
 which I hope You will Forward to the General." 
 
190 THE CONSPIRACY. [1763. 
 
 enemy of the English, and prime mover in the 
 plot. 
 
 With the approach of spring, the Indians, com- 
 ing in from their wintering grounds, began to appear 
 in small parties about the various forts ; but now 
 they seldom entered them, encamping at a little 
 distance in the woods. They were fast pushing 
 their preparations for the meditated blow, and 
 waiting with stifled eagerness for the appointed 
 hour. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 1763. 
 INDIAN PREPAKATION. 
 
 I INTERRUPT the progress of the narrative to 
 glance for a moment at the Indians in their mili- 
 tary capacity, and observe how far they were qual- 
 ified to prosecute the formidable war into which 
 they were about to plunge. 
 
 A people living chiefly by the chase, and there- 
 fore, of necessity, thinly and widely scattered ; 
 divided into numerous tribes, held together by no 
 strong principle of cohesion, and with no central 
 government to combine their strength, could act 
 with little efficiency against such an enemy as was 
 now opposed to them. Loose and disjointed as a 
 whole, the government even of individual tribes, 
 and of their smallest separate communities, was too 
 feeble to deserve the name. There were, it is true, 
 chiefs whose office was in a manner hereditary ; 
 but their authority was wholly of a moral nature, 
 and enforced by no compulsory law. Their prov- 
 ince was to advise, and not to command. Their 
 influence, such as it was, is chiefly to be ascribed 
 to the principle of hero-worship, natural to the 
 
192 INDIAN PREPARATION. [1763. 
 
 Indian character, and to the reverence for age, 
 which belongs to a state of society where a patri- 
 archal element largely prevails. It was their office 
 to declare war and make peace ; but when war was 
 declared, they had no power to carry the declara- 
 tion into effect. The warriors fought if they chose 
 to do so ; but if, on the contrary, they preferred to 
 remain quiet, no man could force them to raise the 
 hatchet. The war-chief, whose part it was to lead 
 them to battle, was a mere partisan, whom his 
 bravery and exploits had led to distinction. If he 
 thought proper, he sang his war-song and danced 
 his war-dance ; and as many of the young men as 
 were disposed to follow him, gathered around and 
 enlisted themselves under him. Over these volun- 
 teers he had no legal authority, and they could 
 desert him at any moment, with no other penalty 
 than disgrace. When several war parties, of differ- 
 ent bands or tribes, were united in a common en- 
 terprise, their chiefs elected a leader, who was 
 nominally to command the whole ; but unless this 
 leader was a man of uncommon reputation and 
 ability, his commands were disregarded, and his 
 authority was a cipher. Among his followers, 
 every latent element of discord, pride, jealousy, 
 and ancient half-smothered feuds, were ready at 
 any moment to break out, and tear the whole 
 asunder. His warriors would often desert in bodies ; 
 and many an Indian army, before reaching the 
 enemy's country, has been known to dwindle away 
 until it was reduced to a mere scalping party. 
 To twist a rope of sand would be as easy a task 
 
1763.] INDIANS AS A MILITARY PEOPLE. 193 
 
 as to form a permanent and effective army of such 
 materials. The wild love of freedom, and impa- 
 tience of all control, which mark the Indian race, 
 render them utterly intolerant of military discipline. 
 Partly from their individual character, and partly 
 from this absence of subordination, spring results 
 highly unfavorable to continued and extended mil- 
 itary operations. Indian warriors, when acting in 
 large masses, are to the last degree wayward, ca- 
 pricious, and unstable ; infirm of purpose as a mob 
 of children, and devoid of providence and fore- 
 sight. To provide supplies for a campaign forms 
 no part of their system. Hence the blow must be 
 struck at once, or not struck at all; and to post- 
 pone victory is to insure defeat. It is when acting 
 in small, detached parties, that the Indian warrior 
 puts forth his energies, and displays his admirable 
 address, endurance, and intrepidity. It is then that 
 he becomes a truly formidable enemy. Fired with 
 the hope of winning scalps, he is stanch as a blood- 
 hound. No hardship can divert him from his 
 purpose, and no danger subdue his patient and 
 cautious courage. 
 
 From their inveterate passion for war, the Indians 
 are always prompt enough to engage in it ; and on 
 the present occasion, the prevailing irritation gave 
 ample assurance that they would not remain idle. 
 While there was little risk that they would capture 
 any strong and well-defended fort, or carry any 
 important position, there was, on the other hand, 
 every reason to apprehend wide-spread havoc, and 
 a destructive war of detail. That the war might 
 
 13 
 
194 INDIAN PREPARATION. [1763. 
 
 be carried on with effect, it was the part of the 
 Indian leaders to work upon the passions of their 
 people, and keep alive their irritation ; to whet 
 their native appetite for blood and glory, and cheer 
 them on to the attack ; to guard against all that 
 might quench their ardor, or cool their fierceness ; 
 to avoid pitched battles ; never to fight except under 
 advantage ; and to avail themselves of all the aid 
 which craft and treachery could afford. The very 
 circumstances which unfitted the Indians for con- 
 tinued and concentrated attack were, in another 
 view, highly advantageous, by preventing the enemy 
 from assailing them with vital effect. It was no 
 easy task to penetrate tangled woods in search of 
 a foe, alert and active as a lynx, who would seldom 
 stand and fight, whose deadly shot and triumphant 
 whoop were the first and often the last tokens of 
 his presence, and who, at the approach of a hostile 
 force, would vanish into the black recesses of for- 
 ests and pine swamps, only to renew his attacks 
 with unabated ardor. There were no forts to cap- 
 ture, no magazines to destroy, and little property 
 to seize upon. No warfare could be more perilous 
 and harassing in its prosecution, or less satisfactory 
 in its results. 
 
 The English colonies at this time were but ill 
 fitted to bear the brunt of the impending war. 
 The army which had conquered Canada was 
 broken up and dissolved ; the provincials were 
 disbanded, and most of the regulars sent home. 
 A few fragments of regiments, miserably wasted 
 by war and sickness, had just arrived from the 
 
1763.] THE PEACE OF PARIS. 195 
 
 West Indies ; and of these, several were already 
 ordered to England, to be disbanded. There 
 remained barely troops enough to furnish feeble 
 garrisons for the various forts on the frontier and 
 in the Indian country.^ At the head of this dilapi- 
 dated army was Sir Jeffrey Amherst, who had 
 achieved the reduction of Canada, and clinched 
 the nail which Wolfe had driven. In some 
 respects he was well fitted for the emergency; 
 but, on the other hand, he held the Indians in 
 supreme contempt, and his arbitrary treatment of 
 them and total want of every quality of concilia- 
 tion where they were concerned, had had no little 
 share in exciting them to war. 
 
 While the war was on the eve of breaking out, 
 an event occurred which had afterwards an impor* 
 tant effect upon its progress, — the signing of the 
 treaty of peace at Paris, on the tenth of February, 
 1763. By this treaty France resigned her claims 
 to the territories east of the Mississippi, and that 
 great river now became the western boundary of 
 the British colonial possessions. In portioning out 
 her new acquisitions into separate governments, 
 England left the valley of the Ohio and the adja- 
 cent regions as an Indian domain, and by the 
 proclamation of the seventh of October following, 
 the intrusion of settlers upon these lands was 
 strictly prohibited. Could these just and neces- 
 sary measures have been sooner adopted, it is 
 probable that the Indian war might have been 
 
 1 Mante, 485. 
 
196 INDIAN PREPARATION. [1763. 
 
 prevented, or, at all events, rendered less general 
 and violent, for the treaty would have made it 
 apparent that the French could never repossess 
 themselves of Canada, and would have proved the 
 futility of every hope which the Indians entertained 
 of assistance from that quarter, while, at the same 
 time, the royal proclamation w^ould have tended to 
 tranquillize their minds, by removing the chief 
 cause of irritation. But the remedy came too late, 
 and served only to inflame the evil. While the 
 sovereigns of France, England, and Spain, were 
 signing the treaty at Paris, countless Indian war- 
 riors in the American forests were singing the 
 war-song, and whetting their scalping-knives. 
 
 Throughout the western wilderness, in a hundred 
 camps and villages, were celebrated the savage rites 
 of war. Warriors, women, and children were alike 
 eager and excited ; magicians consulted their ora- 
 cles, and prepared charms to insure success ; while 
 the war-chief, his body painted black from head to 
 foot, concealed himself in the solitude of rocks and 
 caverns, or the dark recesses of the forest. Here, 
 fasting and praying, he calls day and night upon 
 the Great Spirit, consulting his dreams, to draw 
 from them auguries of good or evil ; and if, per- 
 chance, a vision of the great war-eagle seems to 
 hover over him with expanded wings, he exults in 
 the full conviction of triumph. When a few days 
 have elapsed, he emerges from his retreat, and the 
 people discover him descending from the woods, 
 and approaching their camp, black as a demon of 
 war, and shrunken with fasting and vigil. They 
 
1763.] THE WAR-FEAST. 197 
 
 flock around and listen to his wild harangue. He 
 calls on them to avenge the blood of their slaugh- 
 tered relatives ; he assures them that the Great 
 Spirit is on their side, and that victory is certain. 
 With exulting cries they disperse to their wigwams, 
 to array themselves in the savage decorations of 
 the war-dress. An old man now passes through 
 the camp, and invites the warriors to a feast in the 
 name of the chief. They gather from all quarters 
 to his wigwam, where they find him seated, no 
 longer covered with black, but adorned with the 
 startling and fantastic blazonry of the war-paint. 
 Those who join in the feast pledge themselves, by 
 so doing, to follow him against the enemy. The 
 guests seat themselves on the ground, in a circle 
 around the wigwam, and the flesh of dogs is placed 
 in wooden dishes before them, while the chief, 
 though goaded by the pangs of his long, unbroken 
 fast, sits smoking his pipe with unmoved counte- 
 nance, and takes no part in the feast. 
 
 Night has now closed in ; and the rough clear- 
 ing is illumined by the blaze of fires and burning 
 pine-knots, casting their deep red glare upon the 
 dusky boughs of the surrounding forest, and upon 
 the wild multitude who, fluttering with feathers 
 and bedaubed with paint, have gathered for the 
 celebration of the war -dance. A painted post is 
 driven into the ground, and the crowd form a wide 
 circle around it. The chief leaps into the vacant 
 space, brandishing his hatchet as if rushing upon 
 an enemy, and, in a loud, vehement tone, chants 
 his own exploits and those of his ancestors, enact- 
 
198 INDIAN PREPARATION. [1763. 
 
 ing the deeds which he describes, yelling the war- 
 whoop, throwing himself into all the postures of 
 actual fight, striking the post as if it were an 
 enemy, and tearing the scalp from the head of the 
 imaginary victim. Warrior after warrior follows 
 his example, until the whole assembly, as if fired 
 with sudden frenzy, rush together into the ring, 
 leaping, stamping, and whooping, brandishing 
 knives and hatchets in the fire-light, hacking and 
 stabbing the air, and breaking at intervals into a 
 burst of ferocious yells, which sounds for miles 
 away over the lonely, midnight forest. 
 
 In the morning, the warriors prepare to depart. 
 They leave the camp in single file, still decorated 
 with all their finery of paint, feathers, and scalp- 
 locks ; and, as they enter the woods, the chief fires 
 his gun, the warrior behind follows his example, 
 and the discharges pass in slow succession from 
 front to rear, the salute concluding with a general 
 whoop. They encamp at no great distance from 
 the village, and divest themselves of their much- 
 prized ornaments, which are carried back by the 
 women, who have followed them for this purpose. 
 The warriors pursue their journey, clad in the 
 rough attire of hard service, and move silently and 
 stealthily through the forest towards the hapless 
 garrison, or defenceless settlement, which they 
 have marked as their prey. 
 
 The woods were now filled with war-parties 
 such as this, and soon the first tokens of the 
 approaching tempest began to alarm the unhappy 
 settlers of the frontier. At first, some trader or 
 
1763.1 WAR PARTIES. 199 
 
 hunter, weak and emaciated, would come in from 
 the forest, and relate that his companions had been 
 butchered in the Indian villages, and that he alone 
 had escaped. Next succeeded vague and un- 
 certain rumors of forts attacked and garrisons 
 slaughtered ; and soon after, a report gained 
 ground that every post throughout the Indian 
 country had been taken, and every soldier killed. 
 Close upon these tidings came the enemy himself 
 The Indian war-parties broke out of the woods 
 like gangs of wolves, murdering, burning, and 
 laying waste ; while hundreds of terror-stricken 
 families, abandoning their homes, fled for refuge 
 towards the older settlements, and aU was misery 
 and ruin. 
 
 Passing over, for the present, this portion of 
 the war, we will penetrate at once into the heart 
 of the Indian country, and observe those pas- 
 sages of the conflict which took place under the 
 auspices of Pontiac himself, — the siege of Detroit, 
 and the capture of the interior posts and gar- 
 risons. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1763. 
 THE COUNCIL AT THE RIVER ECORCES. 
 
 To begin the war was reserved by Pontiac as his 
 own peculiar privilege. With the first opening of 
 spring his preparations were complete. His light- 
 footed messengers, with their wampum belts and 
 gifts of tobacco, visited many a lonely hunting camp 
 in the gloom of the northern woods, and called 
 chiefs and warriors to attend the general meeting. 
 The appointed spot was on the banks of the little 
 River Ecorces, not far from Detroit. Thither went 
 Pontiac himself, with his squaws and his children. 
 Band after band came straggling in from every side, 
 until the meadow was thickly dotted with their frail 
 wigwams.^ Here were idle warriors smoking and 
 laughing in groups, or beguiling the lazy hours 
 with gambling, feasting, or doubtful stories of their 
 own martial exploits. Here were youthful gallants, 
 bedizened with all the foppery of beads, feathers, 
 and hawks' bells, but held as yet in light esteem, 
 since they had slain no enemy, and taken no scalp. 
 
 1 Pontiac, MS. See Appendix, C. 
 
1763, April.] A MOTLEY ENCAMPMENT. 201 
 
 Here too were young damsels, radiant with bears' 
 oil, ruddy with vermihon, and versed in all the 
 arts of forest coquetry ; shrivelled hags, with limbs 
 of wire, and the voices of screech-owls ; and troops 
 of naked children, with small, black, mischievous 
 eyes, roaming along the outskirts of the woods. 
 
 The great Koman historian observes of the 
 ancient Germans, that when summoned to a pub- 
 lic meeting, they would lag behind the appointed 
 time in order to show their independence. The 
 remark holds true, and perhaps with greater 
 emphasis, of the American Indians ; and thus it 
 happened, that several days elapsed before the 
 assembly was complete. In such a motley con- 
 course of barbarians, where different bands and 
 different tribes were mustered on one common 
 camp ground, it would need all the art of a pru- 
 dent leader to prevent their dormant jealousies 
 from starting into open strife. No people are 
 more prompt to quarrel, and none more prone, in 
 the fierce excitement of the present, to forget the 
 purpose of the future ; yet, through good fortune, 
 or the wisdom of Pontiac, no rupture occurred ; 
 and at length the last loiterer appeared, and farther 
 delay was needless. 
 
 The council took place on the twenty-seventh 
 of April. On that morning, several old men, the 
 heralds of the camp, passed to and fro among 
 the lodges, calling the warriors, in a loud voice, 
 to attend the meeting. 
 
 In accordance with the summons, they issued 
 from their cabins: the tall, naked figures of the 
 
202 THE COUNCIL. [1763, April. 
 
 wild Ojibwas, with quivers slung at their backs, 
 and light war-clubs resting in the hollow of their 
 arms ; Ottawas, wrapped close in their gaudy 
 blankets ; Wyandots, fluttering in painted shirts, 
 their heads adorned with feathers, and their leggins 
 garnished with bells. All were soon seated in a 
 wide circle upon the grass, row within row, a grave 
 and silent assembly. Each savage countenance 
 seemed carved in wood, and none could have 
 detected the ferocious passions hidden beneatli 
 that immovable mask. Pipes with ornamented 
 stems were lighted, and passed from hand to hand. 
 
 Then Pontiac rose, and walked forward into the 
 midst of the council. According to Canadian tra- 
 dition, he was not above the middle height, though 
 his muscular figure was cast in a mould of remark- 
 able symmetry and vigor. His complexion was 
 darker than is usual with his race, and his features, 
 though by no means regular, had a bold and stern 
 expression ; while his habitual bearing was impe- 
 rious and peremptory, like that of a man accus- 
 tomed to sweep away all opposition by the force 
 of his impetuous will. His ordinary attire was that 
 of the primitive savage, — a scanty cincture girt 
 about his loins, and his long, black hair flowing 
 loosely at his back ; but on occasions like this 
 he was wont to appear as befitted his power 
 and character, and he stood doubtless before the 
 council plumed and painted in the full costume 
 of war. 
 
 Looking round upon his wild auditors he began 
 to speak, with fierce gesture, and a loud, impas- 
 
1763, April.] SPEECH OF PONTIAC. 203 
 
 sioned voice ; and at every pause, deep, guttural 
 ejaculations of assent and approval responded to 
 his words. He inveighed against the arrogance, 
 rapacity, and injustice, of the English, and con- 
 trasted them with the French, whom they had 
 driven from the soil. He declared that the British 
 commandant had treated him with neglect and 
 contempt ; that the soldiers of the garrison had 
 abused the Indians ; and that one of them had 
 struck a follower of his own. He represented the 
 danger that would arise from the supremacy of 
 the English. They had expelled the French, and 
 now they only waited for a pretext to turn upon 
 the Indians and destroy them. Then, holding out 
 a broad belt of wampum, he told the council that 
 he had received it from their great father the King 
 of France, in token that he had heard the voice of 
 his red children ; that his sleep was at an end ; 
 and that his great war canoes would soon sail up 
 the St. Lawrence, to win back Canada, and wreak 
 vengeance on his enemies. The Indians and their 
 French brethren would fight once more side by 
 side, as they had always fought ; they would 
 strike the English as they had struck them many 
 moons ago, when their great army marched down 
 the Monongahela, and they had shot them from 
 their ambush, like a flock of pigeons in the 
 woods. 
 
 Having roused in his warlike listeners their 
 native thirst for blood and vengeance, he next 
 addressed himself to their superstition, and told 
 the following tale. Its precise origin is not easy 
 
204 THE COUNCIL. [1763, April. 
 
 to determine. It is possible that the Delaware 
 prophet, mentioned in a former chapter, may have 
 had some part in it; or it might have been the 
 offspring of Pontiac's heated imagination, during 
 his period of fasting and dreaming. That he 
 deliberately invented it for the sake of the effect 
 it would produce, is the least probable conclusion 
 of all ; for it evidently proceeds from the supersti- 
 tious mind of an Indian, brooding upon the evil 
 days in which his lot was cast, and turning for 
 relief to the mysterious Author of his being. It is, 
 at all events, a characteristic specimen of the 
 Indian legendary tales, and, like many of them, 
 bears an allegoric signiiicancy. Yet he who 
 endeavors to interpret ah Indian allegory through 
 all its erratic windings and puerile inconsistencies, 
 has undertaken no enviable task. 
 
 " A Delaware Indian," said Pontiac, " conceived 
 an eager desire to learn wisdom from the Master 
 of Life ; but, being ignorant where to find him, he 
 had recourse to fasting, dreaming, and magical 
 incantations. By these means it was revealed to 
 him, that, by moving forward in a straight, unde- 
 viating course, he would reach the abode of the 
 Great Spirit. He told his purpose to no one, and 
 having provided the equipments of a hunter, — 
 gun, powder-horn, ammunition, and a kettle for 
 preparing his food, — he set out on his errand. 
 For some time he journeyed on in high hope and 
 confidence. On the evening of the eighth day, he 
 stopped by the side of a brook at the edge of a 
 meadow, where he began to make ready his 
 
1763, Apuil.] allegory OF THE DELAWARE. 205 
 
 evening meal, when, looking up, he saw three 
 hirge openings in the woods before him, and three 
 well-beaten paths which entered them. He was 
 much surprised ; but his wonder increased, when, 
 after it had grown dark, the three paths were more 
 clearly visible than ever. Kemembering the impor- 
 tant object of his journey, he could neither rest nor 
 sleep ; and, leaving his fire, he crossed the meadow, 
 and entered the largest of the three openings. He 
 had advanced but a short distance into the forest, 
 when a bright flame sprang out of the ground 
 before him, and arrested his steps. In great amaze- 
 ment, he turned back, and entered the second path, 
 where the same wonderful phenomenon again 
 encountered him ; and now, in terror and bewilder- 
 ment, yet still resolved to persevere, he took the 
 last of the three paths. On this he journeyed a 
 whole day without interruption, when at length, 
 emerging from the forest, he saw before him a vast 
 mountain, of dazzling whiteness. So precipitous 
 was the ascent, that the Indian thought it hopeless 
 to go farther, and looked around him in despair : 
 at that moment, he saw, seated at some distance 
 above, the figure of a beautiful woman arrayed in 
 white, who arose as he looked upon her, and thus 
 accosted him : ' How can you hope, encumbered 
 as you are, to succeed in your design? Go down 
 to the foot of the mountain, throw away your gun, 
 your ammunition, your provisions, and your cloth- 
 ing ; wash yourself in the stream which flows 
 there, and you will then be prepared to stand 
 before the Master of Life.' The Indian obeyed, 
 
206 THE COUNCIL. [1763, April. 
 
 and again began to ascend among the rocks, while 
 the woman, seeing him still discouraged, laughed 
 at his faintness of heart, and told him that, if be 
 wished for success, he must climb by the aid of 
 one hand and one foot only. After great toil and 
 suffering, he at length found himself at the summit. 
 The woman had disappeared, and he was left alone, j 
 A rich and beautiful plain lay before him, and at 
 a little distance he saw three great villages, far 
 superior to the squalid wigwams of the Delawares. 
 As he approached the largest, and stood hesitating 
 whether he should enter, a man gorgeously attired 
 stepped forth, and, taking him by the hand, wel- 
 comed him to the celestial abode. He then con- 
 ducted him into the presence of the Great Spirit, 
 where the Indian stood confounded at the unspeak- 
 able splendor which surrounded him. The Great 
 Spirit bade him be seated, and thus addressed 
 him : — 
 
 " ' I am the Maker of heaven and earth, the trees, 
 lakes, rivers, and all things else. I am the Maker 
 of mankind ; and because I love you, you must do 
 my will. The land on which you live I have made 
 for you, and not for others. Why do you suffer 
 the white men to dwell among you ? My children, 
 you have forgotten the customs and traditions of 
 your forefathers. Why do you not clothe yourselves 
 in skins, as they did, and use the bows and arrows, 
 and the stone-pointed lances, which they used? 
 You have bought guns, knives, kettles, and blank- 
 ets, from the white men, until you can no longer do 
 without them ; and, what is worse, you have drunk 
 
1763, April.] ALLEGORY OF THE DELAWARE. 207 
 
 the poison iire-water, which turns you into fools. 
 Fling all these things away ; live as your wise 
 forefathers lived before you. And as for these 
 English, — these dogs dressed in red, who have 
 come to rob you of your hunting-grounds, and 
 drive away the game, — you must lift the hatchet 
 against them. Wipe them from the face of the 
 earth, and then you will win my favor back again, 
 and once more be happy and prosperous. The chil- 
 dren of your great father, the King of France, 
 are not like the English. Never forget that they 
 are your brethren. They are very dear to me, for 
 they love the red men, and understand the true 
 mode of worshipping me.' " 
 
 The Great Spirit next gave his hearer various 
 precepts of morality and religion, such as the 
 prohibition to marry more than one wife ; and a 
 warning against the practice of magic, which is 
 worshipping the devil. A prayer, embodying the 
 substance of all that he had heard, was then pre- 
 sented to the Delaware. It was cut in hieroglyph- 
 ics upon a wooden stick, after the custom of his 
 people ; and he was directed to send copies of it to 
 all the Indian villages.^ 
 
 The adventurer now departed, and, returning to 
 the earth, reported all the wonders he had seen in 
 the celestial regions. 
 
 Such was the tale told by Pontiac to the council ; 
 
 1 Pontiac, MS. — M'Dougal, MSS. M'Dougal states that he derived 
 his information from an Indian. The author of the Pontiac MS. probably 
 writes on the authority of Canadians, some of whom were present at the 
 council. 
 
208 THE COUNCIL. [1763, April. 
 
 and it is worthy of notice, that not he alone, but 
 many of the most notable men who have arisen 
 among the Indians, have been opponents of civili- 
 zation, and stanch advocates of primitive barbarism. 
 Red Jacket and Tecumseh would gladly have 
 brought back their people to the rude simplicity of 
 their original condition. There is nothing progres- 
 sive in the rigid, inflexible nature of an Indian. 
 He will not open his mind to the idea of im- 
 provement ; and nearly every change that has 
 been forced upon him has been a change for the 
 worse. 
 
 Many other speeches were doubtless made in the 
 council, but no record of them has been preserved. 
 All present were eager to attack the British fort ; 
 and Pontiac told them, in conclusion, that on the 
 second of May he would gain admittance, with a 
 party of his warriors, on pretence of dancing the 
 calumet dance before the garrison ; that they would 
 take note of the strength of the fortification ; and 
 that he would then summon another council to 
 determine the mode of attack. 
 
 The assembly now dissolved, and all the evening 
 the women were employed in loading the canoes, 
 which were drawn up on the bank of the stream. 
 The encampments broke up at so early an hour, 
 that when the sun rose, the savage swarm had 
 melted away ; the secluded scene was restored to 
 its wonted silence and solitude, and nothing re- 
 mained but the slender frame-work of several 
 hundred cabins, with fragments of broken utensils, 
 pieces of cloth, and scraps of hide, scattered over 
 
1763, April.] THE CALUMET DANCE. 209 
 
 the trampled grass ; while the smouldering embers 
 of numberless fires mingled their dark smoke with 
 the white mist which rose from the little river. 
 
 Every spring, after the winter hunt was over, the 
 Indians were accustomed to return to their villages, 
 or permanent encampments, in the vicinity of De- 
 troit ; and, accordingly, after the council had broken 
 up, they made their appearance as usual about the 
 fort. On the first of May, Pontiac came to the 
 gate with forty men of the Ottawa tribe, and asked 
 permission to enter and dance the calumet dance, 
 before the officers of the garrison. After some 
 hesitation, he was admitted ; and proceeding to the 
 corner of the street, where stood the house of the 
 commandant. Major Gladwyn, he and thirty of his 
 warriors began their dance, each recounting his 
 own exploits, and boasting himself the bravest 
 of mankind. The officers and men gathered around 
 them ; while, in the mean time, the remaining ten 
 of the Ottawas strolled about the fort, observing 
 every thing it contained. When the dance was 
 over, they all quietly withdrew, not a suspicion of 
 their designs having arisen in the minds of the 
 English.^ 
 
 After a few days had elapsed, Pontiac's messen- 
 gers again passed among the Indian cabins, calling 
 the principal chiefs to another council, in the Pot- 
 tawattamie village. Here there was a large struct- 
 ure of bark, erected for the public use on occasions 
 like the present. A hundred chiefs were seated 
 
 1 Pontiac, MS. 
 14 
 
210 THE COUNCIL. [1763, April. 
 
 around this dusky council-house, the fire in the 
 centre shedding its fitful light upon their dark, 
 naked forms, while the pipe passed from hand to 
 hand. To prevent interruption, Pontiac had sta- 
 tioned young men as sentinels, near the house. He 
 once more addressed the chiefs ; inciting them to 
 hostility against the English, and concluding by the 
 proposal of his plan for destroying Detroit. It 
 was as follows : Pontiac would demand a council 
 with the commandant concerning matters of great 
 importance ; and on this pretext he flattered him- 
 self that he and his principal chiefs would gain 
 ready admittance within the fort. They were all 
 to carry weapons concealed beneath their blankets. 
 While in the act of addressing the commandant in 
 the council-room, Pontiac was to make a certain 
 signal, upon which the chiefs were to raise the 
 war-whoop, rush upon the officers present, and 
 strike them down. The other Indians, waiting 
 meanwhile at the gate, or loitering among the 
 houses, on hearing the yells and firing within the 
 building, were to assail the astonished and half- 
 armed soldiers ; and thus Detroit would fall an 
 easy prey. 
 
 In opening this plan of treachery, Pontiac 
 spoke rather as a counsellor than as a commander. 
 Haughty as he was, he had too much sagacity to 
 wound the pride of a body of men over whom he 
 had no other control than that derived from his 
 personal character and influence. No one was 
 hardy enough to venture opposition to the proposal 
 of their great leader. His plan was eagerly 
 
1763, April.] INDIAN PREPARATION. 211 
 
 adopted. Hoarse ejaculations of applause echoed 
 his speech ; and, gathering their blankets around 
 them, the chiefs withdrew to their respective vil- 
 lages, to prepare for the destruction of the unsus- 
 pecting garrison. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 1763. 
 DETROIT. 
 
 To the credulity of mankind each great calamity 
 has its dire prognostics. Signs and portents in the 
 heavens, the vision of an Indian bow, and the fig- 
 ure of a scalp imprinted on the disk of the moon, 
 warned the New England Puritans of impending 
 war. The apparitions passed away, and Philip of 
 Mount Hope burst from the forest with his Narra- 
 gansett warriors. In October, 1762, thick clouds 
 of inky blackness gathered above the fort and 
 settlement of Detroit. The river darkened beneath 
 the awful shadows, and the forest was wrapped in 
 double gloom. Drops of rain began to fall, of 
 strong, sulphurous odor, and so deeply colored 
 that the people, it is said, collected them and used 
 them for writing.^ A literary and philosophical 
 journal of the time seeks to explain this strange 
 phenomenon on some principle of physical science ; 
 but the simple Canadians held a different faith. 
 Throughout the winter, the shower of black rain 
 was the foremost topic of their fireside talk ; and 
 
 1 Carver, Travels, 153. Gent. Mag. XXXIV. 408. 
 
1768, May.] THE FORT. 213 
 
 forebodings of impending evil distuu'bed the breast 
 of many a timorous matron. 
 
 La Motte-Cadillac was the founder of Detroit. In 
 the year 1701, he planted the little military colony, 
 which time has transformed into a thriving American 
 city.^ At an earlier date, some feeble efforts had 
 been made to secure the possession of this impor- 
 tant pass ; and when La Hontan visited the lakes, 
 a small post, called Fort St. Joseph, was standing 
 near the present site of Fort Gratiot. The wan- 
 dering Jesuits, too, made frequent sojourns upon 
 the borders of the Detroit, and baptized the savage 
 children whom they found there. 
 
 Fort St. Joseph was abandoned in the year 1688. 
 The establishment of Cadillac was destined to a 
 better fate, and soon rose to distinguished impor- 
 tance among the western outposts of Canada. 
 Indeed, the site was formed by nature for pros- 
 perity ; and a bad government and a thriftless 
 people could not prevent the increase of the 
 colony. At the close of the French war, as Major 
 Rogers tells us, the place contained twenty-five 
 hundred inhabitants.^ The centre of the settle- 
 ment was the fortified town, currently called the 
 Fort, to distinguish it from the straggling dwellings 
 along the river banks. It stood on the western 
 margin of the river, covering a small part of the 
 ground now occupied by the city of Detroit, and 
 contained about a hundred houses, compactly- 
 pressed together, and surrounded by a palisade. 
 
 1 Memorial of La Motte Cadillac. See Schoolcraft, Oneota, 407. 
 
 2 A high estimate. Compare Rameau, Colonie du Detroit, 28. 
 
214 DETROIT. [1763, Mat. 
 
 Both above and below the fort, the banks of the 
 stream were lined on both sides with small Cana- 
 dian dwellings, extending at various intervals for 
 nearly eight miles. Each had its garden and its 
 orchard, and each was enclosed by a fence of 
 rounded pickets. To the soldier or the trader, 
 fresh from the harsh scenery and ambushed perils 
 of the surrounding wilds, the secluded settlement 
 was welcome as an oasis in the desert. 
 
 The Canadian is usually a happy man. Life 
 sits lightly upon him ; he laughs at its hardships, 
 and soon forgets its sorrows. A lover of roving 
 and adventure, of the frolic and the dance, he is 
 little troubled with thoughts of the past or the 
 future, and little plagued with avarice or ambition. 
 At Detroit, all his propensities found ample scope. 
 Aloof from the world, the simple colonists shared 
 none of its pleasures and excitements, and were 
 free from many of its cares. Nor were luxuries 
 wanting which civilization might have envied them. 
 The forests teemed with game, the marshes with 
 wild fowl, and the rivers with fish. The apples 
 and pears of the old Canadian orchards are even to 
 this day held in esteem. The poorer inhabitants 
 made wine from the fruit of the wild grape, which 
 grew profusely in the woods, while the wealthier 
 class procured a better quality from Montreal, in 
 exchange for the canoe loads of furs which they 
 sent down with every year. Here, as elsewhere in 
 Canada, the long winter was a season of social 
 enjoyment ; and when, in summer and autumn, the 
 traders and voyageurs, the coureurs de hois, and 
 
1763, Mat.] ITS OCCUPANTS. 215 
 
 half-breeds, gathered from the distant forests of 
 the north-west, the whole settlement was alive 
 with dancing and feasting, drinking, gaming, and 
 carousing. 
 
 Within the limits of the settlement were three 
 large Indian villages. On the western shore, a 
 little below the fort, were the lodges of the Potta- 
 wattamies ; nearly opposite, on the eastern side, 
 was the village of the Wyandots ; and on the 
 same side, five miles higher up, Pontiac's band of 
 Ottawas had fixed their abode. The settlers had 
 always maintained the best terms with their savage 
 neighbors. In truth, there was much congeniality 
 between the red man and the Canadian. Their 
 harmony was seldom broken ; and among the 
 woods and wilds of the northern lakes roamed 
 many a lawless half-breed, the mongrel offspring of 
 the colonists of Detroit and the Indian squaws. 
 
 We have already seen how, in an evil hour for 
 the Canadians, a party of British troops took pos- 
 session of Detroit, towards the close of the year 
 1760. The British garrison, consisting partly of 
 regulars and partly of provincial rangers, was now 
 quartered in a well-built range of barracks within 
 the town or fort. The latter, as already mentioned, 
 contained about a hundred small houses. Its form 
 was nearly square, and the palisade which sur- 
 rounded it was about twenty-five feet high. At 
 each corner was a wooden bastion, and a block- 
 house was erected over each gateway. The houses 
 weve small, chiefly built of wood, and roofed with 
 bark or a thatch of straw. The streets also 
 
216 DETROIT. [1763, Mat. 
 
 were extremely narrow, though a wide passage 
 way, known as the chemin die ronde, surrounded 
 the town, between the houses and the palisade. 
 Besides the barracks, the only public buildings 
 were a council-house and a rude little church. 
 
 The garrison consisted of a hundred and twenty 
 soldiers, with about forty fur- traders and engages ; 
 but the latter, as well as the Canadian inhabitants 
 of the place, could little be trusted, in the event of 
 an Indian outbreak. Two small, armed schooners, 
 the Beaver and the Gladwyn, lay anchored in the 
 stream, and several light pieces of artillery were 
 mounted on the bastions. 
 
 Such was Detroit, — a place whose defences 
 could have opposed no resistance to a civilized 
 enemy; and yet, far removed as it was from the 
 hope of speedy succor, it could only rely, in the 
 terrible struggles that awaited it, upon its own 
 slight strength and feeble resources.^ 
 
 Standing on the water bastion of Detroit, a 
 pleasant landscape spread before the eye. The 
 river, about half a mile wide, almost washed the 
 foot of the stockade ; and either bank was lined 
 with the white Canadian cottages. The joyous 
 sparkling of the bright blue water ; the green 
 
 1 Croghan, Journal. Rogers, Account of North America, 168. Various 
 MS. Journals, Letters, and Plans have also been consulted. The most 
 remarkable of these is the Plan Topographique du Detroit, made by or for 
 General Collot, in 1796. It is accompanied by a drawing in water-colors 
 of the town as it appeared in that year. A fac-simile of this drawing is 
 in my possession. The regular fortification, which, within the recollec- 
 tion of many now living, covered the ground in the rear of the old town 
 of Detroit, was erected at a date subsequent to the period of this his- 
 tory. 
 
1763, Mat.] AMBITION OF PONTIAC. 217 
 
 luxuriance of the Avoods ; the white dwellings, 
 looking out from the foliage ; and, in the distance, 
 the Indian wigwams curling their smoke against 
 the sky, — all were mingled in one broad scene of 
 wild and rural beauty. 
 
 Pontiac, the Satan of this forest paradise, was 
 accustomed to spend the early part of the summer 
 upon a small island at the opening of the Lake St. 
 Clair, hidden from view by the high woods that 
 covered the intervening Isle au Cochon.^ " The 
 king and lord of all this country," as Rogers calls 
 him, lived in no royal state. His cabin was a 
 small, oven-shaped structure of bark and rushes. 
 Here he dwelt, with his squaws and children ; and 
 here, doubtless, he might often have been seen, 
 lounging, half-naked, on a rush mat, or a bear- 
 skin, like any ordinary warrior. We may fancy 
 the current of his thoughts, the turmoil of his 
 uncurbed passions, as he revolved the treacheries 
 w^hich, to his savage mind, seemed fair and honor- 
 able. At one moment, his fierce heart would burn 
 with the anticipation of vengeance on the detested 
 English ; at another, he would meditate how he 
 best might turn the approaching tumults to the 
 furtherance of his own ambitious schemes. Yet 
 we may believe that Pontiac was not a stranger to 
 the high emotion of the patriot hero, the champion 
 not merely of his nation's rights, but of the very 
 existence of his race. He did not dream how 
 desperate a game he was about to play. He 
 
 1 Tradition, communicated to H. R. Schoolcraft, Esq., hy Henry Con- 
 ner, formerly Indian interpreter at Detroit. 
 
218 DETROIT. [1763, Mat. 
 
 hourly flattered himself with the futile hope of 
 aid from France, and thought in his ignorance that 
 the British colonies must give way before the rush 
 of his savage warriors ; when, in truth, all the 
 combined tribes of the forest might have chafed in 
 vain rage against the rock-hke strength of the 
 Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 Looking across an intervening arm of the river, 
 Pontiac could see on its eastern bank the numerous 
 lodges of his Ottawa tribesmen, half hidden among 
 the ragged growth of trees and bushes. On the 
 afternoon of the fifth of May, a Canadian woman, 
 the wife of St. Aubin, one of the principal settlers, 
 crossed over from the western side, and visited the 
 Ottawa village, to obtain from the Indians a supply 
 of maple sugar and venison. She was surprised at 
 finding several of the warriors engaged in filing 
 off the muzzles of their guns, so as to reduce them, 
 stock and all, to the length of about a yard. Re- 
 turning home in the evening, she mentioned what 
 she had seen to several of her neighbors. Upon 
 this, one of them, the blacksmith of the village, 
 remarked that many of the Indians had lately 
 visited his shop, and attempted to borrow files 
 and saws for a purpose which they would not 
 explain.^ These circumstances excited the suspi- 
 cion of the experienced Canadians. Doubtless 
 there were many in the settlement who might, had 
 they chosen, have revealed the plot ; but it is no 
 less certain that the more numerous and respectable 
 
 1 St. Aubin' s Account, MS. See Appendix, C. 
 
1763, Mat.] THE PLOT REVEALED. 219 
 
 class in the little community had too deep an inter- 
 est in the preservation of peace, to countenance 
 the designs of Pontiac. M. Gouin, an old and 
 wealthy settler, went to the commandant, and con- 
 jured him to stand upon his guard ; but Gladwyn, 
 a man of fearless temper, gave no heed to the 
 friendly advice.^ 
 
 In the Pottawattamie village, if there be truth in 
 tradition, lived an Ojibwa girl, who could boast a 
 larger share of beauty than is common in the wig- 
 wam. She had attracted the eye of Gladwyn. He 
 had formed a connection with her, and she had be- 
 come much attached to him. On the afternoon of 
 the sixth, Catharine — for so the officers called her 
 — came to the fort, and repaired to Gladwyn's quar- 
 ters, bringing with her a pair of elk-skin moccasons, 
 ornamented with porcupine work, which he had 
 requested her to make. There was something 
 unusual in her look and manner. Her face was 
 sad and downcast. She said little, and soon left 
 the room ; but the sentinel at the door saw her still 
 lingering at the street corner, though the hour for 
 closing the gates was nearly come. At length she 
 attracted the notice of Gladwyn himself; and 
 calling her to him, he pressed her to declare what 
 was weighing upon her mind. Still she remained 
 for a long time silent, and it was only after much 
 urgency and many promises not to betray her, that 
 she revealed her momentous secret. 
 
 To-morrow, she said, Pontiac will come to the 
 fort with sixty of his chiefs. Each will be armed 
 
 1 Gouin's Account, MS. 
 
220 DETROIT. [1763, May. 
 
 with a gun, cut short, and hidden under his blanket. 
 Pontiac will demand to hold a council ; and after 
 he has delivered his speech, he will offer a peace- 
 belt of wampum, holding it in a reversed position. 
 This will be the signal of attack. The chiefs will 
 spring up and fire upon the officers, and the Indians 
 in the street will fall upon the garrison. Every 
 Englishman will be killed, but not the scalp of a 
 single Frenchman will be touched.^ 
 
 1 Letter to the writer from H. R. Schoolcraft, Esq., containing the 
 traditional account from the lips of the interpreter, Henry Conner. See, 
 also. Carver, Travels, 155 (Lond. 1778). 
 
 Carver's account of the conspiracy and the siege is in several points 
 inexact, which throws a shade of doubt on this story. Tradition, how- 
 ever, as related by the interpreter Conner, sustains liim ; with the addi- 
 tion that Catharine was the mistress of Gladwyn, and a few other points, 
 including a very uiiromantic end of the heroine, who is said to liave per- 
 ished, by falling, when drunk, into a kettle of boiling maple-sap. This 
 was many years after (see Appendix). Maxwell agrees in the main 
 with Carver. There is another tradition, that the plot was disclosed by 
 an old squaw. A third, current among the Ottawas, and sent to me in 
 1858 by Mr. Hosmer, of Toledo, declares that a young squaw told the plot 
 to the commanding ofl&cer, but that he would not believe her, as she had a 
 bad name, being a " straggler among the private soldiers." An Indian 
 chief, pursues the same story, afterwards warned the officer. The Pontiac 
 MS says that Gladwyn was warned by an Ottawa warrior, though a 
 woman was suspected by the Indians of having betrayed the secret. Pel- 
 tier says that a woman named Catharine was actnised of revealing the 
 plot, and severely flogged by Pontiac in consequence. There is another 
 story, that a soldier named Tucker, adopted by the Indians, was warned 
 by his Indian sister. But the most distinct and satisfactory evidence is 
 the following, from a letter written at Detroit on the twelfth of July, 1763, 
 and signed James Macdonald. It is among the Haldimand Papers in the 
 British Museum. There is also an imperfect copy, found among the 
 papers of Colonel John Brodhead, in the library of the Historical Society 
 of Pennsylvania: "About six o'clock that afternoon [May 7], six of 
 their warriors returned and brought an old squaw prisoner, alleging that 
 she had given us false information against them. The major declared 
 she had never given us any kind of advice. They then insisted on 
 naming the author of what he had heard with regard to the Indians, 
 which he declined to do, but told them that it was one of themselves, 
 
1763, Mat.] A NIGHT OF ANXIETY. 221 
 
 Such is the story told in 1768 to the traveller 
 Carver at Detroit, and presei*ved in local tradition, 
 but not sustained by contempoi-ary letters or diaries. 
 What is certain is, that Gladwyn received secret 
 information, on the night of the sixth of May, that 
 an attempt would be made on the morrow to cap- 
 ture the fort by treachery. He called some of his 
 officers, and told them what he had heard. The 
 defences of the place were feeble and extensive, 
 and the garrison by far too weak to repel a general 
 assault. The force of the Indians at this time is 
 variously estimated at from six hundred to two 
 thousand ; and the commandant greatly feared that 
 some wild impulse might precipitate their plan, 
 and that they would storm the fort before the morn- 
 ing. Every preparation was made to meet the 
 sudden emergency. Half the garrison were ordered 
 under arms, and all the officers prepared to spend 
 the night upon the ramparts. 
 
 The day closed, and the hues of sunset faded. 
 Only a dusky redness lingered in the west, and 
 the darkening earth seemed her dull self again. 
 Then night descended, heavy and black, on the 
 
 whose name he promised never to reveal ; whereupon they went off, and 
 carried the old woman prisoner with them. When they arrived at their 
 camp, Pontiac, their greatest chief, seized on the prisoner, and gave her 
 three strokes with a stick on the head, which laid her flat on the ground, 
 and the whole nation assembled round her, and called repeated times, 
 'Kill her! kill her !' " 
 
 Thus it is clear that the story told by Carver must be taken with 
 many grains of allowance. The greater part of the evidence given above 
 has been gathered since the first edition of this book was published. It 
 has been thought best to retain the original passage, with the necessary 
 qualifications. The story is not without interest, and those may believe 
 it who win. 
 
I 
 
 222 DETROIT. [1763, Mat. 
 
 fierce Indians and the sleepless English. From 
 sunset till dawn, an anxious watch was kept from 
 the slender palisades of Detroit. The soldiers were 
 still ignorant of the danger ; and the sentinels did 
 not know why their numbers were doubled, or 
 why, with such unwonted vigilance, their officers 
 repeatedly visited their posts. A^ain and again 
 Gladwyn mounted his wooden ramparts, and looked 
 forth into the gloom. There seemed nothing but 
 repose and peace in the soft, moist air of the warm 
 spring evening, with the piping of frogs along the 
 river bank, just roused from their torpor by the 
 genial influence of May. But, at intervals, as the 
 night wind swept across the bastion, it bore sounds 
 of fearful portent to the ear, the sullen booming 
 of the Indian drum and the wild chorus of quaver- 
 ing yells, as the warriors, around their distant 
 camp-fires, danced the war-dance, in preparation 
 for the morrow's work.^ 
 
 1 Maxwell's Account, MS. See Appendix, C. 
 
CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 1763. 
 
 TREACHERY OF PONTIAC. 
 
 The mght passed without alarm. The sun rose 
 upon fresh fields and newly budding woods, and 
 scarcely had the morning mists dissolved, when the 
 garrison could see a fleet of birch canoes crossing 
 the river from the eastern shore, within range of 
 cannon shot above the fort. Only two or three 
 warriors appeared in each, but all moved slowly, 
 and seemed deeply laden. In truth, they were full 
 of savages, lying flat on their faces, that then* num- 
 bers might not excite the suspicion of the English.^ 
 
 At an early hour the open common behind the 
 fort was throDged with squaws, children, and war- 
 riors, some naked, and others fantastically arrayed 
 in their barbarous finery. All seemed restless and 
 uneasy, moving hither and thither, in apparent 
 preparation for a general game of baU. Many tall 
 warriors, wrapped in their blankets, were seen 
 stalking towards the fort, and casting mahgnant 
 furtive glances upward at the paHsades. Then, 
 
 1 Mdocke's Account, MS. 
 
224 TREACHERY OF PONTIAC. [1763, May. 
 
 with an air of assumed indifference, they would 
 move towards the gate. They were all admitted ; 
 for Gladwyn, who, in this instance at least, showed 
 some knowledge of Indian character, chose to con- 
 vince his crafty foe that, though their plot was 
 detected, their hostility was despised.^ 
 
 The whole garrison was ordered under arms. 
 Sterling, and the other English fur-traders, closed 
 their storehouses and armed their men, and all in 
 cool confidence stood waiting the result. 
 
 Meanwhile, Pontiac, who had crossed with the 
 canoes from the eastern shore, was approaching 
 along the river road, at the head of his sixty chiefs, 
 all gravely marching in Indian file. A Canadian set- 
 tler, named Beaufait, had been that moraing to the 
 fort. He was now returning homewards, and as he 
 reached the bridge which led over the stream then 
 called Parent's Creek, he saw the chiefs in the act 
 of crossing from the farther bank. He stood aside 
 to give them room. As the last Indian passed, 
 Beaufait recognized him as an old friend and 
 associate. The savage greeted him with the usual 
 ejaculation, opened for an instant the folds of his 
 blanket, disclosed the hidden gun, and, with an 
 emphatic gesture towards the fort, indicated the 
 purpose to which he meant to apply it.^ 
 
 At ten o'clock, the great war-chief, with his 
 treacherous followers, reached the fort, and the 
 gateway was thronged with their savage faces. 
 
 1 Penn. Gaz. No. 1808. 
 
 2 This incident was related, by the son of Beaufait, to General Cass. 
 See Cass, Discourse before the Michigan Historical Society, 30. 
 
1763, Mat.] THE PLOT DEFEATED. 225 
 
 All were wrapped to the throat in colored blankets. 
 Some were crested with hawk, eagle, or raven 
 plumes ; others had shaved their heads, leaving 
 only the fluttering scalp-lock on the crown ; while 
 others, again, wore their long, black hair flowing 
 loosely at their backs, or wildly hanging about 
 their brows like a lion's mane. Their bold yet 
 crafty features, their cheeks besmeared with ochre 
 and vermilion, white lead and soot, their keen, 
 deep-set eyes gleaming in their sockets, like those 
 of rattlesnakes, gave them an aspect grim, uncouth, 
 and horrible. For the most part, they were tall, 
 strong men, and all had a gait and bearing of 
 peculiar stateliness. 
 
 As Pontiac entered, it is said that he started, 
 and that a deep ejaculation half escaped from his 
 breast. Well might his stoicism fail, for at a 
 glance he read the ruin of his plot. On either 
 hand, within the gateway, stood ranks of soldiers 
 and hedges of glittering steel. The swarthy enga- 
 ges of the fur- traders, armed to the teeth, stood in 
 groups at the street corners, and the measured tap 
 of a drum fell ominously on the ear. Soon regain- 
 ing his composure, Pontiac strode forward into the 
 narrow street ; and his chiefs filed after him in 
 silence, while the scared faces of women and 
 children looked out from the windows as they 
 passed. Their rigid muscles betrayed no sign of 
 emotion ; yet, looking closely, one might have seen 
 their small eyes glance from side to side with rest- 
 less scrutiny. 
 
 Traversing the entire width of the little town, 
 
 15 
 
226 TREACHERY OF PONTIAC. [1763, May. 
 
 they reached the door of the council-house, a large 
 building standing near the margin of the river. 
 On entering, they saw Gladwyn, with several of 
 his officers, seated in readiness to receive them, and 
 the observant chiefs did not fail to remark that 
 every Englishman wore a sword at his side, and a 
 pair of pistols in his belt. The conspirators eyed 
 each other with uneasy glances. " Why," demanded 
 Pontiac, " do I see so many of my father's young 
 men standing in the street with their guns 1 " 
 Gladwyn replied through his interpreter, La Butte, 
 that he had ordered the soldiers under arms for 
 the sake of exercise and discipline. With much 
 delay and many signs of distrust, the chiefs at 
 length sat down on the mats prepared for them ; 
 and, after the customary pause, Pontiac rose to 
 speak. Holding in his hand the wampum belt 
 which was to have given the fatal signal, he ad- 
 dressed the commandant, professing strong attach- 
 ment to the English, and declaring, in Indian phrase, 
 that he had come to smoke the pipe of peace, 
 and brighten the chain of friendship. The officers 
 watched him keenly as he uttered these hollow 
 words, fearing lest, though conscious that his 
 designs were suspected, he might still attempt to 
 accomplish them. And once, it is said, he raised 
 the wampum belt as if about to give the signal 
 of attack. But at that instant Gladwyn signed 
 slightly with his hand. The sudden clash of arms 
 sounded from the passage without, and a drum 
 rolling the charge ffiled the council-room with its 
 stunning din. At this, Pontiac stood like one con- 
 
1763, Mat.] THE PLOT DEFEATED. 227 
 
 founded. Some writers will have it, that Gladwyn, 
 rising from his seat, drew the chiefs blanket aside, 
 exposed the hidden gun, and sternly rebuked him 
 for his treachery. But the commandant wished 
 only to prevent the consummation of the plot, 
 without bringing on an open rupture. His own 
 letters affirm that he and his officers remained 
 seated as before. Pontiac, seeing his unruffled 
 brow and his calm eye fixed steadfastly upon him, 
 knew not what to think, and soon sat down in 
 amazement and perplexity. Another pause ensued, 
 and Gladwyn commenced a brief reply. He assured 
 the chiefs that friendship and protection should be 
 extended towards them as long as they continued 
 to deserve it, but threatened ample vengeance 
 for the first act of aggression. The council then 
 broke up ; but, before leaving the room, Pontiac told 
 the officers that he would return in a few days, 
 with his squaws and children, for he wished that 
 they should all shake hands with their fathers the 
 English. To this new piece of treachery Gladwyn 
 deigned no reply. The gates of the fort, which 
 had been closed during the conference, were again 
 flung open, and the baffled savages were suff'ered 
 to depart, rejoiced, no doubt, to breathe once more 
 the free air of the open fields.^ 
 
 1 Carver, Travels, 159 (London, 1778). M'Kenney, Tour to the Lakes, 
 130. Cass, Discourse, 32. Penn. Gaz. Nos. 1807, 1808. Pontiac MS. 
 M'Dougal, MSS. Gouin's Account, MS. Meloche's Account, MS. St. 
 Aubin's Account, MS. 
 
 Extract from a MS. Letter — Major Gladwyn to Sir J. Amherst : 
 
 " Detroit, May 14, 1763. 
 
 "Sir: 
 
 " On the First Instant, Pontiac, the Chief of the Ottawa Nation, came 
 here with about Fifty of his Men (forty, Pontiac MS.), and told me that in 
 
228 TREACHERY OF PONTIAC. [1763, Mat. 
 
 Gladwyn has been censured, and perhaps with 
 justice, for not detaining the chiefs as hostages for 
 the good conduct of their followers. An entrapped 
 wolf meets no quarter from the huntsman ; and a 
 savage, caught in his treachery, has no claim to 
 forbearance. Perhaps the commandant feared 
 lest, should he arrest the chiefs when gathered at 
 a public council, and guiltless as yet of open vio- 
 lence, the act might be interpreted as cowardly 
 and dishonorable. He was ignorant, moreover, of 
 the true nature of the plot. In his view, the 
 whole affair was one of those impulsive outbreaks 
 so common among Indians ; and he trusted that, 
 could an immediate rupture be averted, the threat- 
 ening clouds would soon blow over. 
 
 Here, and elsewhere, the conduct of Pontiac is 
 marked with the blackest treachery ; and one cannot 
 but lament that a commanding and magnanimous 
 nature should be stained with the odious vice of 
 cowards and traitors. He could govern, with 
 almost despotic sway, a race unruly as the winds. 
 In generous thought and deed, he rivalled the 
 heroes of ancient story; and craft and cunning 
 
 a few days, when the rest of his Nation came in, he Intended to Pay me a 
 Formal Visit. The 7th he came, but I was luckily Informed, the Night 
 before, that he was coming with an Intention to Surprize Us ; Upon 
 which I took such Precautions that when they Entered the Fort, (tho' 
 they were, by the best Accounts, about Three Hundred, and Armed with 
 Knives, Tomy hawks, and a great many with Guns cut short, and hid 
 under their Blankets), they were so much surprized to see our Dispo- 
 sition, that they would scarcely sit down to Council : However in about 
 Half an hour, after they saw their Designs were Discovered, they sat 
 Down, and Pontiac made a speech which I Answered calmly, without 
 Intimating my suspicion of their Intentions, and after receiving some 
 Trifling Presents, they went away to their Camp." 
 
1763, May.] THE INDIAN AND EUROPEAN. 229 
 
 might well seem alien to a mind like his. Yet 
 Pontiac was a thorough savage, and in him stand 
 forth, in sti'ongest light and shadow, the native 
 faults and virtues of the Indian race. All children, 
 says Sii' Walter Scott, are naturally liars ; and 
 truth and honor are developments of later educa- 
 tion. Barbarism is to civilization what childhood 
 is to maturity ; and all savages, whatever may be 
 their country, their color, or their lineage, are 
 prone to treachery and deceit. The barbarous 
 ancestors of our own frank and manly race are no 
 less obnoxious to the charge than those of the cat- 
 like Bengalee ; for in this childhood of society 
 brave men and cowards are treacherous alike. 
 
 The Indian differs widely from the European in 
 his notion of military virtue. In his view, artifice 
 is wisdom ; and he honors the skill that can circum- 
 vent, no less than the valor that can subdue, an 
 adversary. The object of war, he argues, is to 
 destroy the enemy. To accomplish this end, all 
 means are honorable ; and it is folly, not bravery, 
 to incur a needless risk. Had Pontiac ordered his 
 followers to storm the palisades of Detroit, not one 
 of them would have obeyed him. They might, 
 indeed, after their strange superstition, have rever- 
 enced him as a madman ; but, from that hour, his 
 fame as a war-chief would have sunk forever. 
 
 Balked in his treachery, the great chief with- 
 drew to his village, enraged and mortified, yet still 
 resolved to persevere. That Gladwyn had sufi'ered 
 him to escape, was to his mind an ample proof 
 either of cowardice or ignorance. The latter sup- 
 
230 TREACHERY OF PONTIAC. [1763, Mat. 
 
 position seemed the more probable ; and be resolved 
 to visit tbe English once more, and convince them, 
 if possible, that their suspicions against him were 
 unfounded. Early on the following morning, he 
 repaired to the fort with three of his chiefs, bearing 
 in his hand the sacred calumet, or pipe of peace, its 
 bowl carved in stone, and its stem adorned mth feath- 
 ers. Offering it to the commandant, he addi'essed 
 him and his officers to the following effect : " My 
 fathers, evil birds have sung lies in your ear. We 
 that stand before you are friends of the English. 
 We love them as our brothers ; and, to prove our 
 love, we have come this day to smoke the pipe of 
 peace." At his departure, he gave the pipe to 
 Captain Campbell, second in command, as a farther 
 pledge of his sincerity. 
 
 That afternoon, the better to cover his designs, 
 Pontiac called the young men of all the tribes 
 to a game of ball, which took place, with great 
 noise and shouting, on the neighboring fields. At 
 nightfall, the garrison were startled by a burst of 
 loud, shrill yells. The drums beat to arms, and 
 the troops were ordered to their posts ; but the 
 alarm was caused only by the victors in the ball 
 play, who were announcing their success by these 
 discordant outcries. Meanwhile, Pontiac was in 
 the Pottawattamie village, consulting with the 
 chiefs of that tribe, and with the Wyandots, by 
 what means they might compass the ruin of the 
 English.^ 
 
 Early on the following morning, Monday, the 
 
 1 Pontiac MS. 
 
1763, May.] PONTIAC THROWS OFF THE MASK. 231 
 
 ninth of May, the French inhabitants went in pro- 
 cession to the principal church of the settlement, 
 which stood near the river bank, about half a mile 
 above the fort. Having heard mass, they all 
 returned before eleven o'clock, without discovering 
 any signs that the Indians meditated an immediate 
 act of hostility. Scarcely, however, had they done 
 so, when the common behind the fort was once 
 more tlii*onged with Indians of all the four tribes ; 
 and Pontiac, advancing from among the multitude, 
 approached the gate. It was closed and barred 
 against him. He shouted to the sentinels, and 
 demanded why he was refused admittance. Glad- 
 wyn himself replied, that the great chief might 
 enter, if he chose, but that the crowd he had 
 brought with him must remain outside. Pontiac 
 rejoined, that he wished all his warriors to enjoy 
 the fragrance of the friendly calumet. Gladwyn's 
 answer was more concise than courteous, and 
 imported that he would have none of his rabble 
 in the fort. Thus repulsed, Pontiac threw off the 
 mask which he had worn so long. With a grin 
 of hate and rage, he turned abruptly from the gate, 
 and strode towards his followers, who, in great 
 multitudes, lay flat upon the ground, just beyond 
 reach of gunshot. At his approach, they all leaped 
 up and ran off, " yelping," in the words of an eye- 
 witness, " like so many devils." ^ 
 
 Looking out from the loopholes, the garrison could 
 see them* running in a body towards the house of 
 
 1 MS. Letter — Gladiuyn to Amherst, May 14. Pontiac MS., &c. 
 
232 TREACHERY OF PONTIAC. [1763, May. 
 
 an old English woman, who lived, with her family, 
 on a distant part of the common. They beat down 
 the doors, and rushed tumultuously in. A moment 
 more, and the mournful scalp-yell told the fate of 
 the wretched inmates. Another large body ran, 
 yelling, to the river bank, and, leaping into their 
 canoes, paddled with all speed to the Isle au 
 Cochon, where dwelt an Englishman, named Fisher, 
 formerly a sergeant of the regulars. 
 
 They soon dragged him from the hiding-place 
 where he had sought refuge, murdered him on the 
 spot, took his scalp, and made great rejoicings 
 over this miserable trophy of brutal malice. On 
 the following day, several Canadians crossed over 
 to the island to inter the body, which they accom- 
 plished, as they thought, very effectually. Tradition, 
 however, relates, as undoubted truth, that when, a 
 few days after, some of the party returned to the 
 spot, they beheld the pale hands of the dead man 
 thrust above the ground, in an attitude of eager 
 entreaty. Having once more covered the refrac- 
 tory members with earth, they departed, in great 
 wonder and awe ; but what was their amazement, 
 when, on returning a second time, they saw the 
 hands protruding as before. At this, they repaired 
 in horror to the priest, who hastened to the spot, 
 sprinkled the grave with holy water, and performed 
 over it the neglected rites of burial. Thenceforth, 
 says the tradition, the corpse of the murdered 
 soldier slept in peace.^ 
 
 1 St. Avhin's Account, MS. 
 
1763, Mat.] RAGE OF PONTIAC. 233 
 
 Pontiac had borne no part in the wolfish deeds 
 of his followers. When he saw his plan defeated, 
 he turned towards the shore ; and no man durst 
 approach him, for he was terrible in his rage. 
 Pushing a canoe from the bank, he urged it with 
 vigorous strokes, against the current, towards the 
 Ottawa village, on the farther side. As he drew 
 near, he shouted to the inmates. None remained 
 in the lodges but women, children, and old men, 
 who all came flocking out at the sound of his impe- 
 rious voice. Pointing across the water, he ordered 
 that all should prepare to move the camp to the west- 
 ern shore, that the river might no longer interpose a 
 barrier between his followers and the English. The 
 squaws labored with eager alacrity to obey him. 
 Provisions, utensils, weapons, and even the bark 
 covering to the lodges, were carried to the shore ; 
 and before evening all was ready for embarkation. 
 Meantime, the warriors had come dropping in from 
 their bloody work, until, at nightfall, nearly all 
 had returned. Then Pontiac, hideous in his war- 
 paint, leaped into the central area of the village. 
 Brandishing his tomahawk, and stamping on the 
 ground, he recounted his former exploits, and 
 denounced vengeance on the English. The Indians 
 flocked about him. Warrior after warrior caught 
 the flerce contagion, and soon the ring was filled 
 with dancers, circling round and round with frantic 
 gesture, and startling the distant garrison with 
 unearthly yells.^ 
 
 The war-dance over, the work of embarkation 
 
 1 Parent's Account, MS. Meloche's Account, MS. 
 
234 TREACHERY OF PONTIAC. [1763, Mat. 
 
 was commenced, and long before morning the 
 transfer was complete. The whole Ottawa popu- 
 lation crossed the river, and pitched their wigwams 
 on the western side, just above the mouth of the 
 little stream then known as Parent's Creek, but 
 since named Bloody Eun, from the scenes of terror 
 which it witnessed.^ 
 
 During the evening, fresh tidings of disaster 
 reached the fort. A Canadian, named Desnoyers, 
 came down the river in a birch canoe, and, landing 
 at the water gate, brought news that two English 
 officers. Sir Robert Davers and Captain Robertson, 
 had been waylaid and murdered by the Indians, 
 above Lake St. Clair.^ The Canadian declared, 
 moreover, that Pontiac had just been joined by a 
 formidable band of Ojibwas, from the Bay of Sagi- 
 naw.^ These were a peculiarly ferocious horde, 
 and their wretched descendants still retain the char- 
 acter. 
 
 Every Englishman in the fort, whether trader or 
 soldier, was now ordered under arms. No man 
 
 1 Gouin's Account, MS. 
 
 2 Penn. Gaz. Nos. 1807, 1808. 
 
 Extract from an anonymous letter — Detroit, July 9, 1763. 
 
 •' You have long ago heard of our pleasant Situation, but the Storm is 
 blown over. Was it not very agreeable to hear every Day, of their cut- 
 ting, carving, boiling and eating our Companions ? To see every Day 
 dead Bodies floating down the River, mangled and disfigured ? But 
 Britons, you know, never shrink ; we always appeared gay, to spite the 
 Rascals. They boiled and eat Sir Robert Davers ; and we are informed 
 by Mr. Pauly, who escaped the other Day from one of the Stations sur- 
 prised at the breaking out of the War, and commanded by himself, that 
 he had seen an Indian have the Skin of Captain Robertson's Arm for a 
 Tobacco-Pouch ! " 
 
 3 Pontiac MS. 
 
1763, Mat.] GENERAL ATTACK. 235 
 
 lay down to sleep, and Gladwyn himself walked 
 the ramparts throughout the night. 
 
 All was quiet till the approach of dawn. But 
 as the first dim redness tinged the east, and fields 
 and woods grew visible in the morning twilight, 
 suddenly the war-whoop rose on every side at once. 
 As wolves assail the wounded bison, howling their 
 gathering cries across the wintry prairie, so the 
 fierce Indians, pealing their terrific yells, came 
 bounding naked to the assault. The men hastened 
 to their posts. And truly it was time ; for not the 
 Ottawas alone, but the whole barbarian swarm — 
 Wyandots, Pottawattamies, and Ojibwas — were upon 
 them, and bullets rapped hard and fast against the 
 palisades. The soldiers looked from the loopholes, 
 thinking to see their assailants gathering for a rush 
 against the feeble .barrier. But, though their clam- 
 ors filled the air, and their guns blazed thick and 
 hot, yet very few were visible. Some were ensconced 
 behind barns and fences, some skulked among 
 bushes, and some lay flat in hollows of the ground ; 
 while those who could find no shelter were leaping 
 about with the agility of monkeys, to dodge the 
 shot of the fort. Each had filled his mouth with 
 bullets, for the convenience of loading, and each 
 was charging and firing without suspending these 
 agile gymnastics for a moment. There was one 
 low hill, at no great distance from the fort, behind 
 which countless black heads of Indians alternately 
 appeared and vanished; while, all along the ridge, 
 then- guns emitted incessant white puff's of smoke. 
 Every loophole was a target for their bullets ; but 
 
236 TREACHERY OF PONTIAC. [1763, Mat. 
 
 the fire was returned with steadiness, and not 
 without effect. The Canadian engages of the fur- 
 traders retorted the Indian war-whoops with outcries 
 not less discordant, while the British and provin- 
 cials paid back the clamor of the enemy with 
 musket and rifle balls. Within half gunshot of 
 the palisades was a cluster of outbuildings, behind 
 which a host of Indians found shelter. A cannon 
 was brought to bear upon them, loaded with red-hot 
 spikes. They were soon wrapped in flames, upon 
 which the disconcerted savages broke away in a 
 body, and ran off yelping, followed by a shout of 
 laughter from the soldiers.^ 
 
 For six hours, the attack was unabated ; but as 
 the day advanced, the assailants grew weary of 
 their futile efforts. Their fire slackened, their 
 clamors died away, and the garrison was left once 
 more in peace, though from time to time a solitary 
 shot, or lonely whoop, still showed the presence of 
 some lingering savage, loath to be balked of his 
 revenge. Among the garrison, only five men had 
 been wounded, while the cautious enemy had suf- 
 fered but trifling loss. 
 
 Gladwyn was still convinced that the whole affair 
 was a sudden ebullition, which would soon subside ; 
 and being, moreover, in great want of provisions, 
 he resolved to open negotiations with the Indians, 
 under cover of which he might obtain the neces- 
 sary supplies. The interpreter. La Butte, who, 
 like most of his countrymen, might be said to hold 
 
 1 Ponliac MS. Pern. Gaz. No. 1808. MS. IjQiier — Gladwyn to Am- 
 herst, May 14, etc. 
 
1763, May.] A TRUCE. 237 
 
 a neutral position between the English and the 
 Indians, was despatched to the camp of Pontiac, to 
 demand the reasons of his conduct, and declare 
 that the commandant was ready to redress any real 
 grievance of which he might complain. Two old 
 Canadians of Detroit, Chapeton and Godefroy, ear- 
 nest to forward the negotiation, offered to accompany 
 him. The gates were opened for their departure, 
 and many other inhabitants of the place took this 
 opportunity of leaving it, alleging as their motive, 
 that they did not wish to see the approaching 
 slaughter of the English. 
 
 Eeaching the Indian Camp, the three ambassa- 
 dors were received by Pontiac with great apparent 
 kindness. La Butte delivered his message, and 
 the two Canadians labored to dissuade the chief, 
 for his own good and for theirs, from pursuing 
 his hostile purposes. Pontiac stood listening, 
 armed with the true impenetrability of an Indian. 
 At every proposal, he uttered an ejaculation of 
 assent, partly from a strange notion of courtesy 
 peculiar to his race, and partly from the deep dis- 
 simulation which seems native to their blood. Yet 
 with all this seeming acquiescence, the heart of 
 the savage was unmoved as a rock. The Canadi- 
 ans were completely deceived. Leaving Chapeton 
 and Godefroy to continue the conference and push 
 the fancied advantage, La Butte hastened back to 
 the fort. He reported the happy issue of his mis- 
 sion, and added that peace might readily be had 
 by making the Indians a few presents, for which 
 they are always rapaciously eager. When, however. 
 
288 TREACHERY OF PONTIAC. [1763, May. 
 
 he returned to the Indian camp, he found, to his 
 chagrin, that his companions had made no progress 
 in the negotiation. Though still professing a strong 
 desire for peace, Pontiac had evaded every definite 
 proposal. At La Butte's appearance, all the chiefs 
 withdrew to consult among themselves. They 
 returned after a short debate, and Pontiac declared 
 that, out of their earnest desire for firm and lasting 
 peace, they wished to hold council with their Eng- 
 lish fathers themselves. With this view, they were 
 especially desirous that Captain Campbell, second 
 in command, should visit their camp. This veteran 
 officer, frqm his just, upright, and manly character, 
 had gained the confidence of the Indians. To the 
 Canadians the proposal seemed a natural one, and 
 returning to the fort, they laid it before the com- 
 mandant. Gladwyn suspected treachery, but Cap- 
 tain Campbell ui-gently asked permission to comply 
 with the request of Pontiac. He felt, he said, no 
 fear of the Indians, with whom he had always 
 maintained the most friendly terms. Gladwyn, 
 with some hesitation, acceded ; and Campbell left 
 the fort, accompanied by a junior officer. Lieutenant 
 M'Dougal, and attended by La Butte and several 
 other Canadians. 
 
 In the mean time, M. Gouin, anxious to learn 
 what was passing, had entered the Indian camp, 
 and, moving from lodge to lodge, soon saw and 
 heard enough to convince him that the two British 
 officers were advancing into the lion's jaws.^ He 
 hastened to despatch two messengers to warn them 
 
 1 Gouin's Account, MS. 
 
1763, M-^T.] EMBASSY OF CAPTAIN CAMPBELL. 239 
 
 of tlie peril. The party had scarcely left the gate 
 when they were met by these men, breathless with 
 running ; but the warning came too late. Once 
 embarked on the embassy, the officers would not 
 be diverted from it ; and passing up the river road, 
 they approached the little wooden bridge that 
 led over Parent's Creek. Crossing this bridge, and 
 ascending a rising ground beyond, they saw before 
 them the wide-spread camp of the Ottawas. A 
 dark multitude gathered along its outskirts, and no 
 sooner did they recognize the red uniform of the 
 officers, than they all raised at once a horrible out- 
 cry of whoops and bowlings. Indeed, they seemed 
 disposed to give the ambassadors the reception 
 usually accorded to captives taken in war ; for the 
 women seized sticks, stones, and clubs, and ran 
 towards Campbell and his companion, as if to make 
 them pass the cruel ordeal of running the gauntlet.^ 
 Pontiac came forward, and his voice allayed the 
 tumult. He shook the officers by the hand, and, 
 
 1 Wlien a party returned with prisoners, the whole population of the 
 village turned out to receive them, armed with sticks, clubs, or even 
 deadlier weapons. The captive was ordered to run to a given point, 
 usually some conspicuous lodge, or a post driven into the ground, while 
 his tormentors, ranging themselves in two rows, inflicted on him a mer- 
 ciless flagellation, which only ceased wlien he had reached the goal. 
 Among the Iroquois, prisoners were led through the whole confederacy, 
 undergoing this martyrdom at every village, and seldom escaping without 
 the loss of a hand, a finger, or an eye. Sometimes the sufferer was made 
 to dance and sing, for the better entertainment of the crowd. 
 
 The story of General Stark is well known. Being captured, in his 
 youth, by the Indians, and told to run the gauntlet, he instantly knocked 
 down the nearest warrior, snatched a club from his hands, and wielded it 
 with such good-will that no one dared approach him, and he reached the 
 goal scot free, while his more timorous companion was nearly beaten to 
 death. 
 
240 TREACHERY OF PONTIAC. [1763, May. 
 
 turning, led the way through the camp. It was a 
 confused assemblage of huts, chiefly of a conical 
 or half-spherical shape, and constructed of a slen- 
 der framework covered with rush mats or sheets 
 of birch-bark. Many of the graceful birch canoes, 
 used by the Indians of the upper lakes, were lying 
 here and there among paddles, fish-spears, and 
 blackened kettles slung above the embers of the 
 fires. The camp was full of lean, wolfish dogs, 
 who, roused by the clamor of their owners, kept up 
 a discordant baying as the strangers passed. Pon- 
 tiac paused before the entrance of a large lodge, 
 and, entering, pointed to several mats placed on 
 the ground, at the side opposite the opening. 
 Here, obedient to his signal, the two officers sat 
 down. Instantly the lodge was thronged with 
 savages. Some, and these were for the most part 
 chiefs, or old men, seated themselves on the ground 
 before the strangers ; w^hile the remaining space 
 was filled by a d^nse crowd, crouching or standing 
 erect, and peering over each other's shoulders. At 
 their first entrance, Pontiac had spoken a few 
 words. A pause then ensued, broken at length by 
 Campbell, who from his seat addressed the Indians 
 in a short speech. It was heard in perfect silence, 
 and no reply was made. For a full hour, the 
 unfortunate officers saw before them the same 
 concourse of dark, inscrutable faces, bending an 
 unwavering gaze upon them. Some were passing 
 out, and others coming in to supply their places, and 
 indulge then- curiosity by a sight of the Englishmen. 
 At length, Captain Campbell, conscious, no doubt, 
 
1763, Mat.] CAMPBELL MADE PRISONER. 241 
 
 of the danger in which he was placed, resolved fully 
 to ascertain his true position, and, rising to his feet, 
 declared his intention of returning to the fort. 
 Pontiac made a sign that he should resume his seat. 
 " My father," he said, '' will sleep to-night in the 
 lodges of his red children." The gray-haired sol- 
 dier and his companion were betrayed into the 
 hands of their enemies. 
 
 Many of the Indians were eager to kill the cap- 
 tives on the spot, but Pontiac would not carry his 
 treachery so far. He protected them from injury 
 and insult, and conducted them to the house of M. 
 Meloche, near Parent's Creek, where good quarters 
 were assigned them, and as much liberty allowed 
 as was consistent with safe custody.^ The peril 
 of their situation was diminished by the circum- 
 stance that two Indians, who, several days before, 
 had been detained at the fort for some slight offence, 
 still remained prisoners in the power of the com- 
 mandant.^ 
 
 1 Meloche's Aocount, MS. Penn. Gaz. No. 1808. In a letter of James 
 MacDonald, Detroit, July 12, the cu'cumstanoes of the detention of the 
 officers are related somewhat differently. Singularly enough, this letter 
 of MacDonald is identical with a report of the events of the siege sent by 
 Major Robert Rogers to Sir WilUara Johnson, on the 8th of August, 
 Rogers, who was not an eye-witness, appears to have borrowed the whole 
 of his brother officer's letter without acknowledgment. 
 
 2 Extract from a MS. Letter — Sir J. Amherst to Major Gladwyn. 
 
 . " New York. 22nd June, 1763 
 " The Precautions you took when the Perfidious Villains came to Pay 
 you a Visit, were Indeed very wisely Concerted ; And I Approve Entirely 
 of the Steps you have sinc>e taken for the Defence of the Place, which, I 
 hope, will have Enabled You to keep the Savages at Bay untill the Rein- 
 forcement, which Major Wilkins Writes me he had sent you, Arrives with 
 you. 
 
 "I most sincerely Grieve for the Unfortunate Fate of Sir Robert 
 
 16 
 
242 TREACHERY OF PONTIAC. [1763, Mat. 
 
 Late in the evening, La Butte, the interpreter, 
 returned to the fort. His face wore a sad and 
 downcast look, which sufficiently expressed the 
 melancholy tidings that he brought. On hearing 
 his account, some of the officers suspected, though 
 probably without ground, that he was privy to the 
 detention of the two ambassadors ; and La Butte, 
 feeling himself an object of distrust, lingered about 
 the streets, sullen and silent, like the Indians among 
 whom his rough life had been spent. 
 
 Da vers, Lieut. Robertson, and the Rest of the Poor People, who have fallen 
 into the Hands of the Merciless Villains. I Trust you did not Know of 
 the Murder of those Gentlemen, when Pontiac came with a Pipe of 
 Peace, for if you had, you certainly would have put him, and Every Indian 
 in your Power, to Death. Such Retaliation is the only Way of Treating 
 such Miscreants. 
 
 " I cannot but Approve of your having Permitted Captain Campbell 
 and Lieut. MacDougal to go to the Indians, as you had no other Method 
 to Procure Provisions, by which means you may have been Enabled to 
 Preserve the Garrison ; for no Other Inducement should have prevailed 
 on you to Allow those Gentlemen to Entrust themselves with the Sav- 
 ages. I am Nevertheless not without ray Fears for them, and were it not 
 that you have two Indians in your Hands, in Lieu of those Gentlemen, I 
 should give them over for Lost. 
 
 " I shall Add no more at present ; Capt. Dalzell will Inform you of the 
 steps taken for Reinforcing you : and you ma}' be assured — the utmost 
 Expedition will be used for Collecting such a Force as may be SuflScient 
 for bringing Ample Vengeance on the Treacherous and Bloody Villains 
 who have so Perfidiously Attacked their Benefactors." MacDonald, 
 and, after him, Rogers, says that, after the detention of the two officers, 
 Pontiac summoned the fort to surrender, threatening, in case of refusal, 
 to put all within to the torture. The anonymous author of the Diary of 
 the Siege adds that he sent word to Gladwyn that he kept the oflficers out 
 of kindness, since, if they returned to the fort, he should be obliged to 
 boil them witli the rest of the garrison, the kettle being already on the 
 fire. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 1763. 
 PONTIAC AT THE SIEGE OF DETROIT. 
 
 On the morning after the detention of the offi- 
 cers, Pontiac crossed over, with several of his chiefs, 
 to the Wyandot village. A part of this tribe, influ- 
 enced by Father Pothier, their Jesuit priest, had 
 refused to take up arms against the English ; but, 
 being now threatened with destruction if they should 
 longer remain neutral, they were forced to join 
 the rest. They stipulated, however, that they 
 should be allowed time to hear mass, before dan- 
 cing the war-dance.^ To this condition Pontiac 
 readily agreed, " although," observes the chronicler 
 in the fulness of his horror and detestation, " he 
 himself had no manner of worship, and cared not 
 for festivals or Sundays." These nominal Christians 
 of Father Pothier's flock, together with the other 
 Wyandots, soon distinguished themselves in the 
 war ; fighting better, it was said, than all the other 
 Indians, — an instance of the marked superiority 
 of the Iroquois over the xllgonquin stock. 
 
 Having secured these new allies, Pontiac pre- 
 
 1 Pontiac MS. 
 
244 PONTIAC AT DETROIT. [1763, May. 
 
 pared to resume his operations with fresh vigor ; 
 and to this intent, he made an improved disposition 
 of his forces. Some of the Pottawattaraies were 
 ordered to lie in wait along the river bank, below 
 the fort ; w^hile others concealed themselves in the 
 woods, in order to intercept any Englishman who 
 might approach by land or water. Another band 
 of the same tribe were to conceal themselves in 
 the neighborhood of the fort, when no general 
 attack was going forward, in order to shoot down 
 any soldier or trader who might chance to expose 
 his person. On the eleventh of May, w^hen these 
 arrangements were complete, several Canadians 
 came early in the morning to the fort, to offer what 
 they called friendly advice. It was to the effect 
 that the garrison should at once abandon the place, 
 as it would be stormed within an hour by fifteen 
 hundred Indians. Gladwyn refused, whereupon 
 the Canadians departed ; and soon after some six 
 hundred Indians began a brisk fusillade, which 
 they kept up till seven o'clock in the evening. A 
 Canadian then appeared, bearing a summons from 
 Pontiac, demanding the surrender of the fort, and 
 promising that the English should go unmolested 
 on board their vessels, leaving all their arms and 
 effects behind. Gladwyn again gave a flat refusal.^ 
 On the evening of that day, the officers met to 
 consider what course of conduct the emergency 
 required ; and, as one of them writes, the com- 
 mandant was almost alone in the opinion that they 
 
 1 MS. Letter — James McDonald to , Detroit, July 12. 
 
1763, Mat.] INDIAN IDEA OF MILITARY HONOR. 245 
 
 ought still to defend the place. ^ It seemed to 
 the rest that the only course remaining was to 
 embark and sail for Niagara. Their condition 
 appeared desperate ; for, on the shortest allowance, 
 they had scarcely provision enough to sustain the 
 garrison three weeks, within Avhich time there was 
 little hope of succor. The houses being, moreover, 
 of wood, and chiefly thatched with straw, might be 
 set on fire with burning missiles. But the chief 
 apprehensions of the officers arose from their dread 
 that the enemy would make a general onset, and 
 cut or burn their way through the pickets, — a 
 mode of attack to which resistance would be un- 
 availing. Their anxiety on this score was relieved 
 by a Canadian in the fort, who had spent half his 
 life among Indians, and who now assured the com- 
 mandant that evei7 maxim of their warfare was 
 opposed to such a measure. Indeed, an Indian's 
 idea of military honor widely difl'ers, as before 
 observed, from that of a white man ; for he holds 
 it to consist no less in a wary regard to his own 
 life than in the courage and impetuosity with 
 which he assails his enemy. His constant aim 
 is to gain advantages without incurring loss. 
 He sets an inestimable value on the lives of his 
 own party, and deems a victory dearly purchased 
 by the death of a single warrior. A war-chief 
 attains the summit of his renown when he can 
 boast that he has brought home a score of scalps 
 without the loss of a man ; and his reputation is 
 wofully abridged if the mournful wailings of the 
 
 1 Penn. Gaz. No. 1808. 
 
246 PONTIAC AT DETROIT. [1763, Mat. 
 
 women mingle with the exulting yells of the war- 
 riors. Yet, with all his subtlety and caution, the 
 Indian is not a coward, and, in his own way of 
 fighting, often exhibits no ordinary courage. Steal- 
 ing alone into the heart of an enemy's country, he 
 prowls around the hostile village, watching every 
 movement; and when night sets in, he enters a 
 lodge, and calmly stirs the decaying embers, that, 
 by their light, he may select his sleeping victims. 
 With cool deliberation he deals the mortal thrust, 
 kills foe after foe, and tears away scalp after scalp, 
 until at length an alarm is given ; then, with a 
 wild yell, he bounds out into the darkness, and is 
 gone. 
 
 Time passed on, and brought little change and 
 no relief to the harassed and endangered garrison. 
 Day after day the Indians continued their attacks, 
 until their war-cries and the rattle of their guns 
 became familiar sounds. For many weeks, no 
 man lay down to sleep, except in his clothes, 
 and with his weapons by his side.-^ Parties of 
 volunteers sallied, from time to time, to burn the 
 
 1 MS. Letter from an officer at Detroit — no signature — July 31. 
 
 Extract from a letter dated Detroit, July 6. 
 
 " We have been besieged here two Months, by Six Hundred Indians. 
 We have been upon the Watch Night and Day, from the Commanding 
 Officer to the lowest soldier, from the 8th of May, and have not had our 
 Cloaths off, nor slept all Night since it began ; and shall continue so till 
 we have a Reinforcement up. We then hope soon to give a good ac- 
 count of the Savages. Their Camp lies about a Mile and a half from the 
 Fort ; and that's the nearest they choose to come now. For the first 
 two or three Days we were attacked by three or four Hundred of them, 
 but we gave them so warm a Reception that now they don't care for 
 coming to see us, tho' they now and then get behind a House or Garden, 
 and fire at us about three or four Hundred yards' distance. The Day 
 
1763, May, June.] PERIL OF THE GARRISON. 247 
 
 outbuildings which gave shelter to the enemy. 
 They cut down orchard trees, and levelled fences, 
 until the ground about the fort was clear and 
 open, and the enemy had no cover left from 
 whence to fire. The two vessels in the river, 
 sweeping the northern and southern curtains of the 
 works with their fire, deterred the Indians from 
 approaching those points, and gave material aid to 
 the garrison. Still, worming their way through 
 the grass, sheltering themselves behind every rising 
 ground, the pertinacious savages would crawl close 
 to the palisade, and shoot arrows, tipped with burn- 
 ing tow, upon the roofs of the houses ; but cisterns 
 and tanks of water were everywhere provided against 
 such an emergency, and these attempts proved 
 abortive. The little church, which stood near 
 the palisade, was particularly exposed, and would 
 probably have been set on fire, had not the priest 
 of the settlement threatened Pontiac with the ven- 
 geance of the Great Spirit, should he be guilty of 
 such sacrilege. Pontiac, who was filled with eager- 
 ness to get possession of the garrison, neglected no 
 expedient that his savage tactics could supply. He 
 went farther, and begged the French inhabitants to 
 teach him the European method of attacking a 
 fortified place by regular approaches ; but the rude 
 Canadians knew as little of the matter as he ; or 
 if, by chance, a few w^ere better informed, they 
 wisely preferred to conceal their knowledge. Soon 
 
 before Yesterday, we killed a Chief and three others, and wounded some 
 more ; yesterday went up with our Sloop, and battered their Cabins in 
 such a Manner that they are glad to keep farther oflf." 
 
248 PONTIAC AT DETROIT. [1763, May, June. 
 
 after the first attack, the Ottawa chief had sent 
 in to Gladwyn a summons to surrender, assuring 
 him that, if the place were at once given up, he 
 might embark on board the vessels, with all his 
 men ; but that, if he persisted in his defence, he 
 would treat him as Indians treat each other ; that 
 is, he would burn him alive. To this Gladwyn 
 made answer that he cared nothing for his threats.^ 
 The attacks were now renewed with increased ac- 
 tivity, and the assailants were soon after inspired 
 with fresh ardor by the arrival of a hundred and 
 twenty Ojibwa warriors from Grand River. Every 
 man in the fort, officers, soldiers, traders, and 
 engages, now slept upon the ramparts ; even in 
 stormy weather none were allowed to withdraw to 
 their quarters ; ^ yet a spiiit of confidence and 
 cheerfulness still prevailed among the weary gar- 
 rison. 
 
 Meanwhile, great efforts were made to procure a 
 supply of provisions. Every house was examined, 
 and all that could serve for food, even grease and 
 tallow, was collected and placed in the public 
 storehouse, compensation having first been made to 
 the owners. Notwithstanding these precautions 
 Detroit must have been abandoned or destroyed, 
 but for the assistance of a few friendly Canadians, 
 and especially of M. Baby, a prominent habitant^ 
 who lived on the opposite side of the river, and 
 provided the garrison with cattle, hogs, and other 
 supplies. These, under cover of night, were car- 
 
 1 Pontiac MS. 2 Penn. Gaz. No. 1808. 
 
17G3, May, Juni:.] DEL^UTATION TO PONTIAC. 249 
 
 ried from his farm to the fort in boats, the Indians 
 long remaining ignorant of what was going for- 
 ward.^ 
 
 They, on their part, began to suffer from hunger. 
 Thinking to have taken Detroit at a single stroke, 
 they had neglected, with their usual improvidence, 
 to provide against the exigencies of a siege ; and 
 now, in small parties, they would visit the Cana- 
 dian families along the river shore, passing from 
 house to house, demanding provisions, and threat- 
 ening violence in case of refusal. This was the 
 more annoying, since the food thus obtained was 
 wasted with characteristic recklessness. Unable to 
 endure it longer, the Canadians appointed a depu- 
 tation of fifteen of the eldest among them to wait 
 upon Pontiac, and complain of his followers' con- 
 duct. The meeting took place at a Canadian 
 house, probably that of M. Meloche, where the 
 great chief had made his headquarters, and where 
 the prisoners, Campbell and M'Dougal, were con- 
 fined. 
 
 1 Extract from a MS. Letter — Major Gladwyn to Sir J. Amherst. 
 
 "Detroit, July 8th, 1763. 
 
 " Since the Commencement of this Extraordinary Aifair, I have been 
 Informed, that many of the Inhabitants of this Place, seconded by some 
 French Traders from Montreal, have made the Indians Believe that a 
 French Army & Fleet were in the River St. Lawrence, and that Another 
 Army would come from the Illinois ; And that when I Published the 
 cessation of Arms, they said it was a mere Invention of Mine, purposely 
 Calculated to Keep the Indians Quiet, as We were Affraid of them ; but 
 they were not such Fools as to Believe me ; Which, with a thousand 
 other Lies, calculated to Stir up Mischief, have Induced the Indians to 
 take up Arms ; And I dare say it will Appear ere long, that One Half of 
 the Settlement merit a Gibbet, and the Other Half ought to be Deci- 
 mated ; Nevertheless, there is some Honest Men among them, to whom I 
 am Infinitely ObUged ; I mean, Sir, Monsieur Navarre, the two Babys, & 
 ray Interpreters, St. Martin & La Bute." 
 
250 PONTIAC AT DETROIT. [1763, May, June. 
 
 When Pontiac saw the deputation approaching 
 along the river road, he was seized with an exceed- 
 ing eagerness to know the purpose of their visit ; 
 for having long desired to gain the Canadians as 
 allies against the English, and made several advan- 
 ces to that effect, he hoped that their present errand 
 might relate to the object next his heart. So 
 strong was his curiosity, that, forgetting the ordi- 
 nary rule of Indian dignity and decorum, he asked 
 the business on which they had come before they 
 themselves had communicated it. The Canadians 
 replied, that they wished the chiefs to be convened, 
 for they were about to speak upon a matter of 
 much importance. Pontiac instantly despatched 
 messengers to the different camps and villages. 
 The chiefs, soon arriving at his summons, entered 
 the apartment, where they seated themselves upon 
 the floor, having first gone through the necessary 
 formality of shaking hands with the Canadian depu- 
 ties. After a suitable pause, the eldest of the 
 French rose, and heavily complained of the out- 
 rages which they had committed. " You pretend," 
 he said, ''to be friends of the French, and yet you 
 plunder us of our hogs and cattle, you trample 
 upon our fields of young corn, and when you enter 
 our houses, you enter with tomahawk raised. When 
 your French father comes from Montreal with his 
 great army, he will hear of what you have done, 
 and, instead of shaking hands with you as brethren, 
 he will punish you as enemies." 
 
 Pontiac sat with his eyes riveted upon the 
 ground, listening to every word that was spoken. 
 
1763, Mat, June.] SPEECH OF PONTIAC. 251 
 
 When the speaker had concluded, he returned the 
 folio whig answer : — 
 
 " Brothers : 
 
 " We have never wished to do you harm, nor 
 allow any to be done you ; but among us there are 
 many young men who, though strictly watched, 
 find opportunities of mischief. It is not to revenge 
 myself alone that I make war on the English. It 
 is to revenge you, my Brothers. When the English 
 insulted us, they insulted you also. I know that 
 they have taken away your arms, and made you 
 sign a paper which they have sent home to their 
 country. Therefore you are left defenceless ; and 
 I mean now to revenge your cause and my own 
 together. I mean to destroy the English, and leave 
 not one upon our lands. You do not know the 
 reasons from which I act. I have told you those 
 only which concern yourselves ; but you will learn 
 all in time. You will cease then to think me a 
 fool. I know, my brothers, that there are many 
 among you who take part with the English. I am 
 sorry for it, for their own sakes ; for when our 
 Father arrives, I shall point them out to him, and 
 they will see whether they or I have most reason 
 to be satisfied with the part we have acted. 
 
 " I do not doubt, my Brothers, that this war is 
 very troublesome to you, for our warriors are con- 
 tinually passing and repassing through your settle- 
 ment. I am sorry for iti Do not think that I 
 approve of the damage that is done by them ; and, 
 as a proof of this, remember the war with the 
 Foxes, and the part which I took in it. It is now 
 
252 PONTIAC AT DETROIT. [1763, May, June. 
 
 seventeen years since the Ojibwas of Michillimack- 
 inac, combined with the Sacs and Foxes, came 
 down to destroy you. Who then defended you? 
 Was it not I and my young men 1 Mickinac, great 
 chief of all these nations, said in council that he 
 would carry to his village the head of your com- 
 mandant — that he would eat his heart and drink 
 his blood. Did I not take your part? Did I not 
 go to his camp, and say to him, that if he wished 
 to kill the French, he must first kill me and my 
 warriors] Did I not assist you in routing them 
 and driving them away ? ^ And now you think 
 that I would turn my arms against you ! No, 
 my Brothers ; I am the same French Pontiac who 
 assisted you seventeen years ago. I am a French- 
 man, and I wish to die a Frenchman ; and I now 
 repeat to you that you and I are one — that it is 
 for both our interests that I should be avenged. 
 
 1 The annals of these remote and gloomy regions are involved in such 
 obscurity, that it is hard to discover the precise character of the events 
 to which Pontiac here refers. The only allusion to them, which the 
 writer has met with, is the following, inscribed on a tattered scrap of 
 soiled paper, found among the M'Dougal manuscripts : — 
 
 "Five miles below the mouth of Wolf River is the Great Death 
 Ground. This took its name from the circumstance, that some years 
 before the Old French War, a great battle was fought between the French 
 troops, assisted by the Menomonies and Ottaways on the one side, and 
 the Sac and Fox Indians on the other. The Sacs and Foxes were nearly 
 all cut off; and this proved the cause of their eventual expulsion from 
 that country." 
 
 The M'Dougal manuscripts, above referred to, belonged to a son of the 
 Lieutenant M'Dougal who was the fellow-prisoner of Major Campbell. 
 On the death of the younger M'Dougal, the papers, which were very- 
 voluminous, and contained various notes concerning the Indian war, and 
 the captivity of his father, came into the possession of a family at the 
 town of St. Clair, in Michigan, who permitted such of them as related to 
 the subjects in question to be copied by the writer. 
 
1763, Mat, June.] POLICY OF PONTIAC. 253 
 
 Let me alone. I do not ask you for aid, for it is 
 not in your power to give it. I only ask provisions 
 for myself and men. Yet, if you are inclined to 
 assist me, I shall not refuse you. It would please 
 me, and you yourselves would be sooner rid of 
 your troubles ; for I promise you, that, as soon as 
 the English are driven out, we will go back to our 
 villages, and there await the arrival of our French 
 Father. You have heard what I have to say ; 
 remain at peace, and I will watch that no harm 
 shall be done to you, either by my men or by the 
 other Indians." 
 
 This speech is reported by a writer whose chief 
 characteristic is the scrupulous accuracy with 
 which he has chronicled minute details without 
 interest or importance. He neglects, moreover, no 
 opportunity of casting ignominy and contempt upon 
 the name of Pontiac. His mind is of so dull and 
 commonplace an order as to exclude the supposi- 
 tion that he himself is author of the words which 
 he ascribes to the Ottawa chief, and the speech 
 may probably be taken as a literal translation of 
 the original. 
 
 As soon as the council broke up, Pontiac took 
 measures for bringing the disorders complained of 
 to a close, while, at the same time, he provided 
 sustenance for his warriors ; and, in doing this, he 
 displayed a policy and forecast scarcely paralleled 
 in the history of his race. He first forbade the 
 commission of farther outrage.^ He next visited in 
 
 I Peltier's Account, MS. 
 
254 PONTIAC AT DETROIT. [1763, May, June. 
 
 turn the families of the Canadians, and, inspecting 
 the property belonging to them, he assigned to 
 each the share of provisions which it must furnish 
 for the support of the Indians.^ The contributions 
 thus levied were all collected at the house of 
 Meloche, near Parent's Creek, whence they were 
 regularly issued, as the exigence required, to the 
 savages of the different camps. As the character 
 and habits of an Indian but ill qualify him to act 
 the part of commissary, Pontiac in this matter 
 availed himself of French assistance. 
 
 On the river bank, not far from the house of 
 Meloche, lived an old Canadian, named Quilleriez, 
 a man of exceeding vanity and self-conceit, and 
 noted in the settlement for the gayety of his attire. 
 He wore moccasons of the most elaborate pattern, 
 and a sash plentifully garnished with beads and 
 wampum. He was continually intermeddling in 
 the affairs of the Indians, being anxious to be 
 regarded as the leader or director among them.^ 
 Of this man Pontiac evidently made a tool, 
 employing him, together with several others, to 
 discharge, beneath his eye, the duties of his novel 
 commissariat. Anxious to avoid offending the 
 
 1 Gouin's Account, MS. 
 
 2 Tradition related by M. Baby. The following is from the Diary of 
 the Siege: " Mr. St Martin said . . . that one Sibbold that came here last 
 winter with his Wife from the Illinois had told at Mr. Cuellierry's (Quil- 
 leriez) that they might expect a French Army in this Spring, and that 
 Report took rise from him. That the Day Capt. Campbell & Lt. McDou- 
 gal was detained by the Indians, Mr. CueUierry accepted of their Offer of being 
 made Commandant, if this Place was taken, to which he spoke to Mr. Cuel- 
 lierry about and ask'd him if he knew what he was doing, to which Mr. 
 CueUierry told him, I am almost distracted, they are Uke so many Dogs 
 about me, to which Mr. St. Martin made him no Answer." 
 
1763, Mat, June.] TRAITS OF HIS CHARACTER. 255 
 
 French, yet unable to make compensation for the 
 provisions he had exacted, Pontiac had recourse 
 to a remarkable expedient, suggested, no doubt, by 
 one of these European assistants. He issued pro- 
 missory notes, drawn upon birch-bark, and signed 
 with the figure of an otter, the totem to which 
 he belonged ; and we are told by a trustworthy 
 authority that they were all faithfully redeemed.^ 
 In this, as in several other instances, he exhibits 
 an openness of mind and a power of adaptation 
 not a little extraordinary among a people whose 
 intellect will rarely leave the narrow and deeply 
 cut channels in which it has run for ages, who 
 reject instruction, and adhere with rigid tenacity to 
 ancient ideas and usages. Pontiac always exhib- 
 ited an eager desire for knowledge. E-ogers repre- 
 sents him as earnest to learn the military art as 
 practised among Europeans, and as inquiring 
 curiously into the mode of making cloth, knives, 
 and the other articles of Indian trade. Of his 
 keen and subtle genius we have the following 
 singular testimony from the pen of General Gage : 
 " From a paragraph of M. D'Abbadie's letter, 
 there is reason to judge of Pontiac, not only as a 
 savage possessed of the most refined cunning and 
 treachery natural to the Indians, but as a person 
 of extraordinary abilities. He says that he keeps 
 two secretaries, one to write for him, and the other 
 to read the letters he receives, and he manages 
 
 1 Rogers, Account of North America, 244. The anonymous Diary of the 
 Siege says that they bore the figure of a " coon." 
 
256 PONTIAC AT DETROIT. [1763, Mat, June. 
 
 them so as to keep each of them ignorant of what 
 is transacted by the other." ^ 
 
 Major Kogers, a man familiar with the Indians, 
 and an acute judge of mankind, speaks in the 
 highest terms of Pontiac's character and talents. 
 '* He puts on," he says, " an air of majesty and 
 princely grandeur, and is greatly honored and 
 revered by his subjects." ^ 
 
 In the present instance, few durst infringe the 
 command he had given, that the property of the 
 Canadians should be respected ; indeed, it is said 
 that none of his followers would cross the culti- 
 vated fields, but always followed the beaten paths ; 
 in such awe did they stand of his displeasure.^ 
 
 Pontiac's position was very different from that of 
 an ordinary military leader. When we remember 
 that his authority, little sanctioned by law or usage, 
 was derived chiefly from the force of his own indi- 
 vidual mind, and that it was exercised over a 
 people singularly impatient of restraint, we may 
 
 1 MS. Letter— Gage to Lord Halifax, April 16, 1764. 
 
 Extract from a MS. Letter — William Smith, Jr., to . 
 
 " New York, 22d Nov. 1763. 
 
 *' 'Tis an old saying that the Devil is easier raised than laid. Sir Jef- 
 frey has found it so, with these Indian Demons. They have cut his 
 little Army to Pieces, & almost if not entirely obstructed the Commu- 
 nication to • the Detroite, where the Enemy are grown very numerous ; 
 and from whence I fancy you'll soon hear, if any survive to relate them, 
 very tragical Accounts. The Besiegers are led on by an enterprising 
 Fellow called Pondiac. He is a Genius, for he possesses great Bravery, 
 Art, & Oratory, & has had the Address to get himself not only at the 
 Head of his Conquerors, but elected Generalissimo of all the confederate 
 Forces now acting against us — Perhaps he may deserve to be called the 
 Mithridates of the West." 
 
 ■^ Rogers, North America, 240. 
 
 3 Gouin's Account, MS. 
 
1763, Mat, JuNB.J TRAITS OF HIS CHARACTER. 257 
 
 better appreciate the commanding energy that 
 could hold control over spirits so intractable. 
 
 The glaring faults of Pontiac's character have 
 already appeared too clearly. He was artful and 
 treacherous, bold, fierce, ambitious, and revenge- 
 ful ; yet the following anecdotes will evince that 
 noble and generous thought was no stranger to 
 the savage hero of this dark forest tragedy. Some 
 time after the period of which we have been speak- 
 ing, Rogers came up to Detroit, with a detachment 
 of troops, and, on landing, sent a bottle of brandy, 
 by a friendly Indian, as a present to Pontiac. The 
 Indians had always been suspicious that the Eng- 
 lish meant to poison them. Those around the chief, 
 endeavored to persuade him that the brandy was 
 drugged. Pontiac listened to what they said, and, 
 as soon as they had concluded, poured out a cup 
 of the liquor, and immediately drank it, saying that 
 the man whose life he had saved had no power to 
 kill him. He referred to his having prevented the 
 Indians from attacking Rogers and his party when 
 on their way to demand the surrender of Detroit. 
 The story may serve as a counterpart to the well- 
 known anecdote of Alexander the Great and his 
 physician.^ 
 
 Pontiac had been an old friend of Baby ; and 
 one evening, at an early period of the siege, he 
 entered his house, and, seating himself by the fire, 
 looked for some time steadily at the embers. At 
 length, raising his head, he said he had heard that 
 the English had ofi'ered the Canadian a bushel of 
 
 1 Rogers, North America, 1^4^. 
 17 
 
258 PONTIAC AT DETROIT. [1763, Mat, June. 
 
 silver for the scalp of his friend. Baby declared 
 that the story was false, and protested that he would 
 never betray him. Pontiac for a moment keenly 
 studied his features. " My brother has spoken the 
 truth," he said, " and I will show^ that I believe 
 him." He remained in the house through the 
 evening, and, at its close, wrapped himself in his 
 blanket, and lay down upon a bench, where he 
 slept in full confidence till morning.^ 
 
 Another anecdote, from the same source, will 
 exhibit the power which he exercised over the 
 minds of his followers. A few young Wyandots 
 were in the habit of coming, night after night, to 
 the house of Baby, to steal hogs and cattle. The 
 latter complained of the theft to Pontiac, and 
 desired his protection. Being at that time igno- 
 rant of the intercourse between Baby and the Eng- 
 lish, Pontiac hastened to the assistance of his 
 friend, and, arriving about nightfall at the house, 
 walked to and fro among the barns and enclosures. 
 At a late hour, he distinguished the dark forms of 
 the plunderers stealing through the gloom. " Go 
 back to your village, you Wyandot dogs," said the 
 Ottawa chief; "if vou tread asrain on this man's 
 land, you shall die." They slunk back abashed ; 
 and from that time forward the Canadian's property 
 was safe. The Ottawas had no political connec- 
 tion with the Wyandots, who speak a language 
 radically distinct. Over them he could claim no 
 legitimate authority ; yet his powerful spirit forced 
 
 1 Tradition related by M. Fran9ois Baby. 
 
1763, Mat, June.] EESPECT FOR PONTIAC. 259 
 
 respect and obedience from all who approached 
 him.^ 
 
 1 Tradition related bv M. Franr-ois Baby, of Windsor, U. C, the son 
 of Pontiac's friend, who lives opposite Detroit, upon nearly the same site 
 formerly occupied by his father's house. Though Pontiac at this time 
 assumed the attitude of a protector of the Canadians, he had previously, 
 according to the anonymous Diary of the Siege, bullied them exceedingly, 
 compelUng them to plough land for him, and do other work. Once he 
 forced them to carry him in a sedan chair from house to house, to look 
 for provisions. 
 
CHAPTER Xni. 
 
 1763. 
 
 ROUT OF CUTLER'S DETACHMENT. — FATE OF THE 
 FOREST GARRISONS. 
 
 While perils were thickening around the garri- 
 son of Detroit, the British commander-in-chief at 
 New York remained ignorant of its danger. In- 
 deed, an unwonted quiet had prevailed, of late, 
 along the borders and about the neighboring forts. 
 With the opening of spring, a sti'ong detachment 
 had been sent up the lakes, with a supply of pro- 
 visions and ammunition for the use of Detroit and 
 the other western posts. The boats of this convoy 
 were now pursuing their course along the northern 
 shore of Lake Erie ; and Gladwyn's garrison, 
 aware of their approach, awaited their arrival with 
 an anxiety which every day increased. 
 
 Day after day passed on, and the red cross of St. 
 George still floated above Detroit. The keen-eyed 
 watchfulness of the Indians had never abated ; and 
 woe to the soldier who showed his head above the 
 palisades, or exposed his person before a loophole. 
 Strong in his delusive hope of French assistance, 
 Pontiac had sent messengers to M. Neyon, com- 
 mandant at the Illinois, earnestly requesting that a 
 
1763, May.] CONDITION OF THE FORT. 261 
 
 force of regular troops might be sent to his aid ; 
 and Gladwyn, on his side, had ordered one of the 
 vessels to Niagara, to hasten forward the expected 
 convoy. The schooner set sail; but on the next 
 day, as she lay becalmed at the entrance of Lake 
 Erie, a multitude of canoes suddenly darted out 
 upon her from the neighboring shores. In the 
 prow of the foremost the Indians had placed their 
 prisoner. Captain Campbell, with the dastardly 
 purpose of interposing him as a screen between 
 themselves and the fire of the English. But the 
 brave old man called out to the crew to do their 
 duty, without regard to him. Happily, at that 
 moment a fresh breeze sprang up ; the flapping 
 sails stretched to the wind, and the schooner bore 
 prosperously on her course towards Niagara, leav- 
 ing the savage flotilla far behind.^ 
 
 The fort, or rather town, of Detroit had, by this 
 time, lost its wonted vivacity and life. Its narrow 
 streets were gloomy and silent. Here and there 
 strolled a Canadian, in red cap and gaudy sash ; 
 
 1 Penn. Gaz. No. 1807. MS. Letter— Wilkins to Amherst, June 18. 
 
 This incident may have suggested the story told by Mrs. Grant, in 
 her Memoirs of an American Ladij. A young British officer, of noble birth, 
 had been living for some time among the Indians, and having encountered 
 many strange adventures, he was now returning in a canoe with a party 
 of his late associates, — none of them, it appears, were aware that hostili- 
 ties existed, — and approached the schooner just before the attack com- 
 menced, expecting a friendly reception. Sir Robert D , the young 
 
 officer, was in Indian costume, and, wishing to surprise his friends, he 
 made no answer when hailed from the vessel, whereupon he was instantly 
 fired at and killed. — The story is without confirmation, in any contem- 
 porary document, and, indeed, is impossible in itself. Sir Robert Davers 
 was killed, as before mentioned, near Lake St. Clair ; but neither in his 
 character, nor in the mode of his death, did he at all resemble the 
 romantic adventurer whose fate is commemorated by Mrs. Grant. 
 
262 ROUT OF CUTLER'S DETACHMENT. [1763, Mat. 
 
 the weary sentinel walked to and fro before the 
 quarters of the commandant; an officer, perhaps, 
 passed along with rapid step and anxious face ; or 
 an Indian girl, the mate of some soldier or trader, 
 moved silently by, in her finery of beads and ver- 
 milion. Such an aspect as this the town must have 
 presented on the morning of the thirtieth of May, 
 when, at about nine o'clock, the voice of the senti- 
 nel sounded from the south-east bastion ; and loud 
 exclamations, in the direction of the river, roused 
 Detroit from its lethargy. Instantly the place was 
 astir. Soldiers, traders, and habitants, hurrying 
 through the water-gate, thronged the canoe wharf 
 and the narrow strand without. The half- wild 
 coureurs de hois^ the tall and sinewy provincials, 
 and the stately British soldiers, stood crowded 
 together, their uniforms soiled and worn, and 
 their faces haggard with unremitted watching. 
 Yet all alike wore an animated and joyous look. 
 The long expected convoy was full in sight. On 
 the farther side of the river, at some distance below 
 the fort, a line of boats was rounding the woody 
 projection, then called Montreal Point, their oars 
 flashing in the sun, and the red flag of England 
 flying from the stern of the foremost.^ The toils 
 and dangers of the garrison were drawing to an 
 end. With one accord, they broke into three 
 hearty cheers, again and again repeated, while a 
 cannon, glancing from the bastion, sent its loud 
 voice of defiance to the enemy, and welcome to 
 
 1 Pontiac MS. 
 
1763, May.] A DISAPPOINTED GARRISON. 263 
 
 approaching friends. But suddenly every cheek 
 grew pale with horror. Dark naked figures were 
 seen rising, with wild gesture, in the boats, while, 
 in place of the answering salute, the distant yell 
 of the war-whoop fell faintly on their ears. The 
 convoy was in the hands of the enemy. The 
 boats had all been taken, and the troops of the de- 
 tachment slain or made captive. Officers and 
 men stood gazing in mournful silence, when an 
 incident occurred which caused them to forget the 
 general calamity in the absorbing interest of the 
 moment. 
 
 Leaving the disappointed garrison, we will pass 
 over to the principal victims of this deplorable 
 misfortune. In each of the boats, of which there 
 were eighteen, two or more of the captured soldiers, 
 deprived of their weapons, were compelled to act 
 as rowers, guarded by several armed savages, while 
 many other Indians, for the sake of farther security, 
 followed the boats along the shore. ^ In the fore- 
 most, as it happened, there were four soldiers and 
 only three Indians. The larger of the two vessels 
 still lay anchored in the stream, about a bow-shot 
 from the fort, while her companion, as we have 
 seen, had gone down to Niagara to hasten up this 
 very re-enforcement. As the boat came opposite this 
 vessel, the soldier who acted as steersman conceived 
 a daring plan of escape. The principal Indian sat 
 immediately in front of another of the soldiers. The 
 steersman called, in English, to his comrade to seize 
 
 1 Pontiac MS. 
 
264 ROUT OF CUTLER'S DETACHMENT. [1763, Mat. 
 
 the savage and throw him overboard. The man 
 answered that he was not strong enough ; on which 
 the steersman directed him to change places with 
 him, as if fatigued with rowing, a movement which 
 would excite no suspicion on the part of their 
 guard. As the bold soldier stepped forward, as if 
 to take his companion's oar, he suddenly seized 
 the Indian by the hair, and, griping with the other 
 hand the girdle at his waist, lifted him by main 
 force, and flung him into the river. The boat 
 rocked till the water surged over her gunwale. 
 The Indian held fast to his enemy's clothes, and, 
 drawing himself upward as he trailed alongside, 
 stabbed him again and again with his knife, and 
 then dragged him overboard. Both went down the 
 swift current, rising and sinking ; and, as some 
 relate, perished, grappled in each other's arms.^ 
 The two remaining Indians leaped out of the boat. 
 The prisoners turned, and pulled for the distant 
 vessel, shouting aloud for aid. The Indians on 
 shore opened a heavy fire upon them, and many 
 canoes paddled swiftly in pursuit. The men 
 strained with desperate strength. A fate inexpres- 
 sibly horrible was the alternative. The bullets 
 hissed thickly around their heads ; one of them 
 was soon wounded, and the light birch canoes 
 gained on them with fearful rapidity. Escape 
 seemed hopeless, when the report of a cannon 
 burst from the side of the vessel. The ball flew 
 close past the boat, beating the water in a line of 
 
 1 Another witness, Gouin, affirms that the Indian freed himself from 
 the dying grasp of the soldier, and swam ashore. 
 
1763, Mat.] ESCAPE OF PRISONERS. 265 
 
 foam, and narrowly missing the foremost canoe. 
 At this, the pursuers drew back in dismay ; and 
 the Indians on shore, being farther saluted by 
 a second shot, ceased firing, and scattered among 
 the bushes. The prisoners soon reached the vessel, 
 where they were greeted as men snatched from 
 the jaws of fate ; " a living monument," writes an 
 officer of the garrison, " that Fortune favors the 
 brave." ' 
 
 They related many particulars of the catastrophe 
 which had befallen them and their companions. 
 Lieutenant Cuyler had left Fort Niagara as early 
 as the thirteenth of May, and embarked from Fort 
 Schlosser, just above the falls, with ninety-six men 
 and a plentiful supply of provisions and ammuni- 
 tion. Day after day he had coasted the northern 
 shore of Lake Erie, and seen neither friend nor foe 
 amid those lonely forests and waters, until, on the 
 twenty-eighth of the month, he landed at Point 
 Pelee, not far from the mouth of the River Detroit. 
 The boats w^ere drawn on the beach, and the party 
 prepared to encamp. A man and a boy went to 
 gather firewood at a short distance from the spot, 
 when an Indian leaped out of the woods, seized 
 the boy by the hair, and tomahawked him. The 
 man ran into camp w4th the alarm. Cuyler imme- 
 diately formed his soldiers into a semicircle before 
 the boats. He had scarcely done so when the 
 enemy opened their fire. For an instant, there was 
 a hot blaze of musketry on both sides ; then the 
 
 1 Penn. Gaz. No. 1807. St. Aubin's Account, MS. Peltier's Account, 
 MS. 
 
266 ROUT OF CUTLER'S DETACHMENT. [1763, Mat. 
 
 Indians broke out of the woods in a body, and 
 rushed fiercely upon the centre of the line, which 
 gave way in every part ; the men flinging down 
 their guns, running in a blind panic to the boats, 
 and struggling with ill-directed efl'orts to shove 
 them into the water. Five were set afloat, and 
 pushed off from the shore, crowded with the terri- 
 fied soldiers. Cuyler, seeing himself, as he says, 
 deserted by his men, waded up to his neck in the 
 lake, and climbed into one of the retreating boats. 
 The Indians, on their part, pushing two more afloat, 
 went in pursuit of the fugitives, three boat-loads of 
 whom allowed themselves to be recaptured without 
 resistance ; but the remaining two, in one of which 
 was Cuyler himself, made their escape.^ They 
 rowed all night, and landed in the morning upon 
 a small island. Between thirty and forty men, 
 some of whom were wounded, were crowded in 
 these two boats ; the rest, about sixty in number, 
 being killed or taken. Cuyler now made for 
 Sandusky, which, on his arrival, he found burnt 
 to the ground. Immediately leaving the spot, 
 he rowed along the south shore to Presqu' Isle, 
 from whence he proceeded to Niagara and re- 
 
 1 " Being abandoned by my men, I was Forced to Retreat in the best 
 manner I could. I was left with 6 men on the Beecli, Endeavoring to get 
 off a Boat, which not being able to Etfect, was Obliged to Run up to my 
 Neck, in the Lake, to get to a Boat that had pushed off, without my 
 Knowledge. — When I was in the Lake I saw Five Boats manned, and 
 the Indians having manned two Boats, pursued and Brought back Three 
 of the Five, keeping a continual Fire from off the Shore, and from the two 
 Boats that followed us, about a Mile on the Lake; the Wind springing up 
 fair, I and the other Remaining Boat Hoisted sail and escaped." — Cuyler's 
 Report, MS. 
 
1763, May.] INDIAN DEBAUCH. 
 
 267 
 
 ported his loss to Major Wilkins, the command- 
 ing officer.^ 
 
 The actors in this bold and well-executed stroke 
 were the Wyandots, who, for some days, had lain 
 in ambush at the mouth of the river, to intercept 
 trading boats or parties of troops. Seeing the fright 
 and confusion of Cuyler's men, they had forgotten 
 their usual caution, and rushed upon them in the 
 manner described. The ammunition, provisions, 
 and other articles, taken in this attack, formed a 
 valuable prize ; but, unfortunately, there was, among 
 the rest, a great quantity of whiskey. This the In- 
 dians seized, and carried to their respective camps, 
 which, throughout the night, presented a scene of 
 savage revelry and riot. The liquor was poured 
 into vessels of birch -bark, or any thing capable of 
 containing it; and the Indians, crowding around, 
 scooped it up in their cups and ladles, and quaffed 
 the raw w^hiskey like water. While some sat 
 
 1 Cuyler's Report, MS. 
 
 Extract from a MS. Letter — Major Wilkins to Sir J. Amherst. 
 
 " Niagara, 6th June, 1763. 
 
 " Just as I was sending off my Letter of Yesterday, Lieutenant Cuy- 
 ler, of the Queen's Rangers, Arrived from his Intended Voyage to the 
 Detroit. He has been very Unfortunate, Having been Defeated by Indians 
 within 30 miles of the Detroit River ; I observed that he was Wounded 
 and Weak, and Desired him to take the Surgeon's Assistance and some 
 Rest, and Recollect the Particulars of the Affair, and let me have them in 
 Writing, as perhaps I sliould find it Necessary to Transmit them to Your 
 Excellency, which I have now Done. 
 
 " It is probable Your Excellency will have heard of what has Hap- 
 pened by way of Fort Pitt, as Ensign Christie, Commanding at Presqu' Isle, 
 writes me he has sent an Express to Acquaint the Commanding Officer at 
 that Place, of Sanduskie's being Destroyed, and of Lieut. Cuyler's Defeat. 
 
 " Some Indians of the Six Nations are now with me. They seem 
 very Civil ; The Interpreter has just told them I was writing to Your 
 Excellency for Rum, and they are very glad." 
 
268 ROUT OF CUTLER'S DETACHMENT. [1763, May. 
 
 apart, wailing and moaning in maudlin drunken- 
 ness, others were maddened to the ferocity of wild 
 beasts. Dormant jealousies were awakened, old 
 forgotten quarrels kindled afresh, and, had not the 
 squaws taken the precaution of hiding all the 
 weapons they could find before the debauch began, 
 much blood would, no doubt, have been spilt. As 
 it was, the savages were not entirely without means 
 of indulging their drunken rage. Many were 
 wounded, of whom two died in the morning ; and 
 several others had their noses bitten off, — a singular 
 mode of revenge, much in vogue upon similar occa- 
 sions, among the Indians of the upper lakes. The 
 English were gainers by this scene of riot ; for late 
 in the evening, two Indians, in all the valor and 
 vain-glory of drunkenness, came running directly 
 towards the fort, boasting their prowess in a loud 
 voice ; but being greeted with two rifle bullets, they 
 leaped into the air like a pair of wounded bucks, 
 and fell dead on their tracks. 
 
 It will not be proper to pass over in silence the 
 fate of the unfortunate men taken prisoners in this 
 affair. After night had set in, several Canadians 
 came to the fort, bringing vague and awful reports 
 of the scenes that had been enacted at the Indian 
 camp. The soldiers gathered round them, and, 
 frozen with horror, listened to the appalling narra- 
 tive. A cloud of deep gloom sank down upon the 
 garrison, and none could help reflecting how thin 
 and frail a barrier protected them from a similar 
 fate. On the following day, and for several succeed- 
 ing days, they beheld frightful confirmation of the 
 
1763, Mat.] FATE OF TUE CAPTIVES. 269 
 
 rumors they had heard. Naked corpses, gashed 
 with knives and scorched with fire, floated down 
 on the pure waters of the Detroit, whose fish came 
 up to nibble at the clotted blood that clung to their 
 ghastly faces. ^ 
 
 1 "The Indians, fearing that the other barges might escape as the first 
 had done, changed their plan of going to the camp. They landed their 
 prisoners, tied them, and conducted them by land to the Ottawas village, 
 and then crossed them to Pondiac's camp, where they were all butchered. 
 As soon as the canoes reached the shore, the barbarians landed their 
 prisoners, one after the other, on the beach. They made them strip 
 themselves, and then sent arrows into different parts of their bodies. 
 These unfortunate men wished sometimes to throw themselves on the 
 ground to avoid the arrows ; but they were beaten with sticks and forced 
 to stand up until they fell dead ; after which those who had not fired fell 
 upon their bodies, cut them in pieces, cooked, and ate them. On others 
 they exercised different modes of torment by cutting their flesh with 
 flints, and piercing them with lances. They would then cut their feet and 
 hands off, and leave them weltering in tlieir blood till they were dead. 
 Others were fastened to stakes, and children employed in burning them 
 with a slow tire. No kind of torment was left untried by these Indians. 
 Some of the bodies were left on shore ; others were thrown into the river. 
 Even the women assisted their husbands in torturing their victims. They 
 sUtted them with their knives, and mangled them in various ways. There 
 were, however, a few whose lives were saved, being adopted to serve as 
 slaves." — Pontine MS. 
 
 " The remaining barges proceeded up the river, and crossed to the 
 house of Mr. Meloche, where Pontiac and his Ottawas were encamped. 
 The barges were landed, and, the women having arranged themselves in 
 two rows, with clubs and sticks, the prisoners were taken out, one by 
 one, and told to run the gauntlet to Pontiac's lodge. Of sixty-six persons 
 who were brought to the shore, sixty-four ran the gauntlet, and were all 
 killed. One of the remaining two, who had had his thigh broken in the 
 firing from the shore, and who was tied to his seat and compelled to row, 
 had become by this time so much exhausted that he could not help him- 
 self. He was thrown out of the boat and killed with clubs. The other, 
 when directed to run for the lodge, suddenly fell upon his knees in the 
 water, and having dipped his hand in the water, he made the sign of the 
 cross on his forehead and breast, and darted out in the stream. An expert 
 swimmer from the Indians followed him, and, having overtaken him, 
 seized him by the hair, and crying out, ' You seem to love water ; you 
 shall have enough of it,' he stabbed the poor fellow, who sunk to rise no 
 more." — Gouin's Account, MS. 
 
270 KOUT OF CUYLER'S DETACHMENT. [1768, Mat. 
 
 Late one afternoon, at about this period of the 
 siege, the garrison were again greeted with the dis- 
 mal cry of death, and a line of naked warriors was 
 seen issuing from the woods, which, like a wall 
 of foliage, rose beyond the pastures in rear of the 
 fort. Each savage was painted black, and each 
 bore a scalp fluttering from the end of a pole. It 
 was but too clear that some new disaster had be- 
 fallen ; and in truth, before nightfall, one La Brosse, 
 a Canadian, came to the gate with the tidings that 
 Fort Sandusky had been taken, and all its garrison 
 slain or made captive.^ This post had been attacked 
 by the band of Wyandots living in its neighbor- 
 hood, aided by a detachment of their brethren from 
 Detroit. Among the few survivors of the slaughter 
 was the commanding officer. Ensign Paully, who 
 had been brought prisoner to Detroit, bound hand 
 and foot, and solaced on the passage with the ex- 
 pectation of being burnt alive. On landing near 
 the camp of Pontiac, he was surrounded by a crowd 
 of Indians, chiefly squaws and children, who pelted 
 him with stones, sticks, and gravel, forcing him to 
 dance and sing, though by no means in a cheerful 
 strain. A worse infliction seemed in store for him, 
 when happily an old woman, whose husband had 
 lately died, chose to adopt him in place of the 
 deceased warrior. Seeing no alternative but the 
 stake, Paully accepted the proposal ; and, having 
 been first plunged in the river, that the white blood 
 might be washed from his veins, he was conducted 
 
 1 Pmtiac MS. 
 
1763. Mat.] FORT SANDUSKY. 271 
 
 to the lodge of the widow, and treated thenceforth 
 with all the consideration due to an Ottawa warrior. 
 Gladwyn soon received a letter from him, through 
 one of the Canadian inhabitants, giving a full 
 account of the capture of Fort Sandusky. On the 
 sixteenth of May — such was the substance of 
 the communication — Paully was informed that 
 seven Indians were waiting at the gate to speak 
 with him. As several of the number were well 
 known to him, he ordered them, without hesitation, 
 to be admitted. Arriving at his quarters, two of 
 the treacherous visitors seated themselves on each 
 side of the commandant, while the rest were dis- 
 posed in various parts of the room. The pipes 
 were lighted, and the conversation began, when an 
 Indian, who stood in the doorway, suddenly made 
 a signal by raising his head. Upon this, the aston- 
 ished officer was instantly pounced upon and 
 disarmed ; while, at the same moment, a confused 
 noise of shrieks and yells, the firing of guns, and 
 the hurried tramp of feet, sounded from the area 
 of the fort without. It soon ceased, however, and 
 Paully, led by his captors from the room, saw the 
 parade ground strown with the corpses of his mur- 
 dered garrison. At nightfall, he was conducted to 
 the margin of the lake, where several birch canoes 
 lay in readiness ; and as, amid thick darkness, the 
 party pushed out from shore, the captive saw the 
 fort, lately under his command, bursting on all 
 sides into sheets of flame. ^ 
 
 1 MS. OflBcial Document — EepoH of the Loss of the Posts in the Indian 
 Country, enclosed in a letter from Major Gladwyn to Sir Jeflfrey Amherst, 
 July 8, 1763. 
 
272 FATE OF THE FOREST GARRISONS. [1763, June. 
 
 Soon after these tidings of the loss of Sandusky, 
 Gladwyn's garrison heard the scarcely less unwel- 
 come news that the strength of their besiegers had 
 been re-enforced by two strong bands of Ojibwas. 
 Pontiac's forces in the vicinity of Detroit now 
 amounted, according to Canadian computation, to 
 about eight hundred and twenty warriors. Of 
 these, two hundred and fifty were Ottawas, com- 
 manded by himself in person ; one hundred and 
 fifty were Pottawattamies, under Ninivay ; fifty 
 were Wyandots, under Takee ; two hundred were 
 Ojibwas, under Wasson ; and added to these were 
 a hundred and seventy of the same tribe, under 
 their chief, Sekahos.^ As the warriors brought 
 their squaws and children with them, the whole 
 number of savages congregated about Detroit no 
 doubt exceeded three thousand ; and the neighbor- 
 ing fields and meadows must have presented a 
 picturesque and stirring scene. 
 
 The sleepless garrison, worn by fatigue and ill 
 fare, and harassed by constant petty attacks, were 
 yet farther saddened by the news of disaster which 
 thickened from every quarter. Of all the small 
 posts scattered at intervals through the vast wilder- 
 ness to the westward of Niagara and Fort Pitt, it 
 soon appeared that Detroit alone had been able to 
 sustain itself. For the rest, there was but one 
 unvaried tale of calamity and ruin. On the fif- 
 teenth of June, a number of Pottawattamies were 
 seen approaching the gate of the fort, bringing 
 with them four English prisoners, who proved to 
 
 1 Pontiac MS. 
 
1763, Mat.] FORT ST. JOSEPH. 273 
 
 be Ensign Schlosser, lately commanding at St. 
 Joseph's, together with three private soldiers. 
 The Indians wished to exchange them for several 
 of their own tribe, who had been for nearly two 
 months prisoners in the fort. After some delay, 
 this was effected ; and the garrison then learned the 
 unhappy fate of their comrades at St. Joseph's. 
 This post stood at the mouth of the River St. 
 Joseph's, near the head of Lake Michigan, a spot 
 which had long been the site of a Eoman Catholic 
 mission. Here, among the forests, swamps, and 
 ocean-like waters, at an unmeasured distance from 
 any abode of civilized man, the indefatigable Jesuits 
 had labored more than half a century for the 
 spiritual good of the Pottawattamies, who lived 
 in great numbers near the margin of the lake. 
 As early as the year 1712, as Father Marest 
 informs us, the mission was in a thriving state, 
 and around it had gathered a little colony of the 
 forest-loving Canadians. Here, too, the French 
 government had established a military post, whose 
 garrison, at the period of our narrative, had been 
 supplanted by Ensign Schlosser, with his command 
 of fourteen men, a mere handful, in the heart of 
 a wilderness swarming with insidious enemies. 
 They seem, however, to have apprehended no 
 danger, when, on the twenty-fifth of May, early in 
 the morning, the officer was informed that a large 
 party of the Pottawattamies of Detroit had come 
 to pay a visit to their relatives at St. Joseph's. 
 Presently, a chief, named Washashe, with three or 
 four followers, came to his quarters, as if to hold a 
 
 18 
 
274 FATE OF THE FOREST GARRISONS. [1763, Mat. 
 
 friendly " talk ; '' and immediately after a Canadian 
 came in with intelligence that the fort was sur- 
 rounded by Indians, who evidently had hostile 
 intentions. At this. Schlosser ran out of the apart- 
 ment, and crossing the parade, which was full of 
 Indians and Canadians, hastily entered the barracks. 
 These were also crowded with savages, very inso- 
 lent and disorderly. Calling upon his sergeant to 
 get the men under arms, he hastened out again 
 to the parade, and endeavored to muster the 
 Canadians together; but while busying himself 
 with these somewhat unwilling auxiliaries, he 
 heard a wild cry from within the barracks. In- 
 stantly all the Indians in the fort rushed to the 
 gate, tomahawked the sentinel, and opened a free 
 passage to their comrades without. In less than 
 two minutes, as the officer declares, the fort was 
 plundered, eleven men were killed, and himself, 
 with the three survivors, made prisoners, and 
 bound fast. They then conducted him to Detroit, 
 where he was exchanged as we have already 
 seen.^ 
 
 1 Loss of the Posts in the Indian Country, MS. Compare Diary of the 
 Siege, 25. 
 
 The following is from a curious letter of one Richard Winston, a trader 
 at St. Joseph's, to his fellow-traders at Detroit, dated 19 June, 1763 : — 
 
 " Gentlemen, I address myself to you all, not knowing who is alive or 
 who is dead. I have only to inform you that by the blessing of God and 
 the help of M. Louison Chevalie, I escaped being killed when the unfor- 
 tunate garrison was massacred, Mr. Hambough and me being hid in the 
 house of the said Chevalie for 4 days and nights. Mr. Hambough is 
 brought by the Savages to the Illinois, likewise Mr. Chim. Unfortunate 
 me remains here Captive with the Savages. I must say that I met with 
 no bad usage; however, I would that I was (with) some Christian or 
 other. I am quite naked, & Mr. Castacrow, who is indebted to Mr. Cole, 
 would not give me one inch to save me from death." 
 
1763, June.] LETTER FROM CAPT. ETHERINGTON. 275 
 
 Three days after these tidings reached Detroit, 
 Father Jonois, a Jesuit priest of the Ottawa mis- 
 sion near Michillimackinac, came to Pontiac's camp, 
 together with the son of Minavavana, great chief 
 of the Ojibwas, and several other Indians. On the 
 following morning, he appeared at the gate of the 
 fort, bringing a letter from Captain Etherington, 
 commandant at Michillimackinac. The commence- 
 ment of the letter was as follows : — 
 
 " Michillimackinac, 12 June, 1763. 
 
 " Sir : 
 
 " Notwithstanding what I wrote you in my last, 
 that all the savages were arrived, and that every 
 thing seemed in perfect tranquillity, yet on the 
 second instant the Chippeways, w^ho live in a plain 
 near this fort, assembled to play ball, as they had 
 done almost every day since their arrival. They 
 played from morning till noon ; then, throwing 
 their ball close to the gate, and observing Lieu- 
 tenant Lesley and me a few paces out of it, they 
 came behind us, seized and carried us into the 
 woods. 
 
 " In the mean time, the rest rushed into the fort, 
 where they found their squaws, whom they had 
 previously planted there, with their hatchets hid 
 under their blankets, which they took, and in an 
 instant killed Lieutenant Jamet, and fifteen rank 
 and file, and a trader named Tracy. They wounded 
 two, and took the rest of the garrison prisoners, 
 five of whom they have since killed. 
 
 " They made prisoners all the English traders, 
 and robbed them of every thing they had ; but they 
 
276 FATE OF THE FOREST GARRISONS. [1763, June. 
 
 offered no violence to the persons or property of 
 any of the Frenchmen." 
 
 Captain Etherington next related some particu- 
 lars of the massacre at Michillimackinac, sufficiently 
 startling, as will soon appear. He spoke in high 
 terms of the character and conduct of Father 
 Jonois, and requested that Gladwyn would send 
 all the troops he could spare up Lake Huron, that 
 the post might be recaptured from the Indians, and 
 garrisoned afresh. Gladwyn, being scarcely able to 
 defend himself, could do nothing for the relief of 
 his brother officer, and the Jesuit set out on his 
 long and toilsome canoe voyage back to Michilli- 
 mackinac.^ The loss of this place was a very 
 serious misfortune, for, next to Detroit, it was the 
 most important post on the upper lakes. 
 
 The next news which came in was that of the 
 loss of Ouatanon, a fort situated upon the Wabash, 
 a little below the site of the present town of La 
 Fayette. Gladwyn received a letter from its com- 
 manding officer. Lieutenant Jenkins, informing 
 him that, on the first of June, he and several of 
 his men had been made prisoners by stratagem, on 
 which the rest of the garrison had surrendered. 
 The Indians, however, apologized for their con- 
 duct, declaring that they acted contrary to their 
 own inclinations, and that the surrounding tribes 
 compelled them to take up the hatchet.^ These 
 
 1 Pontiac MS. 
 
 2 «' Ouatanon, June 1st, 1763. 
 " Sir : 
 
 " I have heard of your situation, which gives me great Pain ; indeed, 
 we are not in much better, for this morning the Indians sent for me, to 
 
1763, Mat.] FORT MIAMI. 277 
 
 excuses, so consolatory to the sufferers, might prob- 
 ably have been founded in truth, for these savages 
 were of a character less ferocious than many of the 
 others, and as they were farther removed from the 
 settlements, they had not felt to an equal degree 
 the effects of English insolence and encroachment. 
 Close upon these tidings came the news that 
 Fort Miami was taken. This post, standing on the 
 Eiver Maumee, was commanded by Ensign Holmes. 
 And here I cannot but remark on the forlorn situa- 
 tion of these officers, isolated in the wilderness, 
 hundreds of miles, in some instances, from any 
 congenial associates, separated from every human 
 being except the rude soldiers under their com- 
 
 speak to me, and Immediately bound me, when I got to their Cabbin and 
 I soon found some of my Soldiers in the same Condition : They told me 
 Detroit, Miamis, and all them Posts were cut oflf, and that it was a Folly 
 to make any Resistance, therefore desired me to make the few Soldiers, 
 that were in the Fort, surrender, otherwise they would put us all to 
 Death, in case one man was killed. They were to have fell on us and 
 killed us all, last night, but Mr. Maisongville and Lorain gave them wam- 
 pum not to kill us, & when they told the Interpreter that we were all to 
 be killed & he knowing the condition of the Fort, beg'd of them to make 
 us prisoners. They have put us into French houses, & both Indians and 
 French use us very well : All these Nations say they are very sorry but 
 that they were obhged to do it by the Other Nations. The Belt did not 
 Arrive here 'till last night about Eight o'Clock. Mr. Lorain can inform 
 you of all Just now Received the News of St. Joseph s being taken, 
 Eleven men killed and three taken Prisoners with the Officer : I have 
 nothing more to say, but that I sincerely wish you a speedy succour, and 
 that we may be able to Revenge ourselves on those that Deserve it. 
 " I Remain, with my Sincerest wishes for your safety, 
 " Your most humble servant, 
 
 " Edwd Jenkins. 
 
 « N.B. We expect to set off in a day or two for the Illinois." 
 This expectation was not fulfilled, and Jenkins remained at Ouatanon. 
 A letter from him is before me, written from thence to Gladwyn on the 
 29th July in which he complains that the Canadians were secretly advis- 
 ing the Indians to murder aU the EngUsh in the West. 
 
278 FATE OF THE FOREST GARRISONS. [1763, Mat. 
 
 mand, and the white or red savages who ranged 
 the surrounding woods. Holmes suspected the 
 intention of the Indians, and was therefore on his 
 guard, when, on the twenty-seventh of May, a 
 young. Indian girl, who lived with him, came to 
 .tell him that a squaw lay dangerously ill in a wig- 
 wam near the fort, and urged him to come to her 
 relief. Having confidence in the girl, Holmes for- 
 got his caution and followed her out of the fort. 
 Pitched at the edge of a meadow, hidden from view 
 by an intervening spur of the woodland, stood a 
 great number of Indian wigwams. When Holmes 
 came in sight of them, his treacherous conductress 
 pointed out that in which the sick woman lay. He 
 walked on without suspicion ; but, as he drew near, 
 two guns flashed from behind the hut, and stretched 
 him lifeless on the grass. The shots were heard at 
 the fort, and the sergeant rashly went out to learn 
 the reason of the firing. He was immediately taken 
 prisoner, amid exulting yells and whoopings. The 
 soldiers in the fort climbed upon the palisades, to 
 look out, when Godefroy, a Canadian, and two other 
 white men, made their appearance, and summoned 
 them to surrender ; promising that, if they did so, 
 their lives should be spared, but that otherwise they 
 would all be killed without mercy. The men, being 
 in great terror, and without a leader, soon threw open 
 the gate, and gave themselves up as prisoners.^ 
 
 1 Loss of the Posts, MS. Compare Diary of the Siege, 22, 26. 
 
 It appears by a deposition taken at Detroit on the lltli June, that 
 Godefroy, mentioned above, left Detroit with four other Canadians three 
 or four days after the siege began. Their professed object was to bring 
 a French officer from the Illinois to induce Pontiac to abandon his hostile 
 
1763, June.] FORT PRESQU' ISLE. 279 
 
 Had detachments of Rogers's Eangers garrisoned 
 these posts, or had they been held by such men as 
 the Eocky Mountain trappers of the present day, 
 wary, skilful, and almost ignorant of fear, some of 
 them might, perhaps, have been saved ; but the 
 soldiers of the 60th Eegiment, though many of 
 them were of provincial birth, were not suited by 
 habits and discipline for this kind of service. 
 
 The loss of Presqu Isle will close this catalogue 
 of calamity. Rumors of it first reached Detroit on 
 the twentieth of June, and, two days after, the gar- 
 rison heard those dismal cries announcing scalps 
 and prisoners, which, of late, had grown mourn- 
 fully familiar to their ears. Indians were seen pass- 
 ing in numbers along the opposite bank of the river, 
 leading several English prisoners, who proved to be 
 Ensign Christie, the commanding officer at Presqu' 
 Isle, with those of his soldiers who survived. 
 
 On the third of June, Christie, then safely 
 ensconced in the fort which he commanded, had 
 written as follows to his superior officer. Lieutenant 
 Gordon, at Venango : " This morning Lieutenant 
 Cuyler of Queen's Company of Rangers came here, 
 and gave me the following melancholy account of 
 his whole party being cut off by a large body of 
 Indians at the mouth of the Detroit River." Here 
 follows the story of Cuyler's disaster, and Christie 
 
 designs. At the mouth of the Mauraee they met John Welsh, an English 
 trader, with two canoes, bound for Detroit. They seized him, and divided 
 his furs among themselves and a party of Indians who were with them. 
 They then proceeded to Fort Miami, and aided the Indians to capture it. 
 Welsh was afterwards carried to Detroit, where the Ottawas murdered 
 him. 
 
280 FATE OF THE FOREST GARRISONS. [1763, June. 
 
 closes as follows : "I have sent to Niagara a let- 
 ter to the Major, desh*ing some more ammunition 
 and provisions, and have kept six men of Lieu- 
 tenant Cuyler's, as I expect a visit from the hell- 
 hounds. I have ordered everybody here to move 
 into the blockhouse, and shall be ready for them, 
 come when they will." 
 
 Fort Presqu' Isle stood on the southern shore 
 of Lake Erie, at the site of the present town of 
 Erie. It was an important post to be commanded 
 by an Ensign, for it controlled the communication 
 between the lake and Fort Pitt; but the block- 
 house, to which Christie alludes, Avas supposed to 
 make it impregnable against Indians. This block- 
 house, a very large and strong one, stood at an 
 angle of the fort, and was built of massive logs, 
 with the projecting upper story usual in such struct- 
 ures, by means of which a vertical fire could be 
 had upon the heads of assailants, through openings 
 in the projecting part of the floor, like the maehi- 
 coulis of a mediaeval castle. It had also a kind of 
 bastion, from which one or more of its walls could 
 be covered by a flank fire. The roof was of shin- 
 gles, and might easily be set on fire ; but at the 
 top was a sentry-box or look-out, from which water 
 could be thrown. On one side was the lake, and 
 on the other a small stream which entered it. 
 Unfortunately, the bank of this stream rose in a 
 high steep ridge within forty yards of the block- 
 house, thus afl"ording a cover to assailants, while 
 the bank of the lake offered them similar advan- 
 tages on another side. 
 
1763, June.] FORT TRESQU' ISLE. 281 
 
 After his visit from Cuyler, Christie, whose gar- 
 rison now consisted of twenty-seven men, pre- 
 pared for a stubborn defence. The doors of the 
 block-house, and the sentry-box at the top, were 
 lined to make them bullet-proof; the angles of 
 the roof were covered with green turf as a pro- 
 tection against fire-arrows, and gutters of bark 
 were laid in such a manner that streams of water 
 could be sent to every part. His expectation of a 
 " visit from the hell-hounds " proved to be perfectly 
 well founded. About two hundred of them had 
 left Detroit expressly for this object. At early 
 dawn on the fifteenth of June, they were first dis- 
 covered stealthily crossing the mouth of the little 
 stream, where the bateaux were drawn up, and 
 crawling under cover of the banks of the lake and 
 of the adjacent saw-pits. When the sun rose, they 
 showed themselves, and began their customary yell- 
 ing. Christie, with a very unnecessary reluctance 
 to begin the fray, ordered his men not to fire till 
 the Indians had set the example. The consequence 
 was, that they were close to the blockhouse before 
 they received the fire of the garrison ; and many of 
 them sprang into the ditch, whence, being well shel- 
 tered, they fired at the loop-holes, and amused them- 
 selves by throwing stones and handfuls of gravel, or, 
 what was more to the purpose, fire-balls of pitch. 
 Some got into the fort and sheltered themselves 
 behind the bakery and other buildings, whence they 
 kept up a brisk fire ; while others pulled down a 
 small out-house of plank, of which they made a 
 movable breastwork, and approached under cover 
 
282 FATE OF THE FOREST GARRISONS. [1763, June. 
 
 of it by pushing it before them. At the same time, 
 great numbers of them lay close behind the ridges 
 by the stream, keeping up a rattling fire into every 
 loophole, and shooting burning arrows against the 
 roof and sides of the blockhouse. Some were 
 extinguished with water, while many dropped out 
 harmless after burning a small hole. The Indians 
 now rolled logs to the top of the ridges, where they 
 made three strong breastworks, from behind which 
 they could discharge their shot and throw their 
 fireworks with greater effect. Sometimes they 
 would try to dart across the intervening space 
 and shelter themselves with their companions in 
 the ditch, but all who attempted it were killed or 
 wounded. And now the hard-beset little garrison 
 could see them throwing up earth and stones behind 
 the nearest breastwork. Their implacable foes 
 were undermining the blockhouse. There was 
 little time to reflect on this new danger; for 
 another, more imminent, soon threatened them. 
 The barrels of water, always kept in the build- 
 ing, were nearly emptied in extinguishing the 
 frequent fires ; and though there was a well close 
 at hand, in the parade ground, it was death to 
 approach it. The only resource was to dig a sub- 
 terranean passage to it. The floor w^as torn up ; 
 and while some of the men fired their heated 
 muskets from the loopholes, the rest labored 
 stoutly at this cheerless task. Before it was half 
 finished, the roof was on fire again, and all the 
 water that remained was poured down to extin- 
 guish it. In a few moments, the cry of fire was 
 
1763, June.] A NIGHT OF ANXIETY. 283 
 
 again raised, when a soldier, at imminent risk of 
 his life, tore off the burning shingles and averted 
 the danger. 
 
 By this time it was evening. The garrison had 
 had not a moment's rest since the sun rose. Dark- 
 ness brought little relief, for guns flashed all night 
 from the Indian intrenchments. In the morning, 
 however, there was a respite. The Indians were 
 ominously quiet, being employed, it seems, in push- 
 ing their subterranean approaches, and preparing 
 fresh means for firing the blockhouse. In the 
 afternoon the attack began again. They set fire 
 to the house of the commanding officer, which stood 
 close at hand, and which they had reached by means 
 of their trenches. The pine logs blazed fiercely, 
 and the wind blew the flame against the bastion of 
 the blockhouse, which scorched, blackened, and at 
 last took fire ; but the garrison had by this time 
 dug a passage to the well, and, half stifled as they 
 were, they plied their water-buckets with such good 
 will that the fire was subdued, while the blazing 
 house soon sank to a glowing pile of embers. The 
 men, who had behaved throughout with great spirit, 
 were now, in the words of their officer, " exhausted 
 to the greatest extremity ; " yet they still kept up 
 their forlorn defence, toiling and fighting without 
 pause within the wooden walls of their dim prison, 
 where the close and heated air was thick with the 
 smoke of gunpowder. The firing on both sides 
 lasted through the rest of the day, and did not cease 
 till midnight, at which hour a voice was heard to 
 call out, in French, from the enemy's intrenchments, 
 
284 FATE OF THE FOREST GARRISONS. [1763, June. 
 
 warning the garrison that farther resistance would 
 be useless, since preparations were made for setting 
 the blockhouse on fire, above and below at once. 
 Christie demanded if there were any among them 
 who spoke English ; upon which, a man in the 
 Indian dress came out from behind the breastwork. 
 He was a soldier, who, having been made pris- 
 oner early in the French war, had since lived 
 among the savages, and now espoused their cause, 
 fighting with them against his own countrymen. 
 He said that if they yielded, their lives should be 
 spared ; but if they fought longer, they must all be 
 burnt alive. Christie told them to wait till morn- 
 ing for his answer. They assented, and suspended 
 their fire. Christie now asked his men, if we may 
 believe the testimony of two of them, " whether 
 they chose to give up the blockhouse, or remain 
 in it and be burnt alive ? " They replied that they 
 would stay as long as they could bear the heat, and 
 then fight their way through.^ A third witness, 
 Edward Smyth, apparently a corporal, testifies that 
 all but two of them were for holding out. He says 
 that when his opinion was asked, he replied that, 
 having but one life to lose, he would be governed 
 by the rest ; but that at the same time he reminded 
 them of the recent treachery at Detroit, and of the 
 butchery at Fort William Henry, adding that, in his 
 belief, they themselves could expect no better usage. 
 
 1 Evidence of Benjamin Gray, soldier in the Ist Battalion of the 60/A Regi- 
 ment, before a Court of Inquiry held at Fort Pitt, 12th Sept. 1763. Evidence 
 of David Smart, soldier in the QOth Regiment, before a Court of Inquiry held at 
 Fort Pitt, 2ith Dec, 1763, to take evidence relative to the loss of Presqu' Isle 
 which did not appear when the last court sat. 
 
1763, June.] SURKENDEK OF THE BLOCKHOUSE. 285 
 
 When morning came, Christie sent out two sol- 
 diers as if to treat with the enemy, but, in reality, 
 as he says, to learn the truth of what they had 
 told him respecting their preparations to burn 
 the blockhouse. On reaching the breastwork, the 
 soldiers made a signal, by which their officer saw 
 that his worst fears were well founded. In pur- 
 suance of their orders, they then demanded that 
 two of the principal chiefs should meet with 
 Christie midway between the breastwork and the 
 blockhouse. The chiefs appeared accordingly ; and 
 Christie, going out, yielded up the blockhouse ; hav- 
 ing first stipulated that the lives of all the garrison 
 should be spared, and that they might retire unmo- 
 lested to the nearest post. The soldiers, pale and 
 haggard, like men who had passed through a fiery 
 ordeal, now issued from their scorched and bullet- 
 pierced stronghold. A scene of plunder instantly 
 began. Benjamin Gray, a Scotch soldier, who had 
 just been employed, on Christie's order, in carrying 
 presents to the Indians, seeing the confusion, and 
 hearing a scream from a sergeant's wife, the only 
 woman in the garrison, sprang off into the woods 
 and succeeded in making his way to Fort Pitt with 
 news of the disaster. It is needless to say that no 
 faith was kept with the rest, and they had good cause 
 to be thankful that they were not butchered on the 
 spot. After being detained for some time in the 
 neighborhood, they were carried prisoners to De- 
 troit, where Christie soon after made his escape, 
 and gained the fort in safety.^ 
 
 1 Loss of the Posts, MS. Pontiac MS. Report of Ensign Christie, MS. 
 Testimony of Edward Smyth, MS. This last evidence was taken by order 
 
286 FATE OF THE FOREST GARRISONS. [1763, June. 
 
 After Presqu' Isle was taken, the neighboring 
 posts of Le Boeuf and Venango shared its fate ; 
 while farther southward, at the forks of the Ohio, 
 a host of Delaware and Shawanoe warriors were 
 gathering around Fort Pitt, and blood and havoc 
 reigned along the whole frontier. 
 
 of Colonel Bouquet, commanding the battalion of the Royal American 
 Regiment to which Christie belonged. Christie's surrender had been 
 thought censurable both by General Amherst and by Bouquet. Accord- 
 ing to Christie's statements, it was unavoidable ; but according to those 
 of Smyth, and also of the two soldiers. Gray and Smart, the situation, 
 though extremely critical, seems not to have been desperate. Smyth's 
 testimony bears date 30 March, 1765, nearly two years after the event. 
 Some allowance is therefore to be made for lapses of memory. He places 
 the beginning of the attack on the twenty-first of June, instead of the 
 fifteenth, — an evident mistake. The Diary of the Siege of Detroit says 
 that Christie did not make his escape, but was brought in and surrendered 
 by six Huron chiefs on the ninth of July. In a letter of Bouquet dated 
 June 18th, 1760, is enclosed a small plan of Presqu' Isle. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 1763. 
 THE INDIANS CONTINUE TO BLOCKADE DETROIT. 
 
 We return once more to Detroit and its belea- 
 guered garrison. On the nineteenth of June, a 
 rumor reached them that one of the vessels had 
 been seen near Turkey Island, some miles below 
 the fort, but that, the wind failing her, she had 
 dropped down with the current, to wait a more 
 favorable opportunity. It may be remembered 
 that this vessel had, several weeks before, gone 
 down Lake Erie to hasten the advance of Cuyler's 
 expected detachment. Passing these troops on her 
 way, she had held her course to Niagara ; and here 
 she had remained until the return of Cuyler, with 
 the remnant of his men, made known the catas- 
 trophe that had befallen him. This officer, and 
 the survivors of his party, with a few other troops 
 spared from the garrison of Niagara, were ordered 
 to embark in her, and make the best of their way 
 back to Detroit. They had done so, and now, as 
 we have seen, were almost within sight of the fort ; 
 but the critical part of the undertaking yet re- 
 mained. The river channel was in some places 
 
288 BLOCKADE OF DETROIT. [1763, June. 
 
 narrow, and more than eight hundred Indians were 
 on the alert to intercept their passage. 
 
 For several days, the officers at Detroit heard 
 nothing farther of the vessel, when, on the twenty- 
 third, a great commotion was visible among the 
 Indians, large parties of whom were seen to pass 
 along the outskirts of the woods, behind the fort. 
 The cause of these movements was unknown till 
 evening, when M. Baby came in with intelligence 
 that the vessel was again attempting to ascend the 
 river, and that all the Indians had gone to attack 
 her. Upon this, two cannon were fired, that those 
 on board might know that the fort still held out. 
 This done, all remained in much anxiety awaiting 
 the result. 
 
 The schooner, late that afternoon, began to move 
 slowly upward, with a gentle breeze, between the 
 main shore and the long-extended margin of Fight- 
 ing Island. About sixty men were crowded on 
 board, of whom only ten or twelve were visible on 
 deck ; the officer having ordered the rest to lie hid- 
 den below, in hope that the Indians, encouraged by 
 this apparent weakness, might make an open attack. 
 Just before reaching the narrowest part of the 
 channel, the wind died away, and the anchor was 
 dropped. Immediately above, and within gunshot 
 of the vessel, the Indians had made a breastwork 
 of logs, carefully concealed by bushes, on the 
 shore of Turkey Island. Here they lay in force, 
 waiting for the schooner to pass. Ignorant of this, 
 but still cautious and wary, the crew kept a strict 
 watch from the moment the sun went down. 
 
1763, June.] ATTACK ON THE SCHOONER. 289 
 
 Hours wore on, and nothing had broken the 
 deep repose of the night. The current gurgled 
 with a monotonous sound around the bows of the 
 schooner, and on either hand the wooded shores 
 lay amid the obscurity, black and silent as the 
 grave. At length, the sentinel could discern, in 
 the distance, various moving objects upon the dark 
 surface of the water. The men were ordered up 
 from below, and all took their posts in perfect 
 silence. The blow of a hammer on the mast was 
 to be the signal to fire. The Indians, gliding 
 stealthily over the water in their birch canoes, 
 had, by this time, approached within a few rods 
 of their fancied prize, when suddenly the dark side 
 of the slumbering vessel burst into a blaze of can- 
 non and musketry, which illumined the night like 
 a flash of lightning. Grape and musket shot 
 flew tearing among the canoes, destroying several 
 of them, killing fourteen Indians, wounding as 
 many more, and driving the rest in consternation 
 to the shore. ^ Recovering from their surprise, they 
 began to fire upon the vessel from behind their 
 breastwork ; upon which she weighed anchor, and 
 dropped down once more beyond their reach, into 
 the broad river below. Several days afterwards, 
 she again attempted to ascend. This time, she met 
 with better success ; for, though the Indians fired 
 at her constantly from the shore, no man was hurt, 
 and at length she left behind her the perilous chan- 
 nels of the Islands. As she passed the Wyandot 
 village, she sent a shower of grape among its yelp- 
 
 1 Pontiac MS. 
 19 
 
290 BLOCKADE OF DETEOIT. [1763, June. 
 
 iiig inhabitants, by which several were killed ; and 
 then, furling her sails, lay peacefully at anchor by 
 the side of her companion vessel, abreast of the 
 fort. 
 
 The schooner brought to the garrison a much- 
 needed supply of men, ammunition, and provisions. 
 She brought, also, the important tidings that peace 
 was at length concluded between France and Eng- 
 land. The bloody and momentous struggle of the 
 French war, which had shaken North America 
 since the year 1755, had indeed been virtually 
 closed by the victory on the Plains of Abraham, 
 and the junction of the three British armies at 
 Montreal. Yet up to this time, its embers had 
 continued to burn, till at length peace was com- 
 pletely established by formal treaty between the 
 hostile powers. France resigned her ambitious 
 project of empire in America, and ceded Canada 
 and . the region of the lakes to her successful rival. 
 By this treaty, the Canadians of Detroit were placed 
 in a new position. Hitherto they had been, as it 
 were, prisoners on capitulation, neutral spectators 
 of the quarrel between their British conquerors 
 and the Indians ; but now their allegiance was 
 transferred from the crown of France to that of 
 Britain, and they were subjects of the English 
 king. To many of them the change was extremely 
 odious, for they cordially hated the British. They 
 went about among the settlers and the Indians, 
 declaring that the pretended news of peace was 
 only an invention of Major Gladwyn ; that the king 
 of France would never abandon his children ; and 
 
1763, July.] FINAL EFFORT OF PONTIAC. 291 
 
 that a great French army was even then ascending 
 the St. Lawrence, while another was approaching 
 from the country of the Illinois.^ This oft-repeated 
 falsehood was implicitly believed by the Indians, 
 who continued firm in the faith that their Great 
 Father was about to awake from his sleep, and 
 wreak his vengeance upon the insolent English, 
 who had intruded on his domain. 
 
 Pontiac himself clung fast to this delusive hope ; 
 yet he was greatly vexed at the safe arrival of the 
 vessel, and the assistance she had brought to the 
 obstinate defenders of Detroit. He exerted him- 
 self with fresh zeal to gain possession of the place, 
 and attempted to terrify Gladwyn into submission. 
 He sent a message, in which he strongly urged him 
 to surrender, adding, by way of stimulus, that eight 
 hundred more Ojibwas were every day expected, 
 and that, on their arrival, all his influence could 
 not prevent them from taking the scalp of every 
 Englishman in the fort. To this friendly advice 
 Gladwyn returned a brief and contemptuous an- 
 swer. 
 
 Pontiac, having long been anxious to gain the 
 Canadians as auxiliaries in the war, now deter- 
 mined on a final effort to effect his object. For 
 this purpose, he sent messages to the principal 
 inhabitants, inviting them to meet him in council. 
 In the Ottawa camp, there was a vacant spot, quite 
 level, and encircled by the huts of the Indians. 
 Here mats were spread for the reception of the 
 deputies, who soon convened, and took their seats 
 
 1 MS. Letter — Gladwyn to Amherst, July 8. 
 
292 BLOCKADE OF DETROIT. [1763, July. 
 
 in a wide ring. One part was occupied by the 
 Canadians, among whom were several whose with- 
 ered, leathery features proclaimed them the patri- 
 archs of the secluded little settlement. Opposite 
 these sat the stern-visaged Pontiac, with his chiefs 
 on either hand, while the intervening portions of 
 the circle were filled by Canadians and Indians 
 promiscuously mingled. Standing on the outside, 
 and looking over the heads of this more dignified 
 assemblage, was a motley throng of Indians and 
 Canadians, half breeds, trappers, and voyageurs, 
 in wild and picturesque, though very dirty attire, 
 Conspicuous among them were numerous Indian 
 dandies, a large class in every aboriginal com- 
 munity, where they hold about the same relative 
 position as do their counterparts in civilized society. 
 They were wrapped in the gayest blankets, their 
 necks adorned with beads, their cheeks daubed with 
 vermilion, and their ears hung with pendants. They 
 stood sedately looking on, with evident self-compla- 
 cency, yet ashamed and afraid to take their places 
 among the aged chiefs and warriors of repute. 
 
 All was silent, and several pipes were passing 
 round from hand to hand, when Pontiac rose, and 
 threw down a war-belt at the feet of the Canadians. 
 
 " My brothers," he said, " how long will you suf- 
 fer this bad flesh to remain upon your lands ? I 
 have told you before, and I now tell you again, 
 that when I took up the hatchet, it was for your 
 good. This year the English must all perish 
 throughout Canada. The Master of Life com- 
 mands it ; and you, who know him better than 
 
1763, July.] SPEECH OF PONTIAC. 293 
 
 we, wish to oppose his will. Until now I have 
 said nothing on this matter. I have not urged you 
 to take part with us in the war. It would have 
 been enough had you been content to sit quiet on 
 your mats, looking on, while we were fighting for 
 you. But you have not done so. You call your- 
 selves our friends, and yet you assist the English 
 with provisions, and go about as spies among our 
 villages. This must not continue. You must be 
 either wholly French or wholly English. If you 
 are French, take up that war-belt, and lift the 
 hatchet with us ; but if you are English, then we 
 declare war upon you. My brothers, 1 know this 
 is a hard thing. We are all alike children of our 
 Great Father the King of France, and it is hard to 
 fight among brethren for the sake of dogs. But 
 there is no choice. Look upon the belt, and let us 
 hear your answer." ^ 
 
 One of the Canadians, having suspected the pur- 
 pose of Pontiac, had brought with him, not the 
 treaty of peace, but a copy of the capitulation of 
 Montreal with its dependencies, including Detroit. 
 Pride, or some other motive, restrained him from 
 confessing that the Canadians were no longer chil- 
 dren of the King of France, and he determined to 
 keep up the old delusion that a French army was 
 on its way to win back Canada, and chastise the 
 English invaders. He began his speech in reply 
 to Pontiac by professing great love for the Indians, 
 and a strong desire to aid them in the war. " But, 
 my brothers," he added, holding out the articles of 
 
 1 Po7itiacM.S. 
 
294 BLOCKADE OF DETROIT. [1763, July. 
 
 capitulation, " you must first untie the knot with 
 which our Great Father, the King, has bound us. 
 In this paper, he tells all his Canadian children to 
 sit quiet and obey the English until he comes, 
 because he wishes to punish his enemies himself. 
 We dare not disobey him, for he would then be 
 angry with us. And you, my brothers, who speak 
 of making war upon us if we do not do as you 
 wish, do you think you could escape his wrath, if 
 you should raise the hatchet against his French 
 children? He would treat you as enemies, and 
 not as friends, and you would have to fight both 
 English and French at once. Tell us, my brothers, 
 what can you reply to this ? " 
 
 Pontiac for a moment sat silent, mortified, and 
 perplexed ; but his purpose was not destined to be 
 wholly defeated. " Among the French," says the 
 writer of the diary, " were many infamous charac- 
 ters, who, having no property, cared nothing what 
 became of them." Those mentioned in these oppro- 
 brious terms were a collection of trappers, voya- 
 geurs, and nondescript vagabonds of the forest, 
 who were seated with the council, or stood look- 
 ing on, variously attired in greasy shirts, Indian 
 leggins, and red woollen caps. Not a few among 
 them, however, had thought proper to adopt the 
 style of dress and ornament peculiar to the red 
 men, who were their usual associates, and ap- 
 peared among their comrades witii paint rubbed 
 on their cheeks, and feathers dangling from their 
 hair. Indeed, they aimed to identify themselves 
 with the Indians, a transformation by which they 
 
1763, June.] RENEGADE WHITES. 295 
 
 gciined nothing ; for these renegade whites were 
 held in Hght esteem, both by those of their own 
 color and the savages themselves. They were for 
 the most part a light and frivolous crew, little to 
 be relied on for energy or stabihty ; though among 
 them were men of hard and ruffian features, the 
 ringleaders and bulHes of the voyageurs, and even 
 a terror to the Bourgeois ^ himself. It was one of 
 these who now took up the war belt, and declared 
 
 1 This name is always applied, among the Canadians of the North- 
 west, to the conductor of a trading party, the commander in a trading 
 fort, or, indeed, to any person in a position of authority. 
 
 Extract from a Letter — Detroit, July 9, 1763 [Penn. Gaz. No. 1808). 
 
 " Judge of the Conduct of tlie Canadians here, by the Behaviour of 
 these few Sacres Bougres, I have mentioned ; I can assure you, with 
 much Certainty, that there are but very few in the Settlement who are 
 not engaged with the Indians in their damn'd Design ; in short, Monsieur 
 is at the Bottom of it ; we have not only convincing Proofs and Circum- 
 stances, but undeniable Proofs of it. There are four or live sensible, hon- 
 est Frenchmen in tlie Place, who have been of a great deal of Service to 
 us* in bringing us Intelligence and Provisions, even at the Risque of their 
 own Lives ; I hope they will be rewarded for their good Services ; I hope 
 also to see the others exalted on High, to reap the Fruits of their Labours, 
 as soon as our Army arrives ; the Discoveries we have made of their 
 horrid villianies, are almost incredible. But to return to the Terms of 
 Capitulation : Pondiac proposes that we should immediately give up the 
 Garrison, lay down our Arms, as the French, their Fathers, were obliged 
 to do, leave the Cannon, Magazines, Merchanjts' Goods, and the two 
 Vessels, and be escorted in Battoes, by the Indians, to Niagara. The 
 Major returned Answer, that the General had not sent him there to 
 deliver up the Fort to Indians, or anybody else ; and that he would 
 defend it whilst he had a single man to fight alongside of him. Upon 
 this. Hostilities recommenced, since which Time, being two months, the 
 whole Garrison, Officers, Soldiers, Merchants, and Servants, have been 
 upon the Ramparts every Night, not one having slept in a House, except 
 the Sick and Wounded in the Hospital. 
 
 " Our Fort is extremely large, considering our Numbers, the Stockade 
 being above 1000 Paces in Circumference ; judge what a Figure we make 
 on the Works." 
 
 The writer of the above letter is much too sweeping and indiscrim- 
 inate in liis denunciation of the French. 
 
296 BLOCKADE OF DETROIT. [1763, June. 
 
 that he and his comrades were ready to raise the 
 hatchet for Pontiac. The better class of Cana- 
 dians were shocked at this proceeding, and vainly 
 protested against it. Pontiac, on his part, was 
 much pleased at such an accession to his forces, 
 and he and his chiefs shook hands, in turn, with 
 each of their new auxiliaries. The council had 
 been protracted to a late hour. It was dark before 
 the assembly dissolved, " so that," as the chronicler 
 observes, " these new Indians had no opportunity 
 of displaying their exploits that day." They re- 
 mained in the Indian camp all night, being afraid 
 of the reception they might meet among their 
 fellow- whites in the settlement. The whole of 
 the follow^ing morning was employed in giving them 
 a feast of welcome. For this entertainment a large 
 number of dogs were killed, and served up to the 
 guests ; none of whom, according to the Indian 
 custom on such formal occasions, were permitted 
 to take their leave until they had eaten the whole 
 of the enormous portion placed before theai. 
 
 Pontiac derived little advantage from his Cana- 
 dian allies, most of whom, fearing the resentment 
 of the English and the other inhabitants, fled, be- 
 fore the war was over, to the country of the Illinois.^ 
 On the night succeeding the feast, a party of the 
 renegades, joined by about an equal number of 
 Indians, approached the fort, and intrenched them- 
 selves, in order to fire upon the garrison. At day- 
 break, they were observed, the gate was thrown 
 open, and a file of men, headed by Lieutenant Hay, 
 
 1 Croghan, Journal. See Butler, Hist. Kentucky, 463. 
 
1763, Jdne.] death OF CAPT. CAMPBELL. 297 
 
 sallied to dislodge them. This was effected with- 
 out much difficulty. The Canadians fled with such 
 despatch, that all of them escaped unhurt, though 
 two of the Indians were shot. 
 
 It happened that among the English Avas a 
 soldier who had been prisoner, for several years, 
 among the Delawares, and who, while he had 
 learned to hate the whole race, at the same time 
 had acquired many of their habits and practices. 
 He now ran forward, and, kneeling on the body of 
 one of the dead savages, tore away the scalp, and 
 shook it, with an exultant cry, towards the fugitives.^ 
 This act, as afterwards appeared, excited great rage 
 among the Indians. 
 
 Lieutenant Hay and his party, after their suc- 
 cessful sally, had retired to the fort ; when, at 
 about four o'clock in the afternoon, a man was seen 
 running towards it, closely pursued by Indians. 
 Oh his arriving within gunshot, they gave over the 
 chase, and the fugitive came panting beneath the 
 stockade, where a wicket was flung open to receive 
 him. He proved to be the commandant of San- 
 dusky, who, having, as before mentioned, been 
 adopted by the Indians, and married to an old 
 squaw, now seized the first opportunity of escap- 
 ing from her embraces. 
 
 Through him, the garrison learned the unhappy 
 tidings that Captain Campbell was killed. This 
 gentleman, from his high personal character, no 
 less than his merit as an officer, was held in 
 general esteem ; and his fate excited a feeling 
 
 1 Pontiac MS. 
 
298 BLOCKADE OF DETROIT. [1763, June. 
 
 of anger and grief among all the English in 
 Detroit. It appeared that the Indian killed and 
 scalped, in the skirmish of that morning, was 
 nephew to Wasson, chief of the Ojibwas. On 
 hearing of his death, the enraged uncle had im- 
 mediately blackened his face in sign of revenge, 
 called together a party of his followers, and repair- 
 ing to the house of Meloche, where Captain Camp- 
 bell was kept prisoner, had seized upon him, and 
 bound him fast to a neighboring fence, where they 
 shot him to death w^itli arrows. Others say that 
 they tomahawked him on the spot ; but all agree 
 that his bodv was mutilated in a barbarous manner. 
 His heart is said to have been eaten by his mur- 
 derers, to make them courageous ; a practice not 
 uncommon among Indians, after killing an enemy 
 of acknowledged bravery. The corpse was thrown 
 into the river, and afterwards brought to shore and 
 buried by the Canadians. According to one author- 
 ity, Pontiac was privy to this act ; but a second, 
 equally credible, represents him as ignorant of it, 
 and declares that Wasson fled to Saginaw to escape 
 his fury ; while a third affirms that the Ojibwas 
 carried off Campbell by force from before the eyes 
 of the great chief.^ The other captive, M'Dougal, 
 had previously escaped. 
 
 1 Goain's Account, MS. St. Atibin's Account, MS. Diary of the Siege. 
 
 James MacDonald writes from Deti'oit on the 12th of July. " Half an 
 hour afterward the savages carried (the body of) the man they had lost 
 before Capt. Campbell, stripped him naked, and directly murthered him 
 in a cruel manner, which indeed gives me pain beyond expression, and 1 
 am sure cannot miss but to affect sensibly all his acquaintances. Although 
 he is now out of the question, I must own I never had, nor never shall 
 
1763, July.] THE ARMED SCHOONERS. 299 
 
 The two armed schooners, anchored opposite the 
 fort, were now become objects of awe and aversion 
 to the Indians. This is not to be wondered at, for, 
 besides aiding in the defence of the place, by sweep- 
 ing two sides of it with their fire, they often caused 
 great terror and annoyance to the besiegers. Sev- 
 eral times they had left their anchorage, and, taking 
 up a convenient position, had battered the Indian 
 camps and villages with no little effect. Once in 
 particular, — and this was the first attempt of the 
 kind, — Gladwyn himself, with several of his oflB.- 
 cers, had embarked on board the smaller vessel, 
 while a fresh breeze was blowing from the north- 
 west. The Indians, on the banks, stood watching 
 her as she tacked from shore to shore, and pressed 
 their hands against their mouths in amazement, 
 thinking that magic power alone could enable her 
 thus to make her way against wind and current.^ 
 Making a long reach from the opposite shore, she 
 came on directly towards the camp of Pontiac, her 
 sails sw^elling, her masts leaning over till the black 
 muzzles of her guns almost touched the river. The 
 Indians watched her in astonishment. On she 
 came, till their fierce hearts exulted in the idea 
 that she would run ashore within their clutches, 
 when suddenly a shout of command was heard on 
 board, her progress was arrested, she rose upright, 
 and her sails flapped and fluttered as if tearing 
 
 have, a Friend or Acquaintance that I valued more than he. My present 
 comfort is, that if Charity, benevolence, innocence, and integrity are a 
 sufficient dispensation for all mankind, that entitles him to happiness in 
 the world to come." 
 
 1 Penn. Gaz. No. 1808. 
 
300 BLOCKADE OF DETROIT. [1763, July. 
 
 loose from their fastenings. Steadily she came 
 round, broadside to the shore ; then, leaning once 
 more to the wind, bore away gallantly on the other 
 tack. She did not go far. The wondering specta- 
 tors, quite at a loss to understand her movements, 
 soon heard the hoarse rattling of her cable, as the 
 anchor dragged it out, and saw her furling her vast 
 white wings. As they looked unsuspectingly on, 
 a puff of smoke was emitted from her side ; a loud 
 report followed ; then another and another ; and 
 the balls, rushing over their heads, flew through 
 the midst of their camp, and tore wildly among the 
 forest-trees beyond. All was terror and consterna- 
 tion. The startled warriors bounded away on all 
 sides ; the squaws snatched up their children, and 
 fled screaming ; and, with a general chorus of yells, 
 the whole encampment scattered in such haste, that 
 little damage was done, except knocking to pieces 
 their frail cabins of bark.^ 
 
 This attack was followed by others of a similar 
 kind ; and now the Indians seemed resolved to turn 
 all their energies to the destruction of the vessel 
 which caused them such annoyance. On the night 
 of the tenth of July, they sent down a blazing raft, 
 formed of two boats, secured together with a rope, 
 and filled with pitch-pine, birch-bark, and other 
 combustibles, which, by good fortune, missed the 
 vessel, and floated down the stream without doing 
 injury. All was quiet throughout the following 
 night ; but about two o'clock on the morning of 
 the twelfth, the sentinel on duty saw a glowing 
 
 1 Pontiac MS. 
 
1763, July.] THE RAFT. 301 
 
 spark of fire on the surface of the river, at some 
 distance above. It grew larger and brighter ; it 
 rose in a forked flame, and at length burst forth 
 into a broad conflagration. In this instance, too, 
 fortune favored the vessel ; for the raft, which was 
 larger than the former, passed down between her 
 and the fort, brightly gilding her tracery of ropes 
 and spars, lighting up the old palisades and bastions 
 of Detroit, disclosing the white Canadian farms and 
 houses along the shore, and revealing the dusky 
 margin of the forest behind. It showed, too, a 
 dark group of naked spectators, who stood on the 
 bank to watch the effect of their artifice, when a 
 cannon flashed, a loud report broke the stillness, 
 and before the smoke of the gun had risen, these 
 curious observers had vanished. The raft floated 
 down, its flames crackling and glaring wide through 
 the night, until it was burnt to the water's edge, 
 and its last hissing embers were quenched in the 
 river. 
 
 Though twice defeated, the Indians would not 
 abandon their plan, but, soon after this second 
 failure, began another raft, of different construction 
 from the former, and so large that they thought it 
 certain to take effect. Gladwyn, on his part, pro- 
 vided boats which were moored by chains at some 
 distance above the vessels, and made other prepar- 
 ations of defence, so effectual that the Indians, after 
 working four days upon the raft, gave over their 
 undertaking as useless. About this time, a party 
 of Shawanoe and Delaware Indians arrived at De- 
 troit, and were received by the Wyandots with a 
 
302 BLOCKADE OF DETROIT. [1763, July. 
 
 salute of musketry, which occasioned some alarm 
 among the English, who knew nothing of its cause. 
 They reported the progress of the war in the south 
 and east ; and, a few days after, an Abenaki, from 
 Lower Canada, also made his appearance, bringing 
 to the Indians the flattering falsehood that their 
 Great Father, the King of France, was at that 
 moment advancing up the St. Lawrence with his 
 army. It may here be observed, that the name of 
 Father, given to the Kings of France and England, 
 was a mere title of courtesy or policy ; for, in his 
 haughty independence, the Indian yields submission 
 to no man. 
 
 It was now between two and three months since 
 the siege began ; and if one is disposed to think 
 slightingly of the warriors whose numbers could 
 avail so little against a handful of half-starved Eng- 
 lish and provincials, he has only to recollect, that 
 where barbarism has been arrayed against civiliza- 
 tion, disorder against discipline, and ungoverned 
 fury against considerate valor, such has seldom 
 failed to be the result. 
 
 At the siege of Detroit, the Indians displayed a 
 high degree of comparative steadiness and perse- 
 verance ; and their history cannot furnish another 
 instance of so large a force persisting so long in 
 the attack of a fortified place. Their good con- 
 duct may be ascribed to their deep rage against the 
 EngHsh, to their hope of speedy aid from the 
 French, and to the controlling spirit of Pontiac, 
 which held them to their work. The Indian is 
 but ill qualified for such attempts, having too much 
 
1763, July.] CHANGING TEMPER OF THE INDIANS. 803 
 
 caution for an assault by storm, and too little pa- 
 tience for a blockade. The Wyandots and Potta- 
 wattamies had shown, from the beginning, less zeal 
 than the other nations ; and now, like children, 
 they began to tire of the task they had undertaken. 
 A deputation of the Wyandots came to the fort, 
 and begged for peace, which was granted them ; 
 but when the Pottawattamies came on the same 
 errand, they insisted, as a preliminary, that some 
 of their people, who were detained prisoners by 
 the English, should first be given up. Gladwyn 
 demanded, on his part, that the English captives 
 known to be in their village should be brought to 
 the fort, and three of them were accordingly pro- 
 duced. As these were but a small part of the 
 whole, the deputies were sharply rebuked for their 
 duplicity, and told to go back for the rest. They 
 withdrew angry and mortified ; but, on the follow- 
 ing day, a fresh deputation of chiefs made their 
 appearance, bringing with them six prisoners. 
 Having repaired to the council-room, they were 
 met by Gladwyn, attended only by one or two 
 ofiicers. The Indians detained in the fort were 
 about to be given up, and a treaty concluded, when 
 one of the prisoners declared that there were 
 several others still remaining in the Pottawatta- 
 mie village. Upon this, the conference was broken 
 off, and the deputies ordered instantly to depart. 
 On being thus a second time defeated, they were 
 goaded to such a pitch of rage, that, as afterwards 
 became known, they formed the desperate resolu- 
 tion of killing Gladwyn on the spot, and then 
 
304 BLOCKADE OF DETROIT. [1763, July. 
 
 making their escape in the best way they could ; 
 but, happily, at that moment the commandant 
 observed an Ottawa among them, and, resolving 
 to seize him, called upon the guard without to 
 assist in doing so. A file of soldiers entered, and 
 the chiefs, seeing it impossible to execute their 
 design, withdrew from the fort, with black and 
 sullen brows. A day or two afterwards, however, 
 they returned with the rest of the prisoners, on 
 which peace was granted them, and their people 
 set at liberty.^ 
 
 1 Whatever may have been the case with the Pottawattaraies, there 
 were indications from the first that the Wyandots were lukewarm or even 
 reluctant in taking part with Pontiac. As early as May 22, some of 
 them complained that he had forced them into the war. Diary of the 
 Siege. Johnson MSS. 
 
CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 1763. 
 THE FIGHT OF BLOODY BRIDGE. 
 
 From the time when peace was concluded with 
 the Wyandots and Pottawattamies until the end of 
 July, little worthy of notice took place at Detroit. 
 The fort was still watched closely by the Ottawas 
 and Ojibwas, who almost daily assailed it with 
 petty attacks. In the mean time, unknown to the 
 garrison, a strong re-enforcement was coming to 
 their aid. Captain Dalzell had left Niagara with 
 twenty-two barges, bearing two hundred and eighty 
 men, with several small cannon, and a fresh supply 
 of provisions and ammunition.^ 
 
 1 Extract from a MS. Letter — Sir J. Amherst to Sir W. Johnson. 
 
 " New York, 16th June, 1763. 
 " Sir : 
 
 " I am to thank you for yom* Letter of the 6th Instant, which I have 
 this moment Received, with some Advices from Niagara, concerning the 
 Motions of the Indians that Way, they having attacked a Detachment 
 under the Command of Lieut. Cuyler of Hopkins's Rangers, who were 
 on their Route towards the Detroit, and ObUged him to Return to Niagara, 
 with (I am sorry to say) too few of his Men. 
 
 " Upon this IntelUgence, I liave thought it Necessary to Dispatch 
 Captain Daly ell, my Aid de Camp, with Orders to Carry with him all 
 such Reinforcements as can possibly be collected ("having, at the same 
 time, a due Attention to the Safety of the Principal Forts), to Niagara, 
 and to proceed to the Detroit, if Necessary, and Judged Proper." 
 
 20 
 
306 THE FIGHT OF BLOODY BRIDGE. [1763, July. 
 
 Coasting the south shore of Lake Erie, they 
 soon reached Presqu' Isle, where they found the 
 scorched and battered blockhouse captured a few- 
 weeks before, and saw with surprise the mines 
 and intrenchments made by the Indians in assailing 
 it.^ Thence, proceeding on their voyage, they 
 reached Sandusky on the twenty-sixth of July ; and 
 here they marched inland to the neighboring vil- 
 lage of the Wyandots, which they burnt to the 
 ground, at the same time destroying the corn, 
 which this tribe, more provident than most of the 
 others, had planted there in the spring. Dalzell 
 then steered northw^ard for the mouth of the De- 
 troit, which he reached on the evening of the 
 twenty-eighth, and cautiously ascended under cover 
 of night. " It was fortunate," writes Gladwyn, 
 " that they were not discovered, in which case 
 they must have been destroyed or taken, as the 
 Indians, being emboldened by their late successes, 
 tight much better than we could have expected." 
 
 On the morning of the twenty-ninth, the whole 
 country around Detroit was covered by a sea of 
 fog, the precursor of a hot and sultry day ; but at 
 sunrise its surface began to heave and toss, and, 
 parting at intervals, disclosed the dark and burn- 
 ished surface of the river ; then lightly rolling, 
 fold upon fold, the mists melted rapidly away, 
 the last remnant clinging sluggishly along the 
 margin of the forests. Now, for the first time, 
 the garrison could discern the approaching con- 
 voy.^ Still they remained in suspense, fearing 
 
 1 Penn. Gaz. No. 1811. 2 Pontiac MS. 
 
1763, July.] DETACHMENT FROM NIAGARA. 307 
 
 lest it might have met the fate of the former 
 detachment ; but a salute from the fort was 
 answered by a swivel from the boats, and at 
 once all apprehension passed away. The convoy 
 soon reached a point in the river midway between 
 the villages of the Wyandots and the Pottawatta- 
 mies. About a fortnight before, as we have seen, 
 these capricious savages had made a treaty of 
 peace, which they now saw fit to break, opening a 
 hot fire upon the boats from either bank.^ It was 
 answered by swivels and musketry ; but before the 
 short engagement was over, fifteen of the English 
 were killed or wounded. This danger passed, 
 boat after boat came to shore, and landed its men 
 amid the cheers of the garrison. The detachment 
 was composed of soldiers from the 55th and 80th 
 Regiments, with twenty independent rangers, com- 
 manded by Major Rogers ; and as the barracks in 
 the place were too small to receive them, they 
 were all quartered upon the inhabitants. 
 
 Scarcely were these arrangements made, when 
 a great smoke was seen rising from the Wyandot 
 village across the river, and the inhabitants, appar- 
 ently in much consternation, were observed pad- 
 dling down stream with their household utensils, 
 and even their dogs. It was supposed that they 
 had abandoned and burned their huts ; but in 
 truth, it was only an artifice of these Indians, who 
 had set fire to some old canoes and other refuse 
 piled in front of their village, after which the war- 
 riors, having concealed the women and children, 
 
 1 MS. Letter — Major Rogers to , Aug. 5. 
 
308 THE FIGHT OF BLOODY BRIDGE. [1763, July. 
 
 returned and lay in ambush among the bushes, 
 hoping to lure some of the English within reach 
 of their guns. None of them, however, fell into 
 the snare.^ 
 
 Captain Dalzell was the same officer who was 
 the companion of Israel Putnam in some of the 
 most adventurous passages of that rough veteran's 
 life ; but more recently he had acted as aide-de- 
 camp to Sir Jeffrey Amherst. On the day of his 
 arrival, he had a conference with Gladwyn, at the 
 quarters of the latter, and strongly insisted that the 
 time was come when an irrecoverable blow might 
 be struck at Pontiac. He requested permission to 
 march out on the following night, and attack the 
 Indian camp. Gladwyn, better acquainted with 
 the position of affairs, and perhaps more cautious 
 by nature, was averse to the attempt ; but Dalzell 
 urged his request so strenuously that the command- 
 ant yielded to his representations, and gave a tardy 
 consent.^ 
 
 Pontiac had recently removed his camp from its 
 old position near the mouth of Parent's Creek, and 
 was now posted several miles above, behind a great 
 marsh, which protected the Indian huts from the 
 
 1 Pontiac MS. 
 
 2 Extract from a MS. Letter — Major Gladwyn to Sir J. Amherst. 
 
 " Detroit, Aug. 8th, 1763. 
 " On the 31st, Captain Dalyell Kequested, as a particular favor, that 
 I would give him the Command of a Party, in order to Attempt the Sur- 
 prizal of Pontiac's Camp, under cover of the Night, to which I answered 
 that I was of opinion he was too much on his Guard to Effect it ; he then 
 said he thought I had it in my power to give him a Stroke, and that if I 
 did not Attempt it now, he would Run off, and I should never have 
 another Opportunity ; this induced me to give in to the Scheme, contrary 
 to my Judgement." 
 
1763,Jlxy.1 a night ATTACK. 309 
 
 cannon of the vessel. On the afternoon of the 
 thu'tieth, orders were issued and preparations 
 made for the meditated attack. Through the 
 inexcusable carelessness of some of the officers, 
 the design became known to a few Canadians, the 
 bad result of which will appear in the sequel. 
 
 About two o'clock on the morning of the thirty- 
 first of July, the gates were thrown open in silence, 
 and the detachment, two hundred and fifty in num- 
 ber, passed noiselessly out. They filed two deep 
 along the road, while two large bateaux, each bear- 
 ing a swivel on the bow, rowed up the river abreast 
 of them. Lieutenant Brown led the advance 
 guard of twenty-five men ; the centre was com- 
 manded by Captain Gray, and the rear by Captain 
 Grant. The night was still, close, and sultry, and 
 the men marched in light undress. On their right 
 was the dark and gleaming surface of the river, 
 with a margin of sand intervening, and on their left 
 a succession of Canadian houses, with barns, or- 
 chards, and cornfields, from whence the clamorous 
 barking of watch-dogs saluted them as they passed. 
 The inhabitants, roused from sleep, looked from 
 the windows in astonishment and alarm. An old 
 man has told the writer how, when a child, he 
 climbed on the roof of his father's house, to look 
 down on the glimmering bayonets, and how, long 
 after the troops had passed, their heavy and meas- 
 ured tramp sounded from afar, through the still 
 night. Thus the English moved forward to the 
 attack, little thinking that, behind houses and 
 enclosures, Indian scouts watched every yard of 
 
310 THE FIGHT OF BLOODY BRmGE. [1763, July. 
 
 their progress — little suspecting that Pontiac, 
 apprised by the Canadians of their plan, had 
 broken up his camp, and was coming against 
 them with all his warriors, armed and painted 
 for battle. 
 
 A mile and a half from the fort, Parent's Creek, 
 ever since that night called Bloody E-un, descended 
 through a wild and rough hollow, and entered the 
 Detroit amid a growth of rank grass and sedge. 
 Only a few rods from its mouth, the road crossed 
 it by a narrow wooden bridge, not existing at the 
 present day. Just beyond this bridge, the land 
 rose in abrupt ridges, parallel to the stream. Along 
 their summits were rude intrenchments made by 
 Pontiac to protect his camp, which had formerly 
 occupied the ground immediately beyond. Here* 
 too, were many piles of firewood belonging to the 
 Canadians, besides strong picket fences, enclosing 
 orchards and gardens connected with the neighbor- 
 ing houses. Behind fences, wood-piles, and in- 
 trenchments, crouched an unknown number of 
 Indian warriors with levelled guns. They lay 
 silent as snakes, for now they could hear the dis- 
 tant tramp of the approaching column. 
 
 The sky was overcast, and the night exceedingly 
 dark. As the English drew near the dangerous 
 pass, they could discern the oft-mentioned house 
 of Meloche upon a rising ground to the left, while 
 in front the bridge was dimly visible, and the ridges 
 beyond it seemed like a wall of undistinguished 
 blackness. They pushed rapidly forward, not 
 wholly unsuspicious of danger. The advance 
 
1763, July.] RETREAT OF THE ENGLISH. 311 
 
 guard were half way over the bridge, and the 
 main body just entering upon it, when a horrible 
 burst of yells rose in their front, and the Indian 
 guns blazed forth in a general discharge. Half 
 the advanced party were shot down ; the appalled 
 survivors shrank back aghast. The confusion 
 reached even the n;ain body, and the whole re- 
 coiled together ; but Dalzell raised his clear voice 
 above the din, advanced to the front, rallied the 
 men, and led them forward to the attack.^ Again 
 the Indians poured in their volley, and again the 
 English hesitated ; but Dalzell shouted from the 
 van, and, in the madness of mingled rage and fear, 
 they charged at a run across the bridge and up 
 the heights beyond. Not an Indian was there to 
 oppose them. In vain the furious soldiers sought 
 their enemy behind fences and intrenchments. The 
 active savages had fled ; yet still their guns flashed 
 thick through the gloom, and their war-ci'y rose 
 wath undiminished clamor. The English pushed 
 forward amid the pitchy darkness, quite ignorant of 
 their way, and soon became involved in a maze of 
 out-houses and enclosures. At every pause they 
 made, the retiring enemy would gather to renew 
 the attack, firing back hotly upon the front and 
 flanks. To advance farther would be useless, and 
 the only alternative was to withdraw and wait 
 for daylight. Captain Grant, with his company, 
 recrossed the bridge, and took up his station on the 
 road. The rest followed, a small party remaining 
 to hold the enemy in check while the dead and 
 
 1 Penn. Gaz. No. 1811. 
 
312 THE FIGHT OF BLOODY BRIDGE. [1763, July. 
 
 wounded were placed on board the two bateaux 
 which had rowed up to the bridge during the action. 
 This task was commenced amid a sharp fii'e from 
 both sides ; and before it was completed, heavy 
 volleys were heard from the rear, where Captain 
 Grant was stationed. A great force of Indians 
 had fired upon him from the house of Meloche 
 and the neighboring orchards. Grant pushed up 
 the hill, and drove them from the orchards at the 
 point of the bayonet — drove them, also, from the 
 house, and, entering it, found two Canadians within. 
 These men told him that the Indians were bent on 
 cutting off the English from the fort, and that they 
 had gone in great numbers to occupy the houses 
 which commanded the road below. ^ It was now 
 evident that instant retreat was necessary ; and the 
 command being issued to that effect, the men fell 
 back into marching order, and slowly began their 
 retrograde movement. Grant was now in the van, 
 and Dalzell at the rear. Some of the Indians fol- 
 lowed, keeping up a scattering and distant fire ; 
 and from time to time the rear faced about, to 
 throw back a volley of musketry at the pursuers. 
 Having proceeded in this manner for half a mile, 
 they reached a point where, close upon the right, 
 were many barns and outhouses, with strong picket 
 fences. Behind these, and in a newly dug cellar 
 close at hand, lay concealed a great multitude of 
 Indians. They suffered the advanced party to pass 
 unmolested ; but when the centre and rear came 
 opposite their ambuscade, they raised a frightful 
 
 1 Detail of the Action of the 2,1st of July. See Gent. Mag. XXXIII. 486. 
 
1763, July.] BRAVERY OF DALZELL. 313 
 
 yell, and poured a volley among them. The men 
 had well-nigh fallen mto a panic. The river ran 
 close on their left, and the only avenue of escape 
 lay along the road in front. Breaking their ranks, 
 they crowded upon one another in blind eagerness 
 to escape the storm of bullets ; and but for the 
 presence of Dalzell, the retreat would have been 
 turned into a flight. " The enemy," writes an 
 officer who was in the tight, " marked him for 
 his extraordinary bravery ; " and he had already 
 received two severe wounds. Yet his exertions 
 did not slacken for a moment. Some of the 
 soldiers he rebuked, some he threatened, and 
 some he beat with the flat of his sword ; till at 
 length order was partially restored, and the fire of 
 the enemy returned with effect. Though it was near 
 daybreak, the dawn was obscured by a thick fog, 
 and little could be seen of the Indians, except the 
 incessant flashes of their guns amid the mist, while 
 hundreds of voices, mingled in one appalling yell, 
 confused the faculties of the men, and drowned the 
 shout of command. The enemy had taken posses- 
 sion of a house, from the wdndows of which they 
 fired down upon the English. Major Rogers, with 
 some of his provincial rangers, burst the door with 
 an axe, rushed in, and expelled them. Captain 
 Gray was ordered to dislodge a large party from 
 behind some neighboring fences. He charged 
 them with his company, but fell, mortally wounded, 
 in the attempt.^ They gave way, however ; and 
 now, the fire of the Indians being much diminished, 
 
 1 Penn. Gaz. No. 1811. 
 
314 THE FIGHT OF BLOODY BRIDGE. [1763, Jcly. 
 
 the retreat was resumed. No sooner had the men 
 faced about, than the savages came darting through 
 the mist upon their flank and rear, cutting down 
 stragglers, and scalping the fallen. At a little 
 distance lay a sergeant of the 55th, helplessly 
 wounded, raising himself on his hands, and gaz- 
 ing with a look of despair after his retiring com- 
 rades. The sight caught the eye of Dalzell. That 
 gallant soldier, in the true spirit of heroism, ran 
 out, amid the firing, to rescue the wounded man, 
 when a shot struck him, and he fell dead. Few 
 observed his fate, and none durst turn back to 
 recover his body. The detachment pressed on, 
 greatly harassed by the pursuing Indians. Their 
 loss would have been much more severe, had not 
 Major Rogers taken possession of another house, 
 which commanded the road, and covered the retreat 
 of the party. 
 
 He entered it with some of his own men, while 
 many panic-stricken regulars broke in after him, in 
 their eagerness to gain a temporary shelter. The 
 house was a large and strong one, and the women 
 of the neighborhood had crowded into the cellar 
 for refuge. While some of the soldiers looked in 
 blind terror for a place of concealment, others 
 seized upon a keg of whiskey in one of the 
 rooms, and quafl'ed the liquor with eager thirst ; 
 while others, again, piled packs of furs, furniture, 
 and all else within their reach, against the windows, 
 to serve as a barricade. Panting and breathless, 
 their faces moist with sweat and blackened with 
 gunpowder, they thrust their muskets through 
 
1763, July.] GRANT CONDUCTS THE RETREAT. 315 
 
 the openings, and fired out upon the whooping 
 assailants. At intervals, a bullet flew sharply 
 whizzing through a crevice, striking down a man, 
 perchance, or rapping harmlessly against the par- 
 titions. Old Campau, the master of the house, 
 stood on a trap-door to prevent the frightened 
 soldiers from seeking shelter among the women 
 in the cellar. A ball grazed his gray head, and 
 buried itself in the wall, where a few years since 
 it might still have been seen. The screams of the 
 half-stifled women below, the quavering war-whoops 
 without, the shouts and curses of the soldiers, min- 
 gled in a scene of clamorous confusion, and it was 
 long before the authority of Rogers could restore 
 order. ^ 
 
 In the mean time, Captain Grant, with his 
 advanced party, had moved forward about half a 
 mile, where he found some orchards and enclosures, 
 by means of which he could maintain himself until 
 the centre and rear should arrive. From this point 
 he detached all the men he could spare to occupy 
 the houses below ; and as soldiers soon began to 
 come in from the rear, he was enabled to re-en- 
 force these detachments, until a complete line of 
 communication was established with the fort, and 
 the retreat effectually secured. Within an hour, 
 the whole party had arrived, with the exception of 
 Eogers and his men, who were quite unable to 
 come ofl", being besieged in the house of Campau, 
 
 1 Many particulars of the fight at the house of Campau were related 
 to me, on the spot, by John R. Williams, Esq., of Detroit, a connection of 
 the Campau family. 
 
316 THE FIGHT OF BLOODY BRIDGE. [1763, July. 
 
 by full two hundred Indians. The two armed 
 bateaux had gone down to the fort, laden with the 
 dead and wounded. They now returned, and, in 
 obedience to an order from Grant, proceeded up 
 the river to a point opposite Campau's house, where 
 they opened a fire of swivels, which swept the 
 ground above and below it, and completely scat- 
 tered the assailants. Rogers and his party now 
 came out, and marched down the road, to unite 
 themselves with Grant. The two bateaux accom- 
 panied them closely, and, by a constant fire, re- 
 strained the Indians from making an attack. 
 Scarcely had Rogers left the house at one door, 
 w^hen the enemy entered it at another, to obtain the 
 scalps from two or three corpses left behind. Fore- 
 most of them all, a withered old squaw rushed in, 
 with a shrill scream, and, slashing open one of the 
 dead bodies with her knife, scooped up the blood 
 between her hands, and quaffed it with a ferocious 
 ecstasy. 
 
 Grant resumed his retreat as soon as Rogers had 
 arrived, falling back from house to house, joined 
 in succession by the parties sent to garrison each. 
 The Indians, in great numbers, stood whooping 
 and yelling, at a vain distance, unable to make an 
 attack, so well did Grant choose his positions, and 
 so steadily and coolly conduct the retreat. About 
 eight o'clock, after six hours of marching and com- 
 bat, the detachment entered once more within the 
 sheltering palisades of Detroit. 
 
 In this action, the English lost fifty-nine men 
 killed and wounded. The loss of the Indians 
 
1763, July.] ELATION OF THE INDIANS. 317 
 
 could not be ascertained, but it certainly did not 
 exceed fifteen or twenty. At the beginning of the 
 fight, their numbers were probably much inferior 
 to those of the English ; but fresh parties were 
 continually joining them, until seven or eight hun- 
 dred warriors must have been present. 
 
 The Ojibwas and Ottawas alone formed the 
 ambuscade at the bridge, under Pontiac's com- 
 mand ; for the Wyandots and Pottawattamies came 
 later to the scene of action, crossing the river in 
 their canoes, or passing round through the woods 
 behind the fort, to take part in the fray.^ 
 
 In speaking of the fight of Bloody Bridge, an 
 able writer in the Annual E-egister for the year 
 1763 observes, with justice, that although in Euro- 
 pean warfare it w^ould be deemed a mere skirmish, 
 yet in a conflict with the American savages, it rises 
 to the importance of a pitched battle ; since these 
 people, being thinly scattered over a great extent of 
 country, are accustomed to conduct their warfare 
 by detail, and never take the field in any great 
 force. 
 
 The Indians were greatly elated by their success. 
 Runners were sent out for several hundred miles, 
 through the surrounding woods, to spread tidings 
 
 IMS. Letters — MacDonald to Dr. Campbell, Aug. 8. Gage to Lord 
 HaUfax, Oct. 1 2. Amherst to Lord Egremont, Sept. 3. Meloche's Account, 
 MS. Gouin's Account, MS. St. Aubin's Account, MS. Peltier's Account, 
 MS. MarweWs Account, MS., etc. In the Diary of the Siege is the fol- 
 lowing, under date of August 1st : "Young Mr. Carapo (Campau) brought 
 in the Body of poor Capt, Daly el (Dalzell) about three o'clock to-day, 
 which was mangled in such a horrid Manner that it was shocking to 
 human nature; the Indians wip'd his Heart about the Faces of our 
 Prisoners." 
 
318 THE FIGHT OF BLOODY BRIDGE. [1763, Sept. 
 
 of the victory ; and re-enforcements soon began to 
 come in to swell the force of Pontiac. " Fresh 
 warriors," writes Gladwyn, " arrive almost every 
 day, and I believe that I shall soon be besieged by 
 upwards of a thousand." The English, on their 
 part, were well prepared for resistance, since the 
 garrison now comprised more than three hundred 
 effective men ; and no one entertained a doubt of 
 their ultimate success in defending the place. 
 Day after day passed on ; a few skirmishes took 
 place, and a few men were killed, but nothing 
 worthy of notice occurred, until the night of the 
 fourth of vSeptember, at which time was achieved 
 one of the most memorable feats which the chroni- 
 cles of that day can boast. 
 
 The schooner Gladwyn, the smaller of the two 
 armed vessels so often mentioned, had been sent 
 down to Niagara with letters and despatches. She 
 was now returning, having on board Horst, her 
 master, Jacobs, her mate, and a crew of ten men, 
 all of whom were provincials, besides six Iroquois 
 Indians, supposed to be friendly to the English. 
 On the night of the third, she entered the Eiver 
 Detroit ; and in the morning the six Indians asked 
 to be set on shore, a request which Avas foolishly 
 granted. They disappeared in the woods, and 
 probably reported to Pontiac's warriors the small 
 numbers of the crew. The vessel stood up the 
 river until nightfall, when, the wind failing, she 
 was compelled to anchor about nine miles below 
 the fort. The men on board watched with anxious 
 vigilance ; and as night came on, they listened to 
 
1763, Sept.] ATTACK ON SCHOONER GLAD WYN. 319 
 
 every sound wbicli broke the stillness, from the 
 strange cry of the nighthawk, wheeling above their 
 heads, to the bark of the fox from the woods on 
 shore. The night set in with darkness so com- 
 plete, that at the distance of a few rods nothing 
 could be discerned. Meantime, three hundred and 
 fifty Indians, in their birch canoes, glided silently 
 down with the current, and were close upon the 
 vessel before they were seen. There was only time 
 to fire a single cannon-shot among them, before 
 they were beneath her bows, and clambering up 
 her sides, holding their knives clinched fast be- 
 tween their teeth. The crew gave them a close 
 fire of musketry, without any eifect ; then, flinging 
 down their guns, they seized the spears and hatchets 
 with which they were all provided, and met the 
 assaihmts with such furious energy and courage, 
 that in the space of two or three minutes they had 
 killed and wounded more than twice their own 
 number. But the Indians were only checked for a 
 moment. The master of the vessel was killed, 
 several of the crew were disabled, and the assail- 
 ants were leaping over the bulwarks, when Jacobs, 
 the mate, called out to blow up the schooner. This 
 desperate command saved her and her crew. Some 
 Wyandots, who had gained the deck, caught tlie 
 meaning of his words, and gave the alarm to their 
 companions. Instantly every Indian leaped over- 
 board in a panic, and the whole were seen diving 
 and swimming ofi* in all directions, to escape the 
 threatened explosion. The schooner was cleared 
 of her assailants, who did not dare to renew the 
 
320 THE FIGHT OF BLOODY BRIDGE. [1763, Sept. 
 
 attack ; and on the following morning she sailed 
 for the fort, which she reached without molesta- 
 tion. Six of her crew escaped unhurt. Of the 
 remainder, two were killed, and four seriously 
 wounded, while the Indians had seven men killed 
 upon the spot, and nearly twenty wounded, of 
 whom eight were know^n to have died within a 
 few days after. As the action was very brief, the 
 fierceness of the struggle is sufficiently apparent 
 from the loss on both sides. " The appearance of 
 the men," says an eye-witness who saw them on 
 their arrival, " was enough to convince every one 
 of their bravery ; they being as bloody as butchers, 
 and their bayonets, spears, and cutlasses, blood to 
 the hilt." The survivors of the crew were after- 
 wards rewarded as their courage deserved.^ 
 
 And now, taking leave, for a time, of the garri- 
 
 1 MS. Letter — Gladwyn to Amherst, Sept. 9. Carver, 164. Relation 
 of the Gallant Defence of the Schooner near Detroit, published by order of 
 General Amherst, in the New York papers. Penn. Gaz. No. 1816. MS. 
 Letter — Amherst to Lord Egremont, Oct. 13. St. Aubin's Account, MS. Pd- 
 tier's Account, MS. Relation of some Transactions at the Detroit in Sept. and 
 Oct. 1763, MS. 
 
 The Commander-in-chief ordered a medal to be struck and presented 
 to each of the men. Jacobs, the mate of the schooner, appears to have 
 been as rash as he was brave ; for Captain Carver says, that several 
 years after, when in command of the same vessel, he was lost, with all 
 his crew, in a storm on Lake Erie, in consequence of having obstinately 
 refused to take in ballast enough. 
 
 As this affair savors somewhat of the marvellous, the following evi- 
 dence is given touching the most remarkable features of the story. The 
 document was copied from the archives of London. 
 
 Extract from " A Relation of the Gallant Defence made by the Crew of the 
 Schooner on Lake Erie, when Attacked by a Large Body of Lidians ; as Pub- 
 lished by Order of Sir Jeffrey Amherst in the New York Papers." 
 
 " The Schooner Sailed from Niagara, loaded with Provisions, some 
 time in August last : Her Crew consisted of the Master and Eleven 
 Men, with Six Mohawk Indians, who were Intended for a particular 
 
1763, Sept.] THE WAR IN THE NORTH. 321 
 
 son of Detroit, whose fortunes we have followed 
 so long, we will turn to observe the progress of 
 events in a quarter of the wilderness yet more wild 
 and remote. 
 
 Service. She entered the Detroit River, on the 3^ September; And on 
 the 4t*> in the Morning, the Mohawks seemed very Desirous of being put 
 on Shore, which the Master, very Inconsiderately, agreed to. The Wind 
 proved contrary all that Day ; and in the Evening, the Vessell being at 
 Anchor, about Nine o' Clock, the Boat-swain discovered a Number of 
 Canoes coming down the River, with about Three Hundred and Fifty 
 Indians ; Upon which the Bow Gun was Immediately Fired ; but before 
 the other Guns could be brought to Bear, the Enemy got under the Bow 
 and Stern, in Spite of the Swivels & Small Arms, and Attempted to 
 Board the Vessell ; Whereupon the Men Abandoned their Small Arms, 
 and took to their Spears, with which they were provided ; And, with 
 Amazing Resolution and Bravery, knocked the Savages in the Head ; 
 Killed many ; and saved the Vessell. . . It is certain Seven of the Savages 
 were Killed on the Spot, and Eight had Died of those that were Wounded, 
 when the Accounts came away. The Master and One Man were Killed, 
 and four Wounded, on Board the Schooner, and the other Six brought 
 her Safe to the Detroit." 
 
 It is somewhat singular that no mention is here made of the command 
 to blow up the vessel. The most explicit authorities on this point are 
 Carver, who obtained his account at Detroit, three years after the war, 
 and a letter published in the Pennsijlvania Gazette, No. 1816. This letter 
 is dated at Detroit, five days after the attack. The circumstance is also 
 mentioned in several traditional accounts of the Canadians. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 1763. 
 MICHILLI MACKINAC. 
 
 In the spring of the year 1763, before the war 
 broke out, several English traders went up to 
 Michillimackinac, some adopting the old route of 
 the Ottawa, and others that of Detroit and the 
 lakes. We will follow one of the latter on his 
 adventurous progress. Passing the fort and settle- 
 ment of Detroit, he soon enters Lake St. Clair, 
 which seems like a broad basin filled to overflow- 
 ing, while, along its far distant verge, a faint line 
 of forest separates the water from the sky. He 
 crosses the lake, and his voyageurs next urge his 
 canoe against the current of the great river above. 
 At length. Lake Huron opens before him, stretch- 
 ing its liquid expanse, like an ocean, to the farthest 
 horizon. His canoe skirts the eastern shore of 
 Michigan, where the forest rises like a wall from 
 the water's edge ; and as he advances northward, 
 an endless line of stiff and shaggy fir-trees, hung 
 with long mosses, fringes the shore with an aspect 
 of monotonous desolation. In the space of two or 
 three weeks, if his Canadians labor well, and no 
 accident occur, the trader approaches the end of 
 
1763.] FORT MICHILLIMACKINAC. 323 
 
 his voyage. Passing on his right the extensive 
 Island of Bois Blanc, he sees, nearly in front, the 
 beautiful Mackinaw, rising, with its white cliffs 
 and green foliage, from the broad breast of the 
 waters. He does not steer towards it, for at that 
 day the Indians were its only tenants, but keeps 
 along the main shore to the left, while his voy- 
 ageurs raise their song and chorus. Doubling a 
 point, he sees before him the red flag of England 
 swelling lazily in the wind, and the palisades and 
 wooden bastions of Fort Michillimackinac standing 
 close upon the margin of the lake. On the beach, 
 canoes are drawn up, and Canadians and Indians 
 are idly lounging. A little beyond the fort is a 
 cluster of the white Canadian houses, roofed with 
 bark, and protected by fences of strong round 
 pickets. 
 
 The trader enters at the gate, and sees before 
 him an extensive square area, surrounded by high 
 palisades. Numerous houses, barracks, and other 
 buildings, form a smaller square within, and in the 
 vacant space which they enclose appear the red 
 uniforms of British soldiers, the gray coats of 
 Canadians, and the gaudy Indian blankets, mingled 
 in picturesque confusion ; while a multitude of 
 squaws, with children of every hue, stroll restlessly 
 about the place. Such was Fort Michillimackinac 
 in 1763.^ Its name, which, in the Algonquin 
 tongue, signifies the Great Turtle, was first, from 
 
 1 This description is drawn from traditional accounts aided by a per- 
 sonal examination of the spot, where the stumps of tlie pickets and the 
 foundations of the houses may still he traced. 
 
324 MICHILLIMACKINAC. [1763. 
 
 a fancied resemblance, applied to the neighboring 
 island, and thence to the fort. 
 
 Though buried in a wilderness, Michillimackinac 
 was still of no recent origin. As early as 1671, the 
 Jesuits had established a mission near the place, 
 and a military force was not long in following ; for, 
 under the French dominion, the priest and the 
 soldier went hand in hand. Neither toil, nor suf- 
 fering, nor all the terrors of the wilderness, could 
 damp the zeal of the undaunted missionary ; and 
 the restless ambition of France was always on the 
 alert to seize every point of vantage, and avail 
 itself of every means to gain ascendency over the 
 forest tribes. Besides Michillimackinac, there were 
 two other posts in this northern region. Green Bay, 
 and the Sault Ste. Marie. Both were founded at 
 an early period, and both presented the same char- 
 acteristic features — a mission-house, a fort, and a 
 cluster of Canadian dwellings. They had been 
 originally garrisoned by small parties of militia, 
 who, bringing their families with them, settled on 
 the spot, and were founders of these little colonies. 
 Michillimackinac, much the largest of the three, 
 contained thirty families within the palisades of 
 the fort, and about as many more without. Be- 
 sides its military value, it was important as a centre 
 of. the fur- trade ; for it was here that the traders 
 engaged their men, and sent out their goods in 
 canoes, under the charge of subordinates, to the 
 more distant regions of the Mississippi and the 
 North-west. 
 
 During the greater part of the year, the garrison 
 
1763. J THE NEIGHBORING TRIBES. 325 
 
 and the settlers were completely isolated — cut off 
 from all connection with the world ; and, indeed, 
 so great was the distance, and so serious the perils, 
 which separated the three sister posts of the north- 
 ern lakes, that often, through the whole winter, all 
 intercourse was stopped between them.^ 
 
 It is difficult for the imagination adequately to 
 conceive the extent of these fresh-water oceans, 
 and vast regions of forest, which, at the date of 
 our narrative, were the domain of nature, a mighty 
 hunting and fishing ground, for the sustenance of a 
 few wandering tribes. One might journey among 
 them for days, and even weeks together, without 
 beholding a human face. The Indians near Mich- 
 illimackinac were the Ojibwas and Ottawas, the 
 former of whom claimed the eastern section of 
 Michigan, and the latter the western, their respec- 
 tive portions being separated by a line drawn 
 southward from the fort itself.^ The principal 
 village of the Ojibwas contained about a hundred 
 warriors, and stood upon the Island of Michilli- 
 mackinac, now called Mackinaw. There was 
 another smaller village near the head of Thunder 
 Bay. The Ottawas, to the number of two hun- 
 dred and fifty warriors, lived at the settlement of 
 L'Arbre Croche, on the shores of Lake Michigan, 
 some distance west of the fort. This place was 
 then the seat of the old Jesuit mission of St. Ig- 
 nace, originally placed, by Father Marquette, on the 
 northern side of the straits. Many of the Ottawas 
 
 1 MS. Journal of Lieutenant Gorell, commanding at Green Bay, 1761-63. 
 
 2 Carver, Travels, 29. 
 
326 MICHILLIMACKINAC. [1761. 
 
 were nominal Catholics. They were all somewhat 
 improved from their original savage condition, liv- 
 ing in log houses, and cultivating corn and vegeta- 
 bles to such an extent as to supply the fort with 
 provisions, besides satisfying their own wants. 
 The Ojibwas, on the other hand, were not in the 
 least degree removed from their primitive barbar- 
 ism.^ 
 
 These two tribes, with most of the other neigh- 
 boring Indians, were strongly hostile to the English. 
 Many of their warriors had fought against them in 
 the late war, for France had summoned allies from 
 the farthest corners of the wilderness, to aid her in 
 her struggle. This feeling of hostility was excited 
 to a higher pitch by the influence of the Canadians, 
 who disliked the English, not merely as national 
 enemies, but also as rivals in the fur-trade, and 
 were extremely jealous of their intrusion upon the 
 lakes. The following incidents, which occurred in 
 the autumn of the year 1761, will illustrate the 
 state of feeling which prevailed : — 
 
 At that time, although Michillimackinac had been 
 surrendered, and the French garrison removed, no 
 English troops had yet arrived to supply their place, 
 and the Canadians were the only tenants of the fort. 
 An adventurous trader, Alexander Henry, who, 
 with one or two others, was the pioneer of the 
 English fur-trade in this region, came to Michil- 
 limackinac by the route of the Ottawa. On the 
 way, he was several times warned to turn back, 
 
 1 Many of these particulars are derived from memoranda furnished by- 
 Henry R. Schoolcraft, Esq. 
 
1761.] , adventures' OF A TRADER. 327 
 
 and assured of death if he proceeded ; and, at 
 length, was compelled for safety to assume the dis- 
 guise of a Canadian voyageur. When his canoes, 
 laden with goods, reached the fort, he was very 
 coldly received by its inhabitants, who did all in 
 their power to alarm and discourage him. Soon 
 after his arrival, he received the very unwelcome 
 information, that a large number of Ojibwas, from 
 the neighboring villages, were coming, in their 
 canoes, to call upon him. Under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances, such a visitation, though disagreeable 
 enough, would excite neither anxiety nor surprise ; 
 for the Indians, when in their villages, lead so mo- 
 notonous an existence, that they are ready to snatch 
 at the least occasion of excitement, and the pros- 
 pect of a few trifling presents, and a few pipes of 
 tobacco, is often a sufficient inducement for a jour- 
 ney of several days. But in the present instance 
 there was serious cause of apprehension, since 
 Canadians and Frenchmen were alike hostile to the 
 solitary trader. The story could not be better told 
 than in his own words. 
 
 " At two o'clock in the afternoon, the Chip pe was 
 (Ojibwas) came to the house, about sixty in num- 
 ber, and headed by Minavavana, their chief. They 
 walked in single file, each with his tomahawk in 
 one hand and scalping-knife in the other. Their 
 bodies were naked from the waist upward, except 
 in a few examples, where blankets were thrown 
 loosely over the shoulders. Their faces were 
 painted with charcoal, worked up with grease, their 
 bodies with white clay, in patterns of various fan- 
 
328 MICHILLIMACKINAC. [1761. 
 
 cies. Some had feathers thrust through their 
 noses, and their heads decorated with the same. 
 It is unnecessary to dwell on the sensations with 
 which I beheld the approach of this uncouth, if 
 not frightful assemblage. 
 
 " The chief entered first, and the rest followed 
 without noise. On receiving a sign from the for- 
 mer, the latter seated themselves on the floor. 
 
 " Minavavana appeared to be about fifty years 
 of age. He was six feet in height, and had in his 
 countenance an indescribable mixture of good and 
 evil. Looking steadfastly at me, where I sat in 
 ceremony, with an interpreter on either hand, and 
 several Canadians behind me, he entered, at the 
 same time, into conversation with Campion, inquir- 
 ing how long it was since I left Montreal, and ob- 
 serving that the English, as it would seem, were 
 brave men, and not afraid of death, since they 
 dared to come, as I had done, fearlessly among 
 their enemies. 
 
 " The Indians now gravely smoked their pipes, 
 while I inwardly endured the tortures of suspense. 
 At length, the pipes being finished, as well as a 
 long pause, by which they were succeeded, Mina- 
 vavana, taking a few^ strings of wampum in his 
 hand, began the following speech : — 
 
 '- ' Englishman, it is to you that I speak, and I 
 demand your attention. 
 
 '' ' Englishman, you know that the French King 
 is our father. He promised to be such ; and we, 
 in return, promised to be his children. This prom- 
 ise we have kept. 
 
1761.] SPEECH OF MINAVAVANA. 329 
 
 " ' Englishman, it is you that have made war 
 with this our father. You are his enemy ; and 
 how, then, could you have the boldness to venture 
 among us, his children? You know that his ene- 
 mies are ours. 
 
 " ' Englishman, we are informed that our father, 
 the King of France, is old and infirm ; and that, 
 being fatigued with making war upon your nation, 
 he is fallen asleep. During his sleep you have 
 taken advantage of him, and possessed yourselves 
 of Canada. But his nap is almost at an end. I 
 think I hear him already stirring, and inquiring 
 for his children, the Indians ; and when he does 
 awake, what must become of you'? He will de- 
 stroy you utterly. 
 
 " ' Englishman, although you have conquered 
 the French, you have not yet conquered us. We 
 are not your slaves. These lakes, these woods and 
 mountains, were left to us by our ancestors. They 
 are our inheritance ; and we will part with them 
 to none. Your nation supposes that we, like the 
 white people, cannot live without bread, and pork, 
 and beef! But you ought to know that He, the 
 Great Spirit and Master of Life, has provided food 
 for us in these spacious lakes, and on these woody 
 mountains. 
 
 " ' Englishman, our father, the King of France, 
 employed our young men to make war upon your 
 nation. In this warfare many of them have been 
 killed ; and it is our custom to retaliate until such 
 time as the spirits of the slain are satisfied. But 
 the spirits of the slain are to be satisfied in either 
 
330 MICHILLIMACKINAC. [1761. 
 
 of two ways ; the first is by the spilling of the 
 blood of the nation by which they fell ; the other, 
 by covering the bodies of the dead, and thus allay- 
 ing the resentment of their relations. This is done 
 by making presents. 
 
 •' ' Englishman, your king has never sent us any 
 presents, nor entered into any treaty with us ; 
 wherefore he and we are still at war ; and, until 
 he does these things, we must consider that we 
 have no other father nor friend, among the white 
 men, than the King of France ; but for you, we 
 have taken into consideration that you have ven- 
 tured your life among us, in the expectation that 
 we should not molest you. You do not come 
 armed, with an intention to make war ; you come 
 in peace, to trade with us, and supply us with 
 necessaries, of which we are in much want. We 
 shall regard you, therefore, as a brother ; and 
 you may sleep tranquilly, without fear of the Chip- 
 pewas. As a token of our friendship, we present 
 you this pipe to smoke.' 
 
 " As Minavavana uttered these words, an Indian 
 presented me with a pipe, which, after I had drawn 
 the smoke three times, was carried to the chief, 
 and after him to every person in the room. This 
 ceremony ended, the chief arose, and gave me his 
 hand, in which he was followed by all the rest." ^ 
 
 These tokens of friendship were suitably ac- 
 knowledged by the trader, who made a formal 
 reply to Minavavana's speech. To this succeeded 
 a request for whiskey on the part of the Indians, 
 
 1 Henry, Travels, 45. 
 
1761.] RESOLUTION OF THE THREE TRADERS. 331 
 
 with which Henry unwillingly complied ; and, hav- 
 ing distributed several small additional presents, he 
 beheld, with profound satisfaction, the departure 
 of his guests. Scarcely had he ceased to congratu- 
 late himself on having thus got rid of the Ojibwas, 
 or, as he calls them, the Chippewas, when a more 
 formidable invasion once more menaced him with 
 destruction. Two hundred L'Arbre Croche Otta- 
 was came in a body to the fort, and summoned 
 Henry, together with Goddard and Solomons, two 
 other traders, who had just arrived, to meet them 
 in council. Here they informed their startled 
 auditors that they must distribute their goods 
 among the Indians, adding a worthless promise to 
 pay them in the spring, and threatening force in 
 case of a refusal. Being allowed until the next 
 morning to reflect on what they had heard, the 
 traders resolved on resistance, and, accordingly, 
 arming about thirty of their men with muskets, 
 they barricaded themselves in the house occupied 
 by Henry, and kept strict watch all night. The 
 Ottawas, however, did not venture an attack. On 
 the following day, the Canadians, with pretended 
 sympathy, strongly advised compliance with the de- 
 mand ; but the three traders resolutely held out, and 
 kept possession of their stronghold till night, when, 
 to their surprise and joy, the news arrived that the 
 body of troops known to be on their way towards the 
 fort were, at that moment, encamped within a few 
 miles of it. Another night of watching and anxiety 
 succeeded ; but at sunrise, the Ottawas launched 
 their canoes and departed, while, immediately after, 
 
332 MICHILLIMACKINAC. [1763. 
 
 the boats of the English detachment were seen 
 to approach the landing-place. Michillimackinac 
 received a strong garrison ; and for a time, at least, 
 the traders were safe. 
 
 Time passed on, and the hostile feelings of the 
 Indians towards the English did not diminish. It 
 necessarily follows, from the extremely loose char- 
 acter of Indian government, — if indeed the name 
 government be applicable at all, — that the sepa- 
 rate members of the same tribe have little political 
 connection, and are often united merely by the 
 social tie of totemship. Thus the Ottawas at 
 LWrbre Croche were quite independent of those 
 at Detroit. They had a chief of their own, who by 
 no means acknowledged the authority of Pontiac, 
 though the high reputation of this great warrior 
 everywhere attached respect and influence to his 
 name. The same relations subsisted between the 
 Ojibwas of Michillimackinac and their more south- 
 ern tribesmen ; and the latter might declare war 
 and make peace without at all involving the former. 
 
 The name of the Ottawa chief at L'Arbre Croche 
 has not survived in history or tradition. The chief 
 of the Ojibwas, however, is still remembered by the 
 remnants of his people, and was the same whom 
 Henry calls Minavavana, or, as the Canadians 
 entitled him, by way of distinction, Le Grand 
 SaiUeur, or the Great Ojibwa. He lived in the 
 little village of Thunder Bay, though his power 
 was acknowledged b) the Indians of the neighbor- 
 ing islands. That his mind was of no common 
 order is suificiently evinced by his speech to Henry ; 
 
1763.] PONTIAC INVITES AID. >333 
 
 but he had not the commanding spirit of Pontiac. 
 His influence seems not to have extended beyond 
 his own tribe. He could not, or at least he did not, 
 control the erratic forces of an Indian community, 
 and turn them into one broad current of steady and 
 united energy. Hence,. in the events about to be 
 described, the natural instability of the Indian 
 character was abundantly displayed. 
 
 In the spring of the year 1763, Pontiac, in com- 
 passing his grand scheme of hostility, sent, among 
 the rest, to the Indians of Michillimackinac, invit- 
 ing them to aid him in the war. His messengers, 
 bearing in their hands the war-belt of black and 
 purple w^ampum, appeared before the assembled 
 warriors, flung at their feet a hatchet painted red, 
 and delivered the speech with which they had been 
 charged. The w^arlike auditory answered with 
 ejaculations of applause, and, taking up the blood- 
 red hatchet, pledged themselves to join in the con- 
 test. Before the end of May, news reached the 
 Ojibwas that Pontiac had already struck the Eng- 
 lish at Detroit. This wrought them up to a high 
 pitch of excitement and emulation, and they 
 resolved that peace should last no longer. Their 
 numbers were at this time more than doubled by 
 several bands of their wandering people, who had 
 gathered at Michillimackinac from far and near, 
 attracted probably by rumors of impending war. 
 Being, perhaps, jealous of the Ottawas, or willing 
 to gain all the glory and plunder to themselves, 
 they determined to attack the fort, without com- 
 municating the design to their neighbors of L'Arbre 
 Croche. 
 
334 MICHILLIMACKINAC. [1763. 
 
 At this time there were about thirty-five men, 
 with their officers, in garrison at Michillimackinac.^ 
 Warning of the tempest that impended had been 
 clearly given ; enough, had it been heeded, to have 
 averted the fatal disaster. Several of the Cana- 
 dians least hostile to the English had thrown out 
 hints of approaching danger, and one of them had 
 even told Captain Etherington, the commandant, 
 that the Indians had formed a design to destroy, not 
 only his garrison, but all the English on the lakes. 
 With a folly, of which, at this period, there were 
 several parallel instances among the British officers 
 in America, Etherington not only turned a deaf ear 
 to what he heard, but threatened to send prisoner 
 to Detroit the next person who should disturb the 
 fort with such tidings. Henry, the trader, who 
 was at this time in the place, had also seen occa- 
 sion to distrust the Indians ; but on communicat- 
 ing his suspicions to the commandant, the latter 
 treated them with total disregard. Henry accuses 
 himself of sharing this officer's infatuation. That 
 his person was in danger, had been plainly inti- 
 mated to him, under the following curious circum- 
 stances : — 
 
 An Ojibwa chief, named Wawatam, had con- 
 ceived for him one of those friendly attachments 
 which often form so pleasing a feature in the In- 
 dian character. It was about a year since Henry 
 had first met with this man. One morning, Wa- 
 
 i This appears from the letters of Captain Etherington. Henry states 
 the number at ninety. It is not unhkely that he meant to include all the 
 inhabitants of the fort, both soldiers and Canadians, in his enumeration. 
 
1763, June.] WARNINGS OF DANGER. 335 
 
 watam had entered his house, and placing before 
 him, on the ground, a large present of furs and 
 dried meat, delivered a speech to the following 
 effect: Early in life, he said, he had withdrawn, 
 after the ancient usage of his people, to fast and 
 pray in solitude, that he might propitiate the Great 
 Spirit, and learn the future career marked out for 
 him. In the course of his dreauis and visions on 
 this occasion, it was revealed to him that, in after 
 years, he should meet a white man, who should be 
 to him a friend and brother. No sooner had he 
 seen Henry, than the irrepressible conviction rose 
 up within him, that he was the man whom the 
 Great Spirit had indicated, and that the dream was 
 now fulfilled. Henry replied to the speech with 
 suitable acknowledgments of gratitude, made a 
 present in his turn, smoked a pipe with Wawatam, 
 and, as the latter soon after left the fort, speedily 
 forgot his Indian friend and brother altogether. 
 Many months had elapsed since the occurrence of 
 this very characteristic incident, when, on the 
 second of June, Henry's door was pushed open 
 without ceremony, and the dark figure of Wawa- 
 tam glided silently in. He said that he was just 
 returned from his wintering ground. Henry, at 
 length recollecting him, inquired after the success 
 of his hunt; but the Indian, without replying, sat 
 down with a dejected air, and expressed his sur- 
 prise and regret at finding his brother still in the 
 fort. He said that he was going on the next day 
 to the Sault Ste. Marie, and that he wished Henry 
 to go with him. He then asked if the English had 
 
336 MICHILLIMACKINAC. [1763, June. 
 
 heard no bad news, and said that through the 
 winter he himself had been much disturbed by the 
 singing of evil birds. Seeing that Henry gave 
 little attention to what he said, he at length went 
 away with a sad and mournful face. On the next 
 morning he came again, together with his squaw, 
 and, offering the trader a present of dried meat, 
 again pressed him to go with him, in the afternoon, 
 to the Sault Ste. Marie. When Henry demanded 
 his reason for such urgency, he asked if his brother 
 did not know that many bad Indians, who had 
 never shown themselves at the fort, were encamped 
 in the woods around it. To-morrow, he said, they 
 are coming to ask for whiskey, and would all get 
 drunk, so that it would be dangerous to remain. 
 Wawatam let fall, in addition, various other hints, 
 which, but for Henry's imperfect knowledge of the 
 Algonquin language, could hardly have failed to 
 draw his attention. As it was, however, his friend's 
 words were spoken in vain ; and at length, after 
 long and persevering efforts, he and his squaw 
 took their departure, but not, as Henry declares, 
 before each had let fall some tears. Among the 
 Indian women, the practice of weeping and wailing 
 is universal upon all occasions of sorrowful emo- 
 tion ; and the kind-hearted squaw, as she took 
 down her husband's lodge, and loaded his canoe 
 for departure, did not cease to sob and moan aloud. 
 On this same afternoon, Henry remembers that 
 the fort was full of Indians, moving about among 
 the soldiers with a great appearance of friendship. 
 Many of them came to his house, to purchase 
 
1763, June.] EVE OF THE MASSACRE. 337 
 
 knives and small hatchets, often asking to see silver 
 bracelets, and other ornaments, with the intention, 
 as afterwards appeared, of learning their places of 
 deposit, in order the more easily to lay hand on 
 them at the moment of pillage. As the afternoon 
 drew to a close, the visitors quietly went away ; 
 and many of the unhappy garrison saw for the last 
 time the sun go down behind the waters of Lake 
 Michigan. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 1763. 
 THE MASSACRE. 
 
 The following morning was warm and sultry. It 
 was the fourth of June, the birthday of King 
 George. The discipline of the garrison was re- 
 laxed, and some license allowed to the soldiers.* 
 Encamped in the woods, not far off, were a large 
 number of Ojibwas, lately arrived ; while several 
 bands of the Sac Indians, from the River Wiscon- 
 sin, had also erected their lodges in the vicinity. 
 Early in the morning, many Ojibwas came to the 
 fort, inviting officers and soldiers to come out and 
 see a grand game of ball, which was to be played 
 between their nation and the Sacs. In consequence, 
 the place was soon deserted by half its tenants. 
 An outline of Michillimackinac, as far as tradition 
 has preserved its general features, has already been 
 given ; and it is easy to conceive, with sufficient 
 accuracy, the appearance it must have presented 
 on this eventful morning. The houses and bar- 
 racks were so ranged as to form a quadrangle, en- 
 closing an extensive area, upon which their doors 
 
 1 The above is Henry's date. Etherington says, the second. 
 
1763, June.] INDIAN BALL PLAY. 339 
 
 all opened, while behind rose the tall palisades, 
 forming a large external square. The picturesque 
 Canadian houses, with their rude porticoes, and 
 projecting roofs of bark, sufficiently indicated the 
 occupations of their inhabitants ; for birch canoes 
 were lying near many of them, and fishing-nets 
 were stretched to dry in the sun. Women and 
 children were moving about the doors ; knots of 
 Canadian voyageurs reclined on the ground, smok- 
 ing and conversing ; soldiers were lounging list- 
 lessly at the doors and windows of the barracks, 
 or strolling in careless undress about the area. 
 
 Without the fort the scene was of a very diifer- 
 ent character. The gates were wide open, and 
 soldiers were collected in groups under the shadow 
 of the palisades, watching the Indian ball play. 
 Most of them were without arms, and mingled 
 among them were a great number of Canadians, 
 while a multitude of Indian squaws, wrapped in 
 blankets, were conspicuous in the crowd. 
 
 Captain Etherington and Lieutenant Leslie stood 
 near the gate, the former indulging his inveterate 
 English propensity ; for, as Henry informs us, he 
 had promised the Ojibwas that he would bet on 
 their side against the Sacs. Indian chiefs and war- 
 riors were also among the spectators, intent, appar- 
 ently, oil watching the game, but with thoughts, 
 in fact, far otherwise employed. 
 
 The plain in front was covered by the ball- 
 players. The game in which they were engaged, 
 called haggaUaway by the Ojibwas, is still, as it 
 always has been, a favorite with many Indian 
 
340 THE MASSACRE. [1763, June. 
 
 tribes. At either extremity of the ground, a tall 
 post was planted, marking the stations of the rival 
 parties. The object of each was to defend its own 
 post, and drive the ball to that of its adversary. 
 Hundreds of lithe and agile figures were leaping 
 and bounding upon the plain. Each was nearly 
 naked, his loose black hau' flying in the wind, and 
 each bore in his hand a bat of a form peculiar to 
 this game. At one moment the whole were crowded 
 together, a dense throng of combatants, all strug- 
 gling for the ball ; at the next, they were scattered 
 again, and running over the ground like hounds 
 in full cry. Each, in his excitement, yelled and 
 shouted at the height of his voice. Rushing and 
 striking, tripping their adversaries, or hurling them 
 to the ground, they pursued the animating contest 
 amid the laughter and applause of the spectators. 
 Suddenly, from the midst of the multitude, the ball 
 soared into the air, and, descending in a wide 
 curve, fell near the pickets of the fort. This was 
 no chance stroke. It was part of a preconcerted 
 stratagem to insure the surprise and destruction of 
 the garrison. As if in pursuit of the ball, the 
 players turned and came rushing, a maddened and 
 tumultuous throng, towards the gate. In* a moment 
 they had reached it. The amazed English had no 
 time to think or act. The shrill cries of the ball- 
 players were changed to the ferocious war-whoop. 
 The warriors snatched from the squaws the hatch- 
 ets, which the latter, with this design, had concealed 
 beneath their blankets. Some of the Indians as- 
 sailed the spectators without, while others rushed 
 
1763, June.] ESCAPE OF ALEXANDER HENRY. 341 
 
 into the fort, and all was carnage and confusion. 
 At the outset, several strong hands had fastened 
 their gripe upon Etherington and Leslie, and led 
 them away from the scene of massacre towards the 
 woods. ^ Within the area of the fort, the men were 
 slaughtered without mercy. But here the task of 
 description may well be resigned to the pen of the 
 trader, Henry. 
 
 " I did not go myself to see the match which was 
 now to be played without the fort, because, there 
 being a canoe prepared to depart on the following 
 day for Montreal, 1 employed myself in writing 
 letters to my friends ; and even when a fellow- 
 trader, Mr. Tracy, happened to call upon me, say- 
 ing that another canoe had just arrived from 
 Detroit, and proposing that I should go with him 
 to the beach, to inquire the news, it so happened 
 that I still remained to finish my letters ; promising 
 to follow Mr. Tracy in the course of a few minutes. 
 Mr. Tracy had not gone more than twenty paces 
 from my door, when I heard an Indian war-cry, 
 and a noise of general confusion. 
 
 " Going instantly to my window^, I saw a crowd 
 of Indians, within the fort, furiously cutting down 
 and scalping every Englishman they found : in 
 particular, I witnessed the fate of Lieutenant 
 Jamette. 
 
 " I had, in the room in which I was, a fowling- 
 piece, loaded with swan shot. This I immediately 
 seized, and held it for a few minutes, waiting 
 to hear the drum beat to arms. In this dreadful 
 
 1 MS. Letter — Etherington to Gladwyn, June 12. See Appendix, C. 
 
342 THE MASSACRE. [1763, June. 
 
 interval I saw several of my countrymen fall, and 
 more than one struggling between the knees of an 
 Indian, who, holding him in this manner, scalped 
 him while yet living. 
 
 " At length, disappointed in the hope of seeing 
 resistance made to the enemy, and sensible, of 
 course, that no effort of my own unassisted arm 
 could avail against four hundred Indians, I thought 
 only of seeking shelter amid the slaughter which 
 was raging. I observed many of the Canadian 
 inhabitants of the fort calmly looking on, neither 
 opposing the Indians nor suffering injury ; and 
 from this circumstance, I conceived a hope of find- 
 ing security in their houses. 
 
 " Between the yard door of my own house and 
 that of M. Langlade,^ my next neighbor, there was 
 only a low fence, over which I easily climbed. At 
 my entrance, I found the whole family at the win- 
 dows, gazing at the scene of blood before them. 
 I addressed myself immediately to M. Langlade, 
 begging that he would put me into some place of 
 safety until the heat of the affair should be over ; 
 an act of charity by which he might, perhaps, pre- 
 serve me from the general massacre ; but while I 
 uttered my petition, M. Langlade, who had looked 
 for a moment at me, turned again to the window, 
 
 1 Charles Langlade, who is praised by Etherington, though spoken 
 of in equivocal terms by Henry, was the son of a Frenchman of good 
 family and an Ottawa squaw. He was born at Mackinaw in 1724, and 
 served with great reputation as a partisan officer in the old French war. 
 He and his father, Augustin Langlade, were the first permanent settlers 
 within the present State of Wisconsin. He is said to have saved Ether- 
 ington and Leslie from the torture. See the Recollections ofAngiistin Grig- 
 nan, his grandson, in Collections of the Hist. Soc. of Wisconsin, III. 197. 
 
1763, June.] ESCAPE OF ALEXANDER HENRY. 343 
 
 shriio^oriiio^ his shoulders, and intimating that he 
 could do nothing for me — ' Que voudriez-vous 
 que fen ferais ? ' 
 
 " This was a moment for despair ; but the next a 
 Pani^ woman, a slave of M. Langlade's, beckoned 
 me to follow her. vShe brought me to a door, 
 which she opened, desiring me to enter, and telling 
 me that it led to the garret, where I must go and 
 conceal myself. I joyfully obeyed her directions ; 
 and she, having followed me up to the garret door, 
 locked it after me, and, with great presence of 
 mind, took away the key. 
 
 " This shelter obtained, if shelter I could hope 
 to find it, I was naturally anxious to know what 
 might still be passing without. Through an aper- 
 ture, which afforded me a view of the area of the 
 fort, I beheld, in shapes the foulest and most ter- 
 rible, the ferocious triumphs of barbarian conquer- 
 ors. The dead were scalped and mangled ; the 
 dying were writhing and shrieking under the unsa- 
 tiated knife and tomahawk ; and from the bodies 
 of some, ripped open, their butchers were drinking 
 the blood, scooped up in the hollow of joined hands, 
 and quaffed amid shouts of rage and victory. I 
 was shaken not only with horror, but with fear. 
 The sufferings which I witnessed I seemed on the 
 point of experiencing. No long time elapsed before 
 
 1 This name is commonly written Pawnee. The tribe who bore it lived 
 west of the Mississippi. They were at war with many surrounding 
 nations, and, among the rest, with the Sacs and Foxes, who often brought 
 their prisoners to the French settlements for sale. It thus happened that 
 Pawnee slaves were to be found in the principal families of Detroit and 
 Michillimackinac. 
 
344 THE MASSACRE. [1763, June. 
 
 every one being destroyed who could be found, 
 there was a general cry of ' All is finished.' At 
 the same instant I heard some of the Indians enter 
 the house where I was. 
 
 " The garret was separated from the room below 
 only by a layer of single boards, at once the floor- 
 ing of the one and the ceiling of the other. I 
 could, therefore, hear every thing that passed ; and 
 the Indians no sooner came in than they inquired 
 whether or not any Englishmen were in the house. 
 M. Langlade replied, that 'he could not say, he 
 did not know of any,' answers in which he did not 
 exceed the truth ; for the Pani v^oman had not 
 only hidden me by stealth, but kept my secret and 
 her own. M. Langlade was, therefore, as I pre- 
 sume, as far from a wish to destroy me as he was 
 careless about saving me, when he added to these 
 answers, that ' they might examine for themselves, 
 and would soon be satisfied as to the object of their 
 question.' Saying this, he brought them to the 
 garret door. 
 
 " The state of my mind will be imagined. Ar- 
 rived at the door, some delay Avas occasioned by 
 the absence of the key ; and a few moments were 
 thus allowed me, in which to look around for a 
 hiding-place. In one corner of the garret was a 
 heap of those vessels of birch bark used in maple- 
 sugar making. 
 
 " The door was unlocked and opening, and the 
 Indians ascending the stairs, before I had com- 
 pletely crept into a small opening which presented 
 itself at one end of the heap. An instant after, 
 
1763, JuNE.J ESCAPE OF ALEXANDER HENRY. 345 
 
 four Indians entered the room, all armed with 
 tomahawks, and all besmeared with blood, upon 
 every part of their bodies. 
 
 " The die appeared to be cast. I could scarcely 
 breathe ; but I thought the throbbing of my heart 
 occasioned a noise loud enough to betray me. The 
 Indians walked in every direction about the garret ; 
 and one of them approached me so closely, that, at 
 a particular moment had he put forth his hand, he 
 must have touched me. Still I remained undiscov- 
 ered ; a circumstance to which the dark color of 
 my clothes, and the want of light, in a room which 
 had no window in the corner in which I was, must 
 have contributed. In a word, after taking several 
 turns in the room, during which they told M. Lang- 
 lade how many they had killed, and how many 
 scalps they had taken, they returned downstairs ; 
 and I, with sensations not to be expressed, heard 
 the door, which was the barrier between me and 
 my fate, locked for the second time. 
 
 " There was a feather bed on the floor ; and on 
 this, exhausted as I was by the • agitation of my 
 mind, I threw myself down and fell asleep. In 
 this state I remained till the dusk of the evening, 
 w^hen I was awakened by a second opening of the 
 door. The person that now entered was M. Lang- 
 lade's wife, who was much surprised at finding me, 
 but advised me not to be uneasy, observing that the 
 Indians had killed most of the English, but that 
 she hoped I might myself escape. A shower of 
 rain having begun to fall, she had come to stop a 
 hole in the roof. On her going away, I begged 
 
346 THE MASSACRE. [1763, June. 
 
 her to send me a little water to drink, which she 
 did. 
 
 " As night was now advancing, I continued to 
 lie on the bed, ruminating on my condition, but 
 unable to discover a resource from which I could 
 hope for life. A flight to Detroit had no probable 
 chance of success. The distance from Michilli- 
 mackinac was four hundred miles ; I was without 
 provisions, and the whole length of the road lay 
 through Indian countries, countries of an enemy 
 in arms, where the first man whom I should meet 
 would kill me. To stay where I was, threatened 
 nearly the same issue. As before, fatigue of mind, 
 and not tranquillity, suspended my cares, and pro- 
 cured me farther sleep. 
 
 " The respite which sleep afforded me during 
 the night was put an end to by the return of morn- 
 ing. 1 was again on the rack of apprehension. 
 At sunrise, I heard the family stirring ; and, pres- 
 ently after, Indian voices, informing M. Langlade 
 that they had not found my hapless self among 
 the dead, and they supposed me to be somewhere 
 concealed. M. Langlade appeared, from what 
 followed, to be, by this time, acquainted with the 
 place of my retreat ; of which, no doubt, he had 
 been informed by his wife. The poor w^oman, as 
 soon as the Lidians mentioned me, declared to her 
 husband, in the French tongue, that he should no 
 longer keep me in his house, but deliver me up 
 to my pursuers ; giving as a reason for this meas- 
 ure, that, should the Indians discover his instru- 
 mentality in my concealment, they might revenge 
 
1763, June.] ESCAPE OF ALEXANDER IIENEY. 347 
 
 it on her children, and that it was better that I 
 should die than they. M. Langlade resisted, at 
 first, this sentence of his wife, but soon suffered 
 her to prevail, informing the Indians that he had 
 been told I was in his house ; that I had come 
 there without his knowledge, and that he would 
 put me into their hands. This was no soonei 
 expressed than he began to ascend the stairs, the 
 Indians following upon his heels. 
 
 " I now resigned myself to the fate with which 
 I was menaced ; and, regarding every effort at 
 concealment as vain, I rose from the bed, and 
 presented myself full in view to the Indians, who 
 were entering the room. They were all in a state 
 of intoxication, and entirely naked, except about 
 the middle. One of them, named Wenniway, 
 whom I had previously known, and who was 
 upwards of six feet in height, had his entire face 
 and body covered with charcoal and grease, only 
 that a white spot, of two inches in diameter, encir- 
 cled either eye. This man, walking up to me, 
 seized me, with one hand, by the collar of the coat, 
 while in the other he held a large carving-knife, as 
 if to plunge it into my breast ; his eyes, meanwhile, 
 were fixed steadfastly on mine. At length, after 
 some seconds of the most anxious suspense, he 
 dropped his arm, saying, ' I won't kill you ! ' To 
 this he added, that he had been frequently engaged 
 in wars against the English, and had brought away 
 many scalps ; that, on a certain occasion, he had 
 lost a brother, whose name was Musinigon, and that 
 I should be called after him. 
 
348 THE MASSACRE. [1763, June. 
 
 " A reprieve, upon any terms, placed me among 
 the living, and gave me back the sustaining voice 
 of hope ; but Wenniway ordered me downstairs, 
 and there informing me that I was to be taken to 
 his cabin, where, and indeed everywhere else, the 
 Indians were all mad with liquor, death again was 
 threatened, and not as possible only, but as certain. 
 I mentioned my fears on this subject to M. Langlade, 
 begging him to represent the danger to my master. 
 M. Langlade, in this instance, did not withhold his 
 compassion ; and Wenniway immediately consented 
 that I should remain where I was, until he found 
 another opportunity to take me away." 
 
 Scarcely, however, had he been gone an hour, 
 when an Indian came to the house, and directed 
 Henry to follow him to the Ojibwa camp. Henry 
 knew this man, who was largely in his debt, and 
 some time before, on the trader's asking him for 
 payment, the Indian had declared, in a significant 
 tone, that he would pay him soon. There seemed 
 at present good ground to suspect his intention ; 
 but, having no choice, Henry was obliged to follow 
 him. The Indian led the way out of the gate ; 
 but, instead of going towards the camp, he moved 
 with a quick step in the direction of the bushes 
 and sand-hills behind the fort. At this, Henry's 
 suspicions were confirmed. He refused to proceed 
 farther, and plainly told his conductor that he 
 believed he meant to kill him. The Indian coolly 
 replied that he was quite right in thinking so, and 
 at the same time, seizing the prisoner by the arm, 
 raised his knife to strike him in the breast. Henry 
 
17G3, JcNE.] ADVENTURES OF HENRY. 349 
 
 parried the blow, flung the Indian from him, 
 and ran for his hfe. He gained the gate of the 
 fort, his enemy close at his heels, and, seeing Wen- 
 niway standing in the centre of the area, called 
 upon him for protection. The chief ordered the 
 Indian to desist ; but the latter, who was foaming 
 at the mouth with rage, still continued to pursue 
 Henry, vainly striking at him with his knife. See- 
 ing the door of Langlade's house wide open, the 
 trader darted in, and at length found himself in 
 safety. He retired once more to his garret, and lay 
 down, feeling, as he declares, a sort of conviction 
 that no Indian had power to harm him. 
 
 This confidence was somewhat shaken when, 
 early in the night, he was startled from sleep by 
 the opening of the door. A light gleamed in upon 
 him, and he was summoned to descend. He did 
 so, when, to his surprise and joy, he found, in 
 the room below. Captain Etherington, Lieutenant 
 Leslie, and Mr. Bostwick, a trader, together with 
 Father Jonois, the Jesuit priest from L'Arbre 
 Croche. The Indians w^ere bent on enjoying that 
 night a grand debauch upon the liquor they had 
 seized ; and the chiefs, well knowing the extreme 
 danger to which the prisoners would be exposed 
 during these revels, had conveyed them all into the 
 fort, and placed them in charge of the Canadians. 
 
 Including officers, soldiers, and traders, they 
 amounted to about twenty men, being nearly all 
 who had escaped the massacre. 
 
 When Henry entered the room, he found his 
 three companions in misfortune engaged in anxious 
 
350 THE MASSACRE. [1763, June. 
 
 debate. These men had supped full of horrors ; 
 yet they were almost on the pomt of risking a 
 renewal of the bloodshed from which they had 
 just escaped. The temptation was a strong one. 
 The fort was this evening actually in the hands of 
 the white men. The Indians, with their ordinary 
 recklessness and improvidence, had neglected even 
 to place a guard within the palisades. They were 
 now, one and all, in their camp, mad with liquor, 
 and the fort was occupied by twenty Englishmen, 
 and about three hundred Canadians, principally 
 voyageurs. To close the gates, and set the Indians 
 at defiance, seemed no very difficult matter. It 
 might have been attempted, but for the dissuasions 
 of the Jesuit, who had acted throughout the part 
 of a true friend of humanity, and who now strongly 
 represented the probability that the Canadians would 
 prove treacherous, and the certainty that a failure 
 would involve destruction to every Englishman in 
 the place. The idea was therefore abandoned, 
 and Captain Etherington, with his companions, 
 that night shared Henry's garret, where they 
 passed the time in condoling with each other on 
 their common misfortune. 
 
 A party of Indians came to the house in the 
 morning, and ordered Henry to follow them out. 
 The weather had changed, and a cold storm had 
 set in. In the dreary and forlorn area of the fort 
 were a few of the Indian conquerors, though the 
 main body were still in their camp, not yet recov- 
 ered from the effects of their last night's carouse. 
 Henry's conductors led him to a house, where, in a 
 
1763, June.] INTERVENTION OF THE OTTAWAS. 351 
 
 rooQi almost dark, he saw two traders and a soldier 
 imprisoned. They were released, and directed to 
 follow the party. The whole then proceeded 
 together to the lake shore, where they were to 
 emhark for the Isles du Castor. A chilling wind 
 blew strongly from the north-east, and the lake 
 was covered with mists, and tossing angrily. Henry 
 stood shivering on the beach, with no other upper 
 garment than a shirt, drenched with the cold rain. 
 He asked Langlade, who was near him, for a 
 blanket, which the latter refused unless security 
 were given for payment. Another Canadian proved 
 more merciful, and Henry received a covering from 
 the weather. With his three companions, guarded 
 by seven Indians, he embarked in the canoe, the 
 soldier being tied by his neck to one of the cross- 
 bars of the vessel. The thick mists and the tem- 
 pestuous weather compelled them to coast the 
 shore, close beneath the wet dripping forests. In 
 this manner they had proceeded about eighteen 
 miles, and were approaching L'Arbre Croche, when 
 an Ottawa Indian came out of the woods, and called 
 to them from the beach, inquiring the news, and 
 asking who were their prisoners. Some conversa- 
 tion followed, in the course of which the canoe 
 approached the shore, where the water was very 
 shallow. All at once, a loud yell was heard, and a 
 hundred Ottawas, rising from among the trees and 
 bushes, rushed into the water, and seized upon the 
 canoe and prisoners. The astonished Ojibwaa 
 remonstrated in vain. The four Englishmen were 
 taken from them, and led in safety to the shore. 
 
352 THE MASSACRE. [1763, June. 
 
 Good will to the prisoners, however, had by no 
 means prompted the Ottawas to this very unex- 
 pected proceeding. They were jealous and angry 
 that the Ojibwas should have taken the fort with- 
 out giving them an opportunity to share in the 
 plunder ; and they now took this summary mode 
 of asserting their rights. 
 
 The chiefs, however, shook Henry and his com- 
 panions by the hand, professing great good will, 
 assuring them, at the same time, that the Ojibwas 
 were carrying them to the Isles du Castor merely 
 to kill and eat them. The four prisoners, the 
 sport of so many changing fortunes, soon found 
 themselves embarked in an Ottawa canoe, and on 
 their way back to Michillimackinac. They were 
 not alone. A flotilla of canoes accompanied them, 
 bearing a great number of Ottawa warriors ; and 
 before the day was over, the whole had arrived at 
 the fort. At this time, the principal Ojibwa 
 encampment was near the woods, in full sight 
 of the landing-place. Its occupants, astonished at 
 this singular movement on the part of their rivals, 
 stood looking on in silent amazement, while the 
 Ottawa warriors, well armed, filed into the fort, and 
 took possession of it. 
 
 This conduct is not difficult to explain, when we 
 take into consideration the peculiarities of the Indi- 
 an character. Pride and jealousy are always strong 
 and active elements in it. The Ottawas deemed 
 themselves insulted because the Ojibwas had under- 
 taken an enterprise of such importance without 
 consulting them, or asking their assistance. It may 
 
1763, June.] SPEECH OF MINAVAVANA. 353 
 
 be added, that the Indians of L'Arbre Croche were 
 somewhat less hostile to the English than the 
 neighboring tribes ; for the great influence of tlie 
 priest Jonois seems always to have been exerted 
 on the side of peace. 
 
 The English prisoners looked upon the new- 
 comers as champions and protectors, and conceived 
 hopes from their interference not destined to be 
 fully realized. On the morning after their arrival, 
 the Ojibw^a chiefs invited the principal men of the 
 Ottawas to hold a council with them, in a building 
 within the fort. They placed upon the floor a val- 
 uable present of goods, which were part of the 
 plunder they had taken ; and their great war-chief, 
 Minavavana, who had conducted the attack, rose 
 and addressed the Ottawas. 
 
 Their conduct, he said, had greatly surprised 
 him. They had betrayed the common cause, and 
 opposed the wdll of the Great Spirit, who had de- 
 creed that every Englishman must die. Excepting 
 them, all the Indians had raised the hatchet. Pon- 
 tiac had taken Detroit, and every other fort had 
 also been destroyed. The English were meeting 
 with destruction throughout the whole world, and 
 the King of France was awakened from his sleep. 
 He exhorted them, in conclusion, no longer to 
 espouse the cause of the English, but, like their 
 brethren, to lift the hatchet against them. 
 
 When Minavavana had concluded his speech, the 
 council adjourned until the next day ; a custom 
 common among Indians, in order that the auditors 
 may have time to ponder with due deliberation 
 
 23 
 
354 THE MASSACRE. [1763, June. 
 
 upon what they have heard. At the next meeting, 
 the Ottawas expressed a readiness to concur With 
 the views of the Ojibwas. Thus the difference 
 between the two tribes was at length amicably ad- 
 justed. The Ottawas returned to the Ojibwas some 
 of the prisoners whom they had taken from them ; 
 still, however, retaining the officers and several of 
 the soldiers. These they soon after carried to 
 L'Arbre Croche, where they were treated with 
 kindness, probably owing to the influence of Fa- 
 ther Jonois.^ The priest went down to Detroit 
 with a letter from Captain Etherington, acquaint- 
 ing Major Gladwyn with the loss of MichilUmack- 
 inac, and entreating that a force might be sent 
 immediately to his aid. The letter, as we have 
 seen, was safely delivered ; but Gladwyn was, of 
 course, unable to render the required assistance. 
 
 Though the Ottawas and Ojibwas had come to 
 terms, they still looked on each other with distrust, 
 and it is said that the former never forgot the 
 slight that had been put upon them. The Ojibwas 
 took the prisoners who had been returned to them 
 from the fort, and carried them to one of their 
 small villages, which stood near the shore, at no 
 great distance to the south-east. Among the other 
 lodges was a large one, of the kind often seen in 
 Indian villages, erected for use on public occasions, 
 such as dances, feasts, or councils. It was now 
 to serve as a prison. The soldiers were bound 
 together, two and two, and farther secured by long 
 ropes tied round their necks, and fastened to the 
 pole which supported the lodge in the centre. 
 
 1 MS. Letter — Etherington to Gladwyn, June 28. 
 
1763, June.] SPEECH OF WAWATAM. 355 
 
 Henry and the other traders escaped this ngorous 
 treatment. The spacious lodge was soon filled 
 with Indians, who came to look at their captives, 
 and gratify themselves by deriding and jeering at 
 them. At the head of the lodge sat the great war- 
 chief Minavavana, side by side with Henry's master, 
 Wenniway. Things had remained for some time 
 in this position, when Henry observed an Indian 
 stooping to enter at the low aperture which served 
 for a door, and, to his great joy, recognized his 
 friend and brother, Wawatam, whom he had last 
 seen on the day before the massacre. Wawatam 
 said nothing ; but, as he passed the trader, he 
 shook him by the hand, m token of encouragement, 
 and, proceeding to the head of the lodge, sat down 
 with Wenniway and the war-chief iVfter he had 
 smoked with them for a while in silence, he rose 
 and went out again. Very soon he came back, 
 followed by his squaw, who brought in her hands 
 a valuable present, which she laid at the feet of 
 the two chiefs. Wawatam then addressed them 
 in the following speech : — 
 
 '' Friends and relations, what is it that I shall 
 say? You know what I feel. You all have 
 friends, and brothers, and children, whom as your- 
 selves you love ; and you, — what would you ex- 
 perience, did you, like me, behold your dearest 
 friend — your brother — in the condition of a slave ; 
 a slave, exposed every moment to insult, and to 
 menaces of death 1 This case, as you all know, is 
 mine. See there, [pointing to Henry,] my friend 
 and brother among slaves, — himself a slave ! 
 
356 THE MASSACRE. [1763, June. 
 
 " You all well know that, long before the war 
 •began, I adopted him as my brother. From that 
 moment he became one of my family, so that no 
 change of circumstances could break the cord 
 which fastened us together. 
 
 " He is my brother ; and because I am your 
 relation, he is therefore your relation too ; and 
 how, being your relation, can he be your slave 1 
 
 " On the day on which the war began, you were 
 fearful lest, on this very account, I should reveal 
 your secret. You requested, therefore, that I would 
 leave the fort, and even cross the lake. I did so ; 
 but I did it with reluctance. I did it with reluc- 
 tance, notwithstanding that you, Minavavana, who 
 had the command in this enterprise, gave me your 
 promise that you would protect my friend, deliver- 
 ing him from all danger, and giving him safely to 
 me. 
 
 " The performance of this promise I now claim. 
 I come not with empty hands to ask it. You, Min- 
 avavana, best know whether or not, as it respects 
 yourself, you have kept your word ; but I bring 
 these goods to buy off every claim which any man 
 among you all may have on my brother as his 
 prisoner." ^ 
 
 To this speech the war-chief returned a favor- 
 able answer. Wawatam's request was acceded to, 
 
 1 Henry, Travels, 102. The authenticity of this very interesting book 
 has never been questioned. Henry was living at Montreal as late as the 
 year 1809. In 1797 he, with others, claimed, in virtue of Indian grants, 
 a large tract of land west of the River Cuyalioga, in the present State of 
 Ohio. A letter from him is extant, dated in April of that year, in which 
 he oifers this land to the Connecticut Land Company, at one-sixth of a 
 dollar an acre. 
 
1763, June.] CANNIBALISM. 357 
 
 the present was accepted, and the prisoner re- 
 leased. Henry soon fonnd himself in the lodge of 
 his friend, where furs were spread for him to lie 
 upon, food and drink brought for his refreshment, 
 and every thing done to promote his comfort that 
 Indian hospitality could suggest. As he lay in tlie 
 lodge, on the day after his release, he heard a loud 
 noise from within the prison-house, which stood close 
 at hand, and, looking through a crevice in the bark, 
 he saw the dead bodies of seven soldiers dragged 
 out. It appeared that a noted chief had just 
 arrived from his wintering ground. Having come 
 too late to take part in the grand achievement of 
 his countrymen, he was anxious to manifest to all 
 present his entire approval of what had been done, 
 and with this design he had entered the lodge and 
 despatched seven of the prisoners with his knife. 
 
 The Indians are not habitual cannibals. After 
 a victory, however, it often happens that the bodies 
 of their enemies are consumed at a formal war- 
 feast — a superstitious rite, adapted, as they think, 
 to increase their courage and hardihood. Such a 
 feast took place on the present occasion, and most 
 of the chiefs partook of it, though some of them, 
 at least, did so with repugnance. 
 
 About a week had now elapsed since the mas- 
 sacre, and a revulsion of feeling began to take 
 place among the Indians. Up to this time all had 
 been triumph and exultation ; but they now began 
 to fear the consequences of their conduct. In- 
 definite and absurd rumors of an approaching 
 attack from the English were afloat in the camp, 
 
358 THE MASSACRE. [1763, June. 
 
 and, in their growing uneasiness, they thought it 
 expedient to shift their position to some point 
 more capable of defence. Three hundred and 
 fifty warriors, with their families and household 
 effects, embarked in canoes for the Island of Mich- 
 ilHmackinac, seven or eight miles distant. Wa- 
 watam, with his friend Henry, was of the number. 
 Strong gusts of wind came from the north, and 
 when the fleet of canoes was half way to the Island, 
 it blew a gale, the waves pitching and tossing with 
 such violence, that the frail and heavy-laden vessels 
 were much endangered. Many voices were raised 
 in prayer to the Great Spirit, and a dog was thrown 
 into the lake, as a sacrifice to appease the angry 
 manitou of the waters. The canoes weathered the 
 storm, and soon drew near the island. Two squaws, 
 in the same canoe with Henry, raised their voices 
 in mournful wailing and lamentation. Late events 
 had made him sensible to every impression of hor- 
 ror, and these dismal cries seemed ominous of some 
 new disaster, until he learned that they were called 
 forth by the recollection of dead relatives, whose 
 graves were visible upon a neighboring point of the 
 shore. 
 
 The Island of Michillimackinac, or Mackinaw, 
 owing to its situation, its beauty, and the fish which 
 the surrounding water supplied, had long been a 
 favorite resort of Indians. It is about three miles 
 wide. So clear are the waters of Lake Huron, 
 which wash its shores, that one may count the peb- 
 bles at an incredible depth. The island is fenced 
 round by white limestone cliffs, beautifully contrast- 
 
1763, June.] MACKINAW ISLAND. 359 
 
 mg with the green foliage that half covers them, 
 and in the centre the land rises in woody heights. 
 The rock which forms its foundation assumes fan- 
 tastic shapes — natural bridges, caverns, or sharp 
 pinnacles, which at this day are pointed out as the 
 curiosities of the region. In many of the caves 
 have been found quantities of human bones, as if, 
 at some period, the island had served as a grand 
 depository for the dead ; yet of these remains the 
 present race of Indians can give no account. Le- 
 gends and superstitions attached a mysterious celeb- 
 rity to the place, and here, it was said, the fairies of 
 Indian tradition might often be seen dancing upon 
 the white rocks, or basking in the moonlight.^ 
 
 The Indians landed at the margin of a little bay. 
 Unlading their canoes, and lifting them high and 
 dry upon the beach, they began to erect their 
 lodges, and before night had completed the work. 
 
 1 Tradition, preserved by Henry Conner, See also Schoolcraft, Algic 
 Researches, II. 159. 
 
 " Their tradition concerning tlie name of this little island is curious. 
 They say that Michapous, the chief of spirits, sojourned long in that 
 vicinity. They believed that a mountain on the border of the lake was 
 the place of his abode, and they called it by his name. It was here, say 
 they, that he first instructed man to fabricate nets for taking fish, and 
 where he has collected the greatest quantity of these finny inhabitants of 
 the waters. On the island he left spirits, named Imakinakos ; and from 
 these aerial possessors it has received the appellation of Michillimakinac. 
 
 " When the savages, in those quarters, make a feast of fish, they 
 invoke the spirits of the island, thank them for their bounty, and entreat 
 them to continue their protection to their families. They demand of them 
 to preserve their nets and canoes from the sweUing and destructive bil- 
 lows, when the lakes are agitated by storms. All who assist in the cere- 
 mony lengthen their voices together, which is an act of gratitude. In 
 the observance of this duty of their religion, they were formerly very 
 punctual and scrupulous ; but the French rallied them so much upon the 
 subject, that they became ashamed to practise it openly." — Heriot, 
 Travels in Canada, 185. 
 
360 THE MASSACRE. [1763, June. 
 
 Messengers arrived on the next day from Pontiac, 
 informing them that he was besieging Detroit, 
 and nrging them to come to his aid. . But their 
 warlike ardor had well-nigh died out. A sense- 
 less alarm prevailed among them, and they now 
 thought more of securing their own safety than of 
 injuring the enemy. A vigilant watch was kept up 
 all day, and the unusual precaution taken of plac- 
 ing guards at night. Their fears, however, did 
 not prevent them from seizing two English trad- 
 ing canoes, which had come from Montreal by 
 way of the Ottawa. Among the booty found in 
 them was a quantity of whiskey, and a general 
 debauch was the immediate result. As night 
 closed in, the dolorous chanting of drunken songs 
 was heard from within the lodges, the prelude of a 
 scene of riot ; and Wawatam, knowing that his 
 friend Henry's life would be in danger, privately 
 led him out of the camp to a cavern in the hills, 
 towards the interior of the island. Here the trader 
 spent the night, in a solitude made doubly dreary 
 by a sense of his forlorn and perilous situation. 
 On waking in the morning, he found that he had 
 been lying on human bones, which covered the 
 floor of the cave. The place had anciently served 
 as a charnel-house. Here he spent another solitary 
 night, before his friend came to apprise him that 
 he might return with safety to the camp. 
 
 Famine soon began among the Indians, who 
 were sometimes without food for days together. 
 No complaints were heard ; but with faces black- 
 ened, in sign of sorrow, they patiently endured 
 
1763, June.] GREEN BAY. 361 
 
 the privation with that resignation under inevit- 
 able suffering, which distinguishes the whole In- 
 dian race. They were at length compelled to 
 cross over to the north shore of Lake Huron, 
 where fish were more abundant ; and here they 
 remained until the end of summer, when they 
 gradually dispersed, each family repairing to its 
 winter hunting-grounds. Henry, painted and at- 
 tired like an Indian, followed his friend Wawatam, 
 and spent a lonely winter among the frozen forests, 
 hunting the bear and moose for subsistence.^ 
 
 The posts of Green Bay and the Sault Ste. Marie 
 did not share the fate of Michillimackinac. During 
 the preceding winter, Ste. Marie had been partially 
 destroyed by an accidental fire, and was therefore 
 abandoned, the garrison withdrawing to Michilli- 
 mackinac, where many of them perished in the 
 
 1 The following description of ISIinavavana, or the Grand Sauteur, who 
 was the leader of the Ojibwas at the massacre of Michillimackinac, is 
 drawn from Carver's Travels : — 
 
 *• The first I accosted were Chipeways, inhabiting near the Ottowaw 
 lakes ; who received me with great cordiality, and shook me by the hand, 
 in token of friendship. , At some little distance behind these stood a chief 
 remarkably tail and well made, but of so stern an aspect that the most 
 undaunted person could not behold him without feeling some degree of 
 terror. He seemed to have passed the meridian of life, and by the mode 
 in which he was painted and tatowed, I discovered that he was of high 
 rank. However, I approaclied him in a courteous manner, and expected 
 to have met with the same reception I had done from the others ; but, to 
 my great surprise, he withheld his hand, and looking fiercely at me, said, 
 in the Chipeway tongue, ' Cawin nishishin soganosh,' that is, ' The English 
 are no good.' As he had his tomahawk in his hand, I expected that this 
 laconick sentence would have been followed by a blow ; to prevent which 
 I drew a pistol from my belt, and, holding it in a careless position, passed 
 close by him, to let him see I was not afraid of him. . . . Since I came 
 to England, I have been informed, that the Grand Sautor, having ren- 
 dered himself more and more disgustful to the English by his inveterate 
 enmity towards them, was at length stabbed in his tent, as he encamped 
 near Michillimackinac, by a trader.'' — Carver, 96. 
 
362 THE MASSACRE. [1763, June. 
 
 massacre. The fort at Green Bay first received an 
 English garrison in the year 1761, at the same time 
 with the other posts of this region. The force 
 consisted of seventeen men, of the 60th or Hoyal 
 American regiment, commanded by Lieutenant 
 Gorell. Though so few in number, their duties 
 were of a very important character. In the neigh- 
 borhood of Green Bay were numerous and power- 
 ful Indian tribes. The Menomonies lived at the 
 mouth of Fox River, close to the fort. The Win- 
 nebagoes had several villages on the lake which 
 bears their name, and the Sacs and Foxes were 
 established on the River Wisconsin, in a large vil- 
 lage composed of houses neatly built of logs and 
 bark, and surrounded by fields of corn and vegeta- 
 bles.^ West of the Mississippi was the powerful 
 nation of the Dahcotah, w^hose strength was loosely 
 estimated at thirty thousand fighting men, and 
 who, in the excess of their haughtiness, styled the 
 surrounding tribes their dogs and slaves.^ The 
 commandant of Green Bay was the representative 
 of the British government, in communication with 
 all these tribes. It devolved upon him to secure 
 their friendship, and keep them at peace ; and he 
 was also intrusted, in a great measure, with the 
 power of regulating the fur-trade among them. In 
 the course of each season, parties of Indians, from 
 every quarter, would come to the fort, each expect- 
 ing to be received with speeches and presents. 
 
 1 Carver, Travels, 47. 
 
 2 Gorell, Journal, MS. The original manuscript is preserved in the 
 library of the Maryland Historical Society, to which it was presented by 
 Robert Gilmor, Esq. 
 
1763, June.] TACT OF GORELL. 363 
 
 Gorell seems to have acquitted himself with great 
 judgment and prudence. On first arriving at the 
 fort, he had found its defences decayed and ruin- 
 ous, the Canadian inhabitants unfriendly, and many 
 of the Indians disposed to hostility. His good 
 conduct contributed to allay their irritation, and 
 he was particularly successful in conciliating his 
 immediate neighbors, the Menomonies. They had 
 taken an active part in the late war between France 
 and England, and their spirits were humbled by the 
 losses they had sustained, as well as by recent rav- 
 ages of the small-pox. Gorell summoned them to 
 a council, and delivered a speech, in which he 
 avoided wounding their pride, but at the same time 
 assumed a tone of firmness and decision, such as 
 can alone command an Indian's respect. He told 
 them that the King of England had heard of their 
 ill conduct, but that he was ready to forget all that 
 had passed. If, however, they should again give 
 him cause of complaint, he would send an army, 
 numerous as the trees of the forest, and utterly 
 destroy them. Flattering expressions of confidence 
 and esteem succeeded, and the whole was enforced 
 by the distribution of a few presents. The Meno- 
 monies replied by assurances of friendship, more 
 sincerely made and faithfully kept than could have 
 been expected. As Indians of the other tribes 
 came from time to time to the fort, they met with 
 a similar reception ; and, in his whole intercourse 
 with them, the constant aim of the commandant 
 was to gain their good will. The result was most 
 happy for himself and his garrison. 
 
364 THE MASSACRE. [1763, June. 
 
 On the fifteenth of June, 1763, an Ottawa Indian 
 brought to Gorell the following letter from Captain 
 Etherington : — 
 
 " Michillimackinac, June 11, 1763. 
 
 " Dear Sir : 
 
 " This place was taken by surprise, on the sec- 
 ond instant, by the Chippeways, [Ojibwas,] at which 
 time Lieutenant Jamet and twenty [fifteen] more 
 w^ere killed, and all the rest taken prisoners ; but 
 our good friends, the Ottawas, have taken Lieuten- 
 ant Lesley, me, and eleven men, out of their hands, 
 and have promised to reinstate us again. Youll 
 therefore, on the receipt of this, which I send by 
 a canoe of Ottawas, set out with all your garrison, 
 and Avhat English traders you have with you, and 
 come with the Indian who gives you this, who wall 
 conduct you safe to me. You must be sure to fol- 
 low the instruction you receive from the bearer of 
 this, as you are by no means to come to this post 
 before you see me at the village, twenty miles from 
 this. ... I must once more beg you'll lose no 
 time in coming to join me ; at the same time, be 
 very careful, and always be on your guard. I long 
 much to see you, and am, dear sir, 
 
 " Your most humble serv't. 
 
 " Geo. Etherington. 
 
 "J. Gorell, 
 " Royal Americans." 
 
 On receiving this letter, Gorell summoned the 
 Menomonies to a council, told them what the Ojib- 
 
1763, June.] GREEN BAY ABANDONED. 365 
 
 was had done, and said that he and his soldiers 
 were going to Michillimackinac to restore order ; 
 adding, that during his absence he commended the 
 fort to their care. Great numbers of the Winne- 
 bagoes and of the Sacs and Foxes afterwards 
 arrived, and Gorell addressed them in nearly the 
 same words. Presents were given them, and it 
 soon appeared that the greater part were well dis- 
 posed towards the English, though a few were 
 inclined to prevent their departure, and even to 
 threaten hostility. xVt this juncture, a fortunate 
 incident occurred. A Dahcotah chief arrived with 
 a message from his people to the following import : 
 They had heard, he said, of the bad conduct of the 
 Ojibwas. They hoped that the tribes of Green 
 Bay would not follow their example, but, on the 
 contrary, would protect the English garrison. Un- 
 less they did so, the Dahcotah would fall upon 
 them, and take ample revenge. This auspicious 
 interference must, no doubt, be ascribed to the 
 hatred with which the Dahcotah had long regarded 
 the Ojibwas. That the latter should espouse one 
 side of the quarrel, was abundant reason to the 
 Dahcotah for adopting the other. 
 
 Some of the Green Bay Indians were also at 
 enmity with the Ojibwas, and all opposition to the 
 departure of the English was now at an end. In- 
 deed, some of the more friendly offered to escort 
 the garrison on its way ; and on the twenty-first of 
 June, Gorell's party embarked in several bateaux, 
 accompanied by ninety warriors in canoes. Ap- 
 
366 THE MASSACRE. [1763, July. 
 
 proaching Isle du Castor, near the mouth of Green 
 Bay, an alarm was given that the Ojibwas were 
 lying there in ambush ; on which the Meno monies 
 raised the war-song, stripped themselves, and pre- 
 pared to do battle in behalf of the English. The 
 alarm, however, proved false ; and, having crossed 
 Lake Michigan in safety, the party arrived at the 
 village of L'Arbre Croche on the thirtieth. The 
 Ottawas came down to the beach, to salute them 
 with a discharge of guns ; and, on landing, they 
 were presented with the pipe of peace. Captain 
 Etherington and Lieutenant Leslie, with eleven 
 men, were in the village, detained as prisoners, 
 though treated with kindness. It was thought that 
 the Ottawas intended to disarm the party of Gorell 
 also ; but the latter gave out that he would resist 
 such an attempt, and his soldiers were permitted 
 to retain their weapons. 
 
 Several succeeding days were occupied by the 
 Indians in holding councils. Those from Green 
 Bay requested the Ottawas to set their prisoners 
 at liberty, and they at length assented. A diffi- 
 culty still remained, as the Ojibwas had declared 
 that they would prevent the English from passing 
 down to Montreal. Their chiefs were therefore 
 summoned ; and being at this time, as we have 
 seen, in a state of much alarm, they at length re- 
 luctantly yielded^ the point. On the eighteenth of 
 July, the English, escorted by a fleet of Indian 
 canoes, left L'Arbre Croche, and reaching, without 
 interruption, the portage of the River Ottawa, 
 
1763, Aug.] ARRIVAL AT MONTREAL. 367 
 
 descended to Montreal, where they all arrived in 
 safety, on the thirteenth of August.^ Except the 
 garrison of Detroit, not a British soldier now 
 remained in the region of the lakes. 
 
 1 Gorell, Journal, MS. 
 
 END OP VOL. I. 
 
Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine 
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