FRENCH DOMINION - 23 (RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) CHAPTER IV. FRENCH DOMINION. The French Dominion—La Salle —His Voyage up Lake Erie—The Griffin—French Operations in this Region—The French and English Wars--Extinction of French Power in America —Pontiac's League—The Conspiracy—The War—Peace Again Restored. FRANCE laid claim to the soil and right of possession of this country by discovery. The chief central figure in all operations of that sovereign power was Robert Cavalier de La Salle, a Frenchman of good family, then thirty-five years of age, and one of tile most gallant, devoted and adventurous of all the bold explorers who, under many, different banners, opened the new world to the knowledge of the old. This man arrived at the mouth of the Niagara in the month of January, 1679. He left his native Rouen at the age of twenty-two, and from that time forward he was employed in leading a life of adventure and exploration among the Indians of America. He held a commission from King Louis to discover the western part of New France, and in carrying out this work he first came to Lake Erie. He was authorized to build such forts as were necessary, but at his own expense, being granted certain privileges in return, the principal of which appears to have been the right to trade in furs and skins. During this same year, 1679, he sent Sieur de La 24 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY. Motte and Father Hennepin (the priest and historian of his expedition), in advance to the mouth of the Niagara. La Motte soon returned. At a point about six miles above the falls La Salle built the first vessel that navigated the waters of Lake Erie. It was named Le Griffon (The Griffin), in compliment to the Count de Frontenac, minister of the French colonies, whose coat of arms was ornamented with representations of that mythical beast. The Griffin was a diminutive vessel compared with the leviathans of the deep which now navigate these inland seas, but was a marvel in view of the difficulties under which it had been built. It was of sixty tons burthen, completely furnished with anchors and other equipments, armed with seven small cannon, and filled with thirty-four men, all Frenchmen with a single exception. In 1680 La Salle sailed the length of Lake Erie and into the chain of lakes beyond. Whether he touched Sandusky Bay does not appear, either by record or tradition. But his was a voyage of exploration and discovery, and it is more than possible that he did visit this locality.; and, in view of the subsequent French erections in this region, it may reasonably be inferred the intrepid commander delighted his eyes with the beautiful harbor of Sandusky Bay. To follow La Salle through all his voyages and journeyings is not within the province of this work. Suffice it to say, therefore, that the Griffin was lost in the eastern waters of the lake, while her brave commander fell a victim to the murderous assaults of his own men whom he had employed to serve him. For the next half century after the adventures of La Salle, the French maintained a general but not very substantial ascendency in this region. Their voyagers traded and their missionaries labored. Among the Huron-Wyandots, and other tribes of this region, they made friends and converts. The French sovereigns and ministers considered the whole lake region as being unquestionably a part of "New France" (or Canada). Their maps so described it, and they looked forward with entire assurance to the time when French troops and French colonists should hold undisputed possession of all this vast domain. During the latter years of the seventeenth century the French and English claimants (for the English claimed also by discovery and possession), became involved in a conflict, each endeavoring not only to maintain but to extend their possessions, in the eastern country, and scarcely had an adjustment of their difficulties been reached and the echoes of conflict died away than they again became involved in the long contest known as " Queen Anne's War." But, meanwhile, through all this western country the French extended their influence. Detroit was founded in t7o1, the most important, perhaps, of all the western posts and the key to the whole lake region. Other posts were established far and wide, but it was not until near the middle of the eighteenth. FRENCH DOMINION - 25 century that operations were commenced within the borders of Erie county, and the offensive and defensive measures were then adopted by the French and their firm allies, the Hurons, on account of the growing English settlement generally in the region. It has been stated that near the middle of the seventeenth century, which would be about 1650, some English traders made settlement and built a stockade on the site of the present village of Venice, Margaretta township ; and that for something like one hundred years were they in possession before being compelled to leave by the French. The same authority is also somewhat uncertain as to the exact location of Fort Junandat, but thinks tradition accurately locates it at Venice. Upon the authority of Evan's map of the Middle British Colonies the location of Fort Junandat is pen as the east bank of Sandusky River, near the bay, and that it was built in 1754. The war between England and France was begun in 1744 and closed by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748. None of its more stirring events were enacted in Erie county, save the incidents to which reference has already been made, and even they were auxiliary and of subsequent performance. During ese years the Huron-Wyandots remained firm in their allegiance to the French. During the eight years of nominal peace which succeeded the treaty, both the French and English made numerous efforts to extend their dominion beyond their frontier settlements, the former with the more success ; and it was questionably during these years, and those that followed, down to the outbreak of the struggle for American independence, that the more stirring scenes of warlike acts were performed in this county and vicinity. To their already established posts the French added many others, and endeavored to establish a complete line of defenses from the lakes to the Mississippi. Among these forts so constructed, although a position of minor importance, was that at the mouth of the Huron River, within the borders of Huron township ; and another on the shore of the bay near the site of Sandusky city. They were constructed in order to afford a protection to the French missionaries, traders and colonists who were living among the Huron-Wyandot Indians, should they become, at any time, in need of greater defenses than their own strength. These forts were abandoned prior to the Revolution. Frequent detachments of French troops and their Indian allies passed along the route. Gaily dressed French officers sped backward and forward, attended by the fierce warriors of their allied tribes, and not infrequently the Hurons. Dark-gowned Jesuits hastened to and fro, everywhere receiving the respect of the red men, even when their creed was rejected, and using all their art to magnify the power of both Rome and France. In 1754 open hostilities and violent acts were indulged in, but it was not until 1756 that war was again declared between England and-France, this. 26 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY. being their last great struggle for supremacy in the New World. At first the French were everywhere victorious. Braddock, almost at the gates of Fort Du Quesne, was slain, and his army cut in pieces by a force utterly contemptible in comparison with his own. Oswego fell. The French lines along the lakes and across the country were stronger than ever. But gradually the tide of war turned in favor of the British, and many of the Indian tribes wavered in their fidelity to the cause of France. Not so, however, with the Ohio Indians, who entertained only feelings of hatred for the English. They knew only the French, and were strongly attached to them—the Ottawas, the Wyandots and the Chippewas, the inhabitants of this region. The first visit these tribes received from the English was after the surrender of Vaudreuil, when Major Robert Rogers was sent to take charge of Detroit. He left Montreal in September, 1760. By way of Presque Isle he proceeded slowly up Lake Erie and reached Detroit on the 19th of November. He at once demanded the surrender of the post, but it was not until the 29th that Beleter, the commander, yielded, and this important point passed into possession of the British. While before Detroit Major Rogers was visited by the great Ottawa chief, Pontiac, and between them a friendship was at once formed: From Detroit, in December, 1760, Rogers proceeded to the Maumee, and thence across Ohio to Fort Pitt. His route lay "from Sandusky, where Sandusky city now is, crossed the Huron River, then called Bald Eagle Creek, to ' Mohickon John's Town,' upon what we know as Mohicon Creek, the northern branch of White Woman's River, and thence crossed to Beaver's Town, a Delaware town on the west side of the Maskongam Creek,' opposite a fine river,' which, from Hutchins's map, we presume was Sandy Creek." The reader will observe that the worthy historian places the fort on or near the site of Sandusky city. Evan's map of the Middle British Colonies locates it on the west of Sandusky River, and a third authority, referred to before in this chapter, gives it as near Venice. As to which may be correct is a question that, perhaps, cannot be satisfactorily settled at this day, but from the best information at hand it is thought that Venice was not the site of the fort, but that it was several miles distant therefrom. The years 1761 and 1762 proved disastrous to the French arms, and soon the struggle was over. the English Octavius had defeated the Gallic Antony. Forever destroyed was the hope of a French peasant inhabiting the plains of Erie county ; of baronial castles crowning the vine-clad heights of the islands .of the lake ; of a gay French city overlooking the placid waters of Sandusky Bay. The treaty of peace between England and France was ratified in February, 1763, and by that treaty Canada was ceded to the former power. Not- -withstanding the disappearance of the French soldiers, the western tribes still remembered them with affection, and were still disposed to wage war upon the English. The celebrated Pontiac united nearly all these tribes in a league FRENCH DOMINION - 27 against the red-coats, immediately after the advent of the latter, and, as no such confederation had been formed against the French, during all their long years of possession, this action of Pontiac must be assigned to some cause other than mere hatred of all civilized intruders. In truth, there appeared abundant 'tom for the belief that Pontiac was but carrying out the schemes devised by some of the more revengeful of the defeated Frenchmen. And but two short years before this league was formed, and while the war between the English and French was working hard against the latter and defeat seemed inevitable, this same chief of the Ottawas is credited with having said : " Englishmen although you have conquered the French, you have not yet conquered us. We ire not your slaves. These lakes, these woods, these mountains, were left to Is by our ancestors. They are our inheritance, and we will part with them toIone. Your nation supposes that we, like the white people, cannot live with.. out bread, and pork and beef. But you ought to know that He, the Great wit and Master of Life, has provided food for us upon these broad lakes and -these mountains." So powerful indeed was the Pontiac league that the old animosity existing ween some of the tribes and the Iroquois was, for the time, laid aside, and few of the Five Nations joined the great body. By-far the greater portion, wever, were of the Ottawa, Wyandot, Chippewa, Miami, Delaware and awnee tribes. All from this region were enlisted in league. In May, 1763, the league surprised nine out of twelve English posts, and massacred their garrisons. Detroit, Pittsburg and Niagara alone escaped surprise, and each successfully resisted a siege, in which branch of warfare, indeed, the Indians were almost certain to fail. In September of that year occurred the horrible massacre at Devil's Hole ; and following close upon that, in October, came the awful slaughter of the forces of Major Wilkins, who was moving to reinforce the garrison at Detroit. In the West, Pontiac kept up active though unavailing hostilities, and in the summer of 1764 the English commander-in-chief determined to send a force up the lakes, able to overcome all opposition. - Accordingly, General Bradstreet, an able officer, with twelve hundred British and Americans, accompanied by the indefatigable Sir William Johnson and a body of his faithful Iroquois warriors. The Senecas, the only tribe of the Iroquois nation that gave aid to the French, or to Pontiac, were met by Bradstreet and brought into submission. That commander then embarked on the lake and went to the relief of Detroit. He caused to be destroyed the Indian towns and crops through this locality and upon the Maumee, and drove the Indians from the country. Arriving at Detroit Bradstreet easily routed the forces of the now disheartened Pontiac, after which he returned to this county and proceeded up Sandusky Bay and River into the heart of the Wyandot country where he en- 28 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY. camped. Here he soon after made a peace treaty with the chiefs and sachems of the hostile tribes. So ended this struggle that has been known in history as Pontiac's War. Peace again was restored, not long, however, to be enjoyed by the already over-burdened American colonists before the whole country was thrown into a state of excitement growing out of the wrongs inflicted by the mother country, and which finally resulted in overthrow of British rule in America. Before entering upon a narrative of the events of our country succeeding Cresap's War, in order to be entirely just toward all writers, is given an account of the destruction of the Indian crops in this county, alleged to have taken place in 1763, but it must be said that the statement lacks verification by the standard authorities. It is as follows: " In June, following (1763), Captain Dalzell, on a coastwise voyage from Niagara to the relief of Detroit, with a force of two hundred and eighty men, stopped at Sandusky, burnt the fields of standing corn, and the Wyandot village at Castalia ; then marched his men northward, to Detroit, and relieved the garrison at that place." The expedition sent out by the commander-in-chief of the British forces to relieve Detroit, was placed under command of General Bradstreet, and its departure was made from Niagara. On their way the Wyandot village and crops were destroyed, and it is, of course, possible that their destruction may have been accomplished by a detachment from Bradstreet's troops under command of Captain Dalzell ; still no standard authority credits the latter with command of the expedition sent to relieve the post at Detroit.