CHAPTER IX. THE WAR FOR THE FUR TRADE. FORMERLY the great Northwest abounded in game and waterfowl. The small lakes and lesser water courses were full of beaver, otter and muskrats. In the forests were found the marten, the raccoon, and other fur bearing animals. The plains, partially submerged, and the rivers, whose current had a sluggish flow, the shallow lakes, producing annual crops of wild rice, of nature's own sowing, teemed with wild geese, duck and other aquatic fowl bursting in their very fatness. The turkey, in his glossy feathers, strutted the forests, some of them being of prodigious size, weighing thirty-six pounds. The shy deer and the lordly elk, crowned with outspreading horns, grazed upon the plain and in the open woods, while the solitary moose browsed upon the buds in the thick copsewood that gave him food and a hiding place as well. The fleet-footed antelope nibbled at the tender grasses on the prairies, or bounded away over the ridges to hide in the valleys beyond, from the approach of the stealthy wolf or wily Indian. The belts of timber along the water courses afforded lodgment for the bear, and were the trellises that supported the tangled wild grape-vines, the fruit of which, to this animal, was an article of food. The bear had for his neighbor the panther, the wild cat and the lynx, whose carnivorous appetites were appeased in the destruction of other animals. Immense herds of buffalo roamed over the extensive area bounded on the east by the Alleghanies and on the north by the lakes, embracing the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and the southern half of Michigan. Their trails checkered the prairies of Indiana and Illinois in every direction, the marks of which, deep worn in the turf, remained for many years after the disappearance of the animals that made them. Their numbers when the country was first known to Europeans were immense, and beyond computation. In 96 - HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. their migrations southward in the fall, and on their return from the blue grass regions of Kentucky in the spring, the Ohio River was obstructed for miles during the time occupied by the vast herds in crossing it. Indeed, the French called the buffalo the "Illinois ox," on account of their numbers found in "the country of the Illinois," using that expression in its wider sense, as explained on a preceding page. So great importance was attached to the supposed commercial value of the buffalo for its wool that when Mons. Iberville, in 1698, was engaged to undertake the colonization of Louisiana, the king instructed him to look after the buffalo wool as one of the most important of his duties; and Father Charlevoix, while traveling through " The Illinois," observed that he was surprised that the buffalo had been so long neglected. Among the favorite haunts of the buffalo were the marshes of the Upper Kankakee, the low lands about the lakes of northern Indiana, where the oozy soil furnished early as well as late pasturage, the briny earth upon the Au Glaize, and the Salt Licks upon the Wabash and Illinois rivers were tempting places of resort. From the summit of the high hill at Ouiatanon, overlooking the Wea plains to the east and the Grand Prairie to the west, as far as the eye could reach in either direction, the plains were seen covered with groups, grazing together, or, in long files, stretching away in the distance, their dark forms, contrasting with the green sward upon which they fed or strolled, and„ inspiring the enthusiasm of the Frenchman, who gave the description quoted on page 104. Still later, when passing through the prairies of Illinois, on his way from Vincennes to Ouiatanon—more a prisoner than an ambassador—George Croghan makes the following entry in his daily journal : " 18th and 19th of June, 1765. We traveled through a prodigious large meadow, called the Pyankeshaws' hunting ground. Here is no wood to be seen, and the country appears like an ocean. The ground is exceedingly rich and partially overgrown with wild hemp. The land is well watered and full of buffalo, deer, bears, and all kinds of wild game. 20th and 21st.—We passed through some very large meadows, part of which belonged to the Pyankeshaws on the Vermilion River. The country and soil were much the same as that we traveled over these three days past. Wild hemp grows here in abundance. The game is very plenty. At any time in a half hour we could kill as much as we wanted." Gen. Clark, in the postscript of his letter dated November, 1779, narrating his campaign in the Illinois country, says, concerning the prairies between Kaskaskia and Vincennes, that "there are large meadows extending beyond the reach of the eye, variegated with THE DESTRUCTION OF THE GAME - 97 groves of trees appearing like islands in the sea, covered with buffalos and other game. In many places, with a good glass, you may see all that are upon their feet in a half million acres." It is not known at what time the buffalo was last seen east of the Mississippi. The Indians had a tradition that the cold winter of 17—, called by them " the great cold," on account of its severity, destroyed them. " The snow was so deep, and lay upon the ground for such a length of time, that the buffalo become poor and too weak to resist the inclemency of the weather;" great numbers of them perished, singly and in groups, and their bones, either as isolated skeletons or in bleaching piles, remained and were found over the country for many years afterwards. Before the coming of the Europeans the Indians hunted the game for the purpose of supplying themselves with the necessary food and clothing. The scattered tribes (whose numbers early writers greatly exaggerated) were few when compared with the area of the country they occupied, and the wild animals were so abundant that enough to supply their wants could be captured near at hand with such rude weapons as their ingenuity fashioned out of wood and stone. With the Europeans came a change. The fur of many of the animals possessed a commercial value in the marts of Europe, where they were bought and used as ornaments and dress by the aristocracy, whose wealth and taste fashioned them into garments of extraordinary richness. Canada was originally settled with a view to the fur trade, and this trade was, to her people, of the first importance—the chief motor of her growth and prosperity. The Indians were supplied with guns, knives and hatchets by the Europeans, in place of their former inferior weapons. Thus encouraged and equipped, and accompanied by the coureurs des bois, the remotest regions were penetrated, and the fur trade extended to the most distant tribes. Stimulated with a desire for blankets, cotton goods and trinkets, the Indians now began a war upon the wild animals in earnest; and their wanton destruction for their skins and furs alone from that period forward was so enormous that within the next two or three generations the improvident Indians in many localities could scarcely find enough game for their own subsistence. The coureurs des bois were a class that had much to do with the development of trade and with giving a knowledge of the geography of the country. They became extremely useful to the merchants engaged in the fur trade, and were often a source of great annoyance to the colonial authorities. Three or four of these people, having 98 - HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. obtained goods upon credit, would join their stock, put their property into a birch canoe, which they worked themselves, and accompany the Indians in their excursions or go directly into the country where they knew they, were to hunt. These voyages were extended twelve or fifteen months (sometimes longer) before the traders would return laden with rich cargoes of fur, and often followed by great numbers of the natives. During the short time required to settle their accounts with the merchants and procure credit for a new stock the traders would contrive to squander their gains before they returned to their favorite mode of life among the savages, their labor being rewarded by indulging themselves in one month's dissipation for fifteen of exposure and hardship. " We may not be able to explain the cause, but experience proves that it requires much less time for a civilized people to degenerate into the ways of savage life than is required for the savage to rise into a state of civilization. The indifference about amassing property, and the pleasure of living free from all restraint, soon introduced a licentiousness among the coureurs des bois that did not escape the eye of the missionaries, who complained, with good reason, that they were a disgrace to the Christian religion. "The food of the coureurs des bois when on their long expeditions was Indian corn, prepared for use by boiling it in strong lye to remove the hull, after which it was mashed and dried. In this state it is soft and friable like rice. The allowance for each man on the voyage was one quart per day ; and a bushel, with two pounds of prepared fat, is reckoned a month's subsistence. No other allowance is made of any kind, not even of salt, and bread is never thought of ; nevertheless the men are healthy on this diet, and capable of performing great labor. This mode of victualing was essential to the trade, which was extended to great distances, and in canoes so small as not to admit of the use of any other food. If the men were supplied with bread and pork, the canoes would not carry six months' rations, while the ordinary duration of the voyage was not less than fourteen. No other men would be reconciled to such fare except the Canadians, and this fact enabled their employers to secure a monopoly of the fur trade." " The old voyageurs derisively called new hands at the business mangeurs de lard (pork eaters), as, on leaving Montreal, and while en route to Mackinaw, their rations were pork, hard bread and pea soup, while the old voyageurs in the Indian country ate corn soup and such other food as could be conveniently procured." THE COUREURS DES BOIS - 99 " The coureurs des bois were men of easy virtue. They would eat, riot, drink and play as long as their furs held out," says La Hontan, "and when these were gone they would sell their embroidery, their laces and their clothes. The proceeds of these exhausted, they were forced to go upon new voyages for subsistence." They did not scruple to intermarry with the Indians, among whom they spent the greater part of their lives. They made excellent soldiers, and in bush fighting and border warfare they were more than a match for the British regulars. " Their merits were hardihood and skill in woodcraft; their chief faults were insubordination and lawlessness." Such were the characteristics of the French traders or coureurs des bois. They penetrated the remotest parts, voyaged upon all of our western rivers, and traveled many of the insignificant streams that afforded hardly water enough to float a canoe. Their influence over the Indians (to whose mode of life they readily adapted themselves) was almost supreme. They were efficient in the service of their king, and materially assisted in staying the downfall of French rule in America. There is no data from which to ascertain the value of the fur trade, as there were no regular accounts kept. The value of the trade to the French, in 1703, was estimated at two millions of livres, and this could have been from only a partial return, as a large per cent of the trade was carried on clandestinely through Albany and New York, of which the French authorities in Canada could have no knowledge. With the loss of Canada and the West to France, and owing to the dislike of the Indians toward the English, and the want of experience by the latter, the fur trade, controlled at Montreal, fell into decay, and the Hudson Bay Company secured the advantages of its downfall. During the winter of 1783—4 some merchants of Canada united their trade under the name of the "Northwest Company"; they did not get successfully to work until 1787. During that year the venture did not exceed forty thousand pounds, but by exertion and the enterprise of the proprietors it was brought, in eleven years, to more than triple that amount (equal to six hundred thousand dollars), yielding proportionate profits, and surpassing anything then known in America. The fur trade was conducted by the English, and subsequently by the Americans, substantially upon the system originally established by the French, with this distinction, that the monopoly was controlled by French officers and favorites, to whom the trade for particular districts was assigned, while the English and Americans controlled it through 100 - HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. companies operating either under charters or permits from the government. Goods for Indian trade were guns, ammunition, steel for striking fire, gun-flints, and other supplies to repair firearms; knives, hatchets, kettles, beads, men's shirts, blue and red cloths for blankets and petticoats ; vermillion, red, yellow, green and blue ribbons, generally of English manufacture; needles, thread and awls ; looking-glasses, children's toys, woolen blankets, razors for shaving the head, paints of all colors, tobacco, and, more than all, spirituous liquors. For these articles the Indians gave in exchange the skins of deer, bear, otter, squirrel, marten, lynx, fox, wolf, buffalo, moose, and particularly the beaver, the highest prized of them all. Such was the value attached to the skins and fur of the last that it became the standard of value. All other values were measured by the beaver, the same as we now use gold, in adjusting commercial transactions. All differences in exchanges of property or in payment for labor were first reduced in value to the beaver skin. Money was rarely received or paid at any of the trading-posts, the only circulating medium were furs and peltries. In this exchange a pound of beaver skin was reckoned at thirty sous, at otter skin at six livres, and marten skins at thirty sous each. This was only about half of the real value of the furs, and it was therefore always agreed to pay either in furs at their equivalent cash value at the fort or double the amount reckoned at current fur value. When the French controlled the fur trade, the posts in the interior of the country were assigned to officers who were in favor at headquarters. As they had no money, the merchants of Quebec and Montreal supplied them on credit with the necessary goods, which were to be paid for in peltries at a price agreed upon, thus being required to earn profits for themselves and the merchant. These officers were often employed to negotiate for the king with the tribes near their trading posts and give them goods as presents, the price for the latter being paid by the intendant upon the approval of the governor. This occasioned many hypothecated accounts, which were turned to the profit of the commandants, particularly in time of war. The commandants as well as private traders were obliged to take out a license from the governor at a cost of four or five hundred livres, in order to carry their goods to the posts, and to charge some effects to the king's account. The most distant posts in the northwest west were prized the greatest, because of the abundance and low price of peltries and the high price of goods at these remote establishments. THE FUR TRADE - 101 Another kind of trade was carried on by the coureurs des Bois, who, sharing the license with the officer at the post, with their canoes laden with goods, went to the villages of the Indians, and followed them on their hunting expeditions, to return after a season's trading with their canoes well loaded. If the coureurs des bois were in a condition to purchase their goods at first hands a quick fortune was assured them, although to obtain it they had to lead a most dangerous and fatiguing life. Some of these traders would return to France after a few years' venture with wealth amounting to two million five hundred thousand livres. The French were not permitted to exclusively enjoy the enormous profits of the fur trade. We have seen, in treating of the Miami Indians, that at an early day the English and the American colonists were determined to share it, and had become sharp competitors. We have seen (page 112) that to extend their trade the English had set their allies, the Iroquois, upon the Illinois. So formidable were the inroads made by the English upon the fur trade of the French, by means of the conquests to which they had incited the Iroquois to gain over other tribes that were friendly to the French, that the latter became "of the opinion that if the Iroquois were allowed to proceed they would not only subdue the Illinois, but become masters of all the Ottawa tribes, and divert the trade to the English, so that it was absolutely necessary that the French should either make the Iroquois their friends or destroy them. You perceive, my Lord, that the subject which we have discussed [referring to the efforts of the English of New York and Albany to gain the beaver trade] is to determine who will be master of the beaver trade of the south and southwest." In the struggle to determine who should be masters of the fur trade, the French cared as little—perhaps less—for their Indian allies than the British and Americans did for theirs. The blood that was shed in the English and French colonies north of the Ohio River, for a period of over three-quarters of a century prior to 1763, might well be said to have been spilled in a war for the fur trade. In the strife between the rivals—the French endeavoring to hold their former possessions, and the English to extend theirs—the strait of Detroit was an object of concern to both. Its strategical position was such that it would give the party possessing it a decided advantage. M. Du Lute, or L'Hut, under orders from Gov. De Nonville, left Mackinaw with some fifty odd coureurs de bois in 1688, sailed down Lake Huron and threw up a small stockade fort on the west 102 - HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. bank of the lake, where it discharges into the River St. Clair. The following year Capt. McGregory—Major Patrick Magregore, as his name is spelled in the commission he had in his pocket over the signature of Governor Dongan—with sixty Englishmen and some Indians, with their merchandise loaded in thirty-two canoes, went up Lake Erie on a trading expedition among the Indians at Detroit and Mackinaw. They were encountered by a body of troops under Tonti, La Forest and other officers, who, with coureur de Bois and Indians from the upper country, were on their way to join the French forces of Canada in a campaign against the Iroquois villages in New York. The prisoners were sent to Quebec, and the plunder distributed among the captors. Du Lute's stockade was called Fort St. Joseph. In 1688 the fort was placed in command of Baron La Hontan. Fort St. Joseph served the purposes for which it was constructed, and a few years later, in 1701, Mons. Cadillac established Fort Pontchartrain on the present site of the city of Detroit, for no other purpose than to check the English in the prosecution of the fur trade in that country. The French interests were soon threatened from another direction. Traders from Pennsylvania found their way westward over the mountains, where they engaged in traffic with the Indians in the valleys of eastern Ohio, and they soon established commercial relations with the Wabash tribes. It appears from a previous chapter that the Miamis were trading at Albany in 1708. To avert this danger the French were compelled at last to erect military posts at Fort Wayne, on the Maumee (called Fort Miamis), at Ouiatanon and Vincennes, upon the Wabash. Prior to 1750 Sieur de Ligneris was commanding at Fort Ouiatanon, and St. Ange was in charge at Vincennes. As soon as the English settlements reached the eastern slope of the Alleghanies, their traders passed over the ridge, and they found it exceedingly profitable to trade with the western Indians. They could sell the same quality of goods for a third or a half of what the French usually charged, and, still make a handsome profit. This new and rich field was soon overrun by eager adventurers. In the meantime a number of gentlemen, mostly from Virginia, procured an act of parliament constituting " The Ohio Company," and granting them six hundred thousand acres of land on or near the Ohio River. The objects of this company were to till the soil and to open up a trade with the Indians west of the Alleghanies and south of the Ohio. ENGLISH AND AMERICAN TRADERS - 103 The French, being well aware that the English could offer their goods to the Indians at greatly reduced rates, feared that they would lose the entire Indian-trade. . At first they protested " against this invasion of the rights of His Most Christian Majesty " to the governor of the English colonies. This did not produce the desired effect.. Their demands were met with equivocations and delays. At last the French determined on summary measures. An order was issued to the commandants of the various posts on Lake Erie, the Ohio and the Wabash, to seize all English traders found west of the Alleghanies. In pursuance of this order, in 1751, four English traders were captured on the Vermilion of the Wabash and sent to Canada. Other traders, dealing with the Indians in other localities, were captured and taken to Presque Isle, and from thence to Canada. The contest between the rival colonies still went on, increasing in the extent of its line of operations and intensifying in the animosity of the feeling with which it was conducted. We quote from a memoir prepared early in 1752, by M. de Longueuil, commandant at Detroit, showing the state of affairs at a previous date in the Wabash country. It appears, from the letters of the commandants at the several posts named, from which the memoir is compiled, that the Indian tribes upon the Maumee and Wabash, through the successful efforts of the English, had become very much disaffected toward their old friends and masters. M. de Ligneris, commandant at the Ouyatanons, says the memoir, believes that great reliance is not to be placed on the Maskoutins, and that their remaining neutral is all that is to be expected from them and the Kickapoos. He even adds that " we are not to reckon on the nations which appear in our interest; no Wea chief has appeared at this post for a long time. M. de Villiers, commandant at the Miamis—Ft. Wayne—has been disappointed in his expectation of bringing the Miamis back from the White River—part of whom had been to see him—the small-pox having put the whole of them to rout. Coldfoot and his son have died of it, as well as a large portion of our most trusty Indians. Le Gris, chief of the Tepicons, and his mother, are likewise dead ; they are a loss because they were well disposed toward the French." The memoir continues : " The nations of the River St. Joseph, who were to join those of Detroit, have said they would be ready to perform their promise as soon as Ononontio would have sent the necessary number of Frenchmen. The commandant of this post writes, on the 15th of January, that all the nations appear to take sides against us; that he would not be responsible for the good 104 - HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST dispositions these Indians seem to entertain, inasmuch as the Miamis are their near relatives. On the one hand, Mr. de ,Toncaire repeats that the Indians of the beautiful river are all English, for whom alone they work; that all are resolved to sustain each other; and that not a party of Indians go to the beautiful river but leave some [of their numbers] there to increase the rebel forces. On the other hand, "Mr. de St. Ange, commandant of the post of Vincennes, writes to M. des Ligneris [at Oniatanon] to use all means to protect himself from the storm which is ready to burst on the French, that he is busy securing himself against the fury of our enemies." "The Pianguichias, who are at war with the Chaouanons, according to the report rendered by Mr. St. Clin, have declared entirely against us. They killed on Christmas five Frenchmen at the Vermilion. Mr. des Ligneris, who was aware of this attack, sent off a detachment to secure the effects of the Frenchmen from being plundered; but when this detachment arrived at the Vermilion, the Piankashaws had decamped. The bodies of the Frenchmen were found on the ice. "M. des Ligneris was assured that the Piankashaws had committed this act because four men of their nation had been killed by the French at the Illinois, and four others had been taken and put in irons: It is said that these eight men were going to fight the Chickasaws, and had, without distrusting anything, entered the quarters of the French, who killed them. It is also reported that the Frenchmen had recourse to this extreme measure because a Frenchman and two slaves had been killed a few days before by another party of Piankashaws, and that the Indians in question had no knowledge of that circumstance. The capture of four English traders by M. de Celeron's order last year has not prevented other Englishmen going to trade at the Vermilion River, where the Rev. Father la Richardie wintered." The memoir continues : " On the 19th of the October the Piankashaws had killed two more Frenchmen, who were constructing pirogues lower down than the Post of Vincennes. Two days afterward the Piankashaws killed two slaves in sight of Fort Vincennes. The murder of these nine Frenchmen and these two slaves is but too certain. A squaw, the widow of one of the Frenchmen who had been killed at the Vermilion, has reported that the Pianguichias, Illinois and Osages were to assemble at the prairies of , the place where Messrs. de Villiers and de Noyelle attacked the Foxes about twenty years ago, and when they had built a fort to secure their families, they were to make a general attack on all the French. PICKAWILLANY - 105 "The Miamis of Rock River have scalped two soldiers belonging to Mr. Villiers' fort. This blow was struck last fall. Finally, the English have paid the Miamis for the scalps of the two soldiers belonging to Mr. de Villiers' garrison. To add to the misfortunes, M. des Ligneris has learned that the commandant of the Illinois at Fort Charters would not permit Sieurs Delisle and Fonblanche, who had contracted with the king to supply the Miamis Ouyatonons, and even Detroit with provisions from the Illinois, to purchase any provisions for the subsistence of the garrisons of those posts, on the ground that an increased arrival of troops and families would consume the stock at the Illinois. Famine is not the sole scourge we experience ; the small-pox commits ravages; it begins to reach Detroit. It were desirable that it should break out and spread generally throughout the localities inhabited by our rebels. It would be fully as good as an army." The Piankashaws, now completely estranged from the French, withdrew, almost in a body, from the Wabash, and retired to the Big Miami, whither a number of Miamis and other Indians had, some years previous, established a village, to be nearer the English traders. The village was called Pickawillany, or Picktown. To the English and Iroquois it was known as the Tawixtwi Town, or Miamitown. It was located at the mouth of what has since been called Loramie's creek. The stream derived this name from the fact that a Frenchman of that name, subsequent to the events here narrated, had a trading-house at this place. The town was visited in 1751 by Christopher Gist, who gives the following description of it : "The Twightee town is situated on the northwest side of the Big Min e ami River, about one hundred and fifty miles from its mouth. It consists of four hundred families, and is daily increasing. It is accounted one of the strongest Indian towns in this part .of the continent. The Twightees are a very numerous people, consisting of many different tribes under the same form of government. Each tribe has a particular chief, or king, one of which is chosen indifferently out of any tribe to rule the whole nation, and is vested with greater authority than any of the others. They have but lately traded with the English. They formerly lived on the farther side of the Wabash, and were in the French interests, who supplied them with some few trifles at a most exorbitant price. They have now revolted from them and left their former habitations for the sake of trading with the English, and notwithstanding all the artifices the French have used, they have not been able to recall them." George Croghan and 'Mr. Montour, 106 - HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. agents in the English interests, were in the town at the time of Gist's visit, doing what they could to intensify the animosity of the inhabitants against the French. Speeches were made and presents exchanged to cement the friendship with the English. While these conferences were going on, a deputation of Indians in the French interests arrived, with soft words and valuable presents, marching into the village under French colors. The deputation was admitted to the council-house, that they might make the object of their visit known. The Piankashaw chief, or king, "Old Britton," as he was called, on account of his attachment for the English, had both the British and French flags hoisted from the council-house. The old chief refused the brandy, tobacco and other presents sent to him from the French king. In reply to the speeches of the French ambassadors he said that the road to the French had been made foul and bloody by them ; that he had cleared a road to our brothers, the English, and that the French had made that bad. The French flag was taken down, and the emissaries of that people, with their presents, returned to the French post from whence they cane. When negotiations failed to win the Miamis back to French authority, force was resorted to. On the 21st of June, 1752, a party of two hundred and forty French and Indians appeared before Pick awillany, surprised the Indians in their cornfields, approaching so suddenly that the white men who were in their houses had great difficulty in reaching the fort. They killed one Englishman and fourteen Miamis, captured the stockade fort, killed the old Piankashaw king, and put his body in a kettle, boiled it and ate it up in retaliation for his people having killed the French traders on the Vermilion River and at Vincennes. " Thus," says the eloquent historian, George Bancroft, " on the alluvial lands of western Ohio began the contest that was to scatter death broadcast through the world."