100 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY peace offers of the colonists and voted to send confirmation of the agreement through a messenger bearing a belt of wampum to their kindred of Ohio. Post was selected for the mission to the Ohio Indians who "upon their receipt, ratified the terms of peace and formally declared an end to hostilities." No doubt but that the tribes had heard of the coming of the British forces from "over the great waters" and too at heart were more favorable in this region to the English than to the French. Therefore, they were glad to get in sympathy again with such woodsmen as were George Croghan, Christopher Gist and Conrad Weiser. The French were also busy rallying the Indians about Detroit to their standard and in the summer of 1758 the Pottowatomies, Wyandots, Ottawas, and Ojibways came in and joined the French at Fort Duquesne. Forbes was now ready to march on Duquesne with about two thousand British, four to five thousand colonials, including a motley set of followers of all descriptions. From Raystown, now Bedford, Pa., the troops selected for the journey reached Ligonier, half way to Fort Duquesne, where was built a fort. General Forbes remained behind on account of illness. From Bedford a detachment under Maj. James Grant was sent forward to reconnoitre the Ohio Forks with a force of eight hundred men. He arrived about a mile from Duquesne September 15, and the next morning the story of General Braddock was substantially repeated. In the surprise attack Grant himself was captured. The survivors made their way back to Bedford. Washington now appears in the lime-light to save a precarious condition. It was the "casting of the shadow" of his future. His command with a small support led the way, cutting a road for the main forces. On a bleak November day the army reached the Forks and Fort Duquesne only to find it in smoldering ruins. Deserted by his Indian allies, the commander, De Ligneris, had applied the torch and his garrison of five hundred French had fled for safety. "Washington with an advance guard marched in and on November 25th, 1758, planted the British flag on the yet smoking ruins." The French had been driven from this Ohio section never to return and the Indians flocked to the British standard. On November 26 General Forbes, yet ill, was brought forward and named the place Fort Pitt, a merited honor to the "Great Commoner," Pitt, England's prime minister and friend to the colonies. The curtain now fell upon the "French and Indian war" in TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 101 the Ohio country. Nearly a year later, 1759, came the finale at Quebec, which was defended by Marquis de Montcalm. In the attack General Wolfe at the head of the British, was badly wounded. Still advancing, another shot struck him and a third lodged in his breast. While lying in a swoon he gave further orders. Realizing his victory his last words before he expired were: "Now God be praised, I will die in peace." Montcalm was mortally wounded in the same action and died soon afterward. One year after the fall of Quebec, Montreal was also surrendered. The final treaty of peace was concluded at Paris, February 10, 1763. In this treaty, in which Spain was concerned, England ceded back to Spain, Cuba and other islands in compensation for Florida, the City of New Orleans and a vast territory west of the Mississippi designated as Louisiana. France surrendered the balance of her possessions to England, including Canada and her claim to the Ohio Valley region. Thus the Maumee and the Sandusky region were rid of the French. The sequel as to this local territory comes later. CHAPTER XIV ENGLISH ASSUME CONTROL IN THE LAKE REGION MISSION OF MAJOR ROBERT ROGERS-SENT TO POSSESS FORTS-MEETS PONTIAC-COMPARATIVE CALM IN MAUMEE AND SANDUSKY REGION-SITUATION NOT HELPFUL TO INDIANS-THE QUEBEC ACT. So far as the Maumee and Sandusky valleys were concerned, this territory all during the English-French struggle had been dominated by the Indians under the French established at Detroit. Travel up and down the Maumee and the Sandusky consisted mostly of Indian war expeditions or perhaps hunting parties. There were no great battles in this locality up to the close of that war. The Nicholas conspiracy and the destruction of Pickawillany had been the chief events. Any other contests, if they might be called such, were between the English traders and agents among the Indians, and parties of French soldiers, Canadians and agents, who came with Indians to influence the various tribes. Almost immediately after the surrender of Montreal, and over two years before the treaty of Paris was finally concluded, Maj. Robert Rogers with a detachment of two hundred picked men started up the St. Lawrence. By way of Fort Niagara and the head of Lake Erie he reached Fort Presque Isle (Erie, Pa.), which was now in command of the English colonel, Henry Bouquet. Under the Montreal capitulation the lake forts were to b-. surrendered to the British and Rogers was sent out to receive them. Before he went on his mission from Presque Isle, he visited Fort La Boeuf and Venango, and at Fort Pitt delivered im portant papers to the commandant from General Amherst. Retracing his steps to Presque Isle, on November 4th (1760) a part of his expedition went by water along the south shore of Erie and some forty-two rangers with a few other Americans and Indians, proceeded westward by land. George Croghan commanded one of the boats of the water party, going as interpreter. Andrew Montour was at the head of the land detachment. Reaching the Cuyahoga River, Major Rogers met a party of Ottawa Indians who refused to let him proceed further without - 102 - TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 103 the consent of the head chief, who proved to be none other than the great Pontiac. Later in the day Pontiac arrived at Rogers' camp and demanded to know what business Rogers had in trespassing upon the Indian country without his consent—he being the "king and lord of the country" Rogers had arrived at. After using all the diplomacy at his command in a delicate situation, Major Rogers as a finality to the parley was allowed to proceed. Pontiac even sent one hundred of his Indians with Rogers to assist him in protecting one hundred cattle the rangers were driving through for the expedition. Further, Pontiac sent runners to Indian towns bordering the west and south shores of Lake Erie informing the villagers that Rogers and his forces had Pontiac's consent to enter the country. Indians had congregated in Rogers' path and probably would have captured his forces if they had not annihilated them. Pontiac was Rogers' constant companion until the latter reached Detroit. Some historians question this meeting between Pontiac and Rogers as portrayed by the latter, but in the main the story is probably correct and evidently Major Rogers met Pontiac as he relates. From the Cuyahoga Rogers passed on to "Lake Sandusky" and six miles beyond made camp. From here he dispatched a runner to M. Beleter, the French commandant at Detroit, with information that the English were on their way to take possession of the lake posts, including Detroit. Arriving near Detroit Rogers met several hundred Indians at the foot of Detroit River gathered to prevent his reaching the fort, but Rogers passed without trouble. Approaching by land and up the river, the French flag was seen flying above the stockade. Entering, the French colors were lowered, the British flag run up and the French defiled upon the plains and laid down their arms. The date was November 29, 1760. After the ceremony, several hundred Indian warriors—Wyandots, Pottawottomies and Ottawas, came in from the surrounding territory who had been allies of the French, and voiced their approval by loud demonstrations. Detroit was garrisoned by a company under Captain Campbell, and Ensign Holmes and another officer with twenty soldiers was sent up the Maumee River to take possession of Fort Miami (Fort Wayne) and a fort on the Wabash. A representative was also sent to gather in the "French troops" at the Shawnee towns on the Ohio River. With a small force and accompanied by Montour and a body of Indians, Rogers then started for Lake Huron to take possession of the fort at the straits, but ice obstructed his 104 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY path and he returned to Detroit. The upper posts were not taken possession of until the following season. In midwinter Major Rogers with a few of his men started for Fort Pitt. He went by way of the west end of Lake Erie, and January 2, 1761, after crossing the Maumee and skirting the south shore of Erie, reached Sandusky Bay. Some six miles from the Sandusky, George Croghan noted that they "came to Chenunda, an Indian village," which some writers believe was Fort Junundat, previously referred to. By way of Fort Pitt, Rogers on February 14, reached New York. A comparative calm now rested upon the Maumee and Sandusky region for a space of nearly two years. With the contest ended between the English and French and their allies, the Indians had a right to expect that their experiences of hardship and tribulations would pass. Professor Shetrone in his story, "The Indian in Ohio," states the situation at the close of the war like this: "But apparently there was no room in all the great expanse of America (he might have said especially in Ohio) for both the red man and the white man, and one of the two remaining sides of the triangle was yet to be eliminated. The Indian had been invaluable to the English as long as they were engaged in the contest with the French ; but, this contest ended, the native tribesman no longer figured as a strategic issue. Instead of finding his troubles ended, he soon learned that for him in his ancestral home, there was no such thing as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Time passed by and the expected acknowledgment of service to the English, in the way of treaties and presents, was not forthcoming. On the contrary, the Indians found themselves deprecated, slighted and even abused as venturesome spirits by the colonies, numbers from which flocked across the Alleghenies, each one bent on securing for himself a share of the great country wrested from the French. It soon became the usual thing for the white adventurer to regard the Indian as little better than the wild beasts of the forest and it was not unusual for these precursors of white settlements to shoot down the natives without provocation." This latter statement of Shetrone's probably needs some qualification. And while the Indians were disappointed, so were the oncoming whites, the colonists, who helped to win the victory and who looked forward to the privilege of coming to the now Ohio territory to establish settlements and new homes. Their indignity and ire was aroused by what is known as the "Quebec Act" TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 105 issued October 7, 1763, by the king of England with the advice of the privy council. This declaration in effect established the great northwest territory as an Indian reservation in which no white settlement was to be attempted; that all settlers located thereupon should at once take their departure and that no lands should be purchased from the Indians. The claim was made that this proclamation was issued by "solicitude for the Indians and anxiety for the peace and safety of the colonists." Of course this would protect the Indians and retain for them their hunting and trapping rights. But another and deeper motive was evident. The mother country evidently already foresaw by the growing and rapidly developing colonies, that there might in the not distant future come a time when they would aspire to establish themselves as an independent nation, therefore an expansion of inhabited territory was not desirable. Future developments show that this act did not keep the advancing settlers out of Ohio and that the English government had a penetrating vision as to what attitude a people of the character of the colonists might have in regard to home rule. CHAPTER XV STORY OF JAMES SMITH, INDIAN CAPTIVE-1755-1759 TRAVELS UP AND DOWN THE SANDUSKY-TWO WINTERS IN SCIOTO REGION-SUNNYENDEAND ON SANDUSKY BAY-DESCRIBES HUNTING EXPEDITIONS ON MAUMEE BAY AND ON SANDUSKY PLAINS. Before taking up the next feature looking toward the settlement of the Maumee and Sandusky region, it is well to give something of the story of James Smith, whose capture, at the age of eighteen, by the Indians near Fort Duquesne, has been referred to. Smith at the close of the Revolutionary war received a colonel's commission and wrote his experiences in Ohio covering most of the years 1755-1759, the time he was associated with the Indians as their captive. Not long after his capture, Smith was adopted into the tribe, a remnant of the Mohawks, and taken to an Indian town near the Forks of the Muskingum, where is now Coshocton. Some time in October, 1755, he was then brought to the Cuyahoga region, and spent the winter in the upper Muskingum Valley hunting and trapping with his captors. Not following his movements closely, in the spring of 1756, Smith, with his brother Tontileaugo by adoption, canoed from the mouth of now named Black River westward to the Sandusky Bay. As he tells it himself : "The lake being calm we proceeded and arrived safely at Sunnyendeand, which was a Wiandot town that lay upon a small creek which empties into the little lake (Sandusky Bay) below the mouth of Sandusky (River). The town was about eighty rood above the mouth of the creek on the south side of a large plain, on which timber grew and nothing more but grass and nettles. In some places there were large flats where nothing but grass grew, about three feet high when grown, and in other parts nothing but nettles, very rank. When the soil is extremely rich and loose, here they plant corn. In the town there were also French traders who purchased our skins and fur and we all got new clothes, paint, tobacco, etc." Evans' map of 1775 marks a Wyandot town on the southeasterly side of Sandusky Bay, which may have been Sunnyendeand. During the spring, the warriors all left for raids on the Vir- - 106 - TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 107 ginia and other frontiers, leaving their children and old people, in almost a starving condition until the summer crops came on. In October, "geese swans, ducks, cranes, etc., came from the north and alighted upon the little lake without number or innumerable. Sunnyendeand is a remarkable place for fish in the spring, and for fowl both in the fall and spring; so many that hunters could scarcely miss of success." The winter of 1756-1757, Smith again passed with Indians in the upper Muskingum and Cuyahoga region. Another brother by adoption and older than the one first mentioned, was with Smith at the time. His name was Tecaughretanego. On the way out of Sandusky Bay, Smith also met under his adoption his Indian sister. Her name was Mary, which the priest gave her when she was baptized. It would be interesting to note where this baptism took place. In March, 1757, the party headed again for the lake and canoeing westward, in time passed the mouth of Sandusky Bay. Detroit bound, they "put into the mouth of the Miami of the Lake (Maumee) at Cedar Point, where we remained several days and killed a number of turkeys, geese, ducks and swans. The wind being fair, and the lake not extremely rough, we again embarked, hoisted up sails and arrived safe at the Wiandot town nearly opposite to Fort Detroit. Here we found a number of French traders, everyone willing to deal with us for our beaver." The Indians as usual bought clothes, ammunition, paint and tobacco. When a trader appeared with French brandy, the Indians, parting with what furs they had left, engaged in a long debauch in which many were injured. After sobering up, the warriors of the village soon set out upon raids into the Ohio country borders. When the warriors returned in August from these frontier colonial settlements, they brought in "many scalps, prisoners, horses and plunder." In November (1757) a considerable party including Smith started down the Detroit River on their annual hunting excursions. Encamping at .the entrance to Lake Erie, they held a council as to the route they would take : "Whether we would cross through by the three islands or coast around the lake. These islands lie in a line across the lake and are just in sight of each other. Some of the Wiandots or Ottawas, frequently make their winter hunt on these islands. Tho' excepting wild fowl and fish, there is scarcely any game here but raccoons, which are amazingly large and fat. They feed upon the wild rice which grows in abundance in wet places round the islands. It is said that 108 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY each hunter in one winter, will catch one thousand raccoons. These islands are seldom visited, because early in the spring and late in the fall it is dangerous sailing in their bark canoes; and in the summer they are so infested with various kinds of serpents, chiefly rattlesnakes, that it is dangerous landing. "We concluded to coast it around the lake and in two days we came to the mouth of the Miami of the Lake (Maumee) and landed on Cedar Point where we remained several days and concluded we would take a driving hunt, in concert and in partnership. The river here is about a mile broad, and as it and the lake forms a kind of neck which terminates in a point, all the hunters (53) went up the river and we scattered ourselves from the river to the lake. When we first began to move we were not in sight of each other, but as we all raised the yell, we could more regularly go together by all the noise. At length we came in sight of each other and appeared to be marching in good order. Before we came to the point, both the boys and the squaws in the canoes were scattered up the river and along the lake to prevent the deer from making their escape by water. As we advanced near the point, the guns began to crack slowly, and after some time the firing was like a little engagement. The squaws and boys were busy tomahawking the deer in the water and we shooting them down on the land. We killed in all about thirty deer, tho' many made their escape by water. We had now great feasting and rejoicing, as we had plenty of hominy, venison and wild fowl. The geese at the time appeared to be preparing to move southward. Here our company separated. The chief part of them went up the Miami (Maumee) River that empties into the lake at Cedar Point, while we proceeded on our journey in company with Tecaughretanego, Tantileaugo and two families of the Wiandots. "When we came to the falls of the Sandusky (Sandusky River above present Fremont) we buried our birch-bark canoes as usual, at a large burying place for that purpose a little below the falls. With difficulty we pushed up our wooden canoes. Some of us went up the river and the rest by land with the horses, until we came to the great meadows, or prairies that lie between the Sandusky and the Scioto." Smith then describes a "ring hunt" with some Ottawa hunters, which was accomplished by starting a circle of fire about the tall prairie grass, forcing the deer out, which were killed as they ran. Ten deer to each hunter were killed in the drive. The TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 109 party then portaged across to the headwaters of the Scioto; the distance between two creeks which nearly join the rivers being such that "with a little digging, there may during high water be water carriage the whole way from the Scioto to the lake (Erie)." After the party had quitted their hunts, Tontileaugo, his wife and children, Tecaughretanego, his son Nungany and Smith, left the Wyandot camp at the "carrying place" between the Sandusky headwaters and the Scioto, crossed the Scioto at the south end of "the glades" and proceeded through the forest southwest to Big Darby Creek. After some days, Tontileaugo had some difficulty with his wife over his eight-year-old stepson whom he had punished. In his absence on a hunt, his wife took her son and all her property and went back to the Wyandot camp they had left, taking also his children. On account of the latter fact Tontileaugo followed his wife and settling their differences they did not return. This left only Tecaughretanego, his ten-year-old son and Smith at this point and they remained at a constructed but all winter. Tecaughretanego, although a "fine warrior, statesman, and hunter, now sixty years old" was taken with rheumatism and was confined to his but nearly two months. This left the burden of hunting game for the three and trapping, to Smith. They were forty miles from any other living person, but their supplies held out from Christmas until some time in February (1758). At this time there came a snow with a crust which made a great noise when walking on it, making the approach to game difficult and their supplies became entirely exhausted. In this situation the philosophical old Indian gave Smith a long talk assuring him that Owaneeyo (God) would provide for them and wound up with these words: "Brother, "Be assured that you will be supplied with food, and that just in the right time; but you must continue diligent in the use of means. Go to sleep and rise early in the morning and go a-hunting—be strong and exert yourself like a man and the Great Spirit will direct your way." The next morning Smith took an easterly course about five miles, saw several deer but could not get near them on account of the noise made by walking on the crusty snow. Becoming almost famished, he concluded he would keep on his way and run off to Pennsylvania, his native country. He thought he might as well be killed by hostile Indians on the way as to stay and starve. 110 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY He kept on about twelve miles when he found buffalo tracks. Circling ahead of them - he ambushed and killed a large cow. After relieving his starving stomach, he began to think of the starving old chief and little boy; hung high what meat he could not carry back and returned to the but by moonlight. The little boy ate the meat almost raw. Although Tecaughretanego must have been nearly dead from hunger, he calmly refused to eat until the meat was thoroughly cooked, saying "Let it be done enough." When they were all refreshed, the chief delivered a speech upon the necessity and pleasure of receiving the required supports of life with thankfulness, knowing that Owaneeyo (God) is the great giver." Writes Smith : "Such speeches from an Indian may be thought by those unacquainted with them altogether incredible, but when we reflect on the Indian war we may readily conclude that they are not an ignorant or stupid sort of people, or they would not have been such fatal enemies. When they came into our country they outwitted us and when we sent armies into their country, they outgeneraled and beat us with inferior force. Let us take into consideration that Tecaughretanego was no common person, but was among the Indians as Socrates in the ancient heathen world." Again the next morning starting after more of the buffalo meat, Smith ran across and killed a bear, after which they had plenty of provisions. The Indian but was evidently near the site of now Plain. City, Madison County, and Smith killed the buffalo near present Worthington, a northern suburb of now Columbus. The trio remained at the but until some time in April, 1758. The old Indian by this time had considerably recovered so that he could walk about. They made a bark canoe and started down Big Darby some distance, but the water being too low to navigate their canoe, the chief concluded to encamp on shore and pray for rain. When they encamped, the old chief made himself a sort of "sweat-box" by digging an excavation in the ground protected by hoops. He then heated stones and placed in the box, covered the excavation with skins and blankets, took a kettle of water mixed with herbs and gave himself a regular Turkish bath; at the same time asking the Great Spirit to cure his ills and also bring rain. The result at least was that it did rain and he was almost completely cured of his rheumatism. They returned down the Big Darby and up the Scioto to the carrying place, thence down the Sandusky River to the "little lake" and again visited the Wyandot town of Sunnyendeand TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 111 where they spent several days at a small creek also called Sunnyendeand, catching rock-fish. "Sunnyendeand signifies rock-fish in English." They fished at night with lights and spears. Smith met a prisoner here named Thompson who had been taken in Virginia. Shortly after this the party, after a three days' journey, reached Detroit again where they remained for the summer. Some time in May they heard that General Forbes with seven thousand men was preparing to carry on a campaign against Fort Duquesne, "which then stood near where Fort Pitt was afterwards erected." Upon receiving the news, the French commander at Detroit sent off a number of runners to urge the different tribes of Indian warriors to repair to Fort Duquesne. Some time in July, 1758, the Ottawas, Ojibways, Pottowatomies and Wyandots rendezvoused at Detroit and marched off to Fort Duquesne to prepare for the encounter of General Forbes. They expected to serve him as they did General Braddock and obtain much plunder. From this time until fall, Indian scouts kept close watch of the movements of Forbes' army, keeping in touch with them from the mountains after they left Fort Loudon. Notwithstanding their vigilance,. Colonel Grant with his Highlanders stole a march on the Indian scouts and in the night took possession of a hill about eighty rods from Fort Duquesne, this hill afterwards taking the name of Grant's Hill. Continuing, Smith says : "The French and Indians knew not that Grant and his men were there until they beat the drum and played upon the bagpipes just at daylight. They then flew to arms and the Indians ran up under cover of the Allegheny and Monongahela for some distance and then sallied out from the banks of the rivers and took possession of the hill above Grant, and as he was on the point of it in sight of the fort, they immediately surrounded him and as he had his Highlanders in ranks and very close order, and the Indians scattered and were concealed behind trees, they defeated him with the loss only of a few warriors. Most of the Highlanders were killed or taken prisoner. "After this defeat the Indians held a council, but were divided in their opinions. Some said that General Forbes would now turn back and go home the way he came, as Dunbar had done when General Braddock was defeated. Others supposed he would come on. The French urged the Indians to stay and see the event. But as it was hard for the Indians to be absent from their squaws and children at this season of the year, a great 112 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY many returned home to their hunting. After this, the remainder of the Indians, some French regulars and a number of Canadians marched off in quest of General Forbes. They met his army near Fort Ligonier and attacked them, but were frustrated in their design. They said that Forbes' men were beginning to learn the art of war and that there were a great number of American riflemen along with the red-coats, who scattered out, took to trees and were good marksmen. Therefore, they found they could not accomplish their design and were obliged to retreat. When they returned from the battle to Fort Duquesne, the Indians concluded that they would go to their hunting. The French endeavored to persuade them to stay and try another battle. The Indians said if it was only the red-coats they had to do with they could soon subdue them, but they could not withstand Ashalecoa or the Great Knife, which was the name they gave the Virginians. They returned home then to their hunting and the French evacuated the fort, which General Forbes came and took possession of without further opposition, late in the year 1758, and at this time began to build Fort Pitt." Tecaughretanego said he could not account for Colonel Grant's actions. As the Indians were alseep outside the fort between Grant and the Allegheny River, he did not see why Grant did not quietly slip in upon the Indians with their broad swords instead of beating their drums and playing their bag-pipes. He thought they must have made too free use of liquor and become intoxicated. That season, the winter of 1758 and 1759, Smith with the Indians hunted again up the Sandusky River and down the Scioto, over nearly the same ground they had gone the winter before. They had considerable success and returned to Detroit again some time in April, 1759. Shortly after this, Tecaughretanego, his son Nungany and Smith went from Detroit in an elm bark canoe to Caughnewaga, a very ancient Indian town about nine miles above Montreal, where Smith remained until about the first of July. He then heard of a French ship at Montreal that had English prisoners on board, for exchange overseas. He stole away from the Indians, boarded the ship, but as General Wolfe had stopped up the River St. Lawrence, Smith with others was put in prison at Montreal where he remained four months. Some time in November he was sent to Crown Point and with others exchanged. Early in the year 1760 he arrived home at Conococheague (in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, then an extreme frontier settlement). TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 113 His people had not learned anything as to his fate after being captured by the Indians and did not know whether he was dead or alive. He was received with great joy, but his people were stupefied over his many ways so much akin to the Indians. The information that his sweetheart had married just before his arrival home was a great blow and he states that it would be impossible to describe the emotions of soul he felt over his disappointed love. Smith, however, married in 1763, and in 1764 received a lieutenant's commission and went out on General Bouquet's campaign against the Indians on the Muskingum. In 1766 Colonel Smith with others explored the country south of Kentucky, where there were no white men, also explored the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers down to the Ohio. He spent eleven months in the wilderness and during that time "saw neither bread, women, or spirituous liquors," and three months of that time no human species except Jamie, a colored boy, who was with him on his journey. He again returned home to Conococheague in the fall of 1767. His wife and friends had heard he had been killed by the Indians and of course had never expected to see him again. In 1776 Smith was appointed major in the Pennsylvania Association and when American Independence was declared, he was elected a member of the convention from Westmoreland County. While at the assembly in. Philadelphia in 1777, he was given a leave of absence and headed a scouting party, and marched into the Jerseys, went before Washington's army and did great service for his country. He received a colonel's commission in 1778. In that year he settled in Bourbon County, Kentucky, and for several years was a member of the general assembly of that state. He died in 1812. CHAPTER XVI THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC INDIAN TRIBES CONNECTED WITH PLOT-SIEGE OF DETROIT-DETROIT, FORT PITT AND NIAGARA ONLY, WITHSTAND THE ATTACKS-END OF THE GREAT CONSPIRATOR-BELONGED IN MAUMEE REGION. The conspiracy or plot of the great chief Pontiac, was "such as was never before or since conceived or executed by North American Indians." It was planned to make a determined assault upon all the British posts throughout the Great Lakes territory upon the same day. After destroying the garrisons, it was Pontiac's conception to turn upon the frontier or border settlements and dispatch with one great stroke the white people who had dared to trespass upon the Indian rights. The tribes became so enthused with the plan that they believed that they might exterminate all the colonists, or drive them across the sea, or at least confine them to the Atlantic coast. Possibly Pontiac's idea came from the plot heretofore related as attempted by the Huron chief Nicholas, about fifteen years previous to Pontiac's move. As Shetrone says, the two leaders were remarkably similar in type and their conspiracies, which had the same object in view, were conducted on almost the same lines. "Nicholas, a miniature of his great Ottawa prototype, while of inferior calibre to the latter, possessed in a marked degree the qualities and temperament of the Indian as exemplified in Pontiac. Both were remarkable for their courage and fortitude, cunning and sagacity, treachery and cruelty." Pontiac' design was against the same forts then held by the English which Nicholas planned to destroy when occupied by the French before their surrender to the English. Most of the tribes concerned were active in both movements, Detroit being singled out for the great master stroke. Nicholas selected his own Hurons for the Detroit onslaught and Pontiac his Ottawas. But the scheme of Nicholas was not comparable to that of Pontiac in the latter's gigantic proportions. Pontiac had by couriers and messengers and by his personal visits northward on the lakes; from the hea waters of the Mississippi to the gulf and to east and southeas enlisted the cooperation of most of the tribes of the great Algo - 114 - TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 115 quian family, as well as the Senecas of the Iroquois. The Ohio tribes, the Wyandots, Shawnees, Miamis, and Delawares, by special efforts made, also joined in the plot. The time fixed for the concerted move was in May, 1763. The Indian dilemma and the cause of the uprising came with the end of the struggle between the English and the French. The Indians were a factor in the result in favor of the English and had with promises and presents been led to believe that when the end of the war came, they would see better days and could hunt in their domains in peace and without molestation. As noted, the king of England by proclamation, (the Quebec Act) set apart the great Northwest Territory as an Indian reservation, declaring that no white settlements should be made therein, including the Ohio region. While there was perhaps an ulterior motive in this declaration, it was apparently in favor of the Aborigine. With the sudden cutting off of weapons, provisions, clothing and fire water by the English; with oncoming settlers from Virginia and other colonies paying little heed to the Quebec Act and crowding in on the frontiers, the Indians awoke to the realization of their situation and bitter resentment arose. The inevitable result was temporarily checked by Sir William Johnson, Indian agent for the English, at a council held at Detroit, but the truce was not lasting. When if was circulated amongst the Ottawas and other tribes that France had ceded by the Paris treaty the Indian lands, the real truth dawned upon them—that they were to remain only by English sufferance. It was diametrically opposite to their own claims and was the last straw to make their dilemma unbearable. France now had no rights to American soil. The Spanish possessions on the Gulf of Mexico had been ceded to England, the territory west of the Mississippi, by the Paris treaty had gone to Spain. Pontiac struck the first blow of the campaign against Detroit, then the western headquarters of the British government. The rendezvous of his warriors, bedecked and painted for the fray, was on the banks of the Ecorces, a little river which empties into the Detroit a short distance below where stood the fort. But let the story as told in a paper written by Randall, the Ohio historian be quoted here, as no better description of the events can be penned: "It was the 27th of April, 1763 when the assembled warriors 116 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY listened to the final war speech of the great chief. Pontiac was an orator of a high order, fierce and impassioned in style. He presented at length the injustice of the British as compared with that of the French ; he set forth the danger to his race from the threatened supremacy of the British power; he predicted the awakening of their great father the King of France,' during whose sleep the English had robbed the Indian of his American possessions. In passionate appeals he aroused the vengeance and superstition of his people and warned them that the white man's civilization was poisoning and annihilating the red race. In his dramatic way he related to the superstitious Indians a dream wherein the Great Spirit sent his message that they were to cast aside the weapons, the utensils of civilization and the `deadly rum' of the white men, and, with aid from the Great Spirit, drive the dogs in red from every post in their (Indian) country. He revealed his plans of destruction of the whites and the details of the plot to secure Detroit. He and a few of his chosen chiefs were to visit the fort under pretense of a peaceful visit, gain admittance, seek audience with Major Henry Gladwyn the commandant and his officers, and then at an agreed signal the chiefs were to draw their weapons, previously concealed beneath their blankets, raise the war whoop, rush upon the officers and strike them down. The Indian forces waiting meanwhile at the gate were then to assail the surprised and half-armed soldiers. Thus through this perfidious murder, Detroit would fall an easy prey to the savages and Pontiac's conspiracy have a successful inauguration. His plan was approved. Just below Detroit, on the same side of the river, was a Pottawattamie village; across the river some three miles up the current was an Ottawa village ; on the same eastern side about a mile below Detroit was the Wyandot village. Along each side of the river for two or three miles were houses of the French settlers. 'The King and lord of all this country,' as Major Rogers called Pontiac, had located one of his homes, where he spent the early summer, on a little island (Isle a Peche) at the opening of Lake St. Clair. Here he had a small oven-shaped cabin of bark and rushes. Here he dwelt with his squaws and children, and here doubtless he might often have been seen, lounging, Indian style, half naked, on a rush mat or bearskin. "The number of warriors under the command of Pontiac is variously estimated from six hundred to two thousand. The garrison consisted of one hundred and twenty soldiers, eight officers, TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 117 and about forty others capable of bearing arms. Two armed schooners, the Beaver and the Gladwyn, were anchored in the river near the Fort. Pontiac's plot was revealed to Gladwyn the night before its proposed execution probably by an Ojibwa girl from the Pottawattamie village. Gladwyn thus warned was forearmed. Pontiac and his six chiefs were admitted to the council chamber. Pontiac began the harangue of peace and friendly palaver and raised his hand as the sound of clashing arms and drum beating was heard without. Pontiac feared he was foiled and announcing he would 'call again,' next time with his squaws and children, he and his party withdrew. The next morning Pontiac, in hopes of regaining Gladwyn's confidence, repaired to the Fort with but three of his chiefs and bearing in his hand the pipe of peace. Offering it to Gladwyn he again protested his friendship for the British whom he declared 'we love as our brothers.' A few days later the Indians thronged the open field behind the fort gate. It was closed and barred. Pontiac advancing, demanded admittance. Gladwyn replied that he might enter, but only alone. The great chief, baffled and enraged, then `threw off the mask he had so long worn' and boldly declared his intention to make war. A day or two later the four tribes, Ottawas, Ojibwas, Pottawattamies and Wyandots clamored about the fort and the attack was begun by volleys of bullets fired at the palisade walls. Thus opened the famous siege of Detroit, which lasted six months, from May 1 to November 1 (1763), one of the longest and most bitterly contested sieges in the history of western Indian warfare. The incomparable treachery of Pontiac in endeavoring to secure the fort by dissemblance of friendship was further evidenced by his pretense at a truce. Pontiac declaring his earnest desire for 'firm and lasting peace,' requested Gladwyn to send to the camp of the chief, Captain Campbell, Gladwyn's second in command, a veteran officer and most upright and manly in character. Campbell went, was made prisoner and subsequently foully and hideously murdered. Pontiac neglected no expedient known to Indian perfidy, cruelty or deviltry. He surpassed his race in all the detestable elements of their nature. His conduct from first to last was only calculated to create distrust, contempt and loathing. His warriors murdered the British settlers in the vicinity of the fort, burned their huts, robbed the Canadians and committed every variety of depredation. "Pontiac realizing the seriousness of the situation and the 118 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY obstinate courage of the British garrison, prepared for a lengthy campaign. He ordered the Ottawa village moved across the river to the Detroit side, where it was located about a mile and a hal northeast of the fort at the mouth of Parent's Creek, afterward known as Bloody Run. "The garrison bravely and patiently withstood all assaults and bided the time of rescue. By midnight sallies and other expedients they removed all exterior buildings, fences, trees and other obstacles that lay within the range of their guns or that might afford protection to sneaking and stealthy Indians who would crawl snake-like close to the palisade and fire at the sentinels and loopholes, or shoot their arrows tipped with burning tow upon the roofs of the structures within the fort. Fortunately the supply of water was inexhaustible; the provisions were wisely husbanded; friendly Canadians across the river under cover of night brought supplies. These Canadian farmers were also subject to tribute to the Indians, who seized their supplies by theft or open violence. They appealed to Pontiac and about the only creditable act recorded of that perfidious chief was his agreement to make restitution to the robbed settlers. Pontiac gave them in payment for their purloined property promissory notes drawn on birch bark and signed with the figure of an otter =the totem to which he belonged—all of which promises to pay, it is said, were redeemed. "Day after day passed with varying incidents of attack and repulse. The keen-eyed watchfulness of the Indians never for an instant abated; their vigils were tireless and ceaseless; w to the soldier who ventured without the fort or even lifted hi head above the palisade. Pontiac's patience was strengthene with the delusive idea that the French were only temporarily defeated and would rally to his assistance. He even dispatched messengers across the interior to the French commandant Neyon at Fort Chartres on the Mississippi, requesting that French troops be sent without delay to his aid. Meanwhile Gladwyn had sent one of his schooners to Ft. Niagara to hasten promised reinforcements from the British. Lieutenant Cuyler had already (May 13) left Niagara with a convoy of seven boats, ninety-six men and quantities of supplies and ammunition. This little fleet coasted along the northern shore of Lake Erie until near the mouth of the Detroit River. The force attempted to land, when a band of Wyandot Indians suddenly burst from the woods, seized five of the boats and killed or captured sixty of the soldiers. Cuy TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 119 ler with the remaining men (36), many of whom were wounded, escaped in the other boats and crossed to Ft. Sandusky, which they found had been taken and burned by the Wyandots; the garrison had been slaughtered and Ensign Pauli sent prisoner to Pontiac's camp. Cuyler with his escaping companions slowly wended his way back where he reported the result of his expedition to the commanding officer, Major Wilkins. At the same time the Wyandots, with the captured boats and prisoners, proceeded up the Detroit to Pontiac's quarters, arriving in full sight of the fort's garrison, when Gladwyn of course learned of the destruction of the Cuyler flotilla. The disappointment to the inmates of the fort was almost unbearable. Gladwyn's schooner, however, reached Ft. Niagara and returned about July 1, laden with food, ammunition and reinforcements. Pontiac, undismayed, continued his efforts. His forces now numbered, it is recorded, about eight hundred and twenty warriors. "The two schooners were a serious menace to the movements of the Indians, and many desperate attempts were made to burn them by midnight attacks, and the floating of fire rafts down upon them; but all to no avail. Pontiac had the stubborn persistency of a later American general who said he would fight it out on that line if it took all summer. He exerted himself with fresh zeal to gain possession of the fort. He demanded the surrender of Gladwyn, saying a still greater force of Indians was on the march to swell the army of besiegers. Gladwyn was equally tenacious and unyielding; he proposed to 'hold the fort' till the enemy were worn out or reinforcements arrived. Pontiac sought to arouse the active aid of the neighboring Canadians, but the treaty of Paris had made them British subjects, and they dared not war on their conquerors. History scarcely furnishes a like instance of so large an Indian force struggling so long in an attack on a fortified place. "The Wyandots and Pottawattamies, however, never as enthusiastic in. this as were the other tribes, late in July decided to withdraw from the besieging confederacy and make peace with the British. They did so and exchanged prisoners with Gladwyn. The Ottawas and Ojibwas, however, still held on, watching the fort and keeping up a desultory fusilade. The end was drawing nigh. On July 29 Captain James Dalzell arrived from Niagara with artillery supplies and two hundred and eighty men in twenty-two barges. Their approach to the fort was bravely contested by the combined Indian forces, even the Wyandots and Pottawat- 120 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY tamies breaking their treaty and treacherously joining in the assault. Dalzell's troops entered the fort and he proposed an immediate sortie. Dalzell was bravely personified, and he had fought with Israel Putnam. On the morning after his arrival (July 30) at two o'clock, he led a force of two hundred and fifty men out of the fort. They silently in the darkness marched along the river towards the Ottawa village just across the Parent's Creek. The Indians were prepared and had ambuscaded both sides of the road. They were, Indian fashion, secreted behind trees and fences and Canadian houses. Their presence was not discovered until the van of Dalzell's column reached the bridge over the creek, when a terrible fire was opened upon the soldiers from all sides. It was still dark, the Indians could not be seen. A panic ensued. The troops in disorder retreated amid an awful slaughter. Dalzell himself was killed and Maj. Robert Rogers assumed command, and the fleeing soldiers were only spared from total destruction by two of the British boats coming to the rescue. About sixty men were killed or wounded. It was known as the Battle of Bloody Bridge. Upon Major Rogers' survivors retreating into the fort the siege was renewed. Pontiac was greatly encouraged over this victory and his Indians showed renewed zeal. The schooner Gladwyn was sent to Niagara for help. On its return it was attacked and its crew and supplies practically destroyed. Another relief expedition under Major Wilkins in September was overwhelmed in a lake storm and seventy soldiers drowned. But even Indian persistency began to tire. The realization that the French were beaten and time only would bring victory to the British led all the tribes, except the Ottawas, to sue for peace. This was October 12. Pontiac could only hold his own tribe in line. The Ottawas sustained their hostility until October 30, when a French messenger arrived from Neyon who reported to Pontiac that he must expect no help from the French, as they were now completely and permanently at peace with the British. Pontiac was advised to quit the war at once. His cause was doomed. The great chief who had so valiantly and unremittently fought for six months, sullenly raised the siege and retired into the country of the Maumee in the vicinity of now Defiance, Ohio, where he vainly endeavored to arouse the Miamis and neighboring tribes to another war upon the invading British. "Though the memorable siege of Detroit, personally conducted by Pontiac, ended in failure to the great chief, his conspiracy TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 121 elsewhere met with unparalleled success. The British posts, planned to be simultaneously attacked and destroyed by the savages were some dozen in number, including besides Detroit: St. Joseph, Michillimackinac, Ouiatenon, Sandusky, Miami, Presque Isle, Niagara, La Boeuf, Venango, Fort Pitt and one or two others of lesser importance. Of all the posts from Niagara and Pitt westward, Detroit alone was able to survive the conspiracy. For the rest there was but one unvaried tale of calamity and ruin. It was a continued series of disasters to the white men. The victories of the savages marked a course of blood from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi. The destruction of Fort Sandusky has already been noted. On May 16 (1763) the Wyandots surrounded the fort and under pretense of a friendly visit, several of them well known to Ensign Pauli, the commander, were admitted. While smoking the pipe of peace the treacherous and trusted Indians suddenly arose, seized Pauli, and held him prisoner while their tribesmen killed the sentry, entered the fort, and in cold blood murdered and scalped the little band of soldiers. The traders in the post were likewise killed and their stores plundered. The stockade was fired and burned to the ground. Pauli was taken to Detroit where he was 'adopted' as the husband of an old widowed squaw, from whose affectionate toils he finally escaped to his friends in the Detroit forts "St. Joseph was located at the mouth of the River St. Joseph, near the southern end of Lake Michigan. This post was the site of a Roman Catholic Mission founded about the year 1700. It had been one of the most prominent French military posts. Ensign Schlosser was in command with a mere handful of soldiers, fourteen in number. On the morning of May 25, the commander was informed that a large party of Pottawattamies had arrived from Detroit 'to visit their relations' and the chief (Washashe) and three or four of his followers wished to hold a 'friendly talk' with the commander. Disarmed of suspicion, the commander Ensign admitted the callers; the result is the oft repeated history. The entering Indians rushed to the gate, tomahawked the sentinel, let in their associates who instantly pounced upon the garrison, killed eleven of the soldiers, plundered the fort and later carried Schlosser and his three surviving companions captives to Detroit. "Fort Michillimackinac was the most important point on the upper lakes, commanding as it did the straits of Mackinac, the passage from Lake Huron into Lake Michigan. Great numbers 6-VOL. 1 122 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY of the Chippewas, in the last of May, began to assemble in the vicinity of the fort, but with every indication of friendliness. June 4, was the King's (George) birthday. It must be celebrated with pastimes. The discipline of the garrison, some thirty-five in number, was relaxed. Many squaws were admitted as visitors into the fort, while their braves engaged in their favorite game of ball just outside the garrison entrance. It was a spirited contest between the Ojibwas and Sacs. Capt. George Etherington, commander of the fort and his lieutenant, Leslie, stood without the palisades to watch the sport. Suddenly the ball was thrown near the open gate and behind the two officers. The Indians pretending to rush for the ball instantly encircled and' seized Etherington and Leslie, and crowded their way into the fort where the squaws supplied them with tomahawks and hatchets, which they had carried in, hidden under their blankets. Quick as a flash, the instruments of death were gleaming in the sunlight and Lieutenant Jamet and fifteen soldiers and a trader were struck down never to rise. The rest of the garrison were made prisoners and five of them afterwards tomahawked. All of the peaceful traders were plundered and carried off. The prisoners were conveyed to Montreal. The French population of the post was undisturbed. Captain Etherington succeeded in sending timely warning to the little garrison at La Bay (Green Bay). Lieutenant Gorrell, the commandant, and his men were brought as prisoners to the Michillimackinac fort and 'thence sent with Etherington and Leslie to the Canadian capital. The little post of Ste. Marie (Sault) had been partially destroyed and abandoned. The garrison inmates had withdrawn to Michillimackinac and shared its fate. "The garrison at Ouiatenon situated on the Wabash—(Indian Ouabache)— near the present location of Lafayette (Indiana) then in the very heart of the western forest, as planned, was to have been massacred on June 1. Through the information given by the French at the post, the soldiers were apprised of their intended fate and through the intervention of the same French friends, the Indians were dissuaded from executing their sanguinary purpose. Lieutenant Jenkins and several of his men were made prisoners by stratagem, the remainder of the' garrison readily surrendered. "On the present site of Fort Wayne (Indiana) was For Miami at the confluence of the rivers St. Joseph and St. Mary, which unite to form the Maumee. The fort at this time was i TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 123 Charge of Ensign Holmes. On May 27, the commander was decoyed from the fort by the story of an Indian girl, that a squaw lay dangerously ill in a wigwam near the stockade, and needed medical assistance. The humane Holmes forgetting his caution on an errand of mercy, walked without the gate and was instantly shot dead. The soldiers in the palisades, seeing the corpse of their leader and hearing the yells and whoopings of the exultant Indians, offered no resistance, admitted the redmen and gladly surrendered on promise of having their lives spared. "Fort Presque Isle stood on the southern shore of Lake Erie at the site of the present town of Erie. The blockhouse, an unusually strong and commodious one, was in command of Ensign Christie with a courageous and skillful garrison of twenty-seven men. Christie learning of the attack on the other posts 'braced up' for his 'visit from the hell hounds' as he appropriately called the enemy. He had not long to wait. On June 15, about two hundred of them put in an appearance from Detroit. They sprang into the ditch around the fort and with reckless audacity approached to the very walls and threw fire-balls of pitch upon the roof and sides of the fortress. Again and again the wooden retreat was on fire, but amid showers of bullets and arrows the flames were extinguished by the fearless soldiers. The savages rolled logs before the fort and erected strong breastworks from behind which they could discharge their shots and throw their fire balls. For nearly three days a terrific contest ensued. The savages finally undermined the palisades to the house of Christie, which was at once set on fire nearly stifling the garrison with the smoke and heat for Christie's quarters were close to the blockhouse. Longer resistance was vain. 'The soldiers pale and haggard, like men who had passed through a fiery furnace, now issued from their scorched and bullet pierced stronghold.' The surrendering soldiers were taken to Pontiac's quarters on the Detroit River. "Three days after the attack on Presque Isle, Fort La Boeuf, twelve miles south of La Boeuf Creek, one of the head sources of the Allegheny River, was surrounded and burned. Ensign Price and a garrison of thirteen men miraculously escaped the flames and the encircling savages, and endeavored to reach Fort Pitt. About half of them succeeded, the remainder died of hunger and privation by the way. "Fort Venango, still farther south on the Allegheny River, as captured by a band of Senecas, who gained entrance by re- 124 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY sorting to the oft employed treachery of pretending friendliness. The entire garrison was butchered, Lieutenant Gordon, the commander, slowly tortured to death and the fort burned to the ground. Not a soul escaped to tell the horrible tale. "Fort Ligonier, another small post commanded by Lieut. Archibald Blane, forty miles southeast of Fort Pitt, was attacked but successfully held out till relieved by Bouquet's expedition. "Thus within a period of about a month from the time the first blow was struck at Detroit, Pontiac was in full possession of nine out of the twelve posts so recently belonging to and, it was thought, securely occupied by the British. The fearful threat of the great Ottawa conspirator that he would exterminate the whites west of the Alleghanies, was well nigh fulfilled. Over two hundred traders with their servants fell victims to his remorseless march of slaughter and rapine, and goods estimated at over half a million dollars became the spoils of the confederated tribes. "The result of Pontiac's widespread and successful uprising struck untold terror to the settlers along the western frontier of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. The savages roused to the highest pitch of fury and weltering in the blood of their victims were burning the cabins and crops of the defenseless whites and massacring the men, women and children. Many hundreds of the forest dwellers with their families flocked to the stockades and protected posts. Particularly in the Pennsylvania country did dread and consternation prevail. The frontiersmen west of the Alleghanies fled east over the mountains to Carlisle and Lancaster, and numbers even continued their flight to Philadelphia. Pontiac was making good his threat that he would drive the paleface back to the sea. "But Forts Niagara and Pitt were still in the possession of the 'red coats' as the British soldiers were often called by the forest 'redskins.' Following the total destruction of La Boeuf and Venango, the Senecas made an attack on Fort Niagara, an extensive work on the east side of Niagara River near its mouth as it empties into Lake Ontario. This fort guarded the access to the whole interior country by way of Canada and the St. Lawrence. The fort was strongly built and fortified and was far from the center of the country of the warpath Indians, for with the exception of the Senecas, the Iroquois tribes inhabiting eastern Canada and New York did not participate in Pontiac's conspiracy. The attack on Fort Niagara therefore was half hearted and after TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 125 a feeble effort the besiegers despaired of success or assistance and abandoned the blockade, which lasted only a few days. "Fort Pitt was the British military headquarters of the western frontier. It was the Gibraltar of defense, protecting the eastern colonies from invasion by the western Indians. The consummation of Pontiac's gigantic scheme depended upon the capture of Fort Pitt. It was a strong fortification at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. Its northern ramparts were faced with brick on the side looking down the Ohio. Fort Pitt stood far aloof in the forest and one might journey eastward full two hundred miles before the English settlements began to thicken.' The garrison consisted of three hundred and thirty soldiers, traders and backwoodsmen, besides about one hundred women and a greater number of children. Captain Simeon Ecuyer, a brave Swiss officer, was in command. Every preparation was made for the expected attack. All houses and cabins outside the palisade were leveled to the ground. A rude fire engine was constructed to extinguish any flames that might be kindled by the burning arrows of the Indians. In the latter part of May the hostile savages began to approach the vicinity of the Fort. On June 22, they opened fire 'upon every side at once.' The garrison replied by a discharge of howitzers, the shells of which bursting in the midst of the Indians, greatly amazed and disconcerted them. The Indians then boldly demanded a surrender of the fort, saying vast numbers of braves were on the way to destroy it. Ecuyer displayed equal bravado and replied that several thousand British soldiers were on the way to punish the tribes for their uprising. The fort was now in a state of siege. For about a month, nothing occurred except a series of petty and futile attacks,' in which the Indians, mostly Ottawas, Ojibwas and Delawares, did small damage. On July 26, under a flag of truce, the besiegers again demanded surrender. It was refused and Ecuyer told the savages that if they again showed themselves near the fort he would throw bombshells amongst them and blow them to atoms. The assault was continued with renewed fury. "Meanwhile Sir Jeffrey Amherst, the commander-in-chief of the British forces, awakening to the gravity of the situation, ordered Colonel Bouquet, a brave and able officer in His Majesty's service, to take command of certain specified forces and proceed as rapidly as possible to the relief of Fort Pitt, and then make aggressive warfare on the western tribes. Bouquet leaving his 126 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY headquarters at Philadelphia, reached Carlisle late in. June, where he heard for the first time of the calamities at Presque Isle, La Boeuf and Venango. He left Carlisle with a force of five hundred men, some of them the pick of the British regulars, but many of them aged veterans enfeebled by disease and long, severe exposure. Bouquet had seen considerable service in Indian war-far. He was not likely to be caught napping. He marched slowly along the Cumberland Valley and crept cautiously over the mountains, passing Forts Loudon and Bedford, the latter surrounded with Indians, to Fort Ligonier which as noted above, had been blockaded for weeks by the savages, who, as at Bedford, fled at Bouquet's approach. On August 5th, the little army, footsore and tired and half famished, reached a small stream within twenty-five miles of Fort Pitt, known as Bushy Run. Here in the afternoon they were suddenly and fiercely fired upon by a superior number of Indians. A terrific contest ensued, only ended by the darkness of night. The encounter was resumed next day; the odds were against the British who were surrounded and were being cut down in great numbers by the Indians who skulked behind trees and logs and in the grass and declivities. Bouquet resorted to a ruse which was signally successful. He formed his men in a wide semi-circle, and from the center advanced a company toward the enemy; the advancing company then made a, feint of retreat, the deceived Indians followed close after and fell into the ambuscade. The outwitted savages were completely routed and fled in hopeless confusion. Bouquet had won one of the greatest victories in western Indian warfare. His loss was about one hundred and fifty men, nearly a third of his army. The loss of the Indians was not so great. As rapidly as possible Bouquet pushed on to Fort Pitt which he entered without molestation on August 25. The extent and the end of Pontiac's conspiracy had at last been reached. The Pennsylvania Assembly, and King George, even, formally thanked Bouquet. "Forts Detroit and Pitt, as has been seen, proved impregnable, neither the evil cunning nor the persistent bravery of the savage Could dislodge the occupants of those important posts. The siege of Detroit had been abandoned by the combined forces of Pontiac but the country round about continued to be infested with the hostile Indians, who kept up a sort of petty bushwhacking campaign that compelled the soldiers and traders of the fort, for safety, to remain 'in doors' during the winter of 1763-64. Bouquet on gaining Fort Pitt, desired to pursue the marauding- and TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 127 murderous savages to their forest retreats and drive them hence, but he was unable to accomplish anything until the following year." With the events following, Randall further says that "the sudden and surprising victories of Pontiac were being rapidly undone. The great Ottawa chief saw his partially accomplished scheme withering into ignominious failure. Sullen, disappointed, consumed with humiliation and revenge, he withdrew from active prominence to his forest wigwam. He sought the banks of the Maumee, scene of his birth and the location of the villages of many tribes who were his sympathetic adherents. He did not participate in any of the councils held by Bradstreet and the chiefs. 'His vengeance was unslaked and his purpose unshaken.' But his glory was growing dim and his power was withering into dust. From the scenes of his promising but short lived triumphs, he retired into the country of the Illinois and the Mississippi. He tried to arouse the aid of the French. He gathered a band of four hundred warriors on the Maumee and with these faithful followers revisited the western tribes in hopes of creating another confederation. Not even would the southern tribes respond to his appeals. All was lost. His allies were falling off, his followers, discouraged, were deserting him. Again and again he went back to his chosen haunts and former faithful followers on the Maumee. But his day had passed. "In the spring of 1766 Pontiac met Sir William Johnson at Oswego. In his peace speech at that time he said : 'I speak in the name of all the nations westward, of whom I am the master. It is the will of the Great Spirit that we should meet here today; and before him I now take you by the hand. I call him to witness that I speak from my heart; for since I took Colonel Croghan by the hand last year, I have never let go my hold, for I see that the Great Spirit will have us friends. Moreover, when our great father of France was in this country, I held him fast by the hand. Now that he is gone, I take you, my English Father, by the hand, in the name of all the nations, and promise to keep this covenant as long as I shall live.' "But he did not speak from the heart, on the contrary only from the head. Leaving the Oswego conference, his canoe laden with the gifts of his enemy, Pontiac steered homeward for the Maumee; and in that vicinity he spent the following winter. From now on for some two years the great Ottawa chief disappeared as if lost in the forest depths. 128 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY "In April, 1769, he is found at Fort St. Louis on the west side of the Mississippi, where he gave himself mainly to the temporary oblivion of 'fire-water,' the dread destroyer of his race. He was wont to cross the Father of Waters to the fort on the British side at Cahokia, where he would revel with the friendly Creoles. In one of these visits, in the early morning, after drinking deeply he strode with uncertain step into the adjacent forest. He was arrayed in the uniform of a French officer, which apparel had been given him many years before by the Marquis of Montcalm. His footsteps were stealthily dogged by a Kaskaskia Indian, who in the silence and seclusion of the forest, at an opportune moment, buried the blade of a tomahawk in the brain of the Ottawa conqueror, the champion of his race. The murderer had been bribed to the heinous act by a British trader named Williamson who thought to thus rid his country (England) of a dangerous foe. The unholy price of the assassination was a barrel of liquor. It was supposed the Illinois, Kaskaskia, Peoria and Cahokia Indians were more or less guilty as accomplices in the horrible deed. That an Illinois Indian was guilty of the act was sufficient. The Sacs and Foxes and other western tribes friendly to Pontiac and his cause, were aroused to furious revenge. They went upon the warpath against the Illinois Indians. A relentless war ensued, and says Parkman, 'over the grave of Pontiac more blood was poured out in atonement than flowed from the veins of the slaughtered heroes on the corpse of Patroclus.' "The body of the murdered chief was borne across the river and buried near Fort St. Louis. No monument ever marked the resting place of the great hero and defender of his people." In his "Story of Detroit" in speaking of Pontiac, George B. Catlin, librarian of the Detroit News, writes as follows: "For three years he roved the west like a lost soul. Indian outbreaks occurred but he remained aloof. He was still feared and hated for his past deeds; distrusted by the French because he was an English pensioner and feared by the British traders who still remembered the story of Detroit. In the summer of 1769 he was at Cahokia on the Mississippi. The Indians of the neighborhood indulged in a wild orgy of drunkenness and when Pontiac left the feast dazed with liquor a Kaskaskian Indian followed him into the forest, crept up behind him and drove his hatchet into his brain. The murder was said to have been instigated by a British fur trader who hated Pontiac, and the price was said to have been a jug of rum." CHAPTER XVII EXPEDITION OF BRADSTREET INDIANS STILL HOSTILE-RAID BORDER SETTLEMENTS-BRADSTREET VISITS SANDUSKY COUNTRY AND DETROIT-CAMPED AT NOW FREMONT-ISRAEL PUTNAM CONSPICUOUS FIGURE-OLD NEUTRAL TOWNS THERE-FAMOUS TOUR OF CAPTAIN THOMAS MORRIS IN MAUMEE REGION. The beginning of the year 1764 found the Ohio Indian tribes that had been allied with Pontiac in his well planned conspiracy still bitterly hostile to the English. The plot had failed of accomplishment, but the savage spirit had not been subdued and the Indians fighting for the retention of their lands continued their onslaughts and raids into the border settlements. Therefore it was determined, "in the interests of advancing civilization" to take the necessary steps for their subugation. Gen. Thomas Gage, the successor of Jeffrey Amherst as commander-in-chief of the British army in America, for this purpose planned two separate expeditions; one headed by Col. John Bradstreet and the other under Col. Henry Bouquet. Bradstreet was to discipline the Indians located in the territory along the south shore of Lake Erie and relieve Detroit, and Bouquet was to subdue the tribes farther toward the interior. Leaving Albany Bradstreet, gathering some 2,000 men, reached Fort Niagara in June, 1764, coming by way of Lake Ontario. One of Bradstreet's officers was the distinguished Col. Israel Putnam Who was in command of a Connecticut detachment. Col. James Montresor was the engineer and road-builder. At Niagara was Sir William Johnson, the English Indian agent who had called together the Indians of the various tribes which nearly equaled the forces of Bradstreet. But the Delawares and Shawnees of the Ohio region were conspicuous for their absence. The Pontiac affair was too fresh in their memory. However, they sent representatives from their villages on the Muskingum and the Scioto stating that they were willing to make peace, adding disdainfully that it was however, not because they feared the English. Goods and presents to the value of several thousands of dollars, one report says over a million, were distributed at the - 129 - 130 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY conference, and evidently aided by Johnson, the Indians present after several days concluded peace with Bradstreet. Being liberally supplied with rum, they yielded all that was asked, including the reestablishment of Michilimackinac and the establishment of a post on the northwest side of the Niagara River at the lower end of Lake Erie. The conference concluded, Bradstreet proceeded on his journey, and on Lake Erie was by a storm obliged to land at Presque Isle (Erie, Pennsylvania), where he was visited by ten Indian commissioners from the Delawares and Shawnees, who represented that they had also come to make peace for their tribes. This as proved later was simply a ruse to deceive Bradstreet and to gain time for intended hostilities, but Bradstreet readily fell into the scheme. Although his Indian allies declared these delegates were spies and demanded their execution, he agreed to abandon his plans for the invasion and chastisement of these Indians of the interior, on condition that within twenty-five days they deliver at Lower Sandusky all white prisoners in their possession, surrender all claims to the English posts in their territory and further, wherever the English interests demanded, give them the right to build posts. To all this the Indian commission ers readily agreed and Bradstreet added to the farce by sending word to Bouquet at Fort Pitt that he need proceed no farther with his troops on his mission, as. he, Bradstreet, had already subjugated the Delawares and Shawnees and made a treaty of peace. Congratulating himself upon his diplomacy and success, with his force now augmented to near 2,300, over half of which were, regular troops, the flotilla consisting of two vessels, the Mohawk and Johnson, and seventy-five long boats and unnumbered other smaller craft, on August 18, arrived at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River and thence reached Sandusky Bay. From this point Bradstreet had been ordered to proceed to the chastisement of the Wyandots, Miamis and Ottawas near this section. But once more with the promise that they follow him to Detroit to enter into peace negotiations, without raising his hand against the Indians identified with Pontiac's conspiracy, Bradstreet continued to the mouth of the River Raisin, where on account of a severe northeaster, the forces were obliged to unload most of their craft and haul them on shore, thus spending the night of August 26 at this point. Reloading their boats the following morning, Montresor, who TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 131 kept a journal of the expedition, in his account says that "on arrival near the fort (Detroit) we were saluted from thence and the vessels which (cannon salute) was returned from our guns." The reception by the beleaguered garrison at the fort was hilarious beyond description. Cheer after cheer arose from the soldiers mounting the palisades, and the whoops of the Indians friendly to the relief party added to the din. The weary troops within were speedily relieved by fresh detachments and the meeting once more of long parted friends who had passed through earlier campaigns and frontier hardships, was truly dramatic. Col. Israel Putnam and Major Gladwyn had been at Crown Point and Ticonderoga together, and Montresor and others had experienced in common the dangers of forest explorations and knew the thrill of comradeship. As to the great conspirator, Randall in writing of the event said that "Pontiac was not one of the Ottawas to shout for joy at Bradstreet's entry. His vengeance unslacked, his hostility unabated and his hope unbroken, he had betaken himself to the Maumee country of his nativity and from there hurled back haughty defiance at the English commander, who at once summoned a council of the Detroit tribes." This story of Pontiac is of more interest to Northwestern Ohio from the fact that his birthplace is recorded to have been near the junction of the Maumee and Auglaize rivers (Defiance section) and that at the time of the dramatic parley at Detroit, he was at Roche de Boeuf on the Maumee above present Waterville, Montresor's diary of September 5, 1764, tells of the council sitting in the open space adjoining the Detroit fort and says: "Sat this day the Indian council, present the Jibbeways, Shawnese, Hurons of Sandusky and the Five Nations of the Scioto, with all the several nations of friendly Indians accompanying the army. The Pottawattomies had not yet arrived. Pondiac declined appearing here until his pardon should be granted. This day Pondiac was forgiven in council, who is at present two days march above the Castle on the Miami River called la Roche de But, with a party of six or more savages." Parkman gives his story of the parley. The Pottawattomies appeared later, there being present also the Wyandots, Miamis and Sacs. Bradstreet refused to grant the Indian peace over tures unless the tribes would agree to become English subjects and call the king of England "father" the term they had there, tofore applied to the king of France, while the English were 132 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY known as "brothers." To all of Bradstreet's demands the Indians readily agreed. Some writers convey the idea that the members of the tribes present, little comprehended all that they were assenting to. The facts apparently were that they understood and that their purpose was to agree to any demands Bradstreet made with no idea of keeping faith with him. His work at Detroit after some three weeks, coming to a close with apparent satisfaction, Bradstreet with his forces, in sixty long boats and a barge, returned to Sandusky where he expected the chiefs of the Shawnees and Delawares to meet him as promised by the alleged representatives at the Detroit conference. According to Montresor's journal, "news soon arrived (at Detroit) that the Delawares and Shawnees are assembled at Sandusky, where the old fort stood, in order to treat with us for peace" and "Bradstreet's troops entered Sandusky Lake or Bay" September 18, and "encamped on a good clay bank half a mile west of the spot where sixteen months before, Pondiac had butchered the English garrison and burned the Fort." Indians soon appeared and promised that if Bradstreet would spare the Indian villages they would make a definite treaty of peace and give up all prisoners in their possession. In consequence, Bradstreet desisted and after waiting seven days, he "proceeded up the Sandusky River to the village of the Hurons and Wyandots, which had been destroyed by Captain Dalzell the preceding year. Bradstreet's whole force proceeded and encamped one mile below the rapids of the Sandusky River. Maj. Israel Putnam served as field officer for the picket and presided at a General Court Martial at his own tent to try all prisoners brought before him." Thus honored was this spot on the banks of the Sandusky, within present Fremont, by the presence of this later hero at Bunker Hill. Montresor "took a sketch and bearing of that advantageous and beautiful situation and the meanderings of the river" and further observed that "the left of our encampment is contiguous to the remains of an old fort where the Delawares and some of the western Indians took post to shelter themselves against the Iroquois near one hundred years ago, constructed in the form of a circle three hundred yards in circumference, one half defended by the river and a remarkable hollow way or gully, which covers the left and part of the front of our present encampment." This story seems almost to tell of a connecting link between the Mound Builders and the historic Indians. And here a force in command of Putnam, from the TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 133 plans of Montresor, built a fortified encampment. The location extended from the elevation on the river bank, around the present Sandusky County fair grounds, known as the Israel Putnam Agricultural Park, to the site of Fort Stephenson The tradition has been handed down that there were two fortified neutral towns here. One on the west and the other on the east bank of the Sandusky, evidences of which in the shape of earthworks were visible to and described by the early settlers of Fremont. Maj. B. F. Stickney, Indian agent in Northwestern Ohio and who figured prominently in the early history of Toledo, especially during the Ohio-Michigan boundary dispute, in a historical address delivered in Toledo in 1845, said that the Wyandots had given him an account of these two towns; that some time, perhaps early in the seventeenth century, all the Indians west of the Sandusky were at war with the Indians of this point. There were two walled towns here, constructed near each other, inhabited by Indians of Wyandot origin. All of the western people might enter the western town and all the eastern people the village on the east. The people of one town were permitted to inform those of the other town that war parties were there; but anything more as to who they were or where they were from must not be divulged. It was claimed for these neutral villages that during the entire period of contests previous to and after the advent of the whites, during which the Iroquois contended for victory and their enemies for life, this band of Wyandots preserved their integrity as neutrals and peacemakers. "All who met at their threshold met as friends" and this nation of peacemakers was yet here when the French missionaries penetrated to the upper lakes more than two centuries ago. These villages were in the end destroyed by internal strife. Returning to Bradstreet, small parties of Indians came in with the pretensions of making peace, but little was accomplished. September 24, the army departed from this historic ground, passed down the Sandusky and nearly a mile above where the old French fort was located on the portage between the bay and the lake at the mouth of the Portage River, made camp. While the ground was being cleared for a fort and men under the direction of Putnam were cutting timber and throwing up enbankments for a stockade, Bradstreet was still parleying with the Wiley Indians. According to Montresor, among the chiefs who arrived for a conference were Assarrigoa of the Caughnawagas, Monitou of the Ottawas, Killbuck of the Delawares and Caption, 134 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY King of the Oneidas. Others came in from long distances to "talk about peace while plotting war" thus deceiving Bradstreet and even among themselves making accusations of duplicity. While the turmoil was on, Bradstreet received specific orders from General Gage to carry out the original plans of an attack upon the Indians south on the Scioto Plains and then form a junction with Colonel Bouquet,. who was on his way to the Muskingum Forks (Coshocton) from Fort Pitt. Making the excuse that the season was too far advanced for such a project and abandoning the completion of the fort and stockade at the carrying-place between the bay and the lake, according to Montresor, on the morning of October 18, at half-past eight o'clock the whole army consisting of 1,400 men with 150 Indians, embarked for Niagara in fifty-nine long boats, one barge and nine birch-bark canoes. The army, a little distance on their journey, were joined by 150 light infantry commanded by Major Daly, who had left camp ahead of the main force. The description of their voyage shows that it was precarious and accompanied by many dangers from storms and rough weather on the lake as they hugged the shore as closely as prudence allowed. Many boats were destroyed and others rendered almost unseaworthy. Many of the troopers had narrow escapes from drowning including Colonel Putnam who spoke of the campaign with deprecation. It was November 4 that the main force of the expedition reached Niagara. By way of Lake Ontario the whole army arrived at Albany November 19, 1764. The campaign was not totally without results. It occupied the attention of the Indians and showed them at least that the English army had its numbers. There was some accomplishment at Detroit and a moral effect was produced upon the Indians around the upper lake posts. It could hardly be said that Bradstreet's failure at the Sandusky, more than offset his accomplishments, although most historians write down his expedition as a farce. Before passing on to the next phase of this narrative, mention will be made of the serious experiences of Capt. Thomas Morris as an adjunct to the expedition of Bradstreet. Morris knew Indian life and was sent from Bradstreet's camp at Cedar Point, mouth of the Maumee, as an ambassador of peace to the Indians along the Maumee, Wabash and Illinois. As an interpreter, he was by Bradstreet offered the services of Jacques Godefroy, a French Canadian who had been captured by Bradstreet and who TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 135 in May, 1763, was the leader of the raiders who murdered Ensign Holmes and destroyed Fort Miami at the head of the Maumee (Fort Wayne) as a part of the plot of Pontiac. Naturally, when captured, Godefroy expected his fate would be death and was much elated when Morris accepted his services. He considered that Morris had saved his life and as later events show, he in return saved the life of Morris. Other members of the embassy were a second Canadian, two servants, twelve Indian allies, and five Mohawks in a boat with the provisions who were to accompany the party up the river to the Rapids, [between now Maumee and Perrysburg—Editor] and then return to the camp. There were also with Morris, Warsong, a renowned Chippewa chief, and Attawang, an Ottawa chief. The party, according to the account written by Morris himself, "set out in good spirits from Cedar Point, Lake Erie, on the 26th of August, 1764, at four o'clock in the afternoon, at the same time the army (Bradstreet) proceeded to Detroit." Passing up the Maumee by boats, they came near to the camp of the great Pontiac. Just where this camp was located is indefinite. Pontiac at least a short time before had been in the vicinity of Roche de Boeuf in the Maumee, but had possibly moved up the river and with his followers had established himself, as one writer says, "five or six miles from the Maumee probably northeast of now Defiance." Ending their river journey for the time being, the Morris party procured three horses from an Ottawa chief, which Captain Morris, Godefroy and the other Canadian rode at the front, bearing the British flag. Near Pontiac's camp, the delegation was met by several hundred of his Indians who crowded about to separate the party, struck the horses and made other demonstrations of disfavor. Pontiac himself held aloof at the edge of his camp and sullenly refused the ordinary greetings. A French renegade in the uniform of a French officer, calling himself St. Vincent came to the front and ostentatiously made himself most disagreeable. Finally asking Morris to dismount, the two seated themselves on a bearskin, with Godefroy near at hand closely watching the movements of the Indians who in circles several deep crowded about. "Presently came Pontiac and squatted himself after his fashion opposite Morris. He opened the interview by observing that the English were liars, and demanded of the ambassador if he had come to lie to them like the rest." A letter was shown and read which purported as coming from the king of France by way of New Orleans, addressed to Pontiac. 136 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY It stated that "Your Father, (the French king) is neither dead nor asleep ; he is already on his way with sixty ships to revenge himself upon the English and drive them out of America." Its reading renewed the Indian excitement and St. Vincent took it upon himself to guard Captain Morris to his own wigwam. The following day a council was held with the Ottawas who became drunk and threatened to kill Morris and only desisted from carrying out their threats when Pontiac told them that the life of an ambassador must be held as sacred. Parkman remarks that Pontiac's speech did him honor and was evidence that he was asquainted with the law of nations. Pontiac told Godefroy—"I will lead the nations to war no more. Let them be at peace if they choose; but I will never be a friend to the English. I shall be a wanderer in the woods; and if they come there to seek me, I will shoot at them while I have an arrow left." The situation became more precarious when a Mohawk chief of the Morris party stole everything available including two barrels of rum belonging to the captain, which he bartered to the Indians and disappeared. In the drunken orgies following, an attack was made on Morris by a chief with a knife, but Godefroy warded off the blow aimed at the heart. In the melee, Morris first concealed himself under a mattress and then fled to a cornfield. After the Ottawas became sober, Pontiac permitted the visitors to resume their journey up the Maumee. From the fact that the company had much trouble in getting their boats over "the stony shallows" on account of the low stage of the water, it would seem that Pontiac's camp might have been below the Maumee upper rapids. Five days after Morris left Pontiac, the party came upon an Indian riding a fine white horse which the savage told them had belonged to General Braddock and was taken by the Indians at his memorable 1755 defeat. Seven days from Pontiac's camp, they reached the head of the Maumee, on their way to the Illinois. They were accompanied a part of the way by a nephew of Pontiac and two Ottawas. While Captain Morris remained complacently in his canoe reading "Antony and Cleopatra" from a volume of Shakespeare presented to him by a chief at Pontiac's camp, who may have obtained it the way the Indian came into possession of Brad-dock's horse, the balance of the party started up the left bank of the St. Joseph River towards Fort Miami. They were met before they reached the stockade by the Indians supplied with bows and TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 137 arrows, tomahawks, spears and other weapons; thus being prepared to take and torture "the Englishman." The delay in finding Captain Morris, probably saved his life again. In the meantime the chiefs of his party exerting a friendly influence, neutralized the wrath of the hostiles. When the Captain was discovered, with rough handling and many indignities, he was led to the fort occupied by a few French and Indians. The fort was in bad condition ; having been without a garrison of troops for several months. As two Indians bearing tomahawks led him through the St. Joseph, then at low water mark, Morris counted the time his last, either by being tomahawked and scalped or by drowning. He was stripped of his clothing and his arms were bound behind him with his own sash. Thus they drove Morris before them into the village, the Indians flocking around him as they disputed as to his method of dispatch. Godefroy, practicing the greatest equanimity and keeping close at hand, spoke words of encouragement. He finally induced the nephew of Pontiac to plead for the Captain's release, at the same time telling the Indians that if they killed Morris the English would retaliate by dispatching the Miamis held as prisoners at Detroit. This statement evidently had some effect, as a chief of the Miamis proceeded to untie the sash which bound the prisoner's arms and gave him a pipe to smoke. This angered the chief White Cat, who snatched the pipe and bound Morris by the neck to a stake. Of this climax Morris wrote : "I had not the smallest hope of life and I remember that I conceived myself as if going to plunge into a gulf, vast, immeasurable; and that in a few moments after, the thought of torture occasioned a sort of stupor and insensibility. I looked at Godefroy, and, seeing him exceedingly distressed, I said what I could to encourage him. But he desired me not to speak (I suppose it gave offense to the savages) and therefore I was silent. Then Pacanne, chief of the Miami nation, and just out of his minority, having mounted a horse and crossed the river, rode up to me. When I heard him calling to those about me, and felt his hand behind my neck, I thought he was going to strangle me out of pity; but he untied me saying, as it was afterward interpreted to me—`I give that man his life. If you want English meat, go to Detroit, or to the lake, and you will find enough. What business have you with this man's flesh, who is come to speak with us?' I fixed my eyes 138 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY steadfastly on this young man and endeavored by looks to express my gratitude." At this, another pipe was handed Morris and he was soon sent out of the village, but was struck by a club and whip as he made his way to the fort. He was placed in a garret by a Frenchman and befriended by two squaws. Some of the Miamis and Kickapoos still declared they would kill him. Captain Morris said that he was told by his Canadian friends that the strong feeling against him was caused by the arrival of Delaware and Shawnee messengers with a large number of war-belts to incite the Indians to renewed hostilities against the British. This was at the same time that the Indian commissioners were making agreements of peace at Detroit. Being convinced that to proceed farther on his mission would mean sure death, still beset by dangers at every turn, Captain Morris arrived at Detroit September 17, 1764. He had made one of the most perilous journeys of frontier times. CHAPTER XVIII EXPEDITION OF COLONEL HENRY BOUQUET SETS OUT FROM FORT PITT TO SUBDUE THE INDIANS-GLOWING DESCRIPTION OF HIS WESTWARD JOURNEY-MEETS LEADING CHIEFS NEAR PRESENT COSHOCTON- INDIANS MAKE PEACE AND SURRENDER WHITE PRISONERS-SCENES AT THE SURRENDER-SUCCESS OF EXPEDITION. Why did one commander fail and another succeed in Indian warfare, with practically equal chances of success? Men of apparent equal ability; men equally versed in military tactics; men who had proven equally successful in civilized combats; men of equal bravery, fearlessness and courage? Evidently it was largely due to the lack of comprehension of the Indian character, his methods of warfare and the failure to appreciate the savage as a worthy foe when met in situations wherein he was trained to maneuver; fighting to retain a foothold in the forests and on the streams, the land of his birthright. Believing himself justified in going to any extreme, making any promise to be violated if circumstances warranted; considering a lie justifiable, duplicity no crime and treachery not dishonorable. He was like a cornered animal of the wilds fighting for his life, the very existence of his race, knowing no law in dispatching his foe. When General Gage ordered Bradstreet and Bouquet into Ohio country to chastise and subdue the Indians and cause them to deliver up their white captives, he expected both expeditions to be crowned with success. The story of Bradstreet has been told and that of Colonel Henry Bouquet follows. With his victory at Bushy Run told about and the siege of Fort Pitt raised, there was great rejoicing in the frontier settlements and many of the fugitive pioneers who had fled from the danger zone were quick to return and take possession of their abandoned cabins. "By comparing notes they were soon able to make out an accurate list of those who were missing, either killed or prisoners among the various tribes, and it was found to contain the names of more than two hundred men, women and children. Fathers mourned their daughters slain or subject to a captivity worse than death; husbands their wives left mangled in - 139 - 140 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY the forest or forced into the embraces of their savage captors, some with their babes at their breast, and some whose offspring would first see the light in the red man's wigwam." Bouquet had hoped to follow up his success immediately and march into the enemy's country, but the season was too far advanced and he had not mustered sufficient forces for the attempt. Consequently he spent the winter (1763-1764) at Fort Pitt. During this season, under orders, he matured the plans for his advance and as soon as spring opened began to raise a sufficient force to make victory certain on his campaign and bring the Indians to terms. In the meantime the Indians had been supplied with ammunition by the French and as soon as winter began to wane, those west of the Muskingum again started their raids along the frontier "killing, scalping and taking prisoners—men, women and children." The most authentic account of the expedition of Bradstreet extant was written by Dr. William Smith, Provost of the College of Philadelphia, and published in 1765. This account was rewritten for "Graham's History of Coshocton County," giving the locations of events at a later date and is selected for this narrative. "Bouquet could muster scarcely 500 men of the regular army, mostly Highlanders of the Forty-second and Sixtieth Regiments, but Pennsylvania [after much delay—Editor] at her own expense furnished 1,000 militia and Virginia a corps of volunteers. With this imposing force he was directed to march against the Delawares, Mohicans, and Mingoes ; while Colonel Bradstreet, from Detroit, should advance into the territory of the Wyandots, Ottawas, and Chippewas; and thus, by one great simultaneous movement crush those warlike tribes. Bouquet's route, however, was without any water communication whatever, but lay directly through the heart of an unbroken wilderness. The expedition, from beginning to end, was to be carried on without boats, wagons, or artillery, and without a post to fall back upon in case of disaster. The army was to be an isolated thing, a self-supporting machine. "Although the preparations commenced early in the spring, difficulties and delays occurred in carrying them forward, so that the troops that were ordered to assemble at Carlisle did not get ready to march till the 5th of August, 1764. Four days after they were drawn up on parade, and addressed in a patriotic TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 141 speech by the governor of the state. This ceremony being finished, they turned their steps toward the wilderness, followed by the cheers of the people. Passing over the bloody field at Bushy Run, which still bore the marks of the sharp conflict that took place there the year before, they pushed on, unmolested by the Indians, and entered Fort Pitt on the 13th of September. "In the meantime a company of Delawares visited the fort, and informed Bouquet that Colonel Bradstreet had formed a treaty of peace with them and the Shawnees. Bouquet gave no credit to the story, and went on with his preparations. To set the matter at rest, however, he offered to send an express to Detroit if they would furnish guides and safe conduct, saying he would give it ten days to go and ten to return. "This they agreed to; but, unwilling to trust their word alone, he retained ten of their number as hostages, whom he declared he would shoot if the express came to any harm. Soon after other Indians arrived, and endeavored to persuade him not to advance till the express should return. Suspecting that their motive was to delay him till the season was too far advanced to move at all, he turned a deaf ear to their solicitation, saying that the express could meet him on his march; and, if it was true, as they said, that peace was concluded, they would receive no harm from him. So, on the 3d of October, under a bright autumnal sky, the imposing little army of 1,500 men defiled out of the fort, and taking the great Indian trail westward boldly entered the wilderness. The long train of pack-horses and immense droves of sheep and cattle that accompanied it gave to it the appearance of a huge caravan, slowly threading its way amidst the endless colonades of the forest. Only one woman was allowed to each corps, and two for general hospital. "This expedition, even in early history, was a novel one; for, following no water-course, it struck directly into the trackless forest, with no definite point in view and no fixed limit to its advance. It was intended to overawe by its magnitude; to move as an exhibition of awful power into the very heart of the red man's dominions. Expecting to be shut up in the forest at least a month, and receive in that time no supplies from without, it had to carry along an immense quantity of provisions. Meat, of course, could not be preserved, and so the frontier settlements were exhausted of sheep and oxen to move on with it for its support. These necessarily caused its march to be slow and methodical. A corps of Virginia volunteers went in advance, preceded by 142 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY three scouting parties, one of which kept the path, while the other two moved in a line abreast on either side to explore the woods. Under cover of these the axe companies, guarded by two companies of light infantry, cut two parallel paths, one each side of the main path, for the troops, pack-horses, and cattle that were to follow. First marched the Highlanders, in column two deep in the centre path, and in the side paths in single file abreast, the men six feet apart; and behind them the corps of reserve and the second battalion of Pennsylvania militia. Then came the officers and pack-horses, followed by the vast droves of cattle, filling the forest with their loud complainings. A company of light horse walked slowly after these, and the rear guard closed the long array. No talking was allowed, and no music cheered the way. When the order to halt passed along the line the whole were to face outward, and the moment the signal of attack sounded to form a hollow square, into the centre of which pack-horses, ammunition, and cattle were to be hurried, followed by the light horse. "In this order the unwieldy caravan struggled on through the forest, neither extremity of which could be seen from the centre, it being lost amidst the thickly clustering trunks and foliage in the distance. The first day the expedition made only three miles. The next, after marching two miles, it came to the Ohio, and moved down its gravelly beach six miles and a half, when it again struck into the forest, and, making seven miles, encamped. The sheep and cattle, which kept up an incessant bleating and lowing that could be heard more than a mile, were placed far in the rear at night and strongly guarded. "Tuesday, October 5, the march led across a level country, covered with stately timber and with but little underbrush, so that paths were easily cut, and the army made ten miles before camping. The next day it again struck the Ohio, but followed it only half a mile when it turned abruptly off, and crossing a high ridge over which the cattle were urged with great difficulty, found itself on the banks of Big Beaver Creek. The stream wa deep for fording, with a rough, rocky bottom, and high, steep banks; The current was, moreover, strong and rapid; so that, although the soldiers waded across without material difficulty, they had great trouble in getting the cattle safely over. The sheep were compelled to swim, and being borne down by the rapid current landed, bleating, in scattered squads along the steep banks, and were collected together again only after a long effort. Keeping down the stream they at length reached its TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 143 mouth, where they found some deserted Indian huts, which the Indians with them said had been abandoned the year before, after the battle of Bushy Run. Two miles farther on they came upon the skull of a child stuck upon a pole. "There was a large number of men in the army who had wives, children, and friends, prisoners among the Indians, who had accompanied the expedition for the purpose of recovering them. To these the skull of this little child brought sad reflections. Some one among them was perhaps its father, while the thought that it might stand as an index to tell the fate of all that had been captured made each one shudder. As they looked on it, bleached by the winds and rain, the anxious heart asked questions it dared not answer. The next day was Sunday, but the camp broke up at the usual hour, and the army resumed its slow march. During the clay it crossed a high ridge, from the top of which one of those wondrous scenes found nowhere but in the American wilderness burst on their view. A limitless expanse of forest stretched away till it met the western heavens, broken only here or there by a dark gash or seam, showing where, deep down amidst the trees, a river was pursuing its solitary way to the Ohio, or an occasional glimpse of the Ohio itself, as in its winding course it came in line of vision. In one direction the treetops would extend, miles upon miles, a vast flooring of foliage, level as the bosom of a lake, and then break into green billows, that went rolling gently against the cloudless horizon. In another lofty ridges rose, crowned with majestic trees, at the base of which swamps of dark fir trees, refusing the bright beams of the October sun, that flooded the rest of the wilderness, made a pleasing contrast of light and shade. The magnificent scene was new to officers and men, and they gazed on it in rapture and wonder. "Keeping on their course they came, two days after, to a point where the Indian path they had been following so long divided—the two branches leading off at a wide angle. The trees at the forks were covered with hieroglyphics describing the various battles the Indians had fought, and telling the number of scalps they had taken, etc. This point was in the southern part of the present county of Columbiana. The trails were both plainly marked and much travelled. The right-hand trail took a general course northwest toward Sandusky, and led to that place and on to Detroit; the course of the left-hand trail was generally southwest, and passed through the counties of Carroll and Tuscarawas, striking the Tuscarawas River in the latter county, 144 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY down which it followed, on the south side, to now Coshocton, and crossing the Muskingum a few miles below the site of Coshocton continued down the west side of the Muskingum at Dresden, where it crossed the Wakatomika and entered Licking County; passing across that county to the present reservoir continued on southwest to the Indian towns on the Scioto. "Colonel Bouquet took the right-hand trail, which he followed until he reached the Tuscarawas River, when he left it and turned southward along that stream. The path selected by the army was so overgrown with bushes that every foot of the way had to be cleared with the axe. It led through low, soft ground, and was frequently crossed by narrow, sluggish rivulets, so deep and miry that the pack-horses could not be forced across them, After several attempts to do so, in which the animals became so thoroughly imbedded in the mud that they had to be lifted out with main force, they halted, while the artificers cut down trees and poles and made bridges. This was the hardest day's toil to which they had been subjected, and with their utmost efforts they were able to accomplish but five miles. "On Thursday, the 11th, the forest was open, and so clear of undergrowth that they made seventeen miles. Friday, the 12th, the path led along the banks of Yellow Creek, through a beautiful country of rich bottom land on which the Pennsylvanians and Virginians looked with covetous eyes, and made a note for future reference. The next day they crossed it, and ascending a swell of land marched two miles in view of one of the loveliest prospects the sun ever shone upon. There had been. two or three frosty nights, which had changed the whole aspect of the forest. Where, a few days before, an ocean of green had rolled away, there now was spread a boundless carpet, decorated with an endless variety of the gayest colors, and lighted up by the mellow rays of an October sun. Long strips of yellow, vast masses of green, waving lines of red, wandering away and losing themselves in the blue of the distant sky—immense spaces sprinkled with every imaginable hue, now separated clear and distinct as if by a painter's brush, and now shading gradually into each other, or mingling in inextricable, beautiful confusion, combined to form a scene that appeared more like a wondrous vision suddenly unrolled before them, than this dull earth. A cloudless sky and the dreamy haze of Indian summer, overarching and enrobing all this beauty and splendor, completed the picture and left nothing for the imagination to suggest. TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 145 "At length they descended to a small river, which they followed till it joined the main branch of. the Muskingum ( Tuscarawas) , where a scene of a very different character greeted them. A little below and above the forks the shores had been cultivated and lined with Indian houses. The place was called 'Tuscaroras,' and for beauty of situation could not well be surpassed. The high, luxuriant banks, the placid rivers meeting and flowing on together, the green fields sprinkled with huts and bordered with the rich autumnal foliage, all basking in the mellow October light, and so out of the way there in the wilderness, combined to form a sweet picture, and was doubly lovely to them after having been so long shut up in the forest. "They reached this beautiful spot Saturday afternoon, October 13, and the next day being Sunday they remained in camp, and men and cattle were allowed a day of rest. The latter revived under the smell of green grass once more, and roaming over the fields gave a still more civilized aspect to the quiet scene. During the day the two messengers that had been sent to Detroit came into camp, accompanied by their Indian guides. The report they brought showed the wisdom of Bouquet in refusing to delay his march until their return. They had not been allowed to pursue their journey, but were held close prisoners by the Delawares until the arrival of the army-, when, alarmed for their own safety, they released them and made them bearers of a petition for peace. "The next day, Monday, the army moved two miles farther down the Tuscarawas, and encamped on a high bank, where the stream was 300 feet wide, within the present limits of Tuscarawas County, where it remained in camp about a week. On Tuesday six chiefs came into camp, saying that all the rest were eight miles off waiting to make peace. Bouquet told them he would be ready to receive them the next day. In the meantime he ordered a large bower to be built a short distance from the camp, while sentinels were posted in every direction to prevent surprise, in case treachery was meditated. "The next day, the 17th, he paraded the Highlanders and Virginian volunteers, and, escorted by the light horse, led them to the bower, where he disposed them in the most imposing manner, so as to impress the chiefs in the approaching interview. The latter, as they emerged from the forest, were conducted with great ceremony to the bower, which they entered with their accustomed gravity; and without saying a word quietly seated 146 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY themselves and commenced smoking. When they had finished they laid aside their pipes, and drew from their pouches strings of wampum. The council being thus opened they made a long address, laying the whole blame of the war on the young men, whom they said they could not control. Bouquet, not wishing to appear eager to come to a settlement, replied that he would give his answer the next day; and the council broke up. The next day, however, a pouring storm prevented the meeting of council until the day following. Bouquet's answer was long and conciliatory, but the gist of it was he would make peace on one condition and no other—that the Indians should give up all the prisoners in their possession within ten days. The Indians present at this council were Ki-yash-uta, chief of the Senecas, with fifteen warriors; Custaloga, chief of the Wolf tribe of Delawares, and Beaver, chief of the Turkey tribe of the Delawares, with twenty warriors; and Keissi-nautchtha, as chief of the Shawnees, with six warriors. "Monday, October 22, the army, accompanied by the Indian deputies, recommenced its march, as Bouquet wished to show that he was determined to enforce his demands. They marched nine miles down the Tuscarawas and went into camp. This was their fourteenth camp since leaving Fort Pitt, and was within a few miles of the east line of Coshocton County. The next day (October 23) the army crossed the present boundaries of this county, marching sixteen miles and camping seven miles east of the present site of Coshocton. This camp must have been in Lafayette township, very near the line between it and Oxford. Here Bouquet remained until the 25th, when he continued his march a little more than six miles, camping within a mile of the forks of the Muskingum. "Judging this to be as central a position as he could find,. he resolved to fix himself here until the object of his mission could be accomplished. He ordered four redoubts to be built, erected several storehouses, a mess house, a large number of ovens and various other buildings for the reception of the captives, which, with the white tents scattered up and down the banks of the river, made a large settlement in the wilderness and filled the Indians with alarm. A town with nearly two thousand inhabit ants, well supplied with horses, cattle and sheep, and ample means of defence, was well calculated to awaken the gloomies anticipations. The steady sound of the axe day after day, the lowing of the cattle, and all the sounds of civilization echoing TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 147 along the banks of the Tuscarawas within the very heart of their territory, was more alarming than the resistless march of a victorious army, and anxious to get rid of such unwelcome companions, they made every effort to collect the prisoners scattered among the various tribes. "The American wilderness never presented such a spectacle as was here exhibited on the banks of the Muskingum. It was no longer a hostile camp, but a stage on which human nature was displaying its most attractive and noble traits; or rather a sublime poem, enacted there in the bosom of the wilderness, whose burden was human affection and whose great argument the common brotherhood of mankind. Bouquet and his officers were deeply impressed and could hardly believe their senses when they saw young warriors, whose deeds of daring and savage ferocity had made their names a terror on the frontier, weeping like children over their bereavement. [At the prospect of parting with the white captives to whom they had become attached.—Ed.] "A treaty of peace having been concluded with the various tribes, Bouquet, taking hostages to secure their good behavior and the return of the remaining prisoners, broke up his camp on the 18th of November and began to retrace his steps toward Fort Pitt. The leafless forest rocked and roared above the little army as it once more entered its gloomy recesses, and that lovely spot on the Tuscarawas, on which such strange scenes had been witnessed, lapsed again into solitude and silence. The Indians gazed with various and conflicting emotions on the lessening files—some with grief and desolation of heart because they bore away the objects of their deep affection, others with savage hate, for they went as conquerors. "In ten days the army again drew up in a little clearing in front of Fort Pitt and were welcomed with loud shouts. The war was over, and the troubled frontier rested once more it peace. Doctor Smith's description of the scenes enacted when the Indians delivered into the hands of Bouquet their white prison. ers after the exchange of dramatic speeches, closes the most picturesque entry of an army into the Ohio country in the annals of her history. With introductory remarks he wrote as follows: "In the arrival of the prisoners in the camp were to be seen fathers and mothers recognizing and clasping their once lost babes; husbands hanging around the necks of their newly-recovered wives; sisters and brothers unexpectedly meeting together 148 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY after long separation, scarce able to speak the same language; or, for some time; to be sure that they were children of the same parents ! In all these interviews joy and rapture inexpressible were seen, while feelings of a very different nature were painted in the looks of others—flying from place to place in eager inquiries after relatives not found ! trembling to receive an answer to their questions ! distracted with doubts, hopes and fears on obtaining no account of those they sought for ! or stiffened into living monuments of horror and woe on learning their unhappy fate ! "The Indians, too, as if wholly forgetting their usual savageness, bore a capital part in heightening this most affecting scene. They delivered up their beloved captives with the utmost reluctance, shed torrents of tears over them, recommending them to the care and protection of the commanding officer. Their regard to them continued all the time they remained in camp. They visited them from day to day, and brought them what corn, skins horses and other matters they had bestowed on them while in their families, accompanied with other presents, and all the marks of the most sincere and tender affection. Nay, they did not stop here; but when the army marched, some of the Indians solicited and obtained leave to accompany their former captives all the way to Fort Pitt, and employed themselves in hunting and bringing provisions for them on the road. A young Mingo carried this still further, and gave an instance of love which would make a figure even in romance. A young woman of Virginia was among the captives, to whom he had formed so strong an attachment as to call her his wife. Against all the remonstrances of the imminent danger to which he exposed himself by approaching to the frontiers, he persisted in following her at the risk of being killed by the surviving relations of many unfortunate persons, who had been captured or scalped by those of his nation. "Those qualities in savages challenge our just esteem. They should make us charitably consider their barbarities as th effects of wrong education, and false notions of bravery and heroism; while we should look on their virtues as sure marks that nature has made them fit subjects of cultivation as well as us, and that we are called by our superior advantages to yield them all the helps we can in this way. Cruel and unmerciful as they are, by habit and long example, in war, yet whenever they come to give way to the native dictates of humanity, they exercise yin Wes which Christians need not blush to imitate. When once they TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 149 determine to give life, they give everything with it, which, in their apprehension, belongs to it. From every inquiry that has been made, it appears that no woman thus saved is preserved from base motives, or need fear the violation of her honor. No child is otherwise treated by the persons adopting it than the children of their own body. The perpetual slavery of those captured in war is a notion which even their barbarity has not yet suggested to them. Every captive whom their affection, their caprice, or whatever else, leads them to save, is soon incorporated with them, and fares alike with themselves. These instances of Indian tenderness and humanity were thought worthy of particular notice. The like instances among our own people will not seem strange, and therefore I shall only mention one out of a multitude that might be given on this occasion. "Among the captives a woman was brought into camp at Muskingum with a babe about three months old at her breast. One of the Virginia volunteers soon knew her to be his wife, who had been taken by the Indians about six months before. She was immediately delivered to her overjoyed husband. He flew with her to his tent, and clothed her and his child in proper apparel. But their joy after the first transports was soon damped by the reflection that another dear child of about two years old, captured with the mother, and separated from her, was still missing, although many children had been brought in. "A few days afterwards a number of other prisoners were brought to the camp, among whom were several more children. The woman was sent for, and one supposed to be hers was produced to her. At first she was uncertain; but viewing the child with great earnestness, she soon recollected its features, and was so overcome with joy, that literally forgetting her sucking child she dropped it from her arms, and catching up the new-found child in an ecstasy, pressed it to her breast, and bursting into tears carried it off, unable to speak for joy. The father, seizing up the babe she had let fall, followed her in no less transport and affection. "Among the children who had been carried off young, and had long lived with the Indians, it is not to be expected that any marks of joy would appear, on being restored to their parents or relatives. Having been accustomed to look upon the Indians as the only connections they had, having been tenderly treated by them, and speaking their language, it is no wonder they considered their new state in the light of a captivity, and parted from