Chapter IX: The West, (1)

FROM THE TREATY OF PEACE WITH FRANCE, 1763, TO THE TREATY OF PEACE WITH ENGLAND, 1783.

BY WILLIAM FREDERICK POOLE, LL.D.

_Librarian of the Newberry Library, Chicago._

THE treaty of peace signed at Paris, February 10, 1763, marks perhaps the most important epoch in the political and social history of North America.[1422] It settled forever a question which had been in doubt for a century,—whether the rule and civilization of France or of Great Britain were to shape the destinies of the western continent. It was the culmination of a seven years' war, in which the vigorous administration of William Pitt had crushed the allied forces of France and Spain. The capture of Quebec by Wolfe, and the surrender of the French army to Amherst at Montreal, were but incidents in the general humiliation which France and Spain had experienced on the continent of Europe, in India, in the West Indies, and on the ocean. They could fight no longer, and were glad to accept any terms of peace which Great Britain might dictate.[1423]

The Treaty of Paris made a strange transformation of the political map of North America, and for the first time brought under British sway the territory which now comprises the Western States of the American Union. Great Britain in the preceding century had granted in the charters of her American colonies boundaries extending from ocean to ocean; but her actual possessions until 1763 were a fringe of country along the Atlantic coast, and extending west to the crests of the Alleghanies. Spain was in possession of Florida and Mexico, and the remainder of the continent was in the real or nominal possession of France. Her imperial domain extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, and from the Alleghanies to undetermined limits beyond the Rocky Mountains. By the Treaty of Paris, Canada and that portion of Louisiana between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi came to Great Britain. In a secret treaty with his Bourbon ally, Carlos III. of Spain, made November 3, 1762, the day when the preliminary articles of peace were signed,[1424] Louis XV. ceded to Spain that part of Louisiana which lay west of the Mississippi, with the island on which New Orleans is situated. France therefore, in this desperate crisis, parted with all her American possessions on the main land, and her name nearly disappeared from the map of North America.[1425] Spain in the war had lost Havana, and in order to recover this key to her other West India possessions she gave up to Great Britain Florida in exchange for Havana.

Severer terms than these would have been exacted by Great Britain from both the allies, except for the recent accession of George III. to the throne, and the changes he made in his cabinet and policy. In the midst of the negotiations of the treaty, Pitt resigned in disgust, and they were concluded by his successor, the Earl of Bute, and by the Duke of Bedford. The transfers of the immense territories ceded by the treaty were not immediate, and several years elapsed before they came into possession of their new rulers.

In the discussions by the new cabinet as to the terms of the treaty, a question arose which was alarming to the American colonies. Should Canada or the Island of Guadaloupe be restored to France? The sugar trade of the latter, it was claimed, was more important to Great Britain than the Canadian for trade. It was further claimed that, if the colonies were relieved from the menace of the French and their savage allies, they would cover the continent, become a great nation, manufacture their own goods, and eventually declare themselves independent.[1426] Many pamphlets appeared in England advocating and opposing the restoration of Canada to France, but there was no abler advocate of the retention of Canada than Dr. Franklin, who was then in London.[1427]

On the 7th of October, 1763, George III. issued a proclamation,[1428] providing for four new governments or colonies, namely: Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Grenada, and defining their boundaries. The limits of Quebec did not vary materially from those of the present province of that name, and those of East and West Florida comprised the present State of Florida and the country north of the Gulf of Mexico to the parallel of 31° latitude.

It will be seen that no provision was made for the government of nine tenths of the new territory acquired by the Treaty of Paris, and the omission was not an oversight, but was intentional. The purpose was to reserve as crown lands the Northwest territory, the region north of the great lakes, and the country between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, and to exclude them from settlement by the American colonies. They were left, for the time being, to the undisputed possession of the savage tribes.[1429] The king's "loving subjects" were forbidden making purchases of land from the Indians, or forming any settlements "westward of the sources of the rivers which fall into the sea from the West and Northwest", "and all persons who have wilfully or inadvertently seated themselves upon any lands" west of this limit were warned "forthwith to remove themselves from such settlements." Certain reasons for this policy were assigned in the proclamation, such as "preventing irregularities in the future, and that the Indians may be convinced of our justice", etc.; but the real explanation appears in the Report of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, in 1772, on the petition of Thomas Walpole and others for a grant of land on the Ohio. The report was drawn by Lord Hillsborough, the president of the board. The report states:—

"We take leave to remind your Lordships of that principle which was adopted by this Board, and approved and confirmed by his Majesty, immediately after the Treaty of Paris, viz.: the confining the western extent of settlements to such a distance from the seacoast as that those settlements should lie within reach of the trade and commerce of this kingdom, ... and also of the exercise of that authority and jurisdiction which was conceived to be necessary for the preservation of the Colonies in a due subordination to, and dependence upon, the mother country. And these we apprehend to have been the two capital objects of his Majesty's proclamation of the 7th of October, 1763.... The great object of colonizing upon the continent of North America has been to improve and extend the commerce, navigation, and manufactures of this kingdom.... It does appear to us that the extension of the fur trade depends entirely upon the Indians being undisturbed in the possession of their hunting-grounds, and that all colonizing does in its nature, and must in its consequences, operate to the prejudice of that branch of commerce.... Let the savages enjoy their deserts in quiet. Were they driven from their forests the peltry-trade would decrease; and it is not impossible that worse savages would take refuge in them."[1430]

Such in clear and specific terms was the cold and selfish policy which the British crown and its ministers habitually pursued towards the American colonies; and in a few years it changed loyalty into hate, and brought on the American Revolution.[1431]

* * * * *

Before the royal proclamation of 1763 had been issued, or even drafted, a new and fierce Indian war, which is known in history as the Pontiac War, was raging on the frontier settlements. With the conquest of Canada and the expulsion of France as a military power from the continent, the English colonists were abounding in loyalty to the mother country, were exultant in the expectation of peace, and in the assurance of immunity from Indian wars in the future; for it did not seem possible that, with the loose system of organization and government common to the Indians, they could plan and execute a general campaign without the co-operation of the French as leaders.

This feeling of security among the English settlements was of short duration. A general discontent pervaded all the Indian tribes from the frontier settlements to the Mississippi, and from the great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. The extent of this disquietude was not suspected, and hence no attempt was made to gain the good-will of the Indians. There were many real causes for this discontent. The French had been politic and sagacious in their intercourse with the Indian. They gained his friendship by treating him with respect and justice. They came to him with presents, and, as a rule, dealt with him fairly in trade. They came with missionaries, unarmed, heroic, self-denying men, who labored without pay for what they deemed the highest welfare of their dusky brethren. Many Frenchmen married Indian wives, dwelt with the native tribes, and adopted their customs. To the average Englishman, on the other hand, Indians were disgusting objects; he would show them no respect, nor treat them with justice except under compulsion. To him the only good Indians were dead Indians, and hence he shot savages as he would wild beasts.[1432] So long as the English had the French as competitors for the good-will of the Indian, they treated him with some measure of tact and justice; but when this competition was withdrawn, it was a sad day for both races. The fur trade, by which the Indians obtained their necessary supplies, had been mainly in the hands of the French; and when it was cut off, the Northern and Western Indians, as they had lost the use of bows and arrows, and needed firearms and ammunition in order to take their game, were often in distress for want of food. When the military posts in the West were in possession of the French, the Indians were habitual visitors, and they loitered about the forts. The French tolerated the custom, and treated the intruders with kindness, although their indolent and filthy habits greatly taxed the patience of the garrisons. When these posts came into possession of the English, the visitors were insulted and driven away, and they were fortunate if they were not clubbed.[1433]

The French had shown little disposition to make permanent settlements; but the English, when they appeared, came to stay, and they occupied large tracts of the best land for agricultural purposes. The French hunters and traders, who were widely dispersed among the native tribes, kept the Indians in a state of disquietude by misrepresenting the English, exaggerating their faults, and making the prediction that the French would soon recapture Canada and expel the English from the Western territories.

Pontiac, the chief of the Ottawas, was the Indian who had the motive, the ambition, and capacity for organization which enabled him to concentrate and use all these elements of discontent for his own malignant and selfish purposes. After the defeat of the French, he professed for a time to be friendly with the English, expecting that, under the acknowledged supremacy of Great Britain, he would be recognized as a mighty Indian prince, and be assigned to rule over his own, and perhaps a confederacy of other tribes.[1434] Finding that the English government had no use for him, he was indignant, and he devoted all the energies of his vigorous mind to a secret conspiracy of uniting the tribes west of the Alleghanies to engage in a general war against the English settlements. In the autumn of 1762 he sent messengers with war-belts to the tribes living north of the great lakes, to those in the Ohio and Illinois countries, and they went as far south as the mouth of the Mississippi. His scheme was to make a simultaneous attack on all the Western posts in the month of May, 1763; and each attack was assigned to the neighboring tribes. His summer home was on a small island at the entrance of Lake St. Clair; and being near Detroit, he was to conduct in person the capture of that fort.[1435]

On the 6th of May, 1763, Major Gladwin,[1436] in command at Detroit, had warning from an Indian girl that the next day an attempt would be made to capture the fort by treachery. When Pontiac, on the appointed morning, accompanied by sixty of his chiefs, with short guns concealed under their blankets, appeared at the fort, and, as usual, asked for admission, he was startled at seeing the whole garrison under arms, and that his scheme of treachery had miscarried. For two months the savages assailed the fort, and the sleepless garrison gallantly defended it, when they were relieved by the arrival of a schooner from Fort Niagara, with sixty men, provisions, and ammunition.

Fort Pitt, on the present site of Pittsburg, Pa.,[1437] was in command of Captain Ecuyer, another trained soldier, who had been warned of the Indian conspiracy by Major Gladwin in a letter written May 5th. Captain Ecuyer, having a garrison of three hundred and thirty soldiers and backwoodsmen, immediately made every preparation for defence. On May 27th, a party of Indians appeared at the fort under the pretence of wishing to trade, and were treated as spies. Active operations against Fort Pitt were postponed until the smaller forts had been taken.

Fort Sandusky was captured May 16th; Fort St. Joseph (on the St. Joseph River, Mich.), May 25th; Fort Ouatanon (now Lafayette, Ind.), May 31st; Fort Michillimackinac (now Mackinaw, Mich.), June 2d; Fort Presqu' Isle (now Erie, Pa.), June 17th; Fort Le Bœuf (Erie County, Pa.), June 18th; Fort Venango (Venango County, Pa.), June 18th; and the posts at Carlisle and Bedford, Pa., on the same day. No garrison except that at Presqu' Isle had warning of danger. The same method of capture was adopted in each instance. A small party of Indians came to the fort with the pretence of friendship, and were admitted. Others soon joined them, when the visitors rose upon the small garrisons, butchered them, or took them captive. At Presqu' Isle the Indians laid siege to the fort for two days, when they set it on fire. At Venango no one of the garrison survived to give an account of the capture.[1438]

On June 22d, a large body of Indians surrounded Fort Pitt and opened fire on all sides, but were easily repulsed. The next day they informed Captain Ecuyer[1439] that every other English fort had been taken, and that all the tribes were coming to take Fort Pitt. If he and his garrison would then leave, they would assure him a safe conduct to the English settlements; but otherwise they would be unable to protect him from the bad Indians who would soon arrive. The commander thanked them for their kind solicitude in his behalf, and informed them that he had plenty of men, provisions, and ammunition, and could hold the fort against all the Indians in the woods. He told them also that an army of six thousand English would soon arrive at Fort Pitt, and that another army of three thousand had gone up the lakes to punish the Ottawas and Ojibwas. "Therefore", he said, "take pity on your women and children, and get out of the way as soon as possible." The Indians departed the next day, and did not reappear until July 26th, when they repeated their old story of "love for the English", and grieved that "the chain of friendship had been broken." The following night they surrounded the fort, and with knives dug burrows in the river banks, from which they threw fire-arrows into the fort and shot bullets whenever they had sight of a soldier above the parapets. This sort of warfare was more dangerous to the besiegers than to the besieged. During five days and nights of ceaseless attack the losses of the Indians were more than twenty killed and wounded. In the garrison seven were slightly wounded, and none killed. The Indians then disappeared in order to intercept the expedition of Colonel Bouquet, which was approaching from the east with a convoy of provisions for the relief of Fort Pitt.

From an original by Benjamin West, in the gallery of the Penna. Hist. Society.]

It was fortunate for the country that there was an officer stationed at Philadelphia who fully understood the meaning of the alarming reports which were coming in from the Western posts. Colonel Henry Bouquet was a gallant Swiss officer who had been trained in war from his youth, and whose personal accomplishments gave an additional charm to his bravery and heroic energy. He had served seven years in fighting American Indians, and was more cunning than they in the practice of their own artifices.[1440] General Amherst, the commander-in-chief, was slow in appreciating the importance and extent of the Western conspiracy;[1441] yet he did good service in directing Colonel Bouquet to organize an expedition for the relief of Fort Pitt.

Slightly reduced from a plate in the London edition of _An Historical Account_, as "surveyed by Thos. Hutchins, assistant engineer." KEY: 1, grenadiers; 2, light infantry; 3, battalion men; 4, rangers; 5, cattle; 6, horses; 7, intrenchment of bags for the wounded; 8, first position of the troops; X, the enemy. The small squares on the hillock near "the action of the 5th" mark "graves." The map is also in Jefferys' _Gen. Topog. of N. Amer., etc._ (London, 1768), and in I. D. Rupp's _Early Hist of Western Penna._ (Pittsburg, 1847).]

The promptness and energy with which this duty was performed, under the most embarrassing conditions, make the expedition one of the most brilliant episodes in American warfare. The only troops available for the service were about five hundred regulars recently arrived from the siege of Havana, broken in health, and many of them better fitted for the hospital than the field.[1442] Orders for collecting supplies and means of transportation had been sent to Carlisle; but when the colonel arrived with the troops, nothing had been done towards their execution. Such, however, was his energy and sagacity that in eighteen days the horses, oxen, wagons, and provisions needed had been collected, and he was ready to march. As the long train moved out of Carlisle towards the west, where lay the bleaching bones of Braddock's army, the inhabitants looked on in anxious silence. The sight of sixty invalid soldiers conveyed in wagons did not add to the cheerfulness of the scene. Bouquet's most efficient soldiers were the 42d regiment of Highlanders, whom he used as flankers.[1443]

On the 25th of July he reached Fort Bedford, where he left his invalids to recuperate, and engaged thirty backwoodsmen as guides. All communication with Fort Pitt, one hundred and five miles distant, was cut off, and the woods were filled with prowling savages. On August 2d he reached Fort Ligonier, fifty miles from Bedford, where he left his draught-oxen and wagons, and went on with three hundred and fifty pack-horses. About a day's march further west lay the defiles of Turtle Creek, where he expected the Indians would lay an ambuscade. He therefore determined to proceed as far as a small stream called Bushy Run, rest till night, and pass Turtle Creek under cover of darkness. At one o'clock in the afternoon of August 5th, when the train was half a mile from Bushy Run, a report of rifles was heard at the front, indicating that the advanced guard was engaged. Two companies were ordered forward to support it. The woods were quickly cleared, when firing was heard in the rear, and the troops were ordered back to protect the baggage train. Forming a circle around the convoy, the troops kept up the fight gallantly until night. As they were exposed in the open field, while the Indians were under cover in the woods, their loss was heavy compared with that of the enemy. Several officers and about sixty soldiers were killed or wounded, and the situation had become desperate. They had no choice but to camp on the hill where the engagement had taken place, and without a drop of water. Sentinels and outposts were stationed to guard against a night attack, and the morrow was awaited with anxious solicitude. During the night Colonel Bouquet wrote to General Amherst: "Whatever our fate may be, I thought it necessary to give your excellency this information.... I fear insurmountable difficulties in protecting and transporting our provisions, being already so much weakened by the losses of this day in men and horses."

This follows in fac-simile a plate in the London edition of the _Historical Account_ (1766), drawn by Benjamin West; and as that artist painted the portrait of Bouquet given on another page, the sitting figure in the left of the plate may safely be considered not unlike that soldier. This plate was reëngraved by Paul Revere, in the _Royal Amer. Mag._, Dec., 1774.]

With the early morning light the woods rang with the exultant war-cries of the Indians. The battle was renewed, and the savages, seeing the distress of the troops, pressed closer and closer, expecting an easy victory. Colonel Bouquet, with a quick perception of the situation and full knowledge of the Indian character, saw that his only hope of escaping the fate of Braddock's army was to draw the enemy from their cover and bring them into close engagement with his regulars. This he did by a stratagem. He ordered his most advanced troops, when in action, to fall back suddenly, as if in retreat, behind a second line lying in ambush. The Indians he expected would follow, eager to seize the train.

Reduced from Smith's _Historical Account of the Expedition against the Ohio Indians_, London, 1766. It is also included in Jefferys' _Gen. Topog. of N. Amer., etc._ (London, 1768). It is reproduced in full size fac-simile, in the Cincinnati edition, 1868, and is reëngraved in the Amsterdam edition and in Parkman's _Pontiac_, vol. ii.]

The line in ambush would then open fire, and in the surprise and confusion of the savages the remaining troops would charge upon them. The stratagem was a complete success. As the advanced line retreated, the Indians rushed out of the woods, supposing they were victors. When the line in ambush had delivered its fire and stopped the progress of the Indians, the retreating line had changed direction and were ready to make a charge upon the flank. The ambuscading line then rose and fell upon the enemy in front, who fled, leaving sixty of their number on the field, and among them several prominent chiefs. The pursuit was continued, and the victory was complete.[1444] The next day the expedition, carrying their wounded on litters, moved on towards Fort Pitt, twenty-five miles distant, and arriving four days after the fight, to the great joy of the beleaguered garrison.

The battle of Bushy Run, both for its military conduct and its political results, deserves a place among the memorable battles in America. The Indians fought with a courage and desperation rarely seen in Indian warfare, and the English troops with a steadiness and valor which was due to their training as regulars and the direction of so able a commander. The tidings of this victory broke the spirit of the Indian conspiracy, and the reports were received with rejoicing in all the English colonies.[1445]

The ultimate purpose of Colonel Bouquet's expedition, after relieving Fort Pitt, was to invade the Ohio country, punish the Shawanese, Delawares, and other tribes, extort from them treaties of peace, and recover the English captives in their possession. On account of his losses of men, horses, and supplies at Bushy Run, he was unable to carry out this design until he was reinforced, and it was now too late in the season to expect that his wants could be supplied from the East. His Ohio expedition was therefore postponed until the next year.

* * * * *

On the 29th of July Detroit was reinforced by two hundred and eighty men under Captain Dalzell, who in June had left Fort Niagara in twenty-two barges, with several cannon and a supply of provisions and ammunition. The day after his arrival, Captain Dalzell proposed, with two hundred and fifty men, to make a night attack on Pontiac's camp and capture him. Major Gladwin discouraged the attempt, but finally, against his judgment, consented. Some Canadians obtained the secret and carried it to Pontiac, who waylaid the party in an ambuscade. Twenty of the English were killed and thirty-nine wounded. Among the killed was Captain Dalzell himself.[1446] Pontiac could make no use of this success, as the fort was strongly garrisoned and well supplied with provisions and ammunition. Elsewhere there was nothing to encourage him. The battle of Bushy Run and the arrival of Colonel Bouquet at Fort Pitt alarmed the Western tribes and ruptured the Pontiac confederation. In October some of the chiefs who beleaguered the fort at Detroit sued for peace, and in November the siege was raised. All hope of capturing Fort Pitt had vanished, and the warriors returned to their hunting-grounds. There was quietness on the frontiers during the winter of 1763-64.

In the spring of 1764 scattered war parties were again ravaging the borders. Colonel Bouquet was recruiting in Pennsylvania, and preparing an outfit for his march into the valley of the Ohio. In June, Colonel Bradstreet, with a force of twelve hundred men, was sent up the great lakes. On arriving at Fort Niagara he found assembled a large body of Indians whom Sir William Johnson had summoned into council, using threats when they did not readily respond to his summons. It was apparent that the haughty spirit of the tribes was broken. Treaties of peace were concluded, and a strip of land between the lakes Erie and Ontario, four miles wide on each side of the river Niagara, was ceded to the British government.[1447]

Bradstreet proceeded up Lake Erie, and near Presqu' Isle made, on his own authority, an absurd treaty of peace with some alleged deputies of the Ohio Indians who had made the Western settlements so much trouble; and he added to his folly by writing to his superior officer, Colonel Bouquet, that the Colonel need not march into the Ohio country, as the business of pacifying the Western Indians had been attended to. Bradstreet went on to Sandusky; and instead of punishing the Wyandots, Ottawas, and Miamis, as he was instructed to do, accepted their promise to follow him to Detroit and there make treaties. He arrived in Detroit on the 26th of August. Pontiac had departed, and sent messages of defiance from the banks of the Maumee.[1448]

Colonel Bouquet met with every obstacle in raising troops and collecting supplies for his Ohio expedition, from the stubborn Quakers in the Assembly of Pennsylvania. It was not until September 17th that his convoy arrived at Fort Pitt. Early in October he marched with fifteen hundred men and a long train of pack-horses into the valley of the Muskingum. Wherever he appeared with his strong force the Indian tribes were ready, after much talk, to make treaties of peace and deliver up their white captives, two hundred of whom, and some with reluctance, were taken back to the settlements.[1449] Colonel Bouquet marched to the forks of the Muskingum,[1450] meeting with no opposition, and, having accomplished his purposes, retraced his march, and arrived at Fort Pitt on the 28th of November. The success of the expedition and the return of the captives to their homes were the occasion of joy through the whole country. The assemblies of Pennsylvania and Virginia passed votes of thanks to Colonel Bouquet, and the king conferred on him the rank of brigadier-general. Early in the summer of 1765 he was put in command of the Southern district, and died of fever at Pensacola, September 2, ten days after his arrival.[1451] Had he lived he would have made a brilliant record in the war of the Revolution.[1452]

Reproduced from Thomas Hutchins's _Historical narrative and topographical description of Louisiana and West Florida, comprehending the river Mississippi with its branches_ (Philad., 1784). The same map is in his _Topographical description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina, comprehending the rivers Ohio, Kenhawa, &c., the climate, soil; the mountains, latitudes, &c., and of every part, laid down in the annexed map. Published by Thomas Hutchins. With a plan of the rapids of the Ohio, a plan of the several villages in the Illinois country, a table of the distances between Fort Pitt and the mouth of the Ohio. And an appendix, containing Mr. Patrick Kennedy's Journal up the Illinois river_ (Boston, 1787). From this edition Parkman reproduced the map in his _Pontiac_, vol. ii. The map was reëngraved in the French edition, _Description topographique de la Virginie_, etc., Paris, 1781. The original edition was published in London in 1778. It is reprinted in Imlay's _Western Territories_, 3d ed., p. 485. Cf. Thomson's _Bibliography of Ohio_, no. 625.—ED.]

The Pontiac War, so far as battles and campaigns were concerned, was ended; but Pontiac was still at large and as untamed as ever. His last hope was the Illinois country, where the foot of an English soldier had never trod. Thither he went, and applying to M. Neyon, in command of Fort Chartres, for aid, was refused. He returned to his camp on the Maumee, and collecting four hundred of his own warriors, and as many of other tribes as would join him, reappeared at Fort Chartres. M. Neyon had left the country in disgust, with many French residents of the Illinois country, and M. Saint Ange de Bellerive was his successor in command of the fort. His visitors, with a mob of Illinois Indians, clamored for weapons and ammunition to fight the English. St. Ange's position was embarrassing, if not dangerous; but he acted with prudence and sagacity. He was under orders to deliver up the fort whenever a British force arrived. He refused to comply with the demands of the Indians, but pacified them with pleasant words and a few presents. The most agreeable sight to this worthy Frenchman, at that time, would have been the arrival of a regiment of British infantry.

Pontiac, again baffled, sent an embassy of warriors down the Mississippi, with an immense war-belt, and with instructions to show it at every Indian village on the river, and to procure from the French commandant at New Orleans the aid he could not get at Fort Chartres. The warriors reached New Orleans soon after the distressing news had come that Western Louisiana had been ceded to Spain by the secret treaty of November 3, 1762. The health of the governor, D'Abbadie, had given way under the intelligence that a Spanish governor and garrison might arrive any day. The governor gave the Indians one hearing, and postponed the interview until the next day. Before the hour named had arrived he was dead.[1453] M. Aubry, his successor, received the warriors, and said he could do nothing for them. Sullen and disappointed, they paddled their canoes northward, and the last hope of the conspiracy expired.[1454]

An attempt was made early in 1764 to take possession of the Illinois country by sending English troops up the Mississippi River. Major Arthur Loftus, with four hundred regulars, ascended two hundred and forty miles above New Orleans, where Indians in ambuscade fired on them, killed six men, and wounded six others.[1455] The expedition turned back, and returned to Pensacola. Captain Philip Pittman[1456] arrived at New Orleans a few months later with the same design, and ascertaining the temper of the Western Indians, did not make the attempt.[1457]

General Gage, who in November, 1763, succeeded General Amherst as commander-in-chief, saw that there would be no permanent peace with the Western Indians until Fort Chartres and the Illinois country were occupied by British troops, and he resolved to send a force by way of Fort Pitt and the Ohio River. Before executing the plan he thought it advisable to send a messenger in advance, who would visit the tribes, ascertain their dispositions, and allay their enmities if he could not secure their friendship. George Croghan was the person selected for this responsible and dangerous mission. He was deputy-superintendent of Indian affairs under Sir William Johnson. As a fur-trader he had been on friendly relations with the Western tribes, and spoke their language. Lieutenant Alexander Fraser, who spoke French, was to accompany him. They arrived at Fort Pitt in February, 1765, where Croghan was delayed for three months, holding councils with Indians.[1458]

Croghan left Fort Pitt on the 14th of May, in two bateaux, with a few soldiers and fourteen[1459] Indian deputies, Shawanese, Mingos, and Delawares, as evidence and pledge that there was peace between the English and the Western tribes.

After a photograph. The magazine is now used by a farmer for the storage of vegetables, etc.

Description at the time of the surrender to the English in 1765: "Four toises [25.6 feet] in front, with its gate in cut stone, furnished with two doors, one of sheet iron and the other of wood, furnished with their iron-work; five toises and a half [35.2 feet] wide, six toises [38.4 feet] long; one building, two toises [12.8 feet] high; one window above, in cut stone, furnished with its shutters in wood, and one of iron" (_N. Y. Col. Doc._, x. 1164).]

On the 23d he arrived at the mouth of the Scioto, where the Shawanese delivered to him seven French traders. On the 6th of June he came to the mouth of the Wabash, where there were indications of the presence of hostile Indians. He dropped down the Ohio six miles further and encamped. On the morning of the 8th his party was fired into by eighty Kickapoos and Mascoutins, and two white men and three of the Shawanese deputies were killed. Croghan himself, and all the rest of the party except two white men and one Indian, were wounded. They were robbed of their outfit, and carried as prisoners to Vincennes.[1460] Here Croghan found Indian acquaintances and friends who treated him and his party with kindness, and rebuked their assailants.[1461] At Post Ouatanon[1462] Croghan found more of his Indian acquaintances; and his captivity being ended, he resumed his official character of ambassador, received deputations from the neighboring tribes, held councils, heard and made speeches, and smoked the pipe of peace. He here received a message from St. Ange, requesting him to visit Fort Chartres, and arrange matters there, which had become exceedingly annoying. He started for the Illinois country on the 18th of July, accompanied by the chiefs of the neighboring tribes. He soon met Pontiac and the deputies from the Illinois tribes on their way to visit him. Both parties returned to the fort and held a council. Pontiac and the Illinois tribes agreed to make peace with the English, as the other nations had done.[1463]

The object of his visit being accomplished, Croghan turned his face homeward, and reached Detroit on the 17th of August. Here he called the Ottawas and the other neighboring tribes into a council, which continued for several days. The Indians acknowledged that they now saw that the French were indeed conquered; that henceforth they would listen no more to the whistling of evil birds, but would lay down the hatchet, and sit quiet on their mats. Pontiac was present, and said: "Father, I declare to all nations that I had made my peace with you before I came here; and I now deliver my pipe to Sir William Johnson, that he may know that I have made peace, and taken the King of England to be my father in the presence of all the nations now assembled."[1464]

From Detroit, Croghan communicated to the commander at Fort Pitt tidings of the complete success of his Western mission; and a company of the 42d regiment of Highlanders, the veterans of Quebec, Ticonderoga, and Bushy Run, under the command of Captain Thomas Stirling, was dispatched in boats for Fort Chartres. Captain Stirling arrived early in October,[1465] and on the 10th relieved St. Ange from his embarrassing command.[1466] These were the first English troops who ever set foot in the Illinois country.[1467]

Croghan left Detroit on the 26th of November, visited Fort Niagara, and arrived at Fort Stanwix, October 21, where he prepared his report to Sir William Johnson, which Sir William transmitted to the Lords of Trade, November 16, 1765.[1468]

For the next decade, the discreet management of the native tribes by Sir William Johnson secured the Western settlements from Indian depredations. During this period there was a constant emigration from Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania into the country between the mountains and the Ohio River, and explorations were begun in Kentucky. The treaty of Fort Stanwix, made with the Six Nations and their dependants in the autumn of 1768, transferred to the British crown the Indian title to what is now the State of Kentucky east of the Tennessee (then Cherokee) River, and a large part of Western Virginia. To the province of Pennsylvania it ceded an extensive tract on its western borders, and defined the boundaries between the English settlements and the Indian territory.[1469] In making this important treaty, Sir William was acting under instructions from the crown, and was furnished with a map[1470] indicating the boundaries desired, for which concessions the crown would give money and presents. He summoned the deputies of the Six Nations and their dependent tribes to meet him in council at Fort Stanwix (now Rome, N. Y.), on the 20th of September, 1768. By the 22d, 2,200 Indians had arrived,[1471] and when the council opened on the 24th, 3,102[1472] deputies were present. For seven weeks Sir William fed[1473] and hospitably entertained this immense concourse of savages, conducting their deliberations, making speeches in their own languages, humoring and repressing their wayward dispositions, and bringing them reluctantly to accept his terms.[1474]

From a picture by Chester Harding, in the Mass. Hist. Society's gallery. Cf. _Proc._, v. 197.]

Open hostilities between the Indians and settlers on the Western frontier, which had been suspended since 1765, broke out anew in the spring of 1774,[1475] and raged for a few months in what has been called "Cresap's War", but is now more properly known as the "Dunmore War." Lord Dunmore was then governor of Virginia, and commander of the English forces engaged in the brief campaign. As to the specific cause of the Dunmore War there has been much controversy. The killing of Logan's family, wrongly charged upon Captain Michael Cresap, was one of the causes assigned. Another was the conduct of Dr. John Connolly, the agent of Lord Dunmore in West Virginia, who was charged with being concerned in a plot to bring on a conflict between the settlers and the Indians, in order to serve British interests in the Revolutionary War which was then coming on.[1476] Lord Dunmore was suspected at the time of being in the plot,[1477] and the charge was probably as groundless as that made against Captain Cresap. The occasion of the outbreak lay upon the surface of events,—the growing disquietude and jealousy of the Indians in view of the advancing settlements of the whites, which had reached the eastern bank of the Ohio and was moving farther west. The Shawanese and Delawares had been robbing traders and scalping settlers, whenever an opportunity occurred, ever since they had made a treaty of peace with Colonel Bouquet in 1764. Sir William Johnson's letters to the home government during these nine years are full of narratives of these outrages, and forebodings that another Indian war might break out at any time. More white persons were killed by these Indians during this period of nominal peace than in the whole campaign of the Dunmore War.

A bitter controversy between Virginia and Pennsylvania for possession of the country between the mountains and the Ohio added to the complications arising from the Indian troubles.[1478] Virginia held Fort Pitt and was in possession of the country. In 1774 the tide of emigration was setting strongly towards Kentucky, which had been explored by Daniel Boone in 1769, and later by other parties.[1479] In April, a party of eighty or ninety Virginians made a rendezvous at the mouth of the Little Kanawha, with the intention of descending the Ohio and making a settlement in Kentucky. George Rogers Clark, whose name is to appear later in more important transactions, then twenty-one years of age, was one of the party. In a letter,[1480] written some years later, to Dr. Samuel Brown, professor in Transylvania University, he gives a clear account of the manner in which the Dunmore War began. While camping at the rendezvous, "reports", says Clark, "from the Indian towns were alarming, which caused many to decline meeting. A small party of hunters below us had been fired on by the Indians, which led us to believe that the Indians were determined to make war." They resolved to surprise an Indian town on the Scioto, but had no competent leader. "We knew of Captain Cresap being on the river, about fifteen miles above us, with some hands, settling a plantation, and intending to follow us to Kentucky as soon as he had fixed his people. We also knew he had experience in a former war.[1481] It was proposed, and unanimously agreed on, to send for him to command the party." The messenger met Cresap on his way to Clark's camp. "A council was called, and to our astonishment our intended general was the person who dissuaded us from the enterprise, alleging that appearances were suspicious, but there was no certainty of a war; that if we made the attempt proposed, he had no doubt of success, but that a war would be the result, and that we should be blamed for it, and perhaps justly. He was asked what measure he would recommend to us. His answer was that we should return to Wheeling to obtain intelligence of what was going forward; that a few weeks would determine the matter; and if we should find the Indians not hostilely disposed, we should have full time to prosecute the intended settlements in Kentucky. This measure was adopted, and in two hours we were under weigh."

On arriving at Wheeling, the people, being in a state of alarm, flocked into their camp from every direction. All the hunters and men without families joined them, and they became a formidable party. From Pittsburg they received a message from Dr. Connolly requesting them to keep their position until the messengers returned who had been sent to the Indian towns. Before an answer could be received, a second message, addressed to Captain Cresap, arrived by express from Pittsburg, stating that war was inevitable. Cresap was entreated to use his influence with the party to cover the country until the inhabitants could fortify themselves. "The time of the reception of this letter", says Clark, "was the epoch of open hostilities with the Indians. The war-post was planted, a council called, the letter read, the ceremonies used by the Indians on so important an occasion acted, and war was formally declared. The same evening two scalps were brought into camp. The following day some canoes of Indians were discovered descending the river, taking advantage of an island to cover themselves from our view. They were chased by our men fifteen miles down the river. They were forced ashore, and a battle ensued. A few were wounded on both sides, and we got one scalp only."

The more important charge brought against Cresap, of killing Logan's family, George Rogers Clark disposed of in the same letter, as follows:—

"On our return to camp [from Grave Creek] a resolution was formed to march next day and attack Logan's camp on the Ohio [at Baker's Bottom, opposite the mouth of Yellow Creek], about thirty miles above Wheeling. We actually marched about five miles, and halted to take refreshment. Here the impropriety of executing the proposed enterprise was argued; the conversation was brought on by Cresap himself. It was generally agreed that those Indians had no hostile intentions, as it was a hunting party, composed of men, women, and children, with all their stuff with them.... In short, every person present, particularly Cresap, upon reflection, was opposed to the projected measure. We returned, and on the same evening decamped and took the road to Redstone. It was two days after this that Logan's family was killed; and from the manner in which it was done, it was viewed as a horrid murder by the whole country."

The killing of Logan's family was done by a party of whites living in the vicinity, under the lead of one Greathouse, who was not a member of the party of Cresap, nor, so far as appears, had he any acquaintance with Cresap.[1482] The "Speech of Logan", which Jefferson printed in his _Notes on Virginia_ (1787, p. 105), and accompanied with the comment that Cresap was "a man infamous for his many murders he had committed on these injured people",[1483] has perpetuated an unmerited stigma upon the memory of an innocent and patriotic man. The speech for a century has been regarded as a choice specimen of Indian eloquence, and the youth of the land have worn it threadbare as a declamation exercise.[1484]

The savagery and miseries of a border war now burst upon the Western frontier. The settlers left their homes and took refuge in the forts, and many new stockades were constructed. Roving bands of Indians swept over the country, pillaging the farms and murdering every white person they found. The Virginia government took prompt action in raising two armies to invade the Indian country. One assembled at Lewisburg, in Greenbriar County, under General Andrew Lewis; and the other at Fort Pitt, under Lord Dunmore. General Lewis had orders to march to the mouth of the Great Kanawha; and Lord Dunmore, descending the Ohio, promised to meet him there. Early in June, while these forces were collecting, Colonel Angus McDonald, with four hundred men, dropped down the Ohio from Wheeling, and landing at Grave Creek, marched against the Indians on the Muskingum, and found their village deserted. The Indians, expecting the whites would cross the river in pursuit, were prepared to receive them in an ambuscade; but finding that the whites were now as well skilled in woodcraft as they, came in and proposed terms of peace. Five chiefs were required of them as hostages. One of these was liberated under the promise that he would bring in the chiefs of other tribes to make peace. A second was sent out to find the first, and neither returning, Colonel McDonald burnt their town, destroyed the crops, and went back to Wheeling with the three hostage chiefs, whom he sent to Williamsburg as prisoners.[1485]

General Lewis took up his march with eleven hundred men on the 11th of September, and arriving at Point Pleasant, near the mouth of the Great Kanawha, on the 6th of October, found that Lord Dunmore was not there. On the 9th a despatch was received from his lordship, stating that he had changed his plans, and should land at the mouth of the Big Hockhocking. Lewis was ordered to cross the Ohio and meet him near the Indian towns. The Indians had this information, doubtless, before it was received by General Lewis, and resolved to attack his camp forthwith before a junction of the two armies was made. The battle came on the next morning while General Lewis was preparing to cross the river, and was fought with the highest courage and skill on both sides until evening, when the Indians were surprised by a flank movement which they supposed was a reinforcement. They gave way and retreated across the river. The Indians were commanded by the noted chief Cornstalk.[1486] The battle of Point Pleasant ranks with Bushy Run as one of the most plucky and evenly contested battles ever fought between Indians and white soldiers. The losses of the Virginians were seventy-five killed and one hundred and forty wounded. The losses of the Indians, who fought under cover, were probably about the same, but were not ascertained, as they threw their dead into the river.[1487]

Reinforced by several companies under Colonel Christian, General Lewis crossed the river, with the intention of joining Lord Dunmore near Chillicothe. At Salt Licks (now Jackson, Ohio) he had orders to halt his troops. Suspecting the motives of Lord Dunmore, he disregarded the orders and pressed on. Near Chillicothe Dunmore made a treaty with the Ohio Indians, who promised not to hunt south of the Ohio, and not to molest voyagers on the river. Lord Dunmore's conduct in changing the plan of the campaign, which left General Lewis exposed to a separate attack, and his subsequent conduct in making peace with the Indians before he had punished them for their breach of former treaties, were regarded by the soldiers engaged as premeditated treachery. This impression was confirmed by the plot he later made with Indians to ravage the settlements of Virginia, and by his hasty departure from the colony. His real motives will never be known. The initial scenes in the drama of the Revolutionary War were in progress. His position as a Tory governor was embarrassing, and naturally inspired suspicion in the minds of the colonists.[1488]

While the Dunmore War was in progress, the "Quebec Bill" was discussed and enacted by the British Parliament. The bill so enlarged the boundaries of the province of Quebec that it made the Ohio and Mississippi rivers its southern and western limits, and the whole Northwest territory a part of Canada. The bill in its passage did not escape the protest of Lord Chatham, Edmund Burke, Charles James Fox, Colonel Barré, and the corporation of the city of London.[1489] The colonies, at the time of the enactment of the Quebec Bill, made complaint concerning it "for establishing the Roman Catholic religion in the province of Quebec, abolishing the equitable system of English laws, and erecting a tyranny there, to the great danger (from so total a dissimilarity of religion, law, and government) of the neighboring colonies."[1490] Its real purpose and effect, however, of robbing the American colonies of 240,000 square miles of territory which had already been ceded to them in their charters, and establishing the Mississippi and the Ohio rivers as Canadian boundaries, in case of war and a separation of the Eastern colonies from the mother country, were not mentioned, and seem not to have been considered. The colonies then had little interest in, and scarcely a thought of, the country beyond the Alleghanies. During the war, however, they learned something of the value of the West; and in the negotiations for peace, in 1782-3, the Quebec Bill was often recurred to as one of the principal causes of the Revolution.[1491]

* * * * *

For several years after the close of the Dunmore War the Western Indians were again quiet. They heard with satisfaction of the opening battles of the Revolution, and were not in haste to take the war-path for either side. Except at the British post of Detroit, the sentiments of the settlers west of the mountains were intensely anti-English. The Eastern colonies were too much occupied in their own defence to give any attention to what was happening at the West. The hardy pioneers, left to themselves, conducted their own campaigns. They were not enrolled in the Continental army, and they knew little of, and cared less for, the Continental Congress and the great commander-in-chief of the army. They recognized only the authority of Virginia; and, as voluntary and patriotic rangers, they achieved some of the most important and brilliant victories of the war, concerning which the official proceedings of Congress, and the voluminous correspondence of Washington and of other prominent actors in the war, make scarcely a mention.

The northeastern portion of Kentucky was explored by Dr. Walker in 1747, the central portion by Daniel Boone and others in 1769, and the northwestern portion in 1773. The first log cabin in Kentucky was built by James Harrod at Harrodsburg, Mercer County, in 1774, and the first fort by Boone, at Boonesborough, Madison County, in June, 1775.[1492] About this time George Rogers Clark made an exploring tour in Kentucky, and in the autumn returned to his home in Albemarle County, Virginia.[1493] In the following spring he went back to Kentucky; and, in view of the depredations which the Ohio Indians were committing on the settlements, called a meeting of the pioneers at Harrodsburg to devise a plan of defence. His plan was to appoint delegates who should proceed to Williamsburg and petition the Assembly that Kentucky be made a county of Virginia. The meeting, however, acting before his arrival and against his judgment, elected him and Gabriel Jones to be members of the Virginia Assembly. Their journey through the trackless wilderness and across the mountains was attended with great suffering, and they arrived after the legislature had adjourned. Patrick Henry was the governor. Before him and the Council, Clark laid the claim of Kentuckians to be regarded as citizens of Virginia, and asked for five hundred pounds of powder as a gift for their protection. He was heard with attention and respect, but was told that the Council had no authority to furnish the gunpowder as a gift. It could be loaned to the Kentuckians as friends, but not as citizens. Clark refused to accept it on such conditions, and left, saying, "A country which is not worth defending is not worth claiming." He was called back, and an order on the commandant at Fort Pitt was given to him for the powder. At the autumn session of the legislature Kentucky was made a county of Virginia.[1494]