USA > Illinois > Illinois, historical and statistical, comprising the essential facts of its planting and growth as a province, county, territory, and state, Vol. I > Part 11
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* Voltaire, at Ferney, emphasizing these sentiments, celebrated the triumph of the British at Quebec by a banquet, the performance of the drama of the "Island Patriot," and a brilliant pyrotechnic display, accompanied by martial music .- Gar- neau's "History of Canada."
Authorities : Dillon's "Early Settlement of the Northwest Territory"; E. G. Mason's "Illinois in the Eighteenth Century"; Geo. Imlay's "Western Territory"; French's "Historical Collection of Louisiana"; Parkman's "Montcalm and Wolfe"; " Annals of the West"; "Magazine of Western History"; Winsor's "America"; Bancroft's "United States"; "History of Canada," by F. X. Garneau; "Conquest of Canada," E. Warburton; "The Old French War," Rossiter Johnson; "History of Canada," John MacMullen; " Cours d' Histoire du Canada," par J. B. A. Ferland.
PERIOD II .- UNDER THE BRITISH, 1761-1778.
CHAPTER VII. Pontiac's War-His Failure and Death.
A LTHOUGH the British had been able to rescue from their French rivals the coveted and long-disputed ownership of the Mississippi Valley, a lion, rampant, relentless, and revengeful, stood in the path of the peaceful occupancy of the territory by its conquerors. The spirit of the Indians remained yet unsubdued. Neither their wishes nor their interests had been consulted by the parties to the treaty of Paris, a fact of which the British were soon reminded by the unlooked-for and sanguinary sequel to the French-and-Indian War, known as the Pontiac War-the revolt of the Indians under Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas. The object of the insurrection was to wrest from the hated British the domain which French valor, even with the aid of their Indian allies, had failed to hold. In this great chief were united all the best and worst traits of Indian character, and both were clearly displayed in the war of which he was the master-spirit. That such an outbreak could end in but one way was to have been expected, yet such was the bravery and cunning of the Indians that for over two years they success- fully hindered the British government from reducing to posses- sion the country of the Illinois.
The Indians had observed with no friendly eye the surrender of Detroit, Mackinac, and other French posts in the North- west in 1761. The first open manifestation of their discontent occurred when the British troops, under Maj. Robert Rogers, were marching to take possession of the fort first named. The watch- ful and wily Pontiac placed himself in his path, and inquired why an invading force had entered upon his territory. The British officer assured his aboriginal majesty that the troops of King George did not contemplate any interference with the rights of the children of the forest; that it was their intention simply to take peaceable possession of the military posts which
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had been vacated by the French under treaty stipulations. This explanation was apparently satisfactory to the savage chieftain. The pipe of peace was smoked, and Pontiac assured Maj. Rogers that not only should his command pass unmolested through the land of the Ottawas, but that it should receive the protection of the warriors of that nation.
This friendly understanding, however, was not destined to be of long duration. Pontiac had been the constant friend and active ally of the French, whose fortunes he had shared upon many a sanguinary field, from the defeat of Braddock to the capitulation of Fort Niagara. To witness the expulsion of his ancient friends, and to see their places filled by the foe whom he hated in every fibre of his untutored nature, and whom he had so long opposed with all the bravery and cruelty of an untamed savage, could hardly fail to excite in his breast feel- ings of deadly animosity. This feeling was intensified by the pointed contrast in the demeanor, toward himself and his people, of his former friends and his would-be masters. The French had been affable and easy-going; the British were haughty and contemptuous. The former had treated their un- civilized allies as friends and equals; the latter regarded them as inferiors and dependents. French missionaries had been among his people; they had baptized their children; they had buried their dead; they had won from a portion of his people at least an external observance of the same religion which they professed. The association of the traders and settlers with the natives had been agreeable and satisfactory. The French had not offensively asserted their superiority; they had been willing to learn many things from their savage friends, and not a few In-, dian women had been wooed and won by their foreign admirers.
It can not, therefore, be wondered at that Pontiac, brooding in his wigwam over the loss of the friendship for which he would have sacrificed his all, nursing his sense of wrongs-even if fancied rather than real-should have meditated plans for revenge. In such feelings he was not alone. Other chiefs also deplored the change which they feared they were powerless to counteract. The French settlers who remained in the Illinois district after its cession to the British crown were quick to perceive this sentiment, and no less ready to fan the smoulder-
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ATTACK ON DETROIT.
ing embers of discontent into the flames of war. Timely dis- covery alone prevented the successful execution of a plot to capture Detroit in 1762, and other hostile demonstrations were frustrated only by the vigilance of the British garrison.
Pontiac's influence over the Indians-not only of his own tribe, but also of others, by whom he was regarded as an "uncrowned king"-was practically unbounded. It was an easy task for so popular a chief to visit the tribes in the Illinois country and adjacent territory and to impart to them his own distrust of the "British invaders." It was not difficult for him to convince his willing listeners that the ultimate designs of their former foes embraced not only a plan to occupy the surrendered French forts, but also a scheme, regardless of the original proprietorship of the country, to take their lands and extirpate the entire Indian race. In consequence of his repre- sentations and personal solicitations, a powerful Indian confed- eracy was secretly formed, embracing the Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Sacs, Foxes, Menominees, Miamis, Shawnees, and Wyandotts, besides the scattered remnants of other tribes, to make war upon the British. So strong a confederation of aborigines for the accomplishment of a common end had never before been formed in North America.
At a conference of chiefs, it was determined to make an attack-as nearly simultaneous as possible-upon the British posts in the succeeding May (1763). So well laid were the plans of the crafty leader that the forts of Mackinac, Sandusky, Green Bay, St. Joseph, Presque Isle, and Venango fell an easy prey into his hands. The capture of Detroit, Pontiac reserved to himself, and his tactics showed the native treachery of the savage. Pretending that he desired a friendly interview with the commandant, Maj. Henry Gladwin, he encamped, with the women and children of the tribe, within a convenient distance of the fort, the garrison of which numbered but one hundred and seventy-four men, while the Ottawa braves were about four hundred in number. His request for a powwow was readily granted by the officer in command, who appeared to be devoid of suspicion, and Pontiac, with a number of his chosen warriors, were admitted within the fort. The arms of the Indians were concealed by the drapery of their blankets.
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The plan of the attacking party had been to massacre the British officers at a given signal, after which the gates were to be thrown open for the admission of the remainder of the band, who were to lend their aid in completing the work of destruc- tion. But the gallantry of the major had won the attachment of a girl of the Ojibways, whose devotion to her lover proved to be superior to her fealty to her race. She discovered the plot and disclosed it to the commandant. Pontiac was admitted with his chosen band, and Maj. Gladwin patiently listened to his haughty demands, couched in the grandiloquent language characteristic of Indian oratory. But just as the preconcerted signal was about to be given, the drums of the fort rolled out the call to arms, and the outwitted chief found himself sur- rounded by troops with loaded muskets, commanded by officers whose drawn swords showed how cheap a price they placed upon the blood of himself and his co-conspirators. The dis- concerted chief was quick to realize the failure of his plan and to perceive his own discomfiture. Adopting a tone as humble as it had been arrogant, he sued for favor. After a few stern words of warning from Gladwin, the gates were thrown open and the baffled band permitted to depart.
The next day, an attack was made upon the fort, but after a six-hours' contest the Ottawas were forced sullenly to retire. A three-months' siege followed, during which many desperate assaults were made upon the fort.
At the same time the Shawnees and Delawares were laying siege to Fort Pitt, where frequent skirmishes took place. The successful resistance made by the defenders of both these posts had the effect of raising the already inflamed passions of the savages to fever heat. They wreaked their vengeance on the unprotected settlements along the western frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania, among which they spread desolation and death. The defenceless colonists were first plundered and then wantonly butchered. Homes were reduced to heaps of smoking ruins, and all the revolting excesses known to savage warfare were practised upon their helpless inmates. The atroc- ities of the confederated tribes equaled in horror those of King Philip's war in New England ; nothing like it had ever been witnessed in the valleys of the West. It was, in all its essential elements, a war of extermination.
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EXPEDITIONS OF BRADSTREET AND BOUQUET.
That the French officers who had been requested by the British to continue in command, owing to the obstacles which the latter found thrown in their way by the Indians, might have exerted a restraining influence over their former allies had they so desired is as certain as is the fact that at first their sympathies were with the savages. The latter also received from them moral support, and material aid as well in the form of provisions and munitions of war. It has even been alleged that not until Gen. Amherst had remonstrated with Villiers, upon conduct which was in as direct violation of the spirit of treaty obligations as it was contrary to the principles of civili- zation, did the French commander advise the Indians that gov- ernmental control of the western territory had been ceded to the British by solemn treaty, whose terms he must not violate. On the other hand, Gayarre contends, upon what seems to be credible authority, that Villiers acted in good faith toward the British .*
Finding that only the adoption of the most determined policy would avail to bring hostilities to a close, it was resolved in 1764 to dispatch a force of three thousand men, under Gen. John Bradstreet, against the tribes in the neighborhood of the great lakes, while Col. Henry Bouquet was placed in command of an expedition against the Delawares and Shawnees. Upon the arrival of Gen. Bradstreet at Detroit in October, 1764, the terms of a treaty of peace were agreed upon with the Ottawas, Sacs, Wyandots, and other western tribes, but its provisions were so repugnant to the views of Gen. Thomas Gage, when informed of them, that they were rejected and subsequently arranged upon a more satisfactory basis.
Col. Bouquet having gallantly defeated the savages at Bushy Run (Westmoreland County, Penn.), they, becoming alarmed at the formidable character of the preparations to subdue them, and having grown weary of prolonging a war hitherto barren of any beneficial results to them, the Delawares and Shawnees. sued for a truce, and the terms of peace were finally agreed upon Dec. 5, 1764.
The scenes attending the release of prisoners-a necessary incident to the conclusion of peace-many of whom had been
* Gayarre's " Louisiana, " II, 99.
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in the hands of the Indians for years, were attended with dem- onstrations which brought tears to the eyes of grizzled veterans, and even moved Indian stoicism to the betrayal of emotion. Mothers again beheld their long-lost children. Husbands em- braced their wives whom they had mourned as either dead or dishonored. But others, alas, who had hoped to meet their loved ones once more found that they had perished either by the tomahawk or through cruel exposure. Some children had forgotten not only their mothers, but their mother-tongue; and there were found young women who were decidedly opposed to being taken from their savage lords, the fathers of their off- spring, some of whom sought the earliest opportunity of return- ing to the wigwam, where they voluntarily reassumed the pos- ition of a squaw.
The relentless spirit of the morose Pontiac, however, was still unsubdued. He sullenly refused to take part in any negotia- tions for peace, and-like Achilles at the siege of Troy-"re- mained, sulking, in his tent." Loving the French as sincerely as he hated the British, he had risked all in what he believed to be their interest. That he had confidently counted upon their aid and had hoped to see French troops again fighting side by side with his own warriors can not be doubted. Ordi- nary caution, however, had prevented the crafty Gauls from furnishing Pontiac with men, and the blunt savage declared that he had been deceived. His confederates had made terms-each for themselves-with those whom he considered a common foe, and not a few of his own warriors had deserted him. Despond- ent, yet revengeful, he returned to the Illinois country. Here he had first received the encouragment from French traders and settlers which determined him to make his desperate attempt to throw off the British yoke, and here, at least, he would find his old friend Villiers, to whom he went, and to that officer he unfolded his plans for a continuance of the war, and sought cooperation. But the Frenchman coldly told him, as he had already sent him word, that France and Great Britain were at peace and that his cherished scheme was impracticable.
Notwithstanding this rebuff, he continued his efforts to form a new league, visiting the Kickapoos, Miamis, and others, and succeeded to some extent in reviving the war-spirit among
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PONTIAC'S SURRENDER AND DEATHI.
them. Feeling once more hopeful, and learning that his friend St. Ange was now in command at Fort Chartres, he repaired to that point and demanded of that officer arms, ammunition, and troops, stating that he loved the French and that he would yet succeed in avenging their wrongs. St. Ange, with equal kindness and firmness, protested his inability to furnish the aid requested. The great chief bitterly declaimed against such lukewarm friendship, and, with his warriors, encamped about the fort in a menacing attitude for some days.
Disappointed here, he next turned to New Orleans. Thither he dispatched an embassy of trusted braves, whose return only added to his chagrin when they told their tale of ill-success. Failing to secure French cooperation and support, and deserted in great measure by his confederates, the great chief at length perceived the folly of attempting to carry on unaided a struggle which could have but one result. Learning therefore of the approach of Col. Croghan, he resolved to go and meet him and to apprise him of his intention to establish friendly relations with those whom he saw no way to defeat. The conference which ensued was entirely satisfactory, and Pontiac soon after followed the colonel to Detroit. At the great powwow which followed-in August, 1765-all the western tribes were repre- sented, and after much speech-making, the terms of peace were finally agreed upon, which were to be thereafter incorporated in a treaty executed on the part of the conquerors by Sir Wm. Johnson.
Thus terminated the great War of Pontiac, and with it all his hopes of the restoration of the empire of France in America. The following spring, according to agreement, he assisted at the making of a treaty with the British, and thenceforth the great chief disappears from the pages of history. Even the man- ner of his death is a matter of dispute. As related by Francis Parkman on the authority of Pierre Chouteau it was as follows: Pontiac had been paying a visit to his old friends St. Ange and Chouteau at St. Louis, where, learning that a large party of Indians were carousing at Cahokia, he concluded, against the protest of his friends, to join them. Here with the others he drank deeply, and while in this condition, one Williamson, an English trader, hired a strolling Kaskaskia Indian for a barrel 9
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of whisky to take his life. This he did by stealing up behind him and burying a tomahawk in his brains. He lay on the spot where he had fallen until St. Ange, hearing of the catas- trophe, claimed the body and buried it in St. Louis. Whether these details are correct or not, the main fact is authenticated by the authority of Father Louis S. Muerin, the parish priest at Cahokia, who positively declares in a letter: "Pontiac was assassinated in this village in the second week after Easter [between April 2 and 8], 1769."*
In person, the great forest chieftain was a singularly fine- looking man. His complexion was nearly white, a circumstance which gave rise to the belief that French blood ran in his veins. His bearing was stern and resolute. Brave, cruel at times, and vindictive, he was shrewd and cunning, and by his great ability exercised almost regal authority over the Northwestern Indians.+
O. W. Collet. *
+ Authorities: Dillon's " Historical Notes"; Parkman's "Pontiac"; Cort's "Col. Henry Bouquet and his Campaigns"; W. F. Poole in Winsor's " America, " Vol. VI; Gayarre's "History of Louisiana. "
CHAPTER VIII. The British Government,# 1765-1778.
T HE obstructions in the path of the British, as narrated in the preceding chapter, rendered nugatory several attempts to assert their ownership by securing complete possession of the Northwest. The first of these was that under command of Maj. Arthur Loftus, who was ordered to proceed to the Illinois country from Pensacola by way of New Orleans, February 27, 1764. With a force of four hundred regulars, he embarked on the Mississippi and proceeding about two hundred miles up the river, was fired on by Indians from ambuscades on either bank. Several of his men being killed and wounded, he decided to abandon the enterprise.
The next attempt was made by Gen. Bradstreet, who de- spatched Capt. Thomas Morris of the Seventeenth Regiment with a small force, in August, 1764, "to take possession of the Illinois country." It was altogether a premature expedition. The Indians, so far from proving as friendly as the general had so unadvisedly supposed, treated his subordinate with great disrespect. On one occasion he was assaulted, on another threatened, and all sorts of indignities heaped upon him. At Fort Miami he was seized, stripped of his clothing, and tied to a post, and with a mob of howling savages around him, des- paired of his life. He was at length driven out of the village, being only too glad to make his escape.
It was then determined to reach Fort Chartres from Fort Pitt, and Col. George Croghan, deputy superintendent of In- dian affairs, was sent on in advance as an envoy. Some ap-
* The British governors of Canada from 1760 to 1796 were :- 1760-63, Gen. Jeffrey Amherst; 1763-66, Gen. James Murray; 1766 (three months), Col. Paulius Emelius Irvine, president of Executive Council; 1766-70, Gen. Sir Guy Carleton, lieutenant-governor; 1770-74, Hector T. Cramahé, lieutenant-governor; 1774-78, Gen. Sir Guy Carleton; 1778-84, Gen. Frederick Haldimand, lieutenant-governor; 1784-85, Col. Henry Hamilton, lieutenant-governor; 1785, Col. Henry Hope, presi- dent of Council; 1785-92, Gen. Sir Guy Carleton, as Lord Dorchester; 1792-96, Gen. John Graves Simcoe, lieutenant-govern › :.
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prehension being felt lest the savages might commit some fresh outrage, Lieut. Alexander Fraser, who was to accompany Croghan, volunteered to proceed alone. When the lieutenant arrived at Kaskaskia, he met with rather a rough reception. The French traders quarrelled with him, and incited the In- dians to take his life. Pontiac was at the settlement and was plied with liquor until he became intoxicated, in the hope that he might be prevailed upon either to make the lieutenant pris- oner or offer him personal violence. A drunken debauch en- sued, but Fraser fortunately escaped injury. His position, however, was precarious, and he left Kaskaskia in disguise and paddled down the Mississippi to New Orleans.
Meanwhile, Col. Croghan had left Fort Pitt on May 15, 1765, accompanied by a party of friendly Indians. His progress was uneventful until he arrived at a small promontory on the Wabash, where he disembarked. On June 8, six miles below the mouth of that stream, he was suddenly attacked by a band of Kickapoos, eighty in number. In the fight which followed, Croghan lost two white men and three Indians, while most of his party, including himself, were wounded. A surren- der was unavoidable, and the victorious Kickapoos plundered the entire party. Subsequently, they assured the British officer that it was "all a mistake," and that they had supposed that the Indians accompanying him were their deadly foes, the Cherokees. They brought their prisoners in safety to Vin- cennes, where the Indians, many of whom had a friendly ac- quaintance with Croghan, strongly condemned the Kickapoos, and the latter in turn professed deep sorrow for what they persisted in calling a blunder. At Ouiatanon-now Lafayette, Indiana, other friendly Indians were met. Here he received a message from St. Ange, cordially inviting him to proceed to Fort Chartres.
The Indians were now submissive and entirely obsequious; but the most surprising and agreeable feature of what was beginning to resemble a triumphal march yet awaited him. He had proceeded but a short distance on his way to the Illinois country after receiving the message from St. Ange before he was met by a delegation of chiefs representing various tribes, and, on July 18, by the hitherto implacable Pontiac himself
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FORMAL BRITISH POSSESSION.
at the head of a large band of Ottawa braves. There being now no necessity for his going to the Illinois, he proceeded to Detroit, as before stated.
The way being no longer contested, the British government, for the first time since the making of the treaty of Paris, found itself in a position to take actual possession of and assume con- trol over the entire country of the Northwest thereby ceded, of which Illinois formed a part.
Capt. Thomas Stirling, in obedience to previous orders, now proceeded from Fort Pitt with a hundred Highlanders of the Forty-second Regiment-the famous "Black Watch"-to Fort Chartres to take military possession. Descending the Ohio, he arrived at his point of destination October 10, 1765. The aged St. Ange formally surrendered the government to this British officer. The lilies of France were replaced by the cross of St. George, and with the disappearance of the national en- sign from the ramparts over which it had floated so long, the last vestige of the once colossal empire of the French in North America ceased to exist. St. Ange had grown grey in honora- ble service. His first military command in the West was the Wabash district, to which he was assigned in 1736, and which he continued to hold until 1764. After the formal surrender of Fort Chartres, the old soldier, with the few civil officers and troops remaining with him, removed to St. Louis, where, at the request of the inhabitants, he continued to act as commandant. In 1766, his authority was confirmed by Gov. Ulloa, and he remained in the Spanish service until his death, on Dec. 27, 1774, aged 73, too soon to witness the commencement of the struggle which resulted in the overthrow of British power in the district which he had so long and so bravely defended.
The situation of the settled portions of the Illinois country at the time it became one of the coveted appendages of the British crown is correctly shown by the map on the following page. The five villages were all on the American Bottom, and at the time of the transfer of proprietorship, or shortly before, con- tained a white population not exceeding sixteen hundred, dis- tributed as follows: at Kaskaskia, seven hundred; at Prairie du Rocher, one hundred and ten; at St. Philip, one hundred and twenty; at New Chartres, two hundred and twenty; and at Cahokia, four hundred and fifty.
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