USA > Massachusetts > Our western border : its life, combats, adventures, forays, massacres, captivities, scouts, red chiefs, pioneer women, one hundred years ago, containing the cream of all the rare old border chronicles > Part 14
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CAPTAIN JACK, "THE WILD HUNTER OF THE JUNIATA."
About this period there flourished along the Pennsylvania border-at that time scarce extending much beyond the Susquehanna-a notable character by the name of Captain Jack, who was almost as much famed as his Indian namesake of Modoc notoriety has lately become. Al- though there is much of legend and mystery connected about the Juni- ata-valley Jack, this much is certain, that there was a bold hunter and "Indian-killer," known all along the Pennsylvania border, from the up- per Susquehanna down to the Potomac, by that name. In Hazard's Register there is frequent mention of him. Colonel Armstrong, in his reports of his expedition against Captain Jacobs of the Delaware vil- lage of Kittanning, calls him-on account of his swarthy visage-"The Half-Indian." His monument can be now seen at Chambersburg, with the following inscription: "Colonel Patrick Jack, an officer of the Colonial and Revolutionary wars-died January 25th, 1821, aged nine- ty-one years."
Colonel George Croghan, who, while Braddock was preparing for his march, was engaged in beating up a number of Indians, scouts, etc., to serve as guides, distinctly states that Captain Jack was at the head of a body of bold hunter-rangers, skilled in woodcraft, expert in Indian fighting, clad, like their leader, in Indian attire, and offered them to Braddock, provided they were allowed to dress, march and fight as they pleased, and not to be subject to the strict regulations of a soldier's camp. "They are well armed," said Croghan, "and are equally re- gardless of heat or cold. They require no shelter for the night, and ask no pay!" This, of course, could not be permitted by such a strict and self-reliant martinet as Braddock, and the Rangers were suffered to depart. It is idle now to speculate what might have been the result of the British Expedition had these scouts, and a larger body of fighting Indians been allowed to accompany, or rather precede Braddock's army. Judging, however, from the late invaluable services of the Warm Spring Indians in tracking the Modocs to their lairs, beating up their fastnesses in the lava-beds, and bringing them to bay in such manner that nothing was left but surrender, it is certainly safe to assume that these Pennsyl- vania Rangers and Indians would have performed the same offices for Braddock, and rendered wholly impossible the disastrous defeat which we have taken such pains to describe.
Captain Jack's early history is shrouded in mystery, but it is the cur- rent tradition in middle Pennsylvania that he was a frontier settler, and
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that returning one evening from a long day's chase, he found his cabin a heap of smouldering ruins, and the blackened corpses of his murdered family scattered around. From that time he became a rancorous Indian hater and slayer. In '53 he held a sort of roving commission from Governor Hamilton-his home being in the Juniata valley-going un- der the names of "The Black Rifle," "The Black Hunter," and "The Wild Hunter of the Juniata." It is thought by some that "Jack's Mountain," in Pennsylvania, was called after him; but this, we think, is a mistake ; it, as well as "Jack's Narrows," having taken their name from the fact-which caused a great deal of excitement at the time-of the atrocious murder, in 1744, of a noted Indian trader named Jack Armstrong, together with his two servants, Smith and Woodward, by a Delaware Chief called Musemeelin.
In Jones' "Juniata Valley," we find a lengthy account of Captain Jack. He makes him a hunter living on the Juniata, near a beautiful spring, having a mystery about him which no one ever succeeded in fathoming. He is described by Jones as a man of Herculean propor- tions, with an extremely swarthy complexion, and as a relentless Indian tracker and killer. The settlers about Aughwick (now Shirleysburg, Huntingdon county, Pa.,) as well as those in Path Valley and along the Juniata, "frequently found dead savages, some in a state of partial decay, and others with their flesh stripped by the bald eagles, on the spot where Jack's rifle had laid them low." "On one occasion," writes Jones, "Captain Jack had concealed himself in the woods by the side of the 'Aughwick Path,' where he lay in wait for a stray Indian. Pres- ently a painted warrior, with a red feather waving from his head, and his body bedizened with gew-gaws recently purchased from a trader, came down the 'path.' A crack from Captain Jack's rifle, and the savage bounded into the air and fell dead without a groan. It appears that three others were in company-but had tarried at a spring-who, on hearing the discharge of a rifle, under the impression that their com- panion had shot a bear, gave a loud 'whoop.' Captain Jack imme- diately loaded, and when the Indians came up to the dead body, Jack again shot and killed a second one. The Indians then rushed into the thicket, and one of them getting a glimpse of Jack, shot at him, but missed. The 'Wild Hunter,' seeing that the chances were desperate, jumped out and engaged in a hand-to-hand encounter-the fourth savage being only armed with a tomahawk. He soon dispatched the third one by beating his brains out with a rifle; but the fourth one, an athletic fellow, grappled, and a long and bloody fight with knives followed, and only ceased when both were exhausted by loss of blood. The Indian managed to get away, and left the 'Black Hunter' the victor of the
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CAPTAIN JACK, THE WILD HUNTER OF THE JUNIATA.
field. Weak and faint as Jack was, he scalped the three savages, and managed to work his way to the settlement, where his wounds-consist- ing of eight or ten stabs-were dressed."
"It is said," continues Jones, "that one night the family of an Irish- man named Moore, residing in Aughwick, were suddenly awakened by the report of a gun. On opening the door, they found a dead Indian lying upon the very threshold. By the feeble light which shone through the door, they discovered the dim outline of the 'Wild Hunter,' who merely said: 'I have saved your lives,' and then plunged into the dark ravine and disappeared. With an eye like the eagle, an aim that was unerring, daring intrepidity, and a constitution that could brave the heat of Summer as well as the frosts of Winter, he roamed the valley like an uncaged tiger, the most formidable foe that ever crossed the red- . man's path. Of the final end of Captain Jack," concludes Jones, "we have nothing definite. One account says he went west, another that he died in 1772. It is said that his bones rest near the spring at the base of the mountain bearing his name, and this we are inclined to credit. The early settlers of the neighborhood believed that Captain Jack came down from the mountain every night at twelve o'clock to slake his thirst at his favorite spring; and half a century ago we might readily have produced the affidavits of twenty respectable men who had seen the 'Black Hunter' in the spirit, roaming over the land that was his in the flesh. The towering mountain, a hundred miles in length, bearing his name, will stand as an indestructible monument to his memory."
CHAPTER II.
THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC.
For he was of unblenching eye, Honored in youth, revered in age ;
Of princely port and bearing high, And brave and eloquent and sage.
Ah, scorn not that a tawny skin Wrapped his strong limbs and ample breast;
A noble soul was pent within As paler Saxon e'er possessed.
Oft hath he gazed from yonder height,
When pausing 'mid the chase alone,
On the fair realms beneath his sight,"
And proudly called them all his own,-y. H. Bryant.
Upon the evacuation of Fort Duquesne, most of Forbes' army re- crossed the mountains, he himself being carried in a litter the whole way, and dying shortly after at Philadelphia. As the possession of the Forks of the Ohio was of immense importance to the whole country, it was determined to hold them, and for the present to erect a small stock- ade to be occupied by one hundred men, under Colonel Hugh Mercer- afterwards one of the most popular Generals of the Revolution and killed at the battle of Princeton. In September, 1759, was commenced the formidable fortification called Fort Pitt, which was completed the next year, having cost the British government sixty thousand pounds.
With Fort Duquesne's fall, all direct contest between the French and British ceased in the West. Canada was thenceforth the only scene of operations, though garrisons for awhile remained in the forts on French Creek. In '59 Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Niagara, and at length Quebec-assaulted by the famous Wolfe from the " Plains of Abra- ham "-yielded to the British, and in the Fall of '60, Montreal, De- troit, and all Canada were surrendered by Vaudreuil, the French Gov- ernor.
The long war was at length over ; but it still remained to take posses- sion of the frontier French posts, and it was while Major Rogers, cap- tain of the far-famed American rangers, (half hunters, half woodsmen,) and a most gallant and skillful partisan officer, was marching to the front, that we first hear of the great and immortal Pontiac, the most
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THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC.
noble and powerful Indian Chief that has ever appeared on the pages of American history. Rogers had left Montreal with two hundred of his rangers in fifteen whale-boats. Skirting along the northern shore of Ontario, they reached Fort Niagara on the Ist of October. Carrying their frail barks over the portage, they launched them once more on Lake Erie, and proceeded to the post at Presqu' Isle, (now Erie, Pa.,) and thence along its southern shore. Arriving at the mouth of the Chogage, the farthest point west that any body of troops under the British flag had ever penetrated, Rogers encamped in the neighboring forest. They had scarce landed before a number of chiefs appeared before their startled eyes, who stated they were an embassy from Pontiac, the great Lord of all that region, who would soon pay them a visit, and that the " pale-faces " must proceed no further.
Shortly after, Pontiac himself, majestic in appearance and attended by a number of his chiefs, made his appearance, and haughtily de- manded of Rogers what his warriors were doing in that country, and how he dared enter it without his permission. The Major was too prudent to take offence at this arrogant style of address, but quietly answered that the French were defeated : that all Canada had surrendered, and that he had been ordered to take possession of Fort Detroit, and was now on his way thither. The proud chiet only deigned to reply, "I shall stand in the path you are walking until morning," as much as to say, Proceed no farther without permission.
The next morning Pontiac reappeared, offered the pipe of peace, and said he was willing to live at peace with the English so long as they treated him with deference-not only this, but he dispatched messen- gers to the various Indian towns in front of Rogers, informing them that the Englishman had his authority to march through the country, and he employed a hundred of his warriors to drive the cattle which had been sent from Fort Pitt for the use of the troops. He kept near Rogers until his arrival at Detroit, and was the means of preventing a hostile Indian attack at the mouth of Detroit river. Hitherto Pontiac had been in word and deed the firm ally of the French, but he was shrewd, subtle and ambitious, and was too wise and crafty to press a failing cause. By making friends with the English, he hoped to ad- vance his own ambitious projects and increase his influence over the north-western tribes. He confidently expected, likewise, that the new- comers would treat him and his authority with the same studied respect that the French had done. In all this he was doomed to a speedy and a mortifying disappointment. His tolerance, therefore, was soon suc- ceeded by jealousy, which was easily, on opportunity, converted into rage and then revenge.
8
1.14
OUR WESTERN BORDER.
Pontiac at this time was principal Chief of the Ottawas, and was about fifty years of age. His powerful tribe had for some time been united with the Ojibwas and Pottawattamies, and he was their common head, exercising over them almost despotic authority and his power extending among all the surrounding nations. He was brave, shrewd, subtle and eloquent, and was a perfect master of all those arts by which the American savage is not only won, but retained. He had led his tribe, a few years before, at the bloody battle of Braddocks Fields. A short time previous he had saved the Detroit garrison from an attack from surrounding tribes. During the French war he had fought on the side of France, and had received especial marks of esteem from the Marquis de Montcalm.
When Rogers appeared with his whale-boats before Detroit, inform- ing its French commandant that Canada had surrendered, and that he bore an order from Vaudreuil for the quiet evacuation of Detroit, he could not and would not believe it. The rangers landed on the opposite bank and pitched their tents upon a meadow. Two officers went across the stream to take possession. The authority from Vaudreuil was shown, and could not be disputed. In obedience thereto, the French garrison defiled upon the plain and grounded their arms. The fleur de Lis was lowered on the flag-staff, and the Cross of St. George took its place, while several hundred Indian warriors, late the active allies of France, looked on with wonder at the scene. They could not under- stand why so many men should humble themselves without a blow be- fore those few impudent strangers. When it was all explained they were equally amazed at the forbearance of the conquerors in not kill- ing their vanquished enemies on the spot. The forts of Miami, Ona- tanon and Machillimackinac soon after followed suit-still later the three remoter posts of St. Marie, Green Bay and St. Joseph.
FIRST MUTTERINGS OF THE AWFUL STORM-PONTIAC'S SUBTLETY.
Speedily, however, were heard the sullen mutterings of an awful storm. A deep-rooted hatred against the English soon grew up. They knew not like the French how to conciliate the Indians. They were stingy and niggardly with their gifts ; they treated the Indian visitors at the forts with disdain and contempt, sometimes with personal rudeness and indignities ; the French used to humor their ways and conform to their customs, marrying with them, dressing and living like them, and . contributing liberally to all their amusements and native tastes. From the English they got little but harsh words or contemptuous blows. This hated nation, too, were steadily advancing, occupying all their best
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PONTIAC'S SUBTLETY.
lands and the British fur-traders were cheating, rum-selling ruffians of the most degraded stamp, who debauched their women, encroached on their best trapping grounds and swindled them out of their furs with systematic villainy. Add to all this the fact that the French Cana- dians, who hoped that the hated British rule would be temporary, did all they possibly could to foment bad blood and to spread all manner of wicked reports and deceptions, and it is no marvel that the whole red race was ripe for revolt and conspiracy. In the language of a great Chippewa orator, the French had lived in the same lodge with them ; they had sent them missionaries; had invited them to grand councils ; had overwhelmed them with frequent and valuable presents, and had treated them as brothers. The English, however, had neglected all those acts of kindness and arts of courtesy and policy which had made the French so agreeable. The conduct of the French had never given rise to suspicion. That of the English had never given rest to it.
And now, too, a prophet-answering to Tecumseh's brother many years afterwards arose conveniently among the Delawares to give as it were the sanction of the Great Spirit to all this discontent. He fairly hated the English and by all the arts known to the native dreamer and soothsayer, he went to and fro stirring up suspicion and discord. He dreamed dreams and saw visions, and all to the same purpose. The English had come to take away the beautiful country given them by the Great Spirit and they must be cut off or driven off.
Pontiac, actuated by revenge, ambition and patriotism, was really at the bottom of all this trouble. His sagacious, far-seeing mind, fore- cast the future and saw plainly that now, if ever, was the time to check the British advance. He sent out his ambassadors far and near. Bear- ing with them the war belt of wampum and the tomahawk stained in token of war, they roamed over all the country and called secret coun- cils of all the tribes, advancing as far east as the Delaware and Shaw- nees of the Allegheny ; the Cherokees and Catawbas of the south, and the Illinois and Muscatines of the west ; and, first, a grand council of all the neighboring tribes, of which Pontiac was the supreme head and inspiration, was convened at the river Aux Ecorces. Here Pontiac exerted all those subtle arts for which he was so distinguished.
With a profound knowledge of the savage character, and especially aware of the great power of superstition on their minds, he related, among other things, a dream in which the Great Spirit had secretly dis- closed to the Delaware prophet aforesaid, exactly what his red children must do. They were to abstain from the pale-faces' " fire-water;" to abandon all their manufactures ; resume their bows and arrows, fire-arms and the skins of animals for clothing, "and why," the orator conclu-
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
ded, " Why, said the Great Spirit to the Delaware prophet, do you suffer these vile dogs in red clothing to enter your country and take the land I have given to you alone? Arise ! Drive them from it ! Drive them ! When you are in distress I will help you !"
This speech was received with cries of vengeance. The scheme was fully debated and concluded. It was resolved that the work of extir- pation should be commenced on the same day east and west ; north and south. That all should be kept secret as the grave and that in all cases, according to the universal Indian rule, resort should first be had to craft and artifice. Should they fail, then, open war.
With the subtle dissimulation of their race, the design was carefully concealed until all the tribes far and near should be ready to act in con- cert. Until that day arrived, the warriors still lounged about the forts, with calm, stony, imperturbable faces, begging as usual for tobacco and whiskey. Now and then some trader, coming in from Indian villages, would bring strange reports of mischief being on foot, or some swag- gering half-breed would be heard boasting in his cups that he would now have abundance of hair-fringe for his hunting frock, but still there was no general alarm. Early in March, indeed, the plot was nearly dis- covered. Ensign Holmes, commanding at Fort Miami, was told by a friendly Indian, that the warriors of a neighboring friendly village had received a war belt and a peremptory command to destroy him and his garrison, which they were preparing to do. On being charged with this design, the wily savages did as they had often done before, and did do afterwards-they confessed the fault with much apparent humility, and blamed a far-distant tribe. Holmes wrote to Major Gladwyn, who was then the British commander of Detroit, who, in turn, informed General Amherst-but, also, that he thought the affair would soon blow over, and that, in the neighborhood of his own fort, the savages were perfectly tranquil, and yet, within cannon shot of this brave but deluded officer, dwelt and plotted the great Pontiac himself.
Well, the dread day agreed upon arrived at last, and the result was nine British forts captured, and in every case by artifice. Some of the garrisons were completely surprised and massacred on the spot ; a few individuals in other cases escaped. Hundreds of Indian traders on their way to the different forts and tribes, were murdered and their goods and stores, either captured or destroyed. At the same time com- menced a fierce, horrible and desolating war against the New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia borders. For weeks together, nothing was heard but news of whole families butchered and communities abandoned. Houses, stock, barns, everything, fell a prey to these human locusts, and the roads to the east were blocked with throngs of the poor, smitten
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MACHILLIMACKINAC CAPTURED.
and panic-stricken inhabitants. Other posts, too, would have fallen had not their commanders received timely intimations of the intended attack. The capture of so many by preconcerted strategy proves the scope and reach of the mind of Pontiac, the brains of the whole con- spiracy. Generally the commanders were secured in the first instance by parties admitted within the forts, under the pretence of business or friendship. At Maumee, the officer was betrayed by a squaw, who, by piteous entreaties persuaded him to go out with her a couple of hun- dred yards to the succor, as she said, of a wounded and dying man. The Indians ambushed and shot him. We will here refer to the inci- dents attending the attack on some of the forts.
MACHILLIMACKINAC CAPTURED THROUGH A GAME OF BALL.
And first Machillimackinac, standing on the south side of the strait between Lakes Huron and Michigan, opposite to where Mackinaw now stands. It was a very important post-a place of deposit and a point of departure between the upper and lower countries. An extensive square area, surrounded by high palisades, numerous houses, barracks and other buildings, formed a smaller square within, and in the vacant space could at that day be seen the red uniforms of British soldiers, the gray coats of Canadians, and the gaudy Indian blankets, mingled in picturesque confusion, while a multitude of half-breeds and squaws, with children of every hue, strolled restlessly about the place at the time. All the British troops had not yet arrived and the garrison was supplemented by Canadians, the only ordnance on the bastions being two small brass pieces.
The capture of this important post was given to the Sacs and Ojib- was, and the plan was thus :
The King's birthday having arrived, a game of baggattaway was pro- posed by the savages. This game is played with a bat and ball, the former being about four feet long, curved and terminating in a sort of a racket. Two posts are placed in the ground at a distance of half a mile from each other ; each party has its post, and the game consists in throwing the ball, which is started at a point midway from the posts, and each party endeavoring to carry the ball to its own wicket. A well- contested game of this kind presents a scene of wonderful exertion and excitement. Hundreds of lithe and agile figures are leaping and bound- ing upon the plain. At times, the whole mass is crowded together, pushing, shoving, yelling and contending ; and then they scatter again and leap over the ground like hounds in full cry, rushing and striking and tripping their adversaries.
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
At the proper moment it was easy for a selected party to throw the ball over the pickets of the fort, to be at once followed by a mad, shouting, tumultuous throng. Nothing could be more natural, or less likely to excite suspicion. This was, in fact, the very thing that was done, and to be still more sure of success, the Indians had persuaded many of the garrison and settlers to come without the pickets and lay wagers upon the keenly-contested game. Not fewer than four hundred were engaged on each side, and if possession of the fort could thus be gained, the rest was an easy matter.
There was there at this time an English trader, Alexander Henry by name. On his route thither he had been several times warned to turn back, and was at length compelled to assume the disguise of a Canadian voyageur. When his canoes reached the fort, he had been received coolly by the Indians. Soon after he heard that a large number of Ojibwas were about to call on him, which excited his suspicion and alarm. They came, about sixty in number, headed by Miniavavana- a chief of commanding stature, and a singularly fine face and manner. They walked in single file, each with a tomahawk in one hand and scalping knife in the other. Their bodies were naked from the waist up. They were decorated in true Indian fashion, their faces painted and their bodies worked up with white clay. The chief commenced . the pow-wow by asking when he had left Montreal, and observed that the English must be brave men and not afraid of death, since they dared to come so fearlessly among their enemies.
After the pipes were smoked and while Henry was enduring all the tortures of suspense, the big chief made a more formal speech, in which he stated that the French King was their father, whom the Eng- lish had made war on and were his enemies, and that his enemies were theirs, too; that the King of France was old and infirm and that, tired of making war, he had now fallen asleep and allowed the English to take Canada, but that his nap was almost done, and when he waked he would destroy the English utterly. He thus continued : "Englishman, although, indeed, you have conquered the French, you have not yet conquered us. We are not your slaves. These lakes, woods and mountains were left to us by our ancestors. We will part with them to none. Our young men have made war on your nation and many have been killed ; it is our custom to retaliate until the spirits of the slain are satisfied, and this can be done only in two ways ; first, by the blood of those who killed them ; second, by covering the bodies of the dead by presents and thus allaying the resentment of the relatives. English- man, your King has never sent us any presents, nor made treaty with us; wherefore, he and we are still at war. We consider, however, that
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