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 15
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MACHILLIMACKINAC CAPTURED.
you have ventured among us unarmed, to trade with us and shall regard you as a brother. You may sleep in quiet, and we present you this pipe."
A general smoke then ensued, and Henry made a formal reply. To this succeeded a request for whiskey. The trader reluctantly complied, and after distributing a few presents saw, with profound pleasure, the departure of his unwelcome guests. Soon after two hundred Ottawas came to the fort in a body, and summoned Henry and some other trad- ers to their presence. Here they were told they must distribute their goods among the Indians, making a faithless promise to pay them in the Spring, and threatening death if they refused. Asking time to reflect on this gentle hint, the traders resolved to resist such a flagrant robbery, and accordingly, arming thirty of their men with muskets, they barri- caded themselves in Henry's house and kept watch all night. . No at- tack, however, occurred and soon after the garrison was reinforced by the timely arrival of troops.
Captain Etherington, the commandant of the fort, had received seve- ral warnings of the conspiracy among the Indians, but with that fatuity so common among British officers in America who despised their foes, not only disbelieved them, but threatened to send prisoner to Detroit the very next person who should keep the little settlement alarmed by such improbable and ridiculous tidings.
Henry, too, had received warning and afterwards blame? .. imself much for his total disregard of it. An Ojibwa Chief, Way com by name, had taken a great fancy to him and hinted several t zes that something unusual was on foot. One evening Henry's door was pushed open without ceremony and the dark figure of Wawatam glid d silently in. He sat down with a dejected air and expressed surprise it finding his brother still in the fort ; he was going next day to the Sault Ste Marie and begged Henry to go with him. He then asked i the Eng- lish had heard no bad news, and said his own ears were filled with the songs of evil birds. Seeing that the unsuspecting trader vas totally unsuspicious, he went away with a sad and mournful face, but returned next morning with his squaw and again pressed Henry to go with him. When the trader demanded the reason for his urgency, he asked if he did not know that many bad, strange Indians were encamped about the fort. To-morrow, he said, they would demand whiskey and would all get drunk and it would be dangerous to stay. Wawatam let fall other plain hints, which, had Henry understood Ojibwa better, could not fail to have moved him from his apathy. As it was, the chief and squaw took a mournful departure, but not before both had shed tears. There came no later warning.
The very next day happened the ball play alluded to. The incred-
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
ulous Captain Etherington lounged outside the gate, having laid heavy wagers on the Ojibwas as against the Sacs. Several Indian chiefs and leading warriors, with eyes more snaky and glittering than usual, but apparently only intent upon watching the game, were grouped closely around. When the game was at its very highest and the surging crowd was swaying hither and yon, suddenly the ball soared high in the air and descending in a wide curve fell near the pickets of the fort. As if in pursuit of the fugitive ball, the players came rushing, in a maddened tumultuous throng, towards the chief gate which now stood invitingly open. One instant more and they had reached it. The dazed and stupefied English had no time to think or act. And now the shrill cries of the players all at once changed into the ferocious, blood-curd- ling war whoop. The warriors snatched from the outstretched hands of their squaws, their keen tomahawks which had been until now care- fully concealed. Some of the Indians rushed fiercely on those without, while others bounded into the fort, and all was soon a frightful carnage. At the very first moment the throats of Etherington and his lieutenant were clutched by sinewy hands, and they were led into the woods. Within the fort all were butchered without mercy.
Henry was a witness to this horrid massacre, but not to the ball play, and has given a minute account of it and of his own subsequent ad- ventures and narrow escapes. A canoe had just arrived from Detroit, and he was moving to the beach to hear the news when the murderous war whoop reached his startled ears. Going to his window he saw the infuriated mob of savages hacking and scalping all inside the fort. Seizing his fowling-piece, he waited, but of course in vain, for the drum to beat to arms. In this dreadful interval he saw several of his ac- quaintances fall and then scalped alive, while struggling between the knees of the fiends who held them. He then thought of his own safety, but knew not what to do or where to turn. He saw many of the French Canadians looking calmly on and thence thought one of their houses would offer the best security. Only a low fence separated his own house from M. Langlade-the noted partisan half-breed who led the Lake Indians at Braddock's defeat - over which he climbed and begged for concealment. Langlade turned again to the window, from which he and his family were gazing at the massacre, and with the ex- pressive French shrug intimated he could do nothing. Henry's heart sank within him, but happily a Pawnee woman-one of the Sac cap- tives and a slave of Langlade's-beckoned to him to follow her. She then showed him the door to the garret and bade him conceal himself. She then followed him to the garret, locked the door after him and took away the key.
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THE TRADER HENRY'S NARROW ESCAPES.
Through an aperture, Henry's blood fairly curdled at witnessing the scalpings and mutilations of the dead and dying. From the hacked and slashed bodies of the slain, these insatiate demons were scooping up the blood in the hollow of their hands and quaffing it off amid shouts of rage and triumph. At last all being silent, there was a gen- eral cry of " all is finished." Just then were heard the footsteps of Indians entering Langlade's house and asking if any Englishmen were therein. Langlade said he could not say, but he thought not, but they might examine for themselves. The Pawnee woman had not only hid- den him, but kept the secret.
THE TRADER HENRY'S NARROW ESCAPES FROM DEATH.
Henry now heard the wretches trying the garret door. Some delay was caused by the absence of the key. His feelings may be faintly imagined-not described. He looked anxiously about for a hiding- place, finally creeping in among a lot of birch-bark sugar vessels. An instant after, four savages, snuffing about like blood-hounds, entered with tomahawk in hand and all besmeared with gore. The throbbings of the poor fugitive's heart were almost loud enough to betray him. The Indians walked about in every direction, and one approached so closely that he almost touched the trembling, cowering white man, but the obscurity favored him, and they finally returned down stairs, loudly boasting to Langlade how many scalps they had taken.
Exhausted as he was by all he had gone through, Henry threw him- self on a feather bed and went to sleep. At dusk, Madame Langlade entered and was surprised to see him, but told him she hoped he would escape. Next morning he was again on the rack. Indian voices were heard below, to the effect that Henry, the trader, had not yet been found, and that he must surely be somewhere concealed. He then had the unspeakable torture to hear the affrighted Madame Lan- glade argue in French with her husband-who must by this time have known of Henry's concealment-that he should be given up, as, should the savages discover that they had anything to do with it, they would avenge it on their children, and it was better he should die than they. The husband at first resisted, but finally suffered her to prevail, and told the savages that he had heard Henry was in the house, and that he would put him into their hands.
Judge of the poor man's horror at this revelation ! Considering all further efforts at concealment vain, he rose from the bed and presented himself full in view to the savages now entering the garret, and who were all drunk and nearly naked. One huge chief named Wenniway,
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
whom Henry well knew, had his entire body smeared with charcoal mixed with grease, with the exception only of one white spot, two in- ches in diameter, which encircled either eye. This fellow seized Henry by the coat with one hand, while with the other he flourished a large carving knife, threatening to run it in his bosom, and all the time glaring steadfastly into his eyes.
At length, after some seconds of dreadful suspense, he dropped his arm, saying, "I will not kill you !" adding that he had lost a brother by the English and that the trader should take his place.
This was a joyful reprieve to poor Henry, who was ordered down stairs and taken to the warrior's cabin, where he was again threatened with death, since not only there but everywhere else, the savages were infuriated and maddened with liquor. Wenniway, however, consented that the prisoner should stay at Langlade's house, and for the present all was safe.
Shortly after an Indian, who was largely in Henry's debt, called at the house and ordered him to follow him to the Ojibwa camp. Henry could do naught but obey, but seeing his dusky debter moving briskly off towards the bushes, he refused to go further, asserting that he be- lieved he meant to kill him. The savage said he was right, and seized the prisoner by the arm and raised his knife to strike. Henry flung the fellow from him, and ran for his life to the gate of the fort and called on Wenniway for protection. The chief ordered the savage to desist, but the latter, who was foaming at the mouth with rage, continued to strike furiously at him with his knife. Seeing Langlade's door open, the persecuted trader ran in and retreated to his snug garret, with the comfortable conviction, as he declares, that no Indian had power to harm him.
His confidence was somewhat shaken when he was suddenly aroused from sleep by a light shining in his eyes, and heard voices summoning him to descend. What was his surprise and joy to find in the room be- low, Captain Etherington, Lieut. Leslie, Bostwick a trader, with Father Jonois, a Jesuit priest. The savages were about to enjoy another grand debauch, and their chiefs, knowing the extreme danger to which the captives would be exposed during these mad orgies, had conveyed them all to the fort and put them in charge of the Canadians. Including of- ficers, soldiers and traders, about twenty in all escaped the massacre.'
When Henry entered the room he found his three companions in ear- nest debate as to seizing the fort again, which the Indians, drunken and with their usual recklessness, had actually left occupied by twenty Eng- lishmen and about three hundred Canadians. They had even neglected to place a guard within the palisades. To close the gates and set the
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THE TRADER HENRY'S NARROW ESCAPES.
Indians at defiance appeared to be no difficult matter. Through the dissuasions of the priest, who argued that the Canadians would probably prove treacherous, and that if a failure should result, every Englishman in the place would be butchered, the daring but feasible project was abandoned.
Next day Henry had to embark, in company with two traders and a soldier and guarded by seven Indians, in a canoe for the Isles du Castor. The heavy mists and the tempestuous weather compelled them to hug the shore, close beneath the wet, dripping forests. They had proceeded thus about twenty miles, when an Ottawa hailed them from the beach, asking the news and who were their prisoners. Some remarks followed while the canoe was approaching the shore, being in very shallow water. All at once a shrill yell was heard, and a hundred Ottawas, rising from among the trees and bushes, rushed into the water and seized upon the canoe and prisoners.
The astounded Ojibwas remonstrated in vain. The four whites were taken from them, and led to the shore. It turned out that the Ottawas were jealous and angry that the Ojibwas should have taken the fort and they have no share of the plunder. They professed much good will to the prisoners, assuring them that the Ojibwas were carrying them to the Isles du Castor merely to kill and eat them. The poor prisoners now found themselves on another canoe and going back to the fort so re- cently left. A flotilla of canoes, filled with Ottawas, accompanied them. They soon arrived, the Ojibwas looking on in silent amazement. The Ottawa warriors took no notice, but, all well armed, filed into the fort and took possession.
The English looked upon the new-comers as protectors, but were somewhat disappointed, for the next day the Ojibwa Chiefs invited the Ottawa leaders to a council, placed before them presents, and their great war-chief, Miniavavana, who had conducted the fort attack, addressed them with much feeling, saying that their conduct had much surprised him; that they had betrayed the common cause ; opposed the will of the Great Spirit, which had decreed that every Englishman must die. Pontiac had taken Detroit (which was false,) and every other fort had been destroyed. All Indians but this band of Ottawas had taken up the hatchet, and the French king had awakened from his sleep. He con- cluded by exhorting them to join the rest.
The council now adjourned to the next day to give time to deliberate, when the rebuked Ottawas concurred with the Ojibwa views, and re- turned them some of the prisoners, retaining, however, the officers and a few of the soldiers. These they soon after carried to L'Arbre Croche and treated with kindness. The priest afterwards took a letter to De-
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
troit from Etherington, telling Gladwyn of the capture of the fort and asking immediate aid. This, of course, as we shall soon show, Gladwyn could not do, he himself being in the most desperate straits.
The Ojibwas now carried the prisoners thus returned to them to one of their villages not far distant, and placed them in the council lodge as a prison, all who chose coming to jeer at and deride them. At the head sat the great war chief, Miniavavana, and, by his side, Henry's master, Wenniway. Shortly after, Henry observed an Indian stooping to enter at the low door, and to his great joy, recognized his friend and brother, Wawatam, who had, previous to the massacre, so earnestly begged him to go with him to the Sault. Wawatam said nothing, but as he passed the trader, pressed his hand, and then, proceeding to the head of the lodge, sat down with Wenniway and the war chief. After all had smoked awhile in silence, Wawatam went out, and soon returned with his squaw, bringing in her hand a valuable present, which she laid at the feet of the two chiefs. Wawatam then addressed them in an ear- nest and most feeling speech.“ Pointing to Henry, he expressed his sur- prise at seeing him a slave whom all knew was his brother, and if a re- lative to him, then also to them; and if so, then he could not, by their customs, be a slave. He then boldly charged Miniavavana with breach of faith, since, being fearful that Wawatam, on account of his love for Henry, would reveal the secret of the intended massacre, he had per- suaded him to cross the lake, which Wawatam had agreed to do on the express condition that Miniavavana would protect Henry, his friend and brother. He now claimed the performance of this promise, and brought valuable presents to buy off any claim which any one could have upon his brother as a prisoner.
Wawatam had his will, and Henry soon found himself in the lodge of his rejoiced friend, where rich furs were spread for him to lie upon, food and drink brought for his refreshment, and everything done to promote his comfort that an ungrudging Indian hospitality could sug- gest. As he lay there in state in his lodge the next day, he heard a loud cry, and, looking through a crevice in the bark, saw the bodies of seven soldiers dragged out. He learned afterwards that a noted chief had just arrived from his wintering ground, and having come too late to take part in the fort massacre, he was anxious to manifest by this slaughter of victims how much he approved the proceedings. He had, therefore, calmly dispatched seven of the prisoners with his own knife.
After a great victory by the Indians, it often happens that bodies of their victims are consumed at a formal war feast, in order, as they super- stitiously think, that thus their courage and hardihood may be increased. Such a feast now took place, many of the chiefs, however, partaking
125
OBSTINATE DEFENCE OF PRESQ' ISLE FORT.
with repugnance. Up to this point all had been triumph and exulta- tion, but now a revulsion of feeling began to set in. The bloody vic- tors grew fearful of the consequences. Absurd and indefinite rumors of an approaching revenge on the part of the English were afloat in the camp and they thought best to shift position to some more defensible locality. Three hundred and fifty warriors, with their families and household effects, embarked in canoes for the Island of Machillimacki- nac, Wawatam and Henry being of the number. A storm arose and the flotilla was so much in imminent peril, that prayers to the Great Spirit went up and a dog was sacrificed to appease the angry Manitou of the waters. This island (now called Mackinaw), owing to its beauti- ful location, its natural bridges and caverns of rocks, its charming sur- roundings, and the excellent fish with which the waters teemed, had long been a favorite resort of the Indians, and the lodges were set up with joy. But on the very next day messengers arrived from Pontiac to the effect that he was now besieging Detroit, and urged them to come to his aid. Their fierceness, however, had now all died out. A senseless alarm prevailed among them. A vigilant watch was kept day and night. The fish having mysteriously disappeared, famine, too, began to be felt. No complaints were heard, but with that stoical resignation which so distinguishes the red race, they patiently endured the inevitable. They gradually had to disperse to localities where food was more abundant. Henry, painted and attired like an Indian, remained with his friend Wawatam all Summer and Winter, fishing and hunting the bear and moose for a subsistence.
OBSTINATE DEFENCE OF PRESQ' ISLE FORT.
Let us now turn to the capture of Presq' Isle Fort, which stood near the site of the present town of Erie, on the lake of the same name. At one of its angles stood a massive, two-storied block-house, located on a projecting spit of land between the lake and a small brook, the bank of which, unfortunately, rose in a high, steep ridge, affording an excellent cover for assailants, while the lake bank offered similar facili- ties on another side.
At early dawn on the 15th of June, the little garrison, commanded by Ensign Christie, saw themselves surrounded by two hundred Huron savages. At the first alarm they abandoned the main fort and took to the block-house. The savages, availing themselves of every command- ing position, crowded about the doomed fort and poured in a perfect hail of fire, searching out with their unerring missiles every vulnerable spot or crevice. They also shot fire arrows on the dry shingle roof, repeatedly setting it on fire, and hurled balls of burning pitch against
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the walls. Then they rolled logs to the top of the ridges and from be- hind these secure breastworks, they fired with still greater effect. Some even had the temerity to dart across the interval and attempt to shelter themselves in the ditch, but all of these were killed or wounded.
And now the tired defenders could see their implacable foes throwing up earth and stone behind their breastworks, a sure evidence of under- mining. A still more imminent peril threatened in the total failure of water, which had been exhausted in putting out the frequent fires. To pproach the well on the parade ground would be instant death, and so a new well was dug in the block-house itself. Before it was completed, the roof was again on fire and all the water that remained was poured out. Again the flames burst forth, when a soldier averted the total destruction of the place by leaping upon the roof amid a hail of hurt- ling bullets and tearing off the blazing shingles.
Evening had now arrived. From earliest dawn, without one mo- ment's intermission, the heroic little garrison had fought or toiled. All night long was seen the constant flashing of guns from the Indian entrenchments. Morning brought fresh perils. Fortunate was it that now the well was complete, for the indefatigable foe had pushed their subterranean approaches as far as the commandant's house, which was set on fire, stifling the defenders with the intense heat and smoke. The outer wall of the block-house itself scorched, blackened and at length burst into flame. Still this Spartan band refused to yield, but passing up water from the new well, they finally subdued the fierce flames.
The men were now utterly exhausted, yet still they toiled on within the wooden walls of their prison house, where the close air was sulphur- ous with the smoke of gunpowder. The fire continued until midnight of the second day, at which dread hour a bugle voice was heard crying out in French from the enemy's hold, that further resistance would be useless since all was now prepared for setting the block-house on fire from above and beneath at once. Christie asked if there were any among them who spoke English ; upon which a soldier Briton who had been long prisoner with the savages, came out, in his Indian dress, from behind the breastwork. He promised, if they yielded now, their lives should be spared ; if they longer fought, they must all be burned alive.
Christie, resolving to hold out as long as possible, asked them to wait till morning. Agreed to, and while some of the garrison watched, the rest sank down in their tracks and snatched a hasty sleep. Next morn- ing Christie sent out two soldiers, as if to treat with the enemy, but, in reality, to learn truly whether they were able to set fire to the block- house. A preconcerted signal made by the two men, soon after reach- ing the breastwork, warned him that the insidious foe had made no idle
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PONTIAC'S SIEGE OF DETROIT.
boast. Two chiefs now met Christie between the breastwork and block- house, and to them this lake fort, defended with such intrepidity, was finally surrendered, on the express condition that the lives of the whole garrison should be spared, and they be allowed to retire to the nearest post.
The poor soldiers, pale, wild and haggard, like men who had passed through the fire and smoke of dreadful battle, now issued from the block-house, and were immediately seized and afterwards sent to De- troit, whence Christie soon after made a successful escape. The neigh- boring posts of Venango and Le Boeuf-the very ones which Washing- ton visited while they belonged to France, several years before-fell an easy prey at the same time.
PONTIAC'S SIEGE OF DETROIT-AN OJIBWA MAID REVEALS THE PLOT.
And now what about Detroit, the most important and formidable post of all, and hence entrusted to the wily and powerful Pontiac him- self ! The British garrison, at this time consisting of a hundred and twenty soldiers, partly regulars and partly American rangers, with about forty fur-traders, was quartered in a well-built range of barracks within the fort, which contained within its enclosure about a hundred houses. Its form was nearly square, a wooden bastion at each corner, a block-house over each gateway, and the palisades surrounding and con- necting all, about twenty-five feet high. Besides the barracks, the only public buildings were a council house and a rude little church.
The fur-traders, voyageurs and other Canadian occupants, could not be trusted in case of an Indian outbreak. The banks of the Detroit river, connecting Lakes Erie and St. Clair and running before the fort's gates, were sparsely settled for many miles, chiefly by Indian fishermen and Canadians engaged in the Indian trade. Two small armed schooners, the Beaver and Gladwyn, lay anchored in the stream, and several light pieces of artillery were mounted on the bastions. Within the limits of the settlement were three large Indian villages. A little below the fort were the Pottawattamies : directly across the river was a Wyandot village, and on the same side, five miles further up towards Lake St. Clair, Pontiac's band of Ottawas had an encampment. The fort was fortunate in having as commandant, Major Gladwyn, a British officer of pluck, merit and resolution, who had been one of Braddock's most trustworthy officers, and wounded at his memorable defeat.
On the afternoon of May 5th, a Canadian woman was on a visit to Pontiac's village to buy venison and maple sugar. She was startled at finding some of the warriors filing off the barrels of their guns, so as to reduce the length, stock and barrel, to about a yard. On her return
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