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 3
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The message was received and entertained in the most respectful man- ner. A council of the Five Nations was called, and the proposition fully discussed, and a messenger in due time dispatched with the deci- sion of the council, respectfully declining the challenge. This embold- ened the proud and warlike Eries, and the next year the offer was re- newed, and, after being again considered, was again formally declined. This was far from satisfying the proud Lords of the Lake, and the chal- lenge was renewed a third time. The young " braves" of the Iroquois now became greatly excited. They clamored for the acceptance of the audacious defi, and, finally, the wise councils which had hitherto prevailed at last gave way and the challenge was accepted.
Nothing could exceed the enthusiasm with which each tribe sent forth its chosen champions for the contest. The only difficulty seemed to be to make a selection where all were so worthy. After much delay, one hundred of the flower of all the tribes were finally designated, and the day for their departure was fixed. An experienced chief was chosen as the leader of the party, whose orders the young men were strictly en- joined to obey. A grand council was called, and in the presence of the assembled multitude the party was charged in the most solemn manner to observe a pacific course of conduct towards their competitors and the nation whose guests they were about to become and to allow no provo- cation, however great, to be resented by an act of aggression on their part, but in all respects to acquit themselves worthy the representatives of a great and powerful people, anxious to cultivate peace and friend- ship with their neighbors.
Under these solemn injunctions, the party took up its long wilderness march for Tu-shu-way. When the chosen band had arrived near their their destination, a messenger was sent forward to notify the Eries of their arrival and the next day was set apart for their entree.
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DESTRUCTION OF THE ERIE TRIBE.
The graceful and athletic forms, the tasteful yet not cumbrous dress, the noble, dignified bearing of their chief, and, more than all, the mo- dest demeanor of the young warriors of the Iroquois party won the ad- miration of all beholders. They brought no arms. Each one bore a bat, used to throw or strike a ball, tastefully ornamented, being a hick- ory stick about five feet long, bent round at one end and a deer-thong netting woven across the bow.
After a day of repose and refreshment all things were arranged for . the contest. The Chief of the Iroquois brought forward and deposited upon the ground, a large pile of elegantly-wrought belts of wampum, costly robes, silver and copper bands, beautifully ornamented mocca- sins and other articles of great value in the eyes of the swarthy sons of the forest, as the stake and wager on the part of his people. They were abundantly matched by the Eries with stakes of equal value-article by article, tied together and again deposited on the pile.
The game began and although contested with desperation and mar- velous skill by the Eries, was finally won by the Iroquois, who bore off the prizes in triumph. Thus ended the first day.
The Iroquois having now accomplished the object of their visit, pre- pared to take their leave, but the Chief of the Eries, addressing him- self to their leader, said their young men, though fairly beaten in the game of ball, would not be satisfied unless they could have, also, a foot race, and proposed to match ten of their number against ten of the Iro- quois party, which was finally assented to by the Iroquois, who were again victorious.
The Kauk-waus, who resided on the Eighteen Mile Creek, being pres- ent as the friends and allies of the Eries, now invited the Iroquois to visit them before their return home and thither the whole party repaired. The Chief of the Eries, as a last trial of the courage and prowess of his guests, proposed to select ten men, to be matched with a like number from the Iroquois, to wrestle, and that each victor should dispatch his adversary on the spot by braining him with a tomahawk and bearing off the scalp as a trophy.
This savage proposition was not pleasing to the Iroquois ; they, how- ever, concluded to accept the challenge with a determination, should they be victorious, not to execute the bloody part of the proposition. The champions were accordingly chosen. A Seneca was the first to step into the ring, who threw his adversary amid the shouts of the ex- cited multitude. The victor, however, stepped back and declined to slay the victim lying passive at his feet. As quick as thought, however, the Chief of the Eries cast his tomahawk and at a single blow scattered the brains of the vanquished warrior over the sod. His body was dragged
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
out of the way and another champion of the Eries presented himself, who was as quickly thrown by his adversary and as quickly dispatched by the infuriated Chief of the Eries. A third met the same fate.
The Chief of the Iroquois seeing now the terrible excitement that agitated the swaying assemblage, quietly gave the signal for retiring. Every man obeyed the signal, and in an instant the whole body had vanished beneath the sombre shades of the forest, and in two hours arrived again at Tu-shu-way, where, gathering up their various trophies, they departed for their distant homes.
This visit and astounding victory of the Iroquois only served to in- crease the alarm and jealousy of the Eries and to profoundly convince them that they had most powerful and formidable rivals to contend with. It was no part of their policy to cultivate friendship with tribes growing daily stronger by union. They knew of no better mode of securing peace for themselves but by exterminating all who might oppose them, and concluded that their only chance of success against this growing confederation would be to attack each tribe singly. They were far more than a match with any one of the confederate tribes. Should they wait to be invaded and cope with the whole united force of their adversaries, or should they make a sudden and secret move- ment and destroy them in detail? The question was urgent and the decision was prompt, and a powerful war party was organized to attack first the Senecas, residing at the foot of the lake of the same name and along the banks of the Seneca river.
It happened that at this time there resided among the Eries a Seneca woman, who in early life had been taken prisoner and had married an Erie " brave." He had died and left her a widow without children, a stranger in a strange land. Seeing the terrible preparation for a bloody onslaught upon her kindred and friends, she formed the resolution of at once apprising them of their danger. At the first nightfall, there- fore, taking the course of the Niagara river, she traveled all night, and early next morning reached the shores of Ontario. Jumping into a canoe which she found fastened to a tree, she boldly pushed out into the open lake and coasted along to the mouth of the Oswego, where was located a village of her nation. She directed her steps to the lodge of the third chief and disclosed her fateful news. She was secreted by this chief, and fleet runners were at once dispatched to all the tribes, summoning them to meet in grand council at Onondago. When all were assembled the chief arose and in the most solemn man ner rehearsed a vision, in which he said a beautiful bird had appeared to him and asserted that a great war party of the Eries was preparing to make a secret and sudden descent upon them, and that nothing could
!
11
DESTRUCTION OF THE ERIE TRIBE.
save them but an immediate rally of all their warriors to meet the foe before he could be able to strike.
This solemn announcement was heard in breathless silence. When the chief had sat down there arose one fierce yell of rage and madness, and the earth fairly trembled as the mighty mass stamped upon the ground with fury, brandishing on high their war clubs and tomahawks.
No time was to be lost. A body of five thousand warriors was speedily organized and, also, a corps of reserve, consisting of one thou- sand young men who had never yet been in battle. The bravest and- most experienced chiefs from all the tribes were placed in command ; the spies immediately set out in search of the hated foe, and the whole body stealthily took up its line of march in the direction of the ex- pected attack.
For several days they continued to advance. They had scarcely, however, passed the foot of the Can-an-da-gua Lake, when their scouts brought back news of the advance of the Eries, who had already crossed the Ce-nis-se-u (Genesee) river in great force. The Eries had not the slightest intimation of the approach of their foes. They relied upon the secrecy and celerity of their movements to surprise and sub- due the Senecas almost without resistance.
The two parties met at a point about half way from Canandagua Lake and the Genesee river, and it was just at the outlet of the little lake Honeoye that the struggle took place. This small stream alone divided the two hostile arrays. The entire strength of the Confeder- ates was not in view of the Eries. The reserve force of young men did not appear at all, being carefully kept concealed.
Nothing could resist the fierceness and impetuosity of the Eries at the first view of their hated foes. They rushed through the intervening stream and fell upon them with shrill yells and incredible fury. The undaunted courage and desperate valor of the Iroquois could not avail against such a terrible and irresistible onslaught and the first ranks were compelled to yield ground. The entire force, the Iroquois reserve only excepted, now became engaged. The shock of battle was terrible ! Hand to hand, foot to foot, they struggled long and desperately. No quarter was asked or given on either side.
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As the fight thickened and became more obstinate and destructive, the Eries, for the first time, appeared sensible of their true situation. What they had long feared had now become a terrible reality. Their enemies had combined for their destruction and they now found themselves en- gaged in a desperate struggle, not only for the glory, but for the very existence of their nation.
Too late to falter now ! They were proud and valorous and knew
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
how to conquer, but not to yield. The combat grew from that instant more bloody and obstinate. The Iroquois feeling strong in numbers ; fired with zeal and ambition ; acting for the first time in concert and led on by their bravest and mightiest chiefs, felt themselves to be invinci- ble. Though staggered at first by the fierce and repeated rushes of their opponents, they manfully rallied and returned yell for yell and blow for blow.
And now the awful din of battle rises higher and higher. The war club, the tomahawk, the scalping knife do terrible deeds of death and havoc. During the very hottest of this savage and bloody battle, the corps of reserve of one thousand eager and wrathful young Iroquois were secretly led across the stream and placed in ambush in the rear of the Eries.
Seven times had the brave and heroic Eries been driven across the crimson stream, and as often regained their ground and now when ex- hausted and hardest pressed by this appalling and unequal contest, the shrill, blood-curdling yells of the Iroquois' reserve are heard in their startled ears. Unblenched ; disdaining to yield but ready to die, they turn to confront this fresh and formidable foe. In vain ! In vain ! What could valor, however heroic, avail against this fresh swarm whose onset was so terrible and irresistible. The battle was lost and all that remained was to meet the death they courted like true warriors. Hun- dreds were cut down and trampled over. Only a comparative few of the Eries escaped to carry the sad news of their utter overthrow to their wives, old men and children. But the victors gave them no rest but pursued with the fierceness and tenacity of savage sleuth-hounds. Few were left to tell the tale of disaster.
Tradition adds that many years after a powerful war party of the de- scendants of the Eries, who had fled beyond the Mississippi, ascended the Ohio and Allegheny and made a last desperate assault upon their hereditary foes, the Senecas, at Tu-shu-way. A great battle was again fought, but with a like result. The Eries were not alone defeated, but were slain to a man. The places that once knew them, now knew them no more, and nothing at this late day but the name of Erie remains to tell that such a nation ever existed.
We find among the records of the Jesuit Missions another episode of this international contest which, although known but to few, is yet full of romantic interest. Twelve years before the date of the great battle at the foot of Honeoye, the Jesuit missionaries were at work among the Iroquois, but with scarcely any appreciable results. When the news of the advance of the Eries was blazoned abroad among the tribes, Father Le Moyne was zealously serving at Onondago, where was stationed the
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THE FRENCH CANADIAN AND THE ENGLISH TRADER.
Long House of the Five Nations. Of those who gathered at the call of the council to meet the invasion, was an influential chief, Achiongeras by name. On the eve of his departure he called on the faithful priest- pictured to him the perils he was about to encounter, wished to put himself under the protection of the Great Spirit and was finally bap- tized. The converted chief, with the dews of baptism yet damp upon his brow, then started, at the head of his savage legion, on the war path.
The opposing forces came together, as we have related, with a dread- ful shock. When the lines of the Iroquois were slowly retreating before the victorious Eries, Achiongeras, whose intrepid bearing had made him conspicuous in the fight, suddenly paused amid the deadly conflict and beckoned to the braves who supported him. They gathered about him at the signal. Dropping upon his knee, the Christian convert lifted his crimsoned hands towards heaven, the group of encircling savages imitating the action, when with a solemn vow they unitedly plighted their faith in the God of prayer if He would only give them aid in this crisis of their peril. The vow was honored from above. Animated afresh, the wavering band regained its footing, won back its lost ground and paused not until the field was won.
Achiongeras and his followers were true to their pledge. After the return of the victors a general council was called, when, by solemn de- cree, Christianity was proclaimed in the capital of the confederacy. The French were invited over from Canada to plant a Mission. Fathers Menard, Dablon, Broar and Boursier, attended by a numerous escort of savages, launched their fleet of canoes at Quebec, ascended the St. Law- rence, the banner of the Cross waving its silken folds at the head, and amid the roar of cannon and the ringing cheers of waiting multitudes, landed, after a tedious but prosperous voyage, on the shores of Onon- dago, and soon after erected a house of worship; and so was founded the great central Mission of St. Marys, which, for a long time, grew and prospered, having its branch missions among the other four nations of the confederacy.
THE FRENCH CANADIAN AND THE ENGLISH TRADER.
We have already stated that the French claimed all the country wa- tered by the Mississippi and its tributaries by right of discovery and prior occupation. This last fact was owing to a most marked and nota- ble difference of character between the French and the English colonists. The latter were not at first fond of roaming, but confined themselves to the narrow belt of settlements along the eastern sea-coast. They were toilers and moilers ; slow, patient, contented and industrious as com-
14
OUR WESTERN BORDER.
pared with their French neighbors ; less ambitious to make explorations than to wrest from the soil a comfortable living. The French Canadian, ' however, was his very antithesis ; gay, buoyant, restless and roaming, he had an invincible longing for vagabondizing and a marvelous faculty of adaptation to any and all circumstances. As Parkman has so truth- fully remarked, he was a rightful heir to French bravery and restlessness. He had an eager love for wandering and adventure, and this propensity) found ample scope in the service of the fur-trade.
When the priest had shrived him of his sins; when, after the parting carousal, he embarked with his gun and merry compagnons du voyage in the deep-laden canoe; when their oars kept time to the measured ca- dence of their song, and the blue, sunny bosom of the Ottowa opened before them; when their frail bark quivered among the milky foam and black rocks of the rapids, and when, around their camp-fire, they lightly wasted half the night with jests and laughter-then the Canadian was in his element. His footsteps explored the farthest hiding-places of the wilderness. In the evening dance, his red cap mingled with the scalp- locks and feathers of the Indian braves, or, stretched on a bear-skin by the side of his dusky mistress, he watched the gambols of his hybrid off- spring, in happy oblivion of the partner whom he left unnumbered leagues behind.
This spirit for far-reaching exploration lay not alone in the peculiar genius and temperament of the people, but was greatly enhanced by a fervent religious zeal-a regular devoteeism of the intense, engrossing kind which nerved Cortez and Pizarro to perform miracles of valor and endurance that they might win whole peoples to the "true faith." Canada was a loyal child of the Catholic faith. The church, the con- vent and the shrine were seen at every turn; over every cluster of the small white houses of the Canadians glittered the sacred emblem of the cross, and in the towns and villages could everywhere be met the black robe of the Jesuit, the gray garb of the Recollect priest, and the aus- tere habit of the Ursuline nun. All France was filled with the zeal of proselytism, and the conversion of whole races of American heathen was the line in which their enthusiasm went out.
The Jesuits, with their far-famed and self-sacrificing devotion, were the foremost in carrying their faith to the remotest and most inaccessi- ble regions of the West. Nothing could stay-nothing appall them. Their story is replete with romance-miracles of patient suffering, heroic self-sacrifice and daring enterprise. They were the pioneers of French America. We see them, says Parkman, among the frozen forests of Acadia, struggling in snow-shoes with some wandering Algonquin horde, or crouching in the crowded hunting-lodge, half stifled in the
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THE FRENCH CANADIAN AND THE ENGLISH TRADER.
smoky den, and battling with troops of famished dogs for the last mor- sel of sustenance. Again, we see the black-robed priest wading among the white rapids of the Ottawa, toiling with his savage comrades to drag the canoe against the headlong water. Again, radiant in the vestments of his priestly office, he administers the sacramental bread to kneeling crowds of plumed and painted proselytes in the black forests of the Hurons, or, bearing his life in his hand, he carries his sacred mission into the strongholds of the Iroquois, like a man who invades, unarmed, . & den of angry tigers. Jesuit explorers traced the St. Lawrence to its source and said masses among the solitudes of Lake Superior, where the boldest fur-trader scarcely dared to follow.
We have already noted the wonderful success the French had for win- ning the hearts of the untutored redmen of the forest ; it was as re- markable, in its way, as the genius of the English in repelling and alien- ating them. The latter nation appeared to want land; the former to establish empire-hence these showed the savages every honor; lured them with medals and decorations; were prodigal of their gifts, and, with the well-known pliant, plastic temper of the Frenchman, even con- descended to hunt, live and marry with them, furnishing another illus- tration of the truthful border saying, that it is impossible for an Indian to turn "pale-face," but remarkably easy for a pale-face to turn Indian. In order better to show the contrast that existed between the two races in their methods of dealing with the redmen, we again quote Parkman:
"The fur-trade engendered a peculiar class of men, known by the appropriate name of bush-rangers, or coureurs des bois-half-civilized vagrants, whose chief vocation was conducting the canoes of the traders along the lakes and rivers of the interior, but many of whom, shaking loose every tie of blood and kindred, identified themselves with the In- dians and sank into utter barbarism. In many a squalid camp among the plains and forests of the West, the traveler would have encountered men owning the blood and speaking the language of France, yet in their wild, swarthy visages and barbarous costumes, seeming more akin to those with whom they had cast their lot. He loved to decorate his long hair with eagle feathers; to make his face hideous with soot, ochre or vermilion, and to adorn his greasy hunting frock with horse-hair fringes. His dwelling, if he had one, was a wigwam. He lounged on a bear skin while his squaw boiled his venison and lighted his pipe. In hunting, dancing, singing, lounging, or taking a scalp, he rivaled the genuine Indian. His mind was tinctured with the superstitions of the forest. He had faith in the magic drum of the conjurer; he was not sure that a thunder cloud could not be charmed away by whistling at it through the wing-bone of an eagle; he carried the tail of a rattlesnake
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
in his bullet-pouch by way of amulet, and he placed implicit trust in the prophetic truth of his dreams.
"The English traders and the rude men in their employ showed, it is true, a swift alacrity to throw off the restraints of civilization, but though they became barbarians they did not become Indians. With the British settlers of the frontier, it was much the same. Rude, fierce and contemptuous, they daily encroached upon the hunting grounds of the Indians, and then paid them for the injury in abuse, insult, curses and threats. Thus the native population shrank back from before the English as from before an advancing pestilence, while, on the other hand, in the very heart of Canada, Indian communities sprang up, cherished by the government and favored by an easy-tempered people. The scouts, hunters and traders who ranged the woods beyond the English border, were a distinct, peculiar class, many of them coarse, ferocious and unscrupulous, yet, even in the worst, one might often have found a vigorous growth of war-like virtues, an iron endurance, an undespairing courage, a wondrous sagacity and a singular fertility of resource.
" As for the traders, their goods were packed at Fort Pitt on the backs of horses, and thus distributed among the various Indian villages. More commonly, however, the whole journey was performed by means of trains, or, as they were called, brigades, of pack-horses, which, leaving the frontier settlements, climbed the shadowy heights of the Alleghenies and treaded the forests of the Ohio; diving through thickets and wading over streams. The men employed in this perilous calling were a rough, bold and intractable class, often as fierce and truculent as the savages themselves. A blanket coat, a frock of smoked deer-skin, a rifle on the shoulder and a knife and tomahawk in the belt, formed their ordinary equipment. The principal trader, the owner of the merchandise, would fix his head-quarters at some large Indian town, whence he would dispatch his subordinates to the surrounding villages, with a suitable supply of blankets and red cloth, guns and hatchets, liquor, tobacco, paint, beads and hawks-bells. This wild traffic was liable to every species of disorder-and it is not to be wondered at that, in a region where law was unknown, the jealousies of rival traders should become a fruitful source of broils, robberies and murders.
" It was no easy matter for a novice, embarrassed with his cumbrous gun, to urge his horse through the thick trunks and underbrush, or even to ride at speed along the narrow Indian trails where, at every yard, the impending branches scratched him across the face. At night the camp would be formed by the side of some spring or rivulet, and if the
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WASHINGTON'S FIRST VISIT TO THE GREAT WEST.
traveler was skillful in the use of his rifle, a haunch of venison would often form his evening meal. If it rained, a shade of elm or bass- wood bark was the ready work of an hour, a pile of evergreen boughs formed a bed and the saddle or knapsack a pillow. A party of Indian wayfarers would often be met journeying through the forest-a chief or warrior, perhaps, with his squaws and family. The Indians would usually make their camp in the neighborhood of the white men, and at meal time the warrior would seldom fail to seat himself by the trader's fire and gaze with solemn gravity at the viands before him and receive his fragment of bread and cup of coffee with an ejaculation of grati- tude."
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