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 43
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388
OUR WESTERN BORDER.
Sir William was now dead, it is true, but it was not long before his successors-his son, sons-in-law and the powerful Mohawk Chief, Brant, arrayed themselves openly against the colonies. Their bad influence with the Six Nations was greatly dreaded by Washington and the Con- tinental leaders, and an early effort was made to have the New York nations remain neutral. This was no easy task, for the tory leaders were already busy among them, and at last the Johnsons, gathering a force of five hundred tories and savages, moved westward to Oswego and held a council, the result of which was that four out of the six na- tions composing the Iroquois, allied themselves openly or secretly with the British. Through emissaries dispatched thence to the western tribes, they, too, were soon divided in council, and-already angered by the constant invasion of their hunting grounds by the pioneers, and by the constant robbery of the lands under their feet through artful and despoiling treaties-their straggling scalping parties so filled the woods that no family was safe outside a fort. Had a Pontiac then been alive to merge and weld them into one hostile and cosentient mass; to in- spire and lead them on to action, it would have gone hard, indeed, with the whole western frontier.
To counteract the malevolent operations of the British and the Mo- hawk Valley tories, Congress, in July, formed three Indian Depart- ments-a northern one for the Six Nations and those tribes north and east of them; a middle one for the western tribes, and a southern one for the Cherokees, Catawbas, and all tribes south of Kentucky. The commissioners of these several departments were to keep close watch and ward over their respective tribes, as well as upon the King's super- intendents and agents among them. They were to endeavor to hold the natives quiet and neutral in the Revolutionary contest. Councils were also suggested, and "talks" prepared to send to the different tribes to explain the nature of the struggle between England and America.
The first conference was held at Albany in August, at which, how- ever, the Six Nations were not fully represented, and some even of those who were present immediately afterwards went over to the British. The second conference was held in October at Fort Pitt, and was well attended by delegates from the western tribes, who were much divided in opinion among themselves.
389
THE DELAWARE CHIEFS, CAPTAINS PIPE AND WHITE EYES.
THE DELAWARE CHIEFS, CAPTAINS PIPE AND WHITE EYES.
The commissioners having first informed the assembled chiefs of the nature of the dispute between the mother country and America, illus- trated it in the following manner: "Suppose a father had a little son whom he loved and indulged while young, but, growing up to be a youth, began to think of having some help from him; and, making up a small pack, he bid him carry it for him. The boy cheerfully takes this pack up, following his father with it. The father, finding the boy willing and obedient, continues in this way, and as the boy grows stronger, so the father makes the pack bigger and heavier; yet, as long as the boy is able to carry the pack, he does so without grumbling. At length, however, the boy having arrived at manhood, and while the father is making up a pack for him, in comes a person of an evil dispo- sition, and learning who was to be the carrier of the pack, advises the father to make it heavier, for surely the son is able to carry a larger pack. The father, listening rather to the bad adviser than consulting his own judgment and his feelings of tenderness, follows the bad advice of the hard-hearted adviser, and makes up a very heavy load for his son to carry.
" The son, now grown up, and examining the weight of the load he is to carry, addresses the parent in these words: 'Dear father, this pack is too heavy for me to carry ; do, pray, lighten it ! I am willing to do what I can, but am unable to carry this load.' The father's heart having become hardened, and the bad adviser urging him to whip him if he disobey and refuse to carry the pack, now arrogantly demands his son to take up his pack and move off, or he will whip him, and already takes up the stick to beat him. 'So,' says the son, 'am I to be served thus for not doing what I am unable to do? Well, if en- treaties are all nothing with you, father, and the matter is to be decided Dy blows, whether I am able or not to carry this pack, so heavy, then I have no other chance left me but that of resisting your unreasonable demand by strength, and thus, by striking each other, learn who is the strongest.' "
The chiefs were furthermore warned not to mix in this family quarrel on penalty of being considered parties to it, but to " sit still" until the contest should be over, and not take up the hatchet for either side ; but if they should move in this quarrel, and the Americans should prove victorious, then they would surely be terribly punished.
390
OUR WESTERN BORDER.
At this time a delegation of the Senecas, the most numerous as well as the most warlike of the Six Nations, were at Pittsburgh, to learn what part the western Indians, and more especially the Delawares, would take during the contest. Hearing Captain White Eyes, a mighty Chief of the Delawares, declaring openly in favor of the Americans and their cause, they were very much chagrined and incensed. They sharp- ly and haughtily reminded him that the Delawares had been conquered by the Six Nations ; were nothing but women, and wore petticoats. This was indeed true. The Delawares had long been subject to the Iro- quois, and had been so chased about and driven from pillar to post by their conquerors, that, for the sake of peace and independence, they had crossed the mountains and settled in the Ohio country. For many years back they had been thriving and growing more powerful and independent, and now it was high time to assert themselves and hurl back the Iroquois' insults with defiance.
White Eyes therefore arose, and with an air of disdain, replied : " I well know that the Six Nations esteem the Delawares as a conquered people and their inferiors. You say that you once conquered us ; that you cut off our legs; put petticoats upon us; gave us a hoe and a corn-pounder, saying : 'Now, women, your business henceforward shall be to plant and hoe corn and pound the same for us, men and warriors !' Look at my legs ! If, as you say, they were cut off, they have grown again to their proper size ; the petticoat I have thrown away and have put on again my own dress; the corn-hoe and pounder I have exchanged for these firearms, and I declare here and now, that 1 am a man, and," waving his hand in the direction of the Allegheny river, he continued proudly, "all the country on the other side of that river is mine !"
No address so bold or daring had ever before been delivered by a Delaware chief to the Six Nations, and it was afterwards made the occa- sion for a division of the nation. There were many Delawares who were greatly alarmed at the haughty and arrogant language of their chief to the Six Nations, to whom they had been so long subject, and of whose power and resentment they stood in mortal dread. So the Monseys, under the lead of their chief, Newalike, withdrew from the Turtle Tribe and united themselves to the Wolf Tribe of Delawares, under Captain Pipe. They then retired to a new settlement near Lake Erie, and took good care to let the Six Nations know that they did not at all approve of what Captain White Eyes had said.
This Captain Pipe was a very artful, designing man, and a chief of considerable ability and influence. He had for some time plotted for a division of his nation. His ambitious spirit would brook no rival, and.
391
THE DELAWARE CHIEFS, CAPTAINS PIPE AND WHITE EYES.
while White Eyes leaned to the Americans, Pipe's intriguing heart be- longed wholly to the British and to the Indian Confederacy which affiliated with them. The affairs of the Indians at this juncture were so mixed up with those of the Moravian or Christian Delawares, settled at that time on the Muskingum, that it is very hard to separate them. We shall, however, treat of the Muskingum settlements further on. Netawatwees, the head chief of the Delawares, had always been the warm friend of the Moravians; had invited them to settle near him ; had extended to them every aid and courtesy, and was at one time, like King Agrippa of old, almost " persuaded to be a Christian " him- self.
The efforts of this wise and venerable chief were now devoted to pre- serving peace. In this noble aim, he was ably seconded by Killbuck and Big Cat. But his best endeavors were ever frustrated by the rest- less Captain Pipe, who was warlike and vengeful, ever brooding over old resentments. This redskin Mephistopheles now kept aloof from the council of the nation, and busily spread the report that White Eyes had made secret engagements with the Americans with a view to the en- slavement of his own people. White Eyes minded him not, but even headed a deputation to the Wyandots in the interest of peace; but they refused his peace belts, and a British officer, who was there, even snatched them from his hands, cut them to pieces and then insultingly told the chief to " begone if he set any value on his head."
Shortly after an embassy of twenty warriors arrived among the still steadfast Delawares, and demanded their assistance, stating that all the western tribes had confederated as one man for the war, and that the Turtle Tribe of Delawares alone stood out for an inglorious, ignomini- ous peace. Meanwhile every variety of artful report was industriously circulated, in order to pervert the minds of the young and ardent Dela- wares, and to compel them, as it were, to take the war path. Unfor- tunately, just previous to this crisis, Netawatwees died at Pittsburgh, declaring, as his last will, that the Gospel should be preached to the In- dians without any let or hindrance. This resolve was not only en- dorsed but steadfastly carried out by White Eyes, and on the Moravians positively declaring that they would forsake the country if the Dela- wares should go to war, all their chiefs, in solemn conclave assembled, resolved to keep the peace and maintain a strict neutrality at any and at every hazard.
Early in 1778 the hostile savages began again to commit depreda- tions against the border, stealing horses, burning houses, plundering, murdering and destroying. On returning from these bloody and mer- ciless marauds, they would frequently pass with their prisoners and
392
OUR WESTERN BORDER.
scalps through the peaceable Indian settlements, in order to exasperate the frontiermen, and make them believe them the guilty aggressors.
SIMON GIRTY, ELLIOTT AND MCKEE DESERT FROM FORT PITT.
Truly a troubled and tempestuous time had these friendly Indians, and to cap the climax of their miseries, there now arrived at the Dela- ware town Goschochking, (now Coshocton, Ohio,) a squad of twelve base deserters from Fort Pitt, led on by those notorious tories, Simon Girty, Matthew Elliott and Alexander McKee-the last, Sir William Johnson's old deputy among the Indians. "It was enough," dolefully writes Heckewelder, " to break the hearts of the missionaries." This tory defection, just at this alarming juncture, caused quite as much terror and anxiety among the Delawares as it did among the whites them- selves. The mouths of these malevolent renegades were filled with all manner of evil and lying. They impudently asserted that Washington had been killed; that his armies were cut to pieces by the British; that Congress had been dispersed ; that the whole East was in possession of the enemy, and that the force at Fort Pitt had nothing left for it to do but to possess the Indian lands, killing men, women and children.
The effect of these false and malicious stories, just at a time when Captain Pipe had been so long working to win over the Delaware tribe to take open sides with the British and to make a combined maraud against the border, was prodigious. Captains White Eyes, Killbuck and Big Cat, however, stood firm, and did all they could to allay the excite- ment. A grand council of the nation was called to discuss Pipe's ear- nest advice that arms should be immediately taken up against the Amer- icans. White Eyes, the noble old chief, made a most spirited and vehe- ment address to all the hot-blooded young warriors; denounced Girty and his confreres as liars, and begged just for ten days, and then, if no news came to disprove what had been told them by these deserters, he would not only favor immediate hostilities, but he would himself lead them on: "Not like the bear hunter," he sarcastically concluded, "who sets the dog on the animal to be beaten about with his paws, while he keeps at a safe distance. No, he would lead them on in person; place himself in the front, and be the first to fall."
The ten days were at length decreed. It was a most anxious and critical time. As day after day passed without further news from Fort Pitt, those Indians who desired peace wavered, and, finally, were so despondent and hopeless that they no longer made opposition to Pipe and his war tribe; but the fiery young zealots of both tribes commenced sounding the war drum, shaving their heads, laying on the scalp plume,
393
GIRTY, ELLIOTT AND MCKEE DESERT FROM FORT PITT.
and otherwise preparing to set off on a bloody raid against the white settlements.
But God did not so will it. Just in the very nick of time, the young Moravian, John Heckewelder, had arrived from the East at Fort Pitt, and, hearing of the late defection, set off without one instant's delay to the Moravian towns. Here he found everything in the direst confusion. The last day of the ten was at hand, and the whole fighting strength of the Delawares, together with a large force of Wyandots from Sandusky, were to start off early next morning on the war path.
Not one moment to be lost! Spent and jaded as he was, Heckewel- der soon mounted a fresh horse, and rode thirty miles farther to Gosch- ochking, the chief Delaware town, which he found in great commotion, all the braves being decked out for war. His reception was discour- aging. Even Captain White Eyes and the other chiefs who had always befriended the Moravians, drew back in the coldest and most haughty manner when the hand was extended. At length the great chief, White Eyes, boldly stepped forward and said that if what Girty and his party asserted were so, the Delawares no longer had a friend among the Amer- icans, and wanted to know the exact truth. He then asked . "Is Wash- ington killed? Are the American armies cut to pieces? Is there no longer a Congress? and are the few thousands who escaped the British armies, embodying themselves at Fort Pitt to take the Indian's country, slaughtering even our women and children?"
Heckewelder then stood up, his honest face and truthful manner carrying conviction with every word, and denounced all Girty's stories as utter fabrications. He asserted, on the contrary, that Burgoyne's whole army had just surrendered, and that he (Heckewelder) was the bearer of the most friendly messages from General Hand and Colonel Gibson, of Fort Pitt, advising them to continue neutral.
In proof of his statement, Heckewelder put a newspaper in White Eye's hands, containing the account of the battle of Saratoga and the surrender of Burgoyne, which the glad old chief, now completely re- assured, held up before his people, saying : "See, my friends and rel- atives ! this document containeth great events-not the song of a bird, but the truth !" Then, stepping up to Heckewelder, he joyfully said : "You are welcome with us, brother."
Thus, for the time, did all Pipe's machinations and ambitious schemes come to naught. His mortified spies slunk back to their own Wolf tribe, while Captain White Eyes, knowing that Girty, Elliott and Mc- Kee had gone on to the Shawnee towns on the Scioto with the same fabrications, immediately dispatched fleet runners thither with the fol- lowing message: "Grandchildren ! . Ye Shawneese ! Some days ago
$
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
a flock of birds, that had come on from the East, lit at Goschochking, imposing a song of theirs upon us, which song had nigh proved our ruin. Should these birds, which, on leaving us, took their flight to- wards Scioto, endeavor to impose a song on you likewise, do not listen to them, for they lie."
DEATH OF CAPTAIN WHITE EYES-A HORRID MASSACRE.
This, as stated, took place in the Spring of '78, and ever after, this precious trio of tories-Girty, Elliott and McKee -- were a full match, in every species of hostile attack and savage depredation, with that other trio of the Mohawk Valley-Johnson, Butler and Brant.
Shortly after the desertion, Captain White Eyes returned to Fort Pitt to be nearer Colonel George Morgan, the Indian agent, and with his aid to prevent his nation from being dragged into war. He was also, seeing the flourishing condition of the Moravian settlements on the Muskingum, exceedingly anxious to have his tribe embrace Christianity, but God did not so will it, for while accompanying General McIntosh to the Tuscarawas, where Fort Laurens was to be built for the protec- tion of the peaceable Indians, he was seized with the small-pox and died, greatly lamented by both reds and whites. He was a wise, sensi- ble and peaceable chief, always friendly to Christianity and the cause of the colonies. Pipe, however, heard of this removal of his rival with ill-concealed joy, and promptly remarked, in a council of chiefs, that " the Great Spirit had put him out of the way that the nation might be saved." White Eyes' death was, according to Indian custom, at once made known to all the nations around, and even the distant Chero- kees sent to Goschochking a deputation of fourteen chiefs to condole with the mourning Delawares. White Eyes' successor being very young in years, three other chiefs, Killbuck, Big Cat and Tetepachksi, officia- ted till he should become of age; and when, afterwards, Pipe and the war party became supreme, retired with him to Smoky Island, across the river from Fort Pitt, for protection. It will be seen shortly, how foully this young chief was dealt with.
The most remarkable event that happened in 1779, was the wonder- ful expedition of George Rogers Clark-called the Hannibal of the West-against the British force in the northwest, and his capture of the posts of Kaskaskia and Vincennes. But those events were of such a singular character and were attended with so many romantic features and deeds of daring, that we shall give them a special and separate mention.
395
A HORRID MASSACRE.
During three years, '79, '80 and '81, Indian cruelties and devasta- tions in the West continued with more or less constancy and severity. The borders were greatly drained of their fighting strength to supply the eastern armies, then waging a war to the death with all the power of Great Britain. The West was necessarily left to maintain itself as best it could against the whole confederacy of western tribes, backed by English hate and wealth ; inspired from British forts and more especially from Detroit, and officered by British or tory leaders.
In the Spring of '82, however, occurred a dread and lamentable event, which not only rests as an indelible stain upon the fair fame of the western border, but which added for a long time a rancorous bitterness to all the subsequent savage warfare. We allude, of course, to the das- tardly and execrable massacre of the Moravian Indians on the Mus- kingum. For some time the whole frontier had been in a very excited and discontented state, and that Spring savage barbarities had com- menced earlier than usual. On account of the constant harassment by Indians, the failure of Clark's and Gibson's expeditions, and the al- most total annihilation of Colonel Archibald Lochry's command of over one hundred of the very bravest and foremost riflemen of Westmore- land county, there existed universal gloom and dismay. Add to this the long and angry controversy which had prevailed about the boun- dary between Virginia and Pennsylvania, ending in disputed authority, vexatious suits, insecure titles, excuses for neglect of military duty, and a want of authority by the county lieutenants over the militia for twenty miles on either side of the line in dispute, and the terribly demoralized state of the West can be fully imagined.
So restless and disheartened had the settlers become, that very many talked of flying back east of the mountains, while a new scheme of emigration to the Ohio, championed by an adventurer of the name of Jackson, had-wild and dangerous as it was created quite an excite- ment, and had won very many adherents. As there were a large num- ber of bitter tories then in the West, it was shrewdly suspected at Fort Pitt that so hazardous and foolhardy a project would never have been entertained except with the promise of a British protectorate from De- troit. They must either have been cut to pieces by the Indians, or have had an understanding with the British, who instigated all the border marauds of that day. May 25th was appointed for the rendezvous.
But this was not all, nor the worst. As Doddridge in his Notes says: " It would seem that the long continuance of the Indian war had de- based a considerable portion of our population to the savage state. Having lost so many relatives by the Indians, and witnessed their horrid murders and other depredations upon so extensive a scale, they
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
became subjects of that indiscriminating thrist for revenge, which is such a prominent feature in the savage character."
We cannot well present an intelligible statement of what occurred on the border in 1782, without giving an account-as brief as is consistent with clearness of the Moravian Missions west of the Alleghenies. The earlier history of the Moravians east of the mountains and their deal ings with the natives, are replete with interest and a mournful pathos, and would fill a volume, but with that branch of the subject we have nothing to do.
CHAPTER VI.
GOD'S MIGHTY WORK IN THE WILDERNESS.
Where late the war whoop's hideous sound
Alone disturbed the silence round ;
Where late the godless wigwam stood,
Deep in the unbounded range of wood; Where lately, armed for deadly strife,
With tomahawk and scalping knife, The Natives strove ;
Now dove-eyed Peace triumphant reigns,
And o'er the cultivated plains, In converse sweet, dusk maids and swains,
Contented rove.
Never, to our thinking, in all the history of Christ's Church, was there a missionary enterprise with so touching a story; that was so clearly blessed of God in its spiritual results, or that, for some in- scrutable Providence, was permitted to be so harrowed and storm-tossed as the Moravian Mission among the western Indians.
The Delawares were a noble, intelligent and virtuous tribe, as com- pared with redmen generally, and peculiarly susceptible to Gospel teachings. Among them the missionaries worked east of the Alle- ghenies for years, converting thousands; forming them into separate industrious communities ; teaching all the arts of peaceful civilization, and assisting them to live pure, devoted and consistent Christian lives.
The western explorations of Frederick Post, a very devout man of God, satisfied his Church that a most promising field of missionary en- terprise invited beyond the Alleghenies. The first decided attempt was made on the upper Allegheny, and many were converted; among others, Allemewi, a blind old Delaware chief. Wars and troubles, how- ever, soon arose, and it was concluded to accept the invitation of Pan- kake and Glickhican, and move further west, where the Delawares were more numerous and all favorably inclined.
Accordingly, in April, 1770, a fleet of sixteen canoes, filled with mis- sionaries and their little band of disciples, the firstlings of the Faith, descended the Allegheny from Lawunakhannek, to Pittsburgh; thence
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
down the Ohio to the Big Beaver ; thence up said river twenty miles, where a debarkation was effected and a settlement made. The Indians soon flocked in from far and near, and were " astonished at their doc- trine." Chiefs and warriors, great and small, wise and simple, were in like manner attracted ; but when Glickhican, one of the best, greatest and most influential Delaware war chiefs, as also the wife of Allemewi, became converts, the excitement increased and widened.
A beautiful and prosperous village arose, which was called Frieden- stadt, or Village of Peace. The land was rich, and the woods filled with every variety of game, as were the streams with fish. Churches, schools, mills and workshops were erected ; the lands were surrounded with good fences, and cultivated with the latest improved implements ; horses, cattle, hogs, &c., were multiplied, and, in a word, the " wilder- ness blossomed as the rose," and all was peace and happiness.
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