USA > Michigan > Gazetteer of the State of Michigan, in three parts with a succinct history of the State, from the earliest period to the present time with an appendix, containing the usual statistical tables, and a directory for emigrants, &c > Part 16
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In this year he embarked, sailed up the Detroit,
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reached Mackinac, where he left his vessel, and coasted along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, built a fort at the mouth of the " river of the Miamis," (supposed to be the site of Chicago,) crossed the country to the Illinois river, and descended it a distance, but was stopped for want of supplies. Here he built a fort, and proceeded back to Canada for supplies, and returned. He then explored the valley of the Mississippi, to its mouth, and took possession of it, in the name of Louis, king of France, and called it, in honor of his name, Louisiana. The details of this ex- pedition abound in incidents of the most thrilling interest, but they are too elaborate to be here related.
The fur trade has been ever regarded as the great source of wealth, and it formerly constituted the chief value of the regions bordering the lakes ;* the possession of it, was there- fore, the principal subject of contention between the French and English. Its lucrativeness was not confined exclusive- ly to this region, for it appears that most of the internal jealousies and contentions of the English colonies, espe- cially the infant New England colonies, had their origin, not so much in the loss of soil or jurisdiction, as in a fear of thereby losing the exclusive right to this invaluable trade.t
To obtain exclusive right of trade with the Indians, it was necessary to cultivate their friendship. But however great the exertions of the English might have been, there
* To give some idea of the lucrativeness of this business, the subjoined account of the trade at Leech Lake, near the source of the Mississippi, is appended.
" The standard of value and computation in this trade, is an abimi- nikwa, or prime beayer, called plus by the French. A plus, tradition states, was given for as much vermillion as would cover the point of a case knife, and the same price was paid, respectively, for four charges of powder, or four charges of shot, or fifteen balls, or two branches of wampum. It is related that an outfit of six bales of goods, worth, say $2,000, bought from Athabaska, ninety-six packs of beaver, each of which would weigh ninety pounds, at a time when prime beaver was worth $4.00 a pound," [that is, the value of $2,000 in goods, in exchange for $34,000 worth of furs.]
In 1784, at the post of the Pic, "a bear was estimated at one plus, an otter, three martins, a lynx, fifteen muskrats, respectively, one plus. A buf- falo robe, [wo plus. A keg of mixed rum, thirty plus." (Schoolcraft's Expedition through the Upper Mississippi in 1832.)
t Vide Webster's Hist.
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seems to have been a want of success, owing to a predilection of the Indians to the French, or to a more natural affinity in their habits and manners, which the two latter had to each other. The French succeeded in captivating the affections of most of the tribes, save the Ottogamies or Foxes, whose aversion could never be overcome.
It was to more effectually secure these regions to their possession, that prompted the possession of the strait of Detroit, the great key to the northern lakes. This politic measure had been determined upon by the English, but their rivals were first to effect it.
The expedition was fitted out by the Governor-general of New France, in 1701. It was headed by Mons. de La Motte Cadillac, accompanied by a jesuit and 100 men, car- rying all the necessaries of a military establishment. In June of the same year, after careful examination of the strait, the present site of the city of Detroit was selected, and its occupation effected. When first visited by the French, it was the site of an ancient Indian village, Teuch- sa-gron-die, or according to some accounts, it was called Wawcatonong-in signification, indicating the circuitous approach to it.
The work erected was a rude, stockaded fort, inclosing a few houses, occupied by fur-traders and those attached to the post, of slight construction, and " calculated rather to overawe the Indians, than seriously to resist them." It was called Fort Ponchartrain.
From this period to the commencement of the adminis- tration of Governor Cass, the history of the Peninsula may be said to be the history of Detroit, although many of those facts most interesting in its history, are disconnected, mea- gre, and obscure.
The Indians were always the instruments, used by the contending parties, in their strife for sovereignty. No sooner had one party gained the ascendancy in some par- ticular, than the other, piqued at the success, redoubled ardor and professions of friendship to the Indians, as the opposite party relaxed into coldness and security. The tri- umph of the one was but the undoubted prelude to finesse and intrigue in the other.
The French having gained this important post, the Indi- ans next, were to be wrought upon, as the only means of
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dislodging them. The chiefs, living in the vicinity, were in- vited to Albany ; but they returned disaffected to the French. The town was set on fire, but it was fortunately extinguish- ed, without much injury. The Indians were afterwards repulsed with success, by Sieur de Vincennes, in an attack made on the fort. There were three villages in the vicin- ity-a Huron and a Pottowattomie on the south, and an Ottawa on the opposite side of the strait-facts which show the attachment of the three tribes to this region of the Peninsula. Game was abundant, and herds of buffalo ranged the prairies and valley of the Detroit. This, and the superior beauty of the country, are supposed to be the cause of their selection of this location, the place of com- mon resort to various tribes of the interior.
The Fox or Ottogamie Indians had long been the ene- mies of the French. They were probably instigated by the English, who used the means of gaining their favor by the interchange of presents, as early as 1686. From some cause unknown, they broke out into open hostility to the French. In May, 1812, they collected in great num- bers around the fort, in the absence of the friendly Indians, who were engaged in hunting. Their plot, intended to be secret, was discovered by a friendly Ottogamy. Ex- presses were sent for the friendly tribes, and preparations made for defence. The garrison, then under command of Du Buisson, consisted of only 20 soldiers. The Foxes finding their plot discovered, commenced an attack upon the fort, but desisted and retired into an entrenched camp, on the appearance of the friendly Indians. In this, they were besieged by the allied forces, and, although twice suing for peace, made a determined resistance, which al- most disheartened their enemies. They at last retreated, under cover of night, to the border of Lake St. Clair. Here they were pursued and attacked, but they resisted their opponents with the greatest bravery. At the end of four days, by means of a field battery, their position was carried, and the besieged put to the sword, save the women and children, who were divided as slaves among the con- federates. The loss of the Ottogamies, in this expedition, was more than 1,000 warriors.
This tribe afterward, collected their scattered bands, and settled on the border of Fox river, where they were
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able to command the portage between it and the waters of the Mississippi. From this position, by their war parties, they continued to harrass all who had opposed them, till they were invaded in their intrenchments, and humbled into submis- sion.
From this time forth, to 1760, the posts of the Penin- sula were compelled to struggle with all the incidents to which their insulated condition, and the fickle inconstancy and treachery of their savage neighbors, exposed them. In 1749, government sent out emigrants, furnished with farm- ing utensils, provisions, &c., to settle the regions lying on the Detroit. Peace was scarcely enjoyed by this remote colony. During the early part of the eighteenth century, the mother country was continually at war with England- a circumstance, which inevitably resulted in involving their colonial plantations in like contentions, and retarded the growth and prosperity of both.
But in 1760, the fortune of war changed, and the die was cast in favor of England. By the capitulation of Mont- real, Detroit and the other western posts were taken posses- sion of by the British. 1
It is to be remarked, to the honor of the French, that, even in times the most adverse, during the three following years, when the least opposition would have been the means of releasing then from their adversaries and regain- ing their former sovereignty, the articles of capitula- tion were kept inviolable. But it was soon found that the temporary triumph of the English over their rivals, was a secondary matter, wholly different from winning the affec- tions of their savage allies, whose settled aversion could never brook their domination ; there was a rankling in the breast, at the loss of the favors and friendship of their allied friends and associates. A crisis in the affairs of every nation, whether civilized or savage, finds a leader competent to conduct their forces, and decide their destinies.
Pontiac, the great Ottawa chief, was destined to be the hero of his country, the Napoleon of his age-whose deeds of bravery and greatness of mind richly entitle him to a niche in the gallery of the renowned warriors, whose fame is stamped with immortality. In this respect, he may rank with Philip, of Mount Hope, with Tecumseh, or with Oceola.
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His influence over the neighboring tribes had no limits, and hence the success of his deep laid plans. He had the bit- terest hatred and enmity to the English, which prompted a revenge that no sacrifice was too great to satiate or retard.
After the surrender, the first detachment sent by the English to relieve the French garrison at Detroit, was stop- ped in the way, by Pontiac, who demanded the object of the mission. This was satisfactorily explained to him by Major Rogers, who commanded the detachment. Pontiac professed friendship, and proper belts were mutually ex- changed, and permission and protection given him to ac- complish his object ; and even assistance to forward his supplies. But this formal friendship was undoubtedly de- lusive, and very probably affected, merely for the purpose of executing a deeper design, which might have been conceiv- ed on their first interview. This design was to extirpate the English, and drive them from his country beyond the Alleganies.
His scheme was to unite all the Indian tribes on the western frontier into a confederacy, and, with treacherous · secrecy, fall simultaneously upon the garrisons, and massa- cre them. But Pontiac was equal in power and ingenuity to the magnitude of his project .* Every inflammatory topic was used to exasperate the feelings of his subjects against the English. He exhibited to the Indians a belt, which he pretended to have received from the king of France, with commission to expel the English. He con- vened a great council at the River aux Ecorces, and related a dream of a Delaware Indian, who professed direct inspi- ration from the Great Spirit. This professed prophet dis- pensed express directions how to conduct themselves in the expulsion of their adversaries, by the mortification of their persons, and abstinence from the use of all arti- cles of civilization. These, and many other directions, were related by Pontiac, accompanied with the most exas- perating phillippics against the English. The natural aver- sion, the deadly enmity of the renowned warrior, Pontiac,
* It is related, that during the war, Pontiac issued bills of credit, which were inscriptions drawn on bark, representing the article deliver- ed to him, and the figure of an otter, the arms, or totem of his family, under it. This currency was received by the French settlers, and faith- fully redeemed by him.
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breathing insidious eloquence, together with the command of the Great Spirit, inspiring success, soon united the fron- tier bands to hostility.
Whether in savage or civilized warfare, it is rare to find a plot of such magnitude, however secret it might be, that terminated with such extraordinary success. The posts were Niagara, Presque Isle, Le Boeuf, Venango, Du Quesne, (now Pittsburg,) Detroit, Michillimacinac, Sault St. Mary, Green Bay, Chicago, St. Joseph, beside one other, making twelve in number, and extending on a frontier of more than one thousand miles. Du Quesne and Niagara were regular fortifications; the others were temporary works, calculated merely to overawe the savages.
In the month of May, 1763, a simultaneous attack was made upon all these posts, and so completely were they surprised, from the secrecy of the plot, that nine of the un- suspecting garrisons were captured and shared the fate which savages usually mete to their victims. Niagara, Pittsburg, and Detroit, narrowly escaped.
The circumstances of their capture are little known. Governor Cass gives the following relation of the capture of Michillimacinac : "The Ottawas, to whom the assault was committed, prepared for a great game of ball to which the officers were invited. While engaged in play, one of the parties gradually inclined toward the fort, and the other pressed after them. The ball was once or twice thrown over the pickets, and the Indians were suffered to - enter and procure it.' Almost all the garrison were present as spectators, and those upon duty were negligent and un- prepared. Suddenly the ball was again thrown into the fort, and all the Indians rushed after it. The rest of the tale is soon told. The troops were butchered and the fort destroyed .*
* A like instance of Indian stratagem in surprising a garrison, is re- lated by Prof. Beck, of an ancient French Fort in Illinois, opposite the mouth of the Tennessee. " The Indians then at war with the French, laid a curious stratagem to take the fort. A number of them appeared in the day time on the opposite side of the river, each of whom was cov- ered with a bear skin and walked on all fours. Supposing them to be bears, a party of the French crossed the river in pursuit of them. The remainder of the troops left their quarters to sce the sport. In the mean time, a large body of warriors, who were concealed in -the woods near by, came silently behind the fort, entered it without opposition, and very
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But Fort Detroit was, of all, the most important post ; and the taking of this, Pontiac reserved to himself. It seems to have consisted of a quadrangular stockade with a single row of pickets-block houses at the corners and over the gates, and an open court intervening between the houses and pickets, encircling the town. The fort was manned by two six pounders, a three pounder, and three mortars, but badly mounted. The fort was commanded by Maj. Gladwin, and the garrison consisted of eight officers and one hundred and twenty-two men; to which may be added forty traders and engagees, who resided in town. Two armed vessels were anchored in the river, fronting the town. The plan of attack was to meet the British com- mander in the council, and, at a concerted signal-the pre- senting a belt of wampum in a particular manner-to fall upon and massacre the officers, throw open the gates, admit the warriors, and slaughter the garrison.
On the Sth of May, 1763, Pontiac presented himself at the gates of the Fort, with a body of warriors, requesting a council with the commanding officer. Each had his armour complete. They had previously sawed off their rifles that they might conceal them under their blankets. But, fortunately, the plot was revealed to Maj. Gladwin, on the eve previous to the intended massacre, by a friendly Indian woman, employed in making moccasons for the gar- rison. No time was to be lost. The fort was immediately put in order, and every man within it was prepared for the in- tended catastrophe, and the officers walked the ramparts during the night. All was silent but the songs and dances of the Indian camps. Morning came. Pontiac and his warriors were admitted into the council house, where they were received by Maj. Gladwin and his officers. "The garrison was under arms, the guards doubled, and the offi- cers were armed with swords and pistols. Pontiac inquired of the British commander the cause of this unusual appear- ance. He was answered that it was proper to keep the young men to their duty, lest they should become idle and ignorant. The business of the council then commenced,
few of the French escaped the massacre. They afterwards built a fort on the same ground, and called it Massac, in memory of the disastrous event."- Vide Beck's Gazetteer.
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and Pontiac proceeded to address Maj. Gladwin. His speech was bold and menacing, and his manner and gesti- culations vehement, and they became still more so as he approached the critical moment. When he was upon the point of presenting the belt to Maj. Gladwin, and all was breathless expectation, the drums at the door of the council house, suddenly rolled the charge, the guards leveled their pieces, and the British officers drew their swords from their scabbards. Pontiac was a brave man, constitutionally and habitually. He had fought in many a battle, and often led his warriors to victory. But this unexpected and decisive proof, that his treachery was discovered and prevented, en- tirely disconcerted him. Tradition says he trembled. At all events, he delivered the belt in the usual manner, and thus failed to give his party the concerted signal of attack. Maj. Gladwin immediately approached the chief, and draw- ing aside his blanket, discovered the shortened rifle, and then, after stating his knowledge of the plan, reproaching him for his treachery, ordered him from the fort. The In- dians immediately retired, and as soon as they had passed the gate, they gave the yell and fired upon the garrison."*
The war, thus commenced, was prosecuted with the ac- customed barbarity of their race. They laid siege to the fort, and used their endeavors to annoy the garrison from behind several out-houses and rows of pickets. The fire was returned, but with little injury to either party. The de- sign was then conceived of obtaining Maj. Campbell, (an officer who had held the command of the fort for the three previous years, and who had but recently been superseded by Maj. Gladwin,) and holding him in pledge for its surren- der. Under pretence of wishing to terminate the war, Pon- tiac succeeded in inducing him to come into his camp, by the promise that he might go and return in safety. Lieut. McDougall accompanied him. But they were both treach- erously held as hostages. The latter succeeded, by swift- ness of foot, in an unguarded moment, to escape, and the former, after remaining sometime, was murdered by an Indian, though to the pointed displeasure of Pontiac.
In the latter part of the month of May, a detachment, on their passage from Niagara, to succor the fort, were sur-
* Governor Cass's Discourse before the Historical Society.
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prised at Point Pelée, and twenty-three batteaux, laden with stores and subsistence for the defence of the garrison, taken, and all on board captured or killed, save an officer and thir- ty men who escaped in a boat to Sandusky Bay.
On the 3d of June, 1763, information was received of the peace between France and England, and of the cession to the latter of all New France. But this did not hinder the progress of the war with the Indians. Pontiac afterward attempted to enlist the French in his favor, but without any success. Skirmishes frequently happened in course of the siege, between the belligerents, but mostly, by annoying the reinforcements while ascending the strait.
On the 30th of July, a party of 300 troops from the gar- rison, while on their way to attack the Indian camp, was way-laid at Bloody Bridge, and although a brave resistance was made, seventy of the British were killed, including their brave commander, Capt. Dalyell, and forty wounded. During the remainder of the siege of Detroit, which in all continued eleven months, little occurred worthy of notice. In the course of the season following, Gen. Bradstreet, with 3,000 men, arrived, and a treaty of peace was concluded with the various tribes, but Pontiac took no part in it. This haughty spirit, too lofty to consent to the humiliation of a peace dictated by his adversaries, left the country and took his abode in Illinois, where his life was terminated by the hand of a Peoria Indian.
From this period, the country enjoyed uninterrupted peace and prosperity to the breaking out of the American revolution. Politic measures were adopted, and the Indi- ans became warmly attached to the British interests. The contest between England and her Anglo-American colo- nies, found her newly acquired French possessions attach- ed to her interest. Detroit ceased to be the sufferer, but on the contrary, was the nucleus of Indian marauders, and from which, devastation and the horrid deeds of savage bar- barity were dispensed on the western frontier settlements. Congress, in 1776, in secret session, projected an expedi- tion against it, but other objects of more pressing impor- tance caused it to berelinquished. War parties were going and returning continually during the revolution. One of the most important was that led by Capt. Byrd, consisting of regulars, militia, and a large body of Indians. The party
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left Detroit, ascended the Maumee, and descended the Mi- ami to the Ohio. They then ascended the Licking, into the interior of Kentucky, and spread ruin and devastation in every direction. With a like force, in 1778, Governor Hamilton proceeded from Detroit, for the purpose of dis- lodging Gen. George Rogers Clarke, who had been sent by the Virginia governor, against the British forts in Illinois, and had succeeded in reducing Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and several minor posts. But the expedition failed. He was surprised in his camp by Clarke, and having surrendered, was, with some of his counsellors who had instigated his system of savage warfare, sent to Virginia in irons, though the militia were allowed to return.
A definitive treaty of peace was concluded in 1783, by which the Peninsula was included within the United States' boundary. Preparatory to taking possession of the coun- try, a treaty was held with the Indians, in 1785, by Gen. Clarke, at Fort McIntosh, by which, the former ceded all that tract of country, six miles in breadth, and extending from the river Raisin to Lake St. Clair, and bounded on the east by Lake Erie, the Strait of Detroit, and Lake St. Clair. Two years subsequent, the island of Michillimaci- nac was likewise ceded.
Although hostilities ceased between the late contending parties, yet, there was little good feeling between them. By the treaty stipulations, the military posts south of the lakes were to be immediately surrendered. Slave property was to be restored, and no property whatever, was to be carried off. On the other hand, the Americans had agreed to pay the British merchants all debts contracted before the war, in sterling money. It was not long after the war that the two countries began to charge each other with viola- tions of the treaty-a charge (as has been observed) which although reciprocally denied, was reciprocally proved. There were doubts raised, on the part of the British, as to the legal restoration of captured negroes to their masters as slaves, under the English law ; consequently that article was violated. Being deprived of their slaves, to work their plantations, produced an inability in the Americans to liquidate their British claims in the required medium. This delinquency, and the unjust compulsion of some of the States, to receive depreciated paper in lieu of specie,
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was seized upon by the British, as a pretext for retaining the posts south of the lakes, One failure and infringement produced another. The Indians north-west of the Ohio, who had been irritated into frequent depredations on the frontier settlements, had risen in open hostility ; and there were many demonstrations, on the part of the British in this region, to prove the malign influence which was exer- cised to excite them to it.
Pacific overtures had been made to them, but without effect. In 1791, Gen. Harmar was despatched with 300 regulars and 1,100 Pennsylvania and Kentucky militia, to destroy their settlements on the Scioto and Wabash rivers. An engagement ensued, in which the militia, panic struck, fled, leaving him defeated with the loss of 360 killed.
Arthur St. Clair, governor of the North-Western Territory, afterward took the field, with a force of 2,000 regulars and militia, and proceeded to lay waste the Indian villages on the Miami ; but the shameful conduct of the militia caused a second defeat, by an inferior number of the enemy. His loss was 38 officers and 600 privates.
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