USA > Michigan > History of Michigan, civil and topographical, in a compendious form; with a view of the surrounding lakes > Part 12
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
were naked, were marked in various figures with white elay. After seating themselves around him, he was addressed in the following speech by Minavavana their chief, who at the same time gave him a few strings of wampum :-
" Englishmen, it is to you that I speak, and I demand your attention.
" Englishmen, you know that the French king is our father. He promised to be such, and we in return promised to be his children. This promise we have kept.
" Englishmen, it is you that have made war with this our father. You are his enemy ; and how then could you have the boldness to venture among us, his children ? You know that his enemies are ours.
" Englishmen, we are informed that our father, the king of France, is old and infirm ; and that, being fatigued with making war upon your nation, he has fallen asleep. During this sleep you have taken advantage of him, and possessed your- selves of Canada. But his nap is almost at an end. I think I hear him already stirring and inquiring for his children the Indians ; and when he does awake, what must become of you ? He will destroy you utterly.
" Englishmen, although you have conquered the French, you have not yet conquered us. We are not your slaves. These lakes, these woods and mountains, are left to us by our ancestors. They are our inheritance, and we will part with them to none. Your nation supposes that we, like the white people, cannot live without bread, and pork, and beef ; but you ought to know that He, the Great Spirit and Master of Life, has provided food for us in these spacious lakes and on these woody mountains.
" Englishmen, our father, the king of France, employed our young men to make war upon your nation. In this warfare many of them have been killed ; and it is our custom to re- taliate until such time as the spirits of the slain are satisfied. But the spirits of the slain are to be satisfied in either of two ways : the first is, by the spilling the blood of the nation by which they fell ; the other, by covering the bodies of the dead,
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MICHILIMACKINAC.
and thus allaying the resentment of their relations. This is done by making presents.
" Englishmen, your king has never sent us any presents, nor entered into any treaty with us; wherefore he and we are still at war ; and until he does these things, we must con- sider that we have no other father or friend among the white men than the king of France. But for you, we have taken into consideration that you have ventured among us in the expectation that we should not molest you. You do not come armed, with an intention to make war. You come in peace to trade with us, and supply us with necessaries of which we are in much want. We shall regard you, therefore, as a brother ; and you may sleep tranquilly, without fear of the Chippewas. As a token of our friendship, we present you with this pipe to smoke."*
Henry was afterwards visited by a party of two hundred Ottawa warriors, from L'Arbre Crocke, about seventy miles west of Michilimackinac, at the entrance of Lake Michigan, which was then the seat of the Jesuit mission of St. Ignace de Michilimackinac. One of their chiefs addressed him in these words, which exhibit the feelings of this tribe toward the French and English.
This speech was addressed to Henry and two other mner- chants, in the council-room of the commandant's house at Michilimackinac, just as the trader was about to leave that place with his goods :---
" Englishmen, We, the Ottawas, were some time since in- formed of your arrival in this country, and of your having brought with you the goods of which we have much need. At this news we were greatly pleased, believing that, through your assistance, our wives and children would be enabled to pass another winter ; but what was our surprise when, a few days ago, we were again informed that the goods which, as we had expected, were intended for us, were on the eve of departure for distant countries, of which some are inhabited by our ene- mnies. These accounts being spread, our wives and children
* Henry, p. 43.
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came to us, crying, and desiring that we should go to the fort, to learn with our ears their truth or falsehood. We ac- cordingly embarked almost naked as you see, and on our ar- rival here, we have inquired into the accounts, and found them true. We see your canoes ready to depart, and find your men engaged for the Mississippi and other distant re- gions.
Under these circumstances we have considered the affair, and you are now sent for ; that you may hear our determina- tion, which is, that you shall give to each of our men, young and old, merchandize and ammunition to the amount of fifty beaver skins on credit ; and for which I have no doubt of their paying you in the summer, on their return from their wintering."*
Previous to the time of the attack upon Michilimackinac, the Indians were noticed assembling from the surrounding forests in great numbers, with every appearance of friendship, ostensibly for the purpose of disposing of their peltries ; and during one night, four hundred lay around the fort. On the 2d day of June, Powatan, a Chippewa chief, who had manifested a strong attachment to Henry, came to his house, and told him he was sorry the trader had returned from the Sault ; that he was desirous himself to leave Michilimackinac, and requested Henry to return with him on the following morning. The Chippewa chief also inquired of him wheth- er the commandant, Major Etherington, had heard bad news ; and stated that he himself had been disturbed by " the noise of evil birds ," and also informed the English trader that there were many Indians near the fort, who had not shown them- selves inside. These requests and hints were urged again on the following day. Major Etherington was informed by Henry of his suspicions, but no notice was taken of his re- marks, as they were supposed to be the mere designs of the Indians, to produce fear.
The next day was the king's birth-day, and the morning was sultry. In order to celebrate this event, a game was pro-
* Henry, p. 48.
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MICHILIMACKINAC DESTROYED.
posed to be played between the Chippewas and Sacs for a high wager. This game was called baggatiway, and it was played with a bat and ball. The bat is about four feet long, carved, and it is terminated in a racket. Two posts are planted in the ground about a mile apart, and each party having its post, the game consists in propelling the ball, which is placed in the centre, toward the post of the adversary in the game.
On the day previous, the Indians had been noticed repairing in great numbers to the fort at Michilimackinac to purchase tomahawks; and they frequently desired to see silver arm- bands, and other barbaric ornaments, which Henry had for sale. These ornaments were not, however, purchased ; but after in- specting them, the Indians told him they would call the next day. The manifest design of these visits was that they might discover the place of their deposit, so that they might know the point for pillage.
The design of the Indians was to throw the ball over the pickets, and it was natural, in the heat of the game, that all the Indians should rush after it. This stratagem was success- ful. Major Etherington, the commandant, was present at the game, and laid a wager on the side of the Chippewas, while all the garrison, who could be induced, were by some pretext drawn outside of the picket for the purpose of weakening the defences of the fort. In the midst of the game there was an Indian war-yell, and the crowd of Indians who had rushed after the ball within the pickets, were seen furiously cutting down and scalping the English within the fort ; while many of the English were struggling between the knees of the Indians, who scalped them while alive. The Canadians around the fort did not oppose the Indians, or suffer any in- jury. Henry the trader had seen from his window the butch- ery of the garrison, and finding that his unaided arm was in- sufficient to cope with the savages, who had by that time ac- quired the mastery, soon crawled over a low fence which di- vided his own house from that of M. Langlade, and entering, requested some aid by which he could be preserved from the general massacre. M. Langlade, a Canadian, who had been
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
looking out at his own window, turned for a moment to the trader, and shrugging his shoulders, replied in French that he could do nothing for him. "Que voudriez-vous, que j'en ferais ?" said this white savage. At that moment, a slave be- longing to Langlade, of the Pawnee tribe of Indians, carried him to a door, which she opened, and informed him that it led to the garret, where he was desired to conceal himself. She then locked the door with great presence of mind, and took away the key. Through an aperture in the wall Henry could command a complete view of the fort. He beheld the barbarian triumphs of the savages in their foulest and blackest form. Heaps of dead lay around the fort, scalped and mangled. The dying were shrieking and writhing under the tomahawk and scalping-knife, the bodies of the English soldiers were gashed, and their blood was drank by the savages from the hollows of joined hands, amid demon-like yells. Henry re- mained in terrible suspense for some time, until he heard the cry, " All is finished," and at the same time some of the In- dians entered the house where he was concealed, and inquir- ed of Langlade whether there were any Englishmen in the house. M. Langlade replied that he could not say, that he did not know of any, they might examine for themselves. The Pawnee slave had secreted Henry by stealth, and did not communicate the fact to any body. The Indians, however, were brought to the garret door. The key was soon produc- ed, and the Indians, besmeared with blood and armed with tomahawks, ascended the stairs just as Henry had crept into a heap of birch-bark vessels, which were used in making maple sugar, and which lay in the further end of the garret. After making two or three turns around the room, they departed without discovering him. The dark color of his clothes, and the absence of light in the room probably prevented his discovery. There was at that time a mat in the room, and Henry fell asleep ; and he was finally awakened by the wife of M. Lang- lade, who had gone up to stop a hole in the roof. She was surprised to see him there, remarked that the Indians had killed most of the English, but that he might hope to escape. Hen- ry lay there during the night. All chance of flight seemed to
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MICHILIMACKINAC DESTROYED.
be lost. He was without provisions, surrounded by savage enemies, and was four hundred miles from Detroit.
At length the wife of Langlade determined to point out Henry's place of concealment, and showed the Indians the garret. Her design, she stated, was to prevent the destruction of her own children, which would take place if an English- man was discovered concealed in her house. Unlocking the door, she was followed by several Indians, naked down to their waist, and intoxicated, who were led by Wenniway, a chief. This warrior was more than six feet in height, and his face and body were covered with charcoal and grease, with the exception of a ring of two inches in diameter, which encircled each eye. At their entrance Henry roused him- self from the bed which was in the garret, and Wenniway, a chief, advancing with lips compressed, seized him by the coat with one hand, and with the other held a large carving- knife, as if to plunge it into his breast, while his eyes were steadfastly fixed on his. Gazing for a moment, he dropped his arm, and said, " I won't kill you." He had been engaged in many wars with the English, and had lost a brother, whose name was Musinigon. "You shall be called after him," said the savage. Henry was afterwards stripped of his clothes. He was subsequently carried to L'Arbre Croche as a prisoner, where he was rescued by a band of three hundred Ottawas, by whom, however, he was soon returned, and finally ransom- ed by Wawatam. Several of the bodies of the English who had been slain at Michilimackinac, were boiled and eaten ; and Henry, when a prisoner, was given bread by the Indians cut with the knife which had scalped his countrymen. At the capture of Michilimackinac only one trader, M. Tracy, lost his life. Seventy of the English troops were killed, and the rest, together with the prisoners at St. Joseph and Green Bay, were kept in safety by the Ottawas until peace, and then freely restored or ransomed at Montreal. The massacre of the garrison, and the destruction of the fort by burning, com- pleted this project, which exhibits the strongest lines of tra- gedy. A number of canoes, filled with English traders, also arrived about the same time ; and these were dragged through
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
the water, beaten, and marched by the Indians to the prison lodge. The massacre took place on the 3d of June; and the savages, who were about four hundred in number, enter- taining apprehensions of the English and the other Indians who had not joined them, soon retired to the island of Mackinaw. There Henry was concealed by Wawatam from the intoxication of the savages in the " salt rock," where he lay for one night on a heap of human bones. The post of Michilimackinac having been destroyed, the savages seemed to have glutted their revenge ; while some repaired to the post at Detroit, to aid Pontiac in that siege .*
The operations of Pontiac in this quarter soon called for efficient aid on the part of the English Government ; and dur- ing the season, Gen. Bradstreet arrived to the relief of the posts on the lakes with an army of three thousand men. Having burned the Indian corn-fields and villages at Sandus- ky and along the rich bottoms of the Maumee, and dispersed the Indians whom he there found, he reached Detroit with- out opposition. The tribes of Pontiac, with the exception of the Delawares and Shawanese, finding that they could not successfully compete with such a force, laid down their arms and concluded a treaty of peace. Pontiac,t however, took no part in the negotiation, and retired to the Illinois, where he was assassinated, about the year 1767, by an Indian of the Peoria tribe. The Ottawas, the Potawatamies, and the Chippewas, made common cause in revenging his death, by waging war and nearly exterminating the tribes of the murderer. That
* I have had the inspection of a French manuscript, "Journal of the Pontiac War," written during its occurrence. The record is, however, discolored by time, garbled, and unsatisfactory ; amplifying on unimportant details, and exhibiting no connected chain of prominent facts. I am also indebted in this place to the MSS. of John R. Williams ; also to Henry's account.
t A bottle of brandy was at one time sent to Pontiac by Col. Rogers ; and his warriors cautioned him not to taste it, lest it might be poisoned. Pontiac, how- ver, rejected their advice. " He cannot take my life," said the Ottawa chief, " I have saved his." In commenting on this anecdote, the Abbe Raynal remarks :- " A hundred traits of equal elevation have fixed upon Pontiac the gaze of the savage nations. He wished to re-unite all his tribes for the purpose of making their territory and independence respecled, but unfortunate circumstances prevented the project." Raynal, Hist. Phil. Pub.
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INDIANS DISPERSED.
terrific drama, got up by this son of the forest, stamps his name with greatness. The living marble and the glowing canvass may not embody his works ; but they are identified with the soil of the western forest, and will live as long as the remembrance of its aboriginal inhabitants, the Algonquin racc .*
* It is stated of the treatment by the Indians of Captain Campbell, that " they boiled his heart and ateit, and made a pouch of the skin of his arms." The terms of submission proposed by Pontiac to Campbell, after he was secured as a prisoner, were, that the British should lay down their arms, as their fathers, the French, had before been obliged to do ; leave their cannon, magazines, and mer- chants' goods, and be escorted in batteaux to Niagara. He was answered by that officer, that he had not been sent there to deliver up the fort to Indians or any body else, and that he would therefore defend it so long as a single man could stand by his side. The siege was thereupon re-commenced, and it was conducted with such perseverance, that for months the whole garrison, officers, soldiers, merchants, and servants, were upon the ramparts every night, not one having slept in a house, except the sick and wounded in the hospital .- Detroit Diary.
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
CHAPTER VIII.
Condition of Michigan after the Pontiac war-The Hudson's Bay Company- The North-west Company-The American Fur Company -- Administration of the law by the English -- Silver found in Lake Huron-Project for working the Copper Mines of Lake Superior -- Condition during the American Revo- lution -- Byrd's Expedition-Governor Hamilton's Expedition-Indian relations -- Netawatwees-Captain Pipe-White Eyes-German Missionaries carried to Detroit-Indian Council-Speech of Captain Pipe-Missionaries acquitted.
AFTER the Pontiac war, a system of conciliation was exer- cised by the English toward the Indians as well as toward the French citizens. The energies of the few scattered inha- bitants continued to be devoted to the fur trade rather than to the pursuit of agriculture. Grants were made by the En- glish commandants of the forts on the lakes, and along the principal streams in Michigan ; which, however, were unau- thorized by the British Government. Similar grants were also executed by the Indians. After the post of Michilimack- inac was destroyed, the English made a permanent settlement on the island of Mackinaw. On the accession of the English, little attention was paid to the old French laws ; and upon the treaty of 1763, new courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction were established, in which the laws of England were intro- duced. This treaty, made at Paris, surrendered the dominion of Michigan from France to England, the " Family Compact" which had been made between France and Spain, to sustain the jurisdiction of the country, having fallen to the ground. In 1756 the French settlements extended along the banks of the Detroit River for twenty miles above and below the town of Detroit .* The country, then productive, was used in the cultivation of oats, buck-wheat, peas, wheat, and Indian corn ; and was also remarkable for fine pasturage. The town of Detroit had about one hundred houses, a range of barracks, and a spacious parade at the south end. A tract of land, call-
* See a pamphlet published in London in 1778, by Thos. Hutchins, captain in the 160th regiment of foot.
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ENGLISH AND AMERICAN FUR TRADE.
ed " the King's Garden," on the west side was handsomely laid out and adorned. The main defence of the town was a fence of pickets settled firmly in the ground, and lined with palisades protected with bastions, which were mounted with small cannon, just sufficient to cope with the Indians, or an enemy not provided with artillery. The garrison consisted of about two hundred men, under the command of a field of- ficer, subject to the cognizance of the English Governor-ge- neral of Canada .*
The Hudson's Bay Company, which was chartered about the year 1696 by the English crown, and had exercised a broad and despotic dominion over the wilderness of the north, now stretched its operations toward the lakes, upon the do- main which had before been occupied for that object by the French. The great value of the furs which then abounded in that region, was the object which was sought. It was, however, only in the year 1766 that the trade was carried on to any great extent by the English upon the shores of Michi- gan, although private adventurers had pushed their enter- prises to the remotest coast of Lake Superior. The English company, jealous of these individual expeditions, as they had been of those under the French government, now enlarged the circle of their operations ; and in 1774 came into frequent and severe collisions with individual traders whom they met in their wanderings. The consequences were injurious to the trade, as the time and energies which might have been em- ployed in securing advantages to themselves, were devoted to petty quarrels, and the forest became a scene of brawls, and a battle-ground of the contending parties. The war was organized into a system. The traders of the Hudson's Bay Company followed the Canadians to their different posts, and used every method to undermine their power.t
During the winter of 1783, the merchants who had been before engaged in the fur trade, formed a partnership, and es- tablished the North-west Company. No capital was at that time paid in, but the stock was divided into sixteen shares, and
* See Henry and Carver.
f Consult Mackenzie's Account of the Fur Tradc.
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
each partner engaged to pay his quota in goods requisite to carry on the trade. The company then commenced opera- tions. In 1787, a certain proportion of the shares was held by the agents of the company, whose duty it was made to import from England the goods destined for the fur trade, to store them at Montreal, to cause them to be made into articles suit- ed to the trade, to pack and forward them, and to supply the money required for the outfits. Two of these agents went annually to Detroit, Mackinaw, St. Marie, the Grand Portage, and Montreal ; where they received the peltries which had been collected from the interior, packed and shipped them for England. The company for a time made vast profits. In 1798 it had undergone some modification, and the shares were increased to forty-six. The following table exhibits the product of the trade for one year previous to 1774 :-
106,000 Beaver skins, 600 Wolverine skins,
2,100 Bear skins, 1,650 Fisher skins,
1,500 Fox skins,
100 Raccoon skins;
4,000 Kitt Fox skins,
3,800 Wolf skins,
4,600 Otter skins, 700 Elk skins,
16,000 Musksquash skins,
750 Deer skins,
32,000 Martin skins,
1,200 Deer skins, dressed,
1,800 Mink skins, 500 Buffalo robes, and a
6,000 Lynx skins,
quantity of castorum.
The mode of proceeding in the fur trade, during the year 1794, was modelled somewhat after the French plan. Eighteen months before they could leave Montreal, and in the month of October, the agents ordered the goods to be used in the fur trade from England. In the following spring they were ship- ped from London, and in the succeeding summer they arrived in Canada. During the winter following they were made up into such articles as were required by the savages, and are then packed in parcels, each weighing ninety pounds. These were sent to Montreal about the Ist of May. In the ensuing winter they were exchanged for furs, which arrived at Mon- treal during the next fall, and were then shipped to London. In the following spring they were sold, and paid for as late
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ENGLISH AND AMERICAN FUR TRADE.
as June .* The payments were thus made forty-two months after the goods were ordered in Canada, and twenty-four after they had been forwarded from Montreal. The articles im- ported for the English fur trade were those which were in demand by the Indians. They consisted chiefly of coarse woollen cloth of various kinds, blankets of various sorts and sizes, arms, ammunition, tobacco, Manchester goods, linens, and coarse sheetings ; threads, lines, and twine ; common hard- ware ; cutlery, brass, and copper-kettles ; sheet-iron ; silk and cotton handkerchiefs, hats, shoes, hose, calicoes, printed cot- tons ; and also all goods which were demanded in the market of Montreal. The machinery of the fur trade was complex, and to conduct it required a considerable amount of capital, and many employees. They were comprised of clerks, inter- preters, guides, canoe-men, who consisted of foremen, middle- men, and steersmen.t The canoes, generally of a large size, containing eight or ten men each and about sixty-five pack- ages of goods, were despatched for the expedition about the month of May. There were also necessarily extensive estab- lishments connected with the trade, such as store-houses, trad- ing houses, and places of accommodation for the agents and partners of the larger companies. The mode of living at the Grand Portage on Lake Superior in 1794 was the following :- The proprietors of the establishment, the guides, clerks, and interpreters, messed together ; sometimes to the number of one hundred, in a large hall. Bread, salt-pork, beef, butter, veni- son, and fish, Indian corn, potatoes, tea, and wine, were their provisions. Several cows were kept around the establishments, which supplied them with milk. The corn was prepared at Detroit by being boiled in a strong alkali, and was called " ho- minee." The mechanics had rations of this sort of provi- sion, while the canoe-men had no allowance but melted fat and Indian corn.
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