USA > New York > Franklin County > A history of St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, New York : from the earliest period to the present time > Part 11
USA > New York > St Lawrence County > A history of St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, New York : from the earliest period to the present time > Part 11
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This priest meanwhile did not prosper much, and it was felt that there was great difficulty in inducing the Iroquois to leave a fat and fertile country, to come and fix themselves upon an uncultivated tract, and to beg for their life of a priest. It was for this reason that de la Jonquière the elder, was sent to go and remain among them, and in the village which he might deem the most convenient for his negotiations, and they gave him a brevet of captain, without a company, to the end that he might not be disturbed in his residence, on account of his services.
There could not have been chosen a more suitable person to remain with them. He understood their language perfectly, and for a long time had lived among them, as one of their number, and although he had been married in Canada, he had among the Iroquois many children; and in short, he had been as it were, adopted among them, and was regarded as one of their nation.
He had his cabin. His instructions were to second the Abbé Picquet, in his project, and above all to induce the Mohawks to leave entirely, the vicinity of the English, and to offer them such inducements, and advantages as they desired, to make them abandon their settlements, and come and live with us. If indeed he had been able to succeed in this, there can be no doubt that the remainder of the five nations would have followed their example. They alone were directly attached to the English, who had all along preserved in them a hostility to our nation. But Mr. Johnson, who was not ignorant of the designs of the French, laboured on the contrary, to maintain them in the alliance of his nation.
The Jesuits who had always sought their own aggrandizement, under the pious pretext of instructing the people, had not failed to seek to es- tablish themselves in Canada.
Wishing to remain the sole masters they crossed, as much as possible, the Recollets in their projects of returning to the country, after the English had restored Canada, [in the treaty of St. Germain in 1632.] From the earliest times that these fathers, (the Jesuits,) were established in the country, they detached some of their number, to go and preach the gos- pel to the savages. They followed them in their marches, but wearied with their wandering life, which agreed not with their designs, which they had to accumulate large properties, they took great care to endea- vor to establish their neophytes, without embarrassing themselves by those whom they abandoned.
They made great account of their zeal at the court, and showed large numbers of converts, and under the specious pretext of uniting them, to civilize them,* they demanded concessions of lands, and pensions. The court persuaded of the justice of their demands, accorded both the one and the other.
It was thus that they acquired the Seigniories of Charlesbourg; New and Old Lorette; Rastican, and the Prairie de la Magdeliene, and others, which are very well established, and of considerable repute. These concessions were given them under the titles of Seigneurie et ventes. (lods et ventes.) * * *
* The author in the MSS. neither renders justice to the motives, nor the conduct, of the Jesuits .- [ Note in the original. ]
,
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The village of the Saut St. Louis, is situated upon the south bank of the river St. Lawrence, three leagues above Montreal. It is inhabited by Iroquois. The Jesuits have there a very fine and flourishing mission. Father Tournois governs this mission, and like a good Jesuit, puts the profit to his own interest, and that of his order. This seigniory has been directly assigned to the Iroquois; but the Jesuits had obtained subse- quently to the Indians, a title of concession under the pretense of pre- venting the savages from going to Montreal to buy merchandize, where brandy was often given them, and to prevent them from drinking this liquor."
We find among the Bradstreet and Amherst MSS. (State Library,) a communication from the former, dated at Schenectady, Dec. 15, 1775, in which he complains of the danger there will be of depending upon the interest which Sir William Johnson was expected to secure, with the aid of £5000 sterling which had been given him in the spring of that year to be laid out among the six nations, exclusive of those who had settled at Swegache. He complains of this as very unwise because these Indians were in the frequent practice of visiting their relatives and urging them to espouse the cause of the French. The consequence was that great numbers who had early in the season been favorably inclined, became settled in their attachment to the enemies of the English.
The scalping parties fitted out at la Presentation, which proved so harrassing to the English settlements along the Mohawk river, and the frontier of New York during the year 1758-9, at length led to an attempt by Brigadier General Gage, in 1957, to put a stop to these out- rages, by crushing the fortress from whence they issued.
This General had been instructed " in case Niagara should be reduced, to take post immediately at a place called by the French la Galette, near the entrance of the river St. Lawrence, and as soon as General Amherst was informed of the above event, he sent Major Christie to 1 Brigadier Gage to enforce those orders, as by that means the English on the Mohawk river, would be as effectually free from the inroads of the enemy's scalping parties, and be enabled to live in as much security as the inhabitants of any part of the country, between Crown Point and New York, had already been. But however necessary it might be to take possession of this post, the difficulties which would attend the doing of it, appeared to Brigadier Gage so great, that he thought proper to make the General acquainted with them, and in the mean time defer the execution of his orders to a more favorable opportunity.
As the General deemed the post an object of the first consequence, he was greatly chagrined at the account from Brigadier Gage, especially as the season would be too far advanced before his orders, if he renewed
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them, could reach Brigadier Gage, for the Brigadier to execute them, he, therefore was obliged to postpone this necessary business to another campaign .*
The French fortress at Quebec, was reduced by the English army under the command of General Wolfe, in 1759.
The various French posts in the interior, still remained, and to com- plete the conquest three expeditions were fitted out early in the season of 1760. One of these ascended the St. Lawrence from Quebec, another proceeded towards Montreal by way of Lake Champlain, and the third, under Sir Jeffery Amherst, proceeded by way of Oswego, and down the St. Lawrence, encountering in its way the strong fortress on Isle Royal which he reduced. The details of this event, as related by Mante, the historian of that war, are here given. (P. 300.)
" The necessary preparations having been made to bring the whole power of the British forces in North America against Montreal, in order to finish by its reduction the war in this part of the world; and the season being sufficiently advanced to enable Sir Jeffery Amherst, the commander-in-chief, to commence his part of the operations, he em- barked at New York on the 3d of May, and proceeded to Schenectady. From thence with a part of his army, he pursued his route to Oswego, where he encamped on the 9th of July. The remainder he ordered to follow with the greatest diligence, under the command of Brigadier Gage. On the 14th two vessels hove in sight on Lake Ontario, which proving to be those that had been fitted out at Niagara, under the command of Cap- tain Loring, boats were immediately dispatched to him, with orders to look out for, and attack the French vessels cruising on the lake. On the 20th, two more vessels appeared, and proving to be the French vessels which had escaped Captain Loring's vigilance, a small boat was imme- diately dispatched to cruise for him, with an account of this discovery; and, at the same time, to prevent his being obliged to return to Oswego, for want of provisions, the General ordered Captain Willyamoz, with a detachment of one hundred and thirty men, in twelve boats, to take post on the Isle-Aux-Iroquois, and supply Captain Loring with everything he might want. On the 22d, Brigadier Gage arrived with the rear of the army; as did Sir William Johnson on the 23d, with a party of Indians.
On the 24th, the General received intelligence, that the French vessels had escaped into the river St. Lawrence, and that Captain Loring was returning with the Onondaga, and the Mohawk, of eighteen six pounders.
On the fifth of August, the General ordered the army to be in readi- ness to embark. It consisted of the following troops :
The first and second battalion of Royal Highlanders.
Forty-fourth regiment.
Forty-sixth. Fifty-fifth,
Fourth battalion of the sixtieth.
Eight companies of the seventy-seventh. Five of the eightieth.
Five hundred and ninety-seven grenadiers.
One hundred and forty-six rangers.
* History of the late war in North America, by Thomas Mante, p 217.
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Three battalions of the New York regiment.
New Jersey regiment.
Four battalions of the Connecticut regiment, and one hundred and sixty-seven of the Royal Artillery, amounting in the whole, to ten thou- sand one hundred and forty-two effective men, officers included.
The Indians under Sir William Johnson, were seven hundred and six.
On the 7th Captain Loring sailed with his two vessels, and imme- diately after, the first battalion of Royal Highlanders, the grenadiers of the army, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Massey, with Captain Camp- bell, of the forty second to assist him as Major; the light infantry, com- manded by Lieutenant Colonel Amherst, with Captain Delancey as Major to assist him, with Ogden's and Whyte's companies of rangers, the whole under the command of Colonel Haldiman, embarked and sailed to take post at the entrance of the river St. Lawrence.
On the 10th, the general himself embarked, with the Royal Artillery, the regulars, Sir William Johnson and a part of his Indians, in boats and whale boats; but, the wind being very high, and the water of the lake very rough, they were forced to make for a small creek, at whose entrance there is a very dangerous bar, on which one of the artillery boats was lost. The next day, the weather being a little more moderate, the General at noon, proceeded for the river de la Motte, and on the 12th was joined by Brigadier Gage, with the provincials in a bay, where the enemy had lately encamped. On the 13th the whole embarked, and that very day encamped with Colonel Haldiman, at the post which he had taken at the head of the River St. Law- rence. Captain Loring, with his two vessels, having mistaken the channel from the lake to the River St. Lawrence, the army passed him, while he was endeavoring to extricate himself. On the 13th, the whole army gained Point de Baril, in the neighborhood of the post called La-Gallette, which Brigadier Gage was ordered to destroy the preceding year. Here the enemy had a very good dock, in which they built their vessels.
The grenadiers and light infantry, with the row-gallies, took post that day, without halting, at Oswegatchie, a few miles below Point au Baril.
All this while, one of the enemy's vessels kept hovering about the army ; and as Captain Loring had not yet got into the right channel, it became necessary, for the safety of the army, either to compel this vessel to retire, or to take her.
The General was therefore obliged to order Colonel Williamson, with the row-gallies well manned, to do one or the other. On the 17th, the gallies advanced with the utmost intrepidity, under a heavy fire from the enemy; but it did not in the least dampen the ardor of the assailants; their fire was returned with such resolution and bravery, that after a severe contest of almost four hours, the Freuch vessel struck her colors. She mounted ten twelve-pounders, and had on board one hundred men, twelve of whom were killed or wounded. The general immediately named the vessel the Williamson, in honor of the Colonel, and to per- petuate the memory of so gallant an action. The same day the army proceeded to Oswegatchie, from whence it was necessary to reconnoitre Isle-Royal, so that it was noon the next day before the army could proceed.
Fort Levi stood on this island, which was otherwise strongly fortified. Though the reduction of Fort Levi could be of little service, merely as a fort, yet it was certainly of too much consequence to be left in the rear of an army; besides, the number of pilots, perfectly acquainted with the navigation of the River St. Lawrence, which the making of the
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garrison prisoners would afford, was alone a sufficient motive for attack- ing it. It was therefore invested that very evening. Whilst the English were passing the point, the French kept up a very smart cannonade upon them, and destoyed one of the row-gallies, and a few boats, and killed two or three men; but notwithstanding this fire, and an uninterrupted continuance of it, the fort was so completely invested by the 20th, by the masterly disposition of the troops, as to make it impossible for the garri- son to escape.
Captain Loring had arrived the day before, with his two vessels, and the Williamson brig, and the batteries being now ready, the general, on the 23d, determined to assault the fort, that as little time as possible might be wasted on it. He therefore ordered the vessels to fall down the stream, post themselves as close to the fort as possible, and man their tops well, in order to fall upon the enemy, and prevent their making use of their guns; whilst the grenadiers rowed in with their broadswords and tomahawks, facines and scaling ladders, under cover of three hundred of the light infantry, who were to fire into the embrasures.
The grenadiers received their orders with a cheerfulness that might be regarded as a sure omen of success; and with their usual alacrity, prepared for the attack, waiting in their shirts till the ships could take their proper stations.
This the Williamson brig, commanded by Lieutenant Sinclair, and the Mohawk, by Lieutenant Phipps, soon did; and both sustained and returned a very heavy fire. But the Onondaga, in which was Captain Loring, by some extraordinary blunder, ran a-ground. The enemy dis- covering his distress, plied her with such unceasing showers of great and small arms, that Captain Loring thought proper to strike his colors, and sent Thornton, his master, on shore, to the enemy, who endeavored to take possession of the vessel; but by Colonel Williamson's observing it, he turned upon them a battery, which obliged them to desist from the undertaking. The General then ordered Lieutenant Sinclair from the Williamson brig, and Lieutenant Pennington, with two detachments of grenadiers under their command, to take possession of the Onondaga, and they obeyed their orders with such undaunted resolution, that the English colors were again hoisted on board of her. But the vessel after all, could not be got off, and was therefore abandoned about midnight. The English batteries, however, put a stop to any further attempt of the enemy to board her. Captain Loring being wounded, was in the mean time sent ashore. This accident of the Onondaga's running aground, obliged the General to defer for the present his plan of assault, but this delay proved rather a fortunate event, as it saved a good deal of blood, for on the 25th, M. Pouchet, the commandant, beat a parley, demanding what terms he might expect; to which no answer was returned, but that the fort must be immediately given up, and the garrison surrendered prisoners of war, and but ten minutes were given for a reply. These terms where received within the ten minutes; and Lieutenant Colonel Massey, with the grenadiers, immediately took possession of the place.
The loss of the English before it, was twenty-one killed, and nineteen wounded. The first shot from the English battery killed the French officer of artillery. Eleven more were killed afterwards, and about forty wounded. The garrison, and all of the pilots, for the sake of whom chiefly the place had been attacked, were sent to New York; and the General named the fort, FORT WILLIAM AUGUSTUS.
On the surrender of Fort Levi, the Indians following the English army, prepared agreeably to their bloody custom, when at war, to enter the fort in order to tomahawk and massacre the garrison. But General Amherst,
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being apprised of their intentions, immediately sent orders to Sir William Johnson, to persuade them if possible, to desist, declaring at the same time, that, if they offered to enter the fort, he would compel them to retire. The stores he promised should be delivered to them, as his army was not in want of what few blankets might be found there; this mes- sage had its desired effect. The Indians though with great apparent reluctance, and ill humor, were prevailed on to return to their camp; however, their resentment increased to such a degree, that Sir William Johnson informed the General, he was apprehensive they would quit the army, and returu to their respective villages and castles. The General replied : " That he believed his army fully sufficient for the service he was going upon, without their assistance; that, though he wished to preserve their friendship, he could not prevail on himself to purchase it at the expense of countenancing the horrid barbarities they wanted to perpe- trate; and added, that, if they quitted the army, and on their return should commit any acts of cruelty, he should assuredly chastise them." Upon this most of these creatures, who amounted to about seven hundred, abandoned Sir William Johnson, and returned to their respective villages and castles, but without committing the least violence; the faithful few, in number about one hundred and seventy, who continued with the army, were afterwards distinguished by medals, which the General gave them, that they might be known at the English posts, and receive the civil treatment their humanity, and their affection for the English entitled them to.
If the French plan of policy had admitted of similar exertions of hu- manity towards their prisoners, there is no doubt but they might thereby have equally prevented the commission of acts, which, even had they con- quered, would have been sufficient to sully the glory of their greatest achievements.
Till the 30th, the army was employed in leveling the batteries, and re- pairing boats and rafts for the artillery, which was now embarked with the necessary stores; and on the 31st, the General, with the first division of the army, consisting of the artillery, the grenadiers, and the light in- fantry, the 44th and 55th regiments, the 4th battalion of Royal Americans, and three regiments of provincials, embarked about noon, and in the evening reached the Isle-Aux-Chats, [opposite Louisville landing,] having passed the first rapids. On the Ist of September, they proceeded about ten miles further, and encamped. On the 2d, Brigadier Gage, with the other division, joined the General, having lost three Highlanders, in going over the Falls. The whole now proceeded together, entered Lake St. Francis, and that very evening reached Pointe-Aux-Boudets, where, the weather being extremely bad, the General halted. On the 3d, a prisoner was brought in, who gave intelligence that Colonel Haviland had taken possession of the Isle-Aux-Noix, the enemy having abandoned it on his approach.
The navigation of the River St. Lawrence, is, in this place, perhaps, the most intricate and dangerous of any actually used in North America, without the assistance of pilots accustomed to the force and direction of its various eddies. Though the French have been constantly going up and down the river ever since their possession of Canada, General Am- herst's attempt to navigate it in the manner he did, was judged impracti- cable. No doubt, the route by Lake George and Lake Champlain, might have been the easiest to penetrate by into Canada; but this by the Mohawk River, Oswego, and the River St. Lawrence, opened a passage which had as yet, been unexplored by the English, and effectually de- prived the French of the opportunity of carrying on the war another cam-
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paign, by retreating to their unconquered posts at Detroit, and elsewhere to the south. Those who declared the river impracticable to the English, grounded their opinion on the unsuccessfulness of the attempt made on La Galette, the preceding year, by General Gage; not considering the difference between a feeble irresolute effort, and a strong determined stroke.
The pilots taken at Fort Levi, contributed much to the safety of the army in this navigation; or, it would have been equally tedious.
The chief art of getting through these rapids with a number of boats, consists in the making them keep a proper distance. Without the great- est attention to this precaution, the lives of those who pass the Cedar Falls, especially, must be in the utmost danger.
It must be confessed, that the appearance of broken rocks, and inac- cessible islands, interspersed in the current of a rapid river, and the foam- ing surges rebounding from them, without a direct channel to discharge itself by, presents a scene of horror unknown in Europe; yet the mind, by degrees, soon loses the sensation of terror, and hecomes free enough to direct the actions of the body.
On the 4th of September, the General put the army in motion, and it soon cleared the Lake St. Francis, and entered a country lately well in- habited, but now a mere desert. About noon, the van of the army en- tered the Cedar Falls.
This, as we have already hinted, is by far the most dangerous part of the whole river, and had the boats crowded too close upon each other, most of them must have perished.
Accordingly, for the want of sufficient precaution, twenty-nine boats belonging to the regiments, seventeen whale boats, seventeen artillery boats, and one row galley, were dashed to pieces, with the loss of eighty- eight men; and this too before, on account of the night's approaching, the whole of the army could get through; what did, encamped on the Isle-Perrot. On the 5th, in the morning, the remainder, taking care to preserve a proper distance, passed the rapid with ease. During the stay, the General was obliged to make, to repair the damaged boats, the in- habitants came flocking in, and took the oath of allegiance to his Britannic Majesty.
Humanity and clemency ever attended on the victories of the Romans ; the princes and the people who submitted to their arms, were sure of protection ; and those who dared to oppose them, were made to feel the weight of their greatness and power.
True policy night alone be thought sufficient, especially after such an illustrious example, to make the generals of every nation adopt such con- ciliating measures. It would have been justly a matter of surprise, if, from the national feelings of his own heart, independent of any other motive, General Amherst had neglected to stretch forth the hand of com- miseration, to the number of trembling, despairing wretches, who now appeared before him. The blood that had been shed in the wantonness of cruelty, had expunged from their breasts every hope of mercy; and they advanced like culprits approaching a judge, to receive the sentence due to their crimes.
Full as they were of conscious guilt, how great must have been their joy, to find themselves forgiven, restored to their possessions, and to their families; to be received as friends, and have every necessary provided for them as such, and to crown all, to know, for certain, that they might securely depend on a continuance, or rather an increase of these bless- ings."
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From a map in Mante's History of the War in Canada, which repre- sents the channel of the St. Lawrence, above and below Isle Royal, it ap- pears that the English army were encamped on Indian Point, opposite the island where batteries were erected, and on the north shore. Bat- teries were opened on the islands under the Canada shore, and detached · posts were established on the point opposite the Galloo Island, and upon that island, and the small one near its head.
The following account is preserved of the building of the fortress on Isle Royal, which was accomplished but the year before its reduction. It received its name from the French officer, who superintended its erec- tion .- (See Memoirs sur le Canada, p. 168.)
"M. the chevalier de Lévis, had returned to the rapids, where he had ordered the construction of a fort, on an island called Oraconenton, about a league above the rapids. He gave orders that they should finish a bark, of which the building had been interrupted, in order to send the laborers to Quebec; the arrangement for the defense was, that the barks with the Jacobites, should form the first line; the Isle Oraconenton, and the others, the second, and the third at the Galops, which is at the com- mencement of the rapids; and thus they desired to defend themselves, from rapid to rapid.
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