USA > New York > Monroe County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 4
USA > New York > Allegany County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming > Part 4
USA > New York > Livingston County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 4
USA > New York > Yates County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 4
USA > New York > Ontario County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 4
USA > New York > Wyoming County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 4
USA > New York > Steuben County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 4
USA > New York > Genesee County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 4
USA > New York > Wayne County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 4
USA > New York > Orleans County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67
[Of local events, the expedi in of De Youville fllov, next in order of time. A brief all isi u to it will be found in Mr. Hosmer's chapter upon the Se cas, and were of it will be found in the Appendix, No. . ]
The Iroquois were prompt to carry the war home upon their in- vaders In November following De Nonville's expedition, they at- tacked the French fort on the Sorrel, and were repulsed, but they ravaged the neighboring French settlements, and made captives Darkness lowered upon the French cause.
" In this same year, there fell upon Canada an evil more severe than Indian aggression or English hostility. Toward the end of the summer, a deadly malady visited the colony, and carried mourn- ing into almost every household. So great was the mortality, that M. De Nonville was constrained to abandon, or rather defer, his project of humbling the pride and power of the Tsonnonthouans He had also reason to doubt the faith of his Indian allies : even the Hurons of the far West, who had fought so stoutly by his side on the shores of Lake Ontario, were discovered to have been at the time in treacherous correspondence with the Iroquois."
"While doubt and disease paralized the power of the French, their dangerous enemies were not idle. Twelve hundred Iroquois warriors assembled at Lake St. Francis, within two days' march of Montreal, and haughtily demanded audience of the Governor, which was immediately granted. Their orator proclaimed the power of his race, and the weakness of the white men, with all the emphasis and striking illustration of Indian eloquence. He offered
* The wrongs complained of were the destruction, by the Senec of a large number of the canoes of the French rates on their way to the West, the taking of fourteen Frene'ruer as persone s. a l at att wk upon ons of the Western forts - Paris Doc.
32
PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.
peace on terms proposed by the Governor of New York, but only allowed the French four days for deliberation."
" This high-handed diplomacy was backed by formidable demon- strations. The whole country west of the river Sorrel, or Richlieu, was occupied by a savage host, and the distant fort of Cataracouy, on the Ontario shore, was with difficulty held against 800 Iroquois, who had burned the farm stores with flaming arrows, and slain the cattle of the settlers. The French bowed before the storm they could not resist, and peace was concluded on conditions that war should cease in the land, and all the allies should share in the blessings of repose. M. De Nonville further agreed to restore the Indian chiefs who had been so treacherously torn from their native wilds, and sent to labor in the galleys of France."*
Before the treaty was concluded, however, the implacable ene- mies of the Iroquois, the Abenaquis, attacked them on the Sorrel, destroyed many, and pushed their conquest even to the English set- tlements. And nearly at the same time, another untoward circum- stance occurred ; an instance of cunning and knavery which has no parallel in Indian warfare : - Kondiaronk, a chief of the west- ern Hurons, with a retinue of warriors, sought an interview with De Nonville, for the purpose of reconciling some misunderstanding. Learning that peace was about to be concluded between the French and Iroquois, he determined to prevent it. Pretending to go back to his own country, he went up the St. Lawrence, and lying in am- bush for the Iroquois, on their return from the treaty, he fell upon them with his warriors, killing many, and taking some prisoners. He then pretended that he was acting in concert with the French Goy- ernor, and that he had instigated the attack upon those with whom he had just concluded a peace. The scheme worked just as the wily backwoods Metternich had concluded it would : - A renewal
* Conquest of Canada.
NOTE .- The author of the history of the Conquest of Canada, says of De Nonville, in allusion to his seizure of the Iroquois, and sending them to France : - "His other- wise honorable and useful career can never be cleansed from the fatal blot of one dark act of treachery. From the day when that evil deed was done, the rude but magnani- mous Indians, scorned as a broken reed the sullied honor of the French." The author should not have made De Nonville wholly responsible. In all probability, he acted under instructions. The instructions of Louis XIV. to La Barre, were: - "As these savages who are stout and robust, will serve with advantage in my galleys, I wish you to do every thing in your power to make them prisoners of war, and that you will have them shipped by every opportunity which will offer for their removal to France."
33
PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.
of hostilities was soon made by the Iroquois, to revenge themselves for the supposed baseness of the French Governor. Twelve hun- dred Iroquois warriors made a descent upon the Island of Montreal, burnt the French houses, sacked their plantations, and put to the sword all the men, women and children within the outskirts of the town. " A thousand French were slain in the invasion, and twenty- six carried into captivity."* The marauders retreated, but not with- out further destruction of life ; - a force of one hundred French and fifty Indians, sent in pursuit, were entirely cut off. "The disastrous incursions filled the French with panic and astonishment. They at once blew up the forts of Cataracouy, (Kingston,) and Niagara, burned two vessels, built under their protection, and altogether abandoned the shores of the western Lakes." + Frontenac arrived at Quebec in October, 1689, at a period of great depression with the colony. His hands were strengthened by the government of France, but a vast field of labor was before him. He repaired to Montreal, and summoned a council of the western Indians; the first and most important consummation to be effected, being their perfect conciliation and alliance : - " As a representative of the Gallic Monarch, claiming to be the bulwark of Christendom - Count Frontenac, himself a peer of France, now in his seventieth year, placed the murderous hatchet in the hands of his allies; and with tomahawk in his own grasp, chaunted the war-song, danced the war-dance, and listened, apparently with delight, to the threat of savage vengeance." Į
In the February preceding the event just alluded to, the revolu- tion in England had been consummated. William and Mary had succeeded to the throne, and soon after which France had declared a war against England, in which the American colonies became at once involved, and a contest ensued, in which the question of undi- vided empire in all this portion of North America was the stake to be won ; - France and England had both determined upon entire conquest. Frontenac succeeded in conforming the alliance of nearly all the western tribes of Indians, and through the mission-
* Smith's History of New York.
t So says the author of the Conquest of Canada. It is not probable that all the western posts were abandoned.
# Bancroft.
34
PHELPS AND GORIIAM'S PURCHASE.
aries was enabled to make a partial division of the Iroquois from the English interests. He soon received from his government instruc- tions to war for conquest, not only upon New England and New York, but upon all the Indian allies of the English. His instruc- tions contemplated an attack upon "Manathe," (" Manhattan" or New York,) by sea, and an attack upon Fort Orange by land, and a descent upon the Hudson, to co-operate with the naval expedition. The French force in Canada, of regulars and militia was about two thousand. In February, 1689, an expedition started from Montreal, and after a long march through the wild- erness, in which they were obliged to walk up to their knees in water, and break the ice with their feet, in order to find a solid footing, they arrived in the vicinity of Schenectady, the then farthest advanced of the English settlements. Arriving at a soli- tary wigwam, the benumbed and disabled from the effects of the severe cold weather, warmed themselves by its fire, and information was gained from the squaws who inhabited it, how they could best fall upon the village and execute their terrible mission of war and retribution upon those who had assisted the Mohawk branch of the Iroquois in their onslaughts upon the French settlements. In all their march and contemplated attack, they had been assisted by a former chief of the Mohawks, who had deserted his country and identified himself with the French allies at the west. Approaching the point of attack, he had eloquently harangued the French and their Indian allies to "lose all recollections of their fatigue in hopes of taking ample revenge for the injuries they had received from the Iroquois, at the solicitation of the English, and of washing them out in the blood of the traitors." * At eleven o'clock at night they came near the settlement, and deliberating whether they should not post- pone the attack to a more dead hour of the night, were compelled by the excessive cold to rush upon their victims and destroy them, to
* He was, says the French official account, "without contradiction, the mnost con- siderable of his tribe - an honest man -as full of spirit, generosity and prudence as was possible, and capable at the same time of great undertakings."
NOTE. - The English account of the massacre at Schenectady, contained in the Lon- don Documents, gives the names of sixty of "ye people kiled and destroyed ;" of twenty-seven who were carried prisoners to Canada. The few of all the population that escaped, being a detached part of the settlement, the residence of the British com- mandant of the place, "Capt. Sander," whose wife had shown some favor previously to some French prisoners. The French account, in the Paris Documents, says that " the lives of fifty or sixty persons, old men, women and children were spared, they having escaped the first fury of attack."
PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.
enjoy the warmth of their burning hamlets. A small garrison, where there were soldiers under arms, was first attacked, carried, set fire to and burned, and all its defenders slaughtered. Then succeeded hours of burning and massacre, until almost the entire population and their dwellings had been destroyed. The details of the terrible onslaught are familiar to the general reader. It was a stealthy mid- night assault, a work of the sword and the torch, that has few par- allels in all the wars upon this continent. The whole forms an early legend of the Mohawk, and was the precursor of the terrible scenes, that in after years were enacted in that once harrassed and ravaged. but now smiling and peaceful valley.
As if satiated with this work of death ; paralized by the severity of the weather, or intimidated by the English strength at Albany ; the French retraced their steps, with their prisoners and plunder, not. however, without suffering from hunger and cold, enough to make the victory, if such it could be called, a dear one. The flesh of the horses they had taken at Schenectady, was for a part of the march their only food. About one hundred and fifty Indians and fifty young men of Albany, pursued them to Lake Champlain, and even over it, killing some and taking others prisoners.
Another expedition left Three Rivers and penetrated the wilder- ness to the Piscataqua River in Maine, surprised a small English settlement, killed thirty of its inhabitants, and made the rest prisoners. After which they fell in with another Frenchi force, and destroyed the English Fort at Casco.
A third expedition went among the Western Indians to confirm their alliance by intimidation and a lavish bestowal of presents ; and was by far the most successful of the three. It helped vastly to turn trade in the direction of Montreal, and strengthened the French with many of the powerful nations of the west. On their way, they fell in with and defeated a large war party of the Iroquois.
While all this was in progress, war parties of the hostile Iroquois had been making repeated incursions down the St. Lawrence, harrassing the French settlements.
The incursions of the French at the eastward had aroused the people of New England to make common cause with the people of New York and their Iroquois allies. In May, 1690, deputies from New York and all the New England colonies met in Albany, and made the quarrel their own instead of that of England, who had been
36
PIIELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.
remiss in aiding their colonies to carry it on. A general invasion of the French colony was resolved upon. Two expeditions were arranged, one to sail from Boston to Quebec, and the other to cross the country to the St. Lawrence, and descending the River, join the naval expedition at Quebec. Both were failures. The land force, under General Winthrop of Connecticut, 800 strong, marched from Albany to Lake Champlain, where they were disappointed in not meeting 500 Iroquois warriors as had been aggreed upon, and the In- dians had also failed to provide the necessary canoes for crossing the Lake. A council of war was held and a retreat agreed upon. Major Schuyler of the New York levies, had however, preceded the main army, and crossed the Lake without knowing that Winthrop had retreated. He attacked a small garrison at La Prairie, and obliged them to fall back toward Chambly. The French in retreating, fell in with a reinforcement, and turned upon their pursuers ; a severe engagement ensued ; overpowered by numbers, Schuyler was obliged to retreat. Sir William Phipps had command of the naval ex- pedition, which consisted of 35 vessels and 200 troops. After captur- ing some French posts at New Foundland, and upon the Lower St. Lawrence, the British squadron arrived at the mouth of the Sage- may, Frontenac having learned that the English land force had turned back, had hastened to Quebec, and ordered a concentration of his forces there. The slow approach of the New England inva- ders gave him a plenty of time to prepare for defence. On the 5th of October the squadron appeared before Quebec and the next day demanded a surrender. To the enquiry of the bearer of the mes- sage, what answer he had to return, the brave old Count said : - " Tell your master I will answer by the mouth of my cannon, that he may learn that a man of my rank is not to be summoned in this manner." The attack followed : - A force of 1700 was landed un- der Major Walley, and had much hard fighting, with but indifferent success, with French out-posts. In the mean time, Phipps had anchored his vessels, bearing the heaviest guns against the town and fortress. The fire was mostly ineffectual; directed principally against the high eminence of the Upper Town, it fell short of the mark, while a destructive fire was pouring down upon the assail- ants. The siege was continued but twenty hours, when the British fleet fell down the stream out of the reach of the galling fire from the high ramparts of the besieged fortress. The force under Major
37
PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.
Walley, upon land, continued the fight, generally succeeding in their approaches. After a series of sharp engagements, the land force were obliged to resort to a hurried embarkation on board of their vessels. It was a night scene of panic and disorder, many losing their lives by the upsetting of boats. The artillery that was taken on shore, fell into the hands of the French. Leaving nine dis- abled ships, Phipps returned to Boston to add to the news of the re- treat of Winthrop, the sad account of the result of his siege of Quebec.
Then followed a winter of repose with the French colony, but of dismay and apprehension in New England and New York, whose fleet and army had so signally failed. But the Iroquois who had failed to co-operate with Winthrop in the fall, were early in the field by themselves in the spring. In May, a thousand of their warriors approached Montreal, laying waste the French settlements, and re-enacting all the horrid scenes of former years; though not without some instances of severe and summary retributions before they had effected their retreat. In a few weeks the incursion was repeated, and with similar results.
Then followed seven years of English and French and Indian war, the French under the energetic administration of Frontenac, all the while extending their settlements, and strengthening their whole co- lonial position, though with arms in their hands. They were mostly content to act upon the defensive, while on the part of the English colonies, there seems to have been no energy in aiding the Iroquois to carry on the war. In 1796, Frontenac, despairing of any reconcilia- tion with the Iroquois, resolved upon another invasion of their terri- tory. He assembled all his disposable forces of French and Indian allies at Fort Frontenac, (Kingston,) and crossing Lake Ontario dis embarked at the mouth of the Oswego river. His army was a form- idable one, and it was provided with a train of artillery as if he was to attack a walled town instead of weak pallisade Forts. After en-
NoTr. - The details of battles that occurred along in these years upon the St. Law- rence, would alone confirm all of daring heroism that has been attributed to the Iro- quois, and give us a clue to their long series of conquests over their own race. Crossing Lakes Ontario and Champlain, in inclement seasons, with their frail canoes, and de- scending the St. Lawrence by land and water amid snows and ice, there was not only their stealthy assaults and savage warfare, but on many occasions with the stoicism of their race added to ordinary bravery - they faced for hours the trained and veteran soldiers of France, astonishing the men of discipline in the arts of war with their achievements. The best soldiers of France, and England, were not a match on many occasions, for an equal number of untaught soldiers of the wigwam and forest.
38
PHEPLS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.
tering the Onondaga Lake, the army was divided, a portion of it being sent against the Oneidas, while Frontenac landed with the main force destined for the attack upon the Onondagas. The old Count had now become so decrepid from age and hard service, that he was borne to the point of attack upon a litter ; presenting a scene spiced somewhat with romantic heroism, if the object of attack had in any considerable degree corresponded with the military array and pre- paration. The French army landed upon the banks of the Lake, and threw up some defences. The Onondagas were aware of the ap- proach, fortified themselves as well as they could in their castle, sent away all but their warriors, and resolved upon a desperate de- fence. They were, however, intimidated by a Seneca prisoner, who had escaped from the French, who told them that Frontenac's army " was as numerous as the leaves on the trees, and that they had ma- chines which threw up large balls in the air, which falling on their cabins would burst in pieces scattering fire and death every where around, against which their stockades would be no defence," This was a kind of warfare new to them, and which they resolved not to encounter, setting fire to their castle and cabins, they fled and left their invaders the poor triumph of putting to death one old Indian Sachem, who remained to become a sacrifice and defy and scorn the invaders, even while they were applying their instruments of torture. The Oneidas fled at the approach of the other division of the French army, but thirty of them remaining to welcome the invaders and save their castle, village, and crops. They were made prisoners and the village, castle, and crops destroyed. No rumor came from the English, but the fear of one hastened the French retreat across the Lake to Fort Frontenac, and from thence to Montreal.
The treaty of peace concluded at Ryswick, and the death of Fron- tenac soon followed, leaving partial repose to the harrassed French and English colonies. The amiable Callieres, the governor of Mon- treal, succeeded Frontenac, but hardly lived to witness the consum- mation of his wise measures for conciliating the Iroquois, renewing Indian alliances, and generally to better the condition of the affairs of New France. He was succeeded by Vaudreiul who was soon waited upon by a deputation of Iroquois, that acknowledged the French dominion.
It was but a short breathing spell for the colonies : - In May, 1702, what was called " Queen Ann's war," was declared, and the
39
PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.
scenes of what had been called " King William's war," were re-enact- ed upon this continent.
The Province of New York took but little part in the contest, and its chief burden fell upon New England. The Indians, within their own limits, reinforced by the Indians of Canada, and not unfrequent- ly accompanied by the French, made incursions into all parts of the eastern English Provinces, falling upon the frontier settlements with the torch, the tomahawk and knife, and furnishing a long catalogue of captivity and death, that mark that as one of the most trying pe- riods in a colonial history, upon almost every page of which we are forcibly reminded how much of blood and suffering it cost our pio- neer ancestors to maintain a foothold upon this continent .* The war on the part of the English colonies, was principally directed against Port Royal, Quebec and Montreal. Most of the expeditions they fitted out were failures ; there was a succession of shipwreck, badly framed schemes of conquest ; organization of forces but to be disbanded before they had consummated any definite purposes ; " marching up hills and marching down again."
Such being the geographical features of the war ; the Province of New York having assented to the treaty of neutrality between the French and Five Nations, and contenting itself with an enjoy- ment of Indian trade, while their neighboring Provinces were strug- gling against the French and Indians ; there is little to notice having any immediate connexion with our local relations.
Generally, during the war, the Five Nations preserved their neutrality. They managed with consummate skill to be the inti- mate friends of both the English and French. Situated between two powerful nations at war with each other, they concluded the safest way was to keep themselves in a position to fall in with the one that finally triumphed. At one period, when an attack upon Montreal was contemplated, they were induced by the English to furnish a large auxiliary force, that assembled with a detachment of English troops at Wood Creek. The whole scheme amounting to a failure, no opportunity was offered of testing their sincerity; but from some circumstances that transpired, it was suspected that they were as much inclined to the French as to the English. At one
* From the year 1675, to the close of Queen Ann's War in 1713, about six thousand of the English colonists, had perished by the stroke of the enemy, or by distempers contracted in military service.
40
PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.
period during the war, five Iroquois Sachems were prevailed upon to visit England for the purpose of urging renewed attempts to conquer Canada. They were introduced to the Queen, decked out in splendid wardrobe, exhibited through the streets of London, at the theatres, and other places of public resort ; feasted and toast- ed, they professed that their people were ready to assist in extermi- nating the French, but threatened to go home and join the French unless more effectual war-measures were adopted. This was a les- son undoubtedly taught them by the English colonies, who had sent them over to aid in exciting more interest at home in the contest that was waging in the colonies. The visit of the Sachems had tem- porarily the desired effect. It aided in inducing the English gov- ernment to furnish the colonies with an increased force of men and vessels of war, in assisting in a renewed expedition against Mon- treal and Quebec, which ended, as others had, in a failure. They got nothing from the Five Nations but professions ; no overt act of co-operation and assistance. The Governor of the province of New York, all along refused to urge them to violate their engage- ments of neutrality ; for as neutrals, they were a barrier to the frontier settlements of New York, against the encroachments of the French and their Indian allies.
" The treaty of Utrecht, in April, 1713, put an end to the war. France ceded to England 'all Nova Scotia or Arcadia, with its ancient boundaries ; also, the city of Port Royal, now called An- napolis Royal, and all other things in those parts, which depend up- on the said lands.' France stipulated in the treaty that she would ' never molest the Five Nations, subject to the dominion of Great Britain,' leaving still undefined their boundaries, to form with other questions of boundary and dominion, future disagreements. '
In all these years of war, French interests at the West had not been neglected. In 1701, a French officer, with a small colony and a Jesuit missionary, founded the city of Detroit. * The peace of their respective sovereigns over the ocean, failed to reconcile difficulties between the colonies. The trade and the right to navi- gate the Lakes, was a monopoly enforced by the French, which the English colonies of New York were bent upon disturbing, though
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.