USA > New York > Pioneer history of the Holland Purchase of western New York : embracing some account of the ancient remains > Part 17
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* Smith's History of the "Province of New York," the statement is upon the author-
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As soon as the news reached Fort Frontenac, that post was hurriedly abandoned. On leaving, the French designed to have blown up the works, but the match which was to fire the magazine did not accomplish its purpose. The Iroquois hearing that the fort was deserted, repaired to it, and secured a large amount of plunder, a part of which, was twenty-eight kegs of powder.
The news of these disasters spreading among the French Indian allies at the west, had the effect to alienate most of them and incline them to the English interests. In fact all but two Nations, were thus affected. The whole range of country from Quebec to the western posts, was possessed by the Iroquois or scoured by their war parties ; and nothing saved the western posts, but the inability of the Indians to attack successfully fortified places. Added to the other misfortunes of the French upon the St. Lawrence, was a threatened famine. The war and the fur trade, had diverted from agriculture, and supplies failed to reach them from France. Shut up in their fortifications, the Iroquois were ready to fall upon them whenever they ventured out. SMITH, the early historian of New York, says ; " but for the uncommon sagacity of Sieur PEROT, the western Indians would have murdered every Frenchman among them." Dr. COLDEN says : "I say, whoever considers all these things, [ disadvantages he enumerates under which the Iroquois carried on the war, growing out of the want of an entire unity among themselves, and other wars in which they were engaged, ] and what the Five Nations did actually perform, will hardly doubt that they of themselves, were at that time an over match for the French of Canada."
The English taking advantage of the emergency in which the French were placed, held a conference at Albany with the Mohawks. A Mohawk chief assuming to speak for the entire confederacy, said ; - "We have burned Montreal, we are allies of the English, we will keep the chain unbroken."
While all this was transpiring upon the American continent the revolution in England was consummated by the elevation of the Prince of Orange to the English throne. This changed the whole complexion of English and French affairs, at home as well as in
ity of Dr. Colden. Charlevois says the attack upon Montreal was late in August, and that the Iroquois were 1500 strong ; that the loss of the French was only two hundred souls.
NOTE .- When the war was renewed with the French, the Senecas were at war with three Western Nations ; - the Utawawas, Chicktaghicks and Twightwies.
11
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their colonies. James II. had been accused of partiality to the French and the colonial measures he had dictated were more favorable to French interests in America than the English colonists and the Protestant party in England, had hoped to see adopted. The recall of Gov. DONGAN, and the position of neutrality the King had dictated to the English colonists, in the war between the French and the Iroquois, were among the colonial measures that were complained of. The policy of DONGAN would have excluded the. Jesuits and their powerful influence from the country of the Five Nations, as well as other territory claimed by the English ; while King James was too much of a Catholic to second his views.
France declared war against England, soon after the revolution of 1689. Among the offensive measures immediately adopted, were those which not only contemplated a regaining of all lost ground in America, but the conquering of the English colonies and the perfecting of exclusive French dominion.
De NONVILLE was recalled, and Count de FRONTENAC ordered to sail for New France, and assume the local government.
Previous to the arrival of FRONTENAC, the Iroquois had aban- doned Montreal. He arrived at Quebec, Oct. 2d, 1689. His vigorous measures soon gave to French affairs a different aspect. Remaining but a few days at Quebec, he pushed on to Montreal. There he summoned a general council of the western Indians. "There, 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 the tomahawk in his own grasp, chanted the war song, danced the war dance, and listened, apparently with delight, to the threats of savage ven- geance .* An alliance with all the Indians between lake Ontario and the Mississippi was perfected. Fort Frontenac was again garrisoned with a detachment of French troops. The new French governor took every means in his power to win the Five Nations to his interest, realizing how important their friendship would be, in the contest with the English, that he was about to engage in. FRONTENAC brought with him from France the Iroquois that DE NONVILLE had sent home as prisoners, one of whom was a chief of some note. With an eye to the use he could make of them in peace negotiations. he had treated them with much kindness.
* Bancroft.
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Retaining the chief TAWARANIET, he sent the other four to Onon- daga with overtures of peace. A council of eighty sachems was convened; previous to which, however, the magistrates of Albany had been apprised of what was going on, and had sent messengers to the council, to oppose any peace measures. An Onondaga chief, SADEKANAGIITIE, opened the council, stating that the French governor had brought back the prisoners from France; had sent four of them to their own country, and retained the rest at Montreal as hostages; that he had invited the Iroquois to meet him at Cadarackui to "treat about the old chain." A chief of the "praying Indians,"* that had accompanied the discharged peace ambassadors, rose up in the council and presented a belt, saying it was from TAWARANIET, the captive chief, in, token that he had suffered much in his long captivity, and desired that they would meet the French governor as he desired. The messengers of the magistrates of Albany delivered their message which urged that no overtures that the French might make, should be listened to. CANEHOOT, the Seneca sachem, whose stirring eloquence had roused the Senecas to resist the invasion of DE NONVILLE, informed the council that during the previous summer, as many as seven of the western Nations had made peace with the Senecas and had "thrown away the axe that YONNONDIO had put into their hands;" assuring them that they should no more hearken to YON- NONDIO, but, like the Iroquois, be on terms of peace with the English. The Onondaga chief who had opened the council, said :-- "Brethren, we must stick to our brother Quider,t and look on YONNONDIO as our enemy, for he is a cheat." The Albany messengers assured the council that, as France and England were at war, a great many English soldiers had been sent over; that an expedition was fitting out in New England to conquer New France, Sc. The council determined upon not entertaining the proposition of the French governor, but to assist the English to "strike at the root, that the trunk being cut down, the branches fall of course." ± An answer to the French governor was agreed upon, which was in substance :- " That they were glad he had brought back their
* Such of the Iroquois as the Jesuits had converted, were so called, There was a settlement of them near Montreal.
t Peter Schuyler, the mayor of Albany.
# Meaning an attack on Quebec.
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people from France, but that the French had acted deceitfully so often, that they could not trust them;" that they could not meet him as he wished at Cadarackui, for their council fire was "extin- guished with blood." Their ultimatum was, that their chief, TAWARANIET must first be sent home; and after that, they might "speak of peace." They proposed to save the lives of all their French prisoners until spring, and release them upon condition that the French released all their people.
In the winter of 1690, a party of one hundred and fifty French and Indians, left Montreal, and "wading through snows and morasses, through forests deemed before impervious to white men, and across rivers bridged with frost, arrived on the 18th of February, at Schenectady."* With the general features of this expedition, and its fatal termination, the reader will be familiar. There have been several versions of it-most of them imperfect. Among the Paris Documents, brought to this country by Mr. BROADHEAD, is a minute relation of all that appertained to the expedition, written at the time, and sent to the celebrated M. de MAINTENON. The author uses a translation of it, which has been recently published in the Albany Argus. This is, of course, French authority; our accounts heretofore have been wholly from English sources :--
"The orders received by M. le COMTE (de FRONTENAC) to commence hostilities against New England and New York, which had declared for the Prince of Orange, afforded him considerable pleasure, and were very necessary for the country. He allowed no more time to elapse before carrying them into execution, than was required to send off some despatches to France- immediately after which he determined to organize three different detachments, to attack those rebels at all points at the same moment, and to punish them, at various places, for having afforded protection to our enemies, the Mohawks. The first party was to rendezvous at Montreal, and proceed towards Orange (Albany;) the second at Three Rivers, and to make a descent on New York, at some place between Boston and Orange, and the third was to depart from Quebec, and gain the seaboard between Boston and Pentagouet, verging towards Acadia. They all succeeded perfectly well, and I shall now communicate to you the details.
* * The detachment which formed at Montreal, may have been
Bancroft.
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composed of about two hundred and ten men, namely: eighty savages from the Sault, and from La Montagne; sixteen Algon- quins; and the remainder Frenchmen-all under the command of the Sieur LE MOYNE DE SAINTE HELENE, and Lieutenant DAILLE- BOUT DE MANTET, both of whom were Canadians. The Sieurs le MOYNE D'IBERVILLE and REPENTIGNY DE MONTESSON com- manded under these. The best qualified Frenchimen were the Sieurs de BONREPOS and de LA BROSSE, Calvinist officers, Sieurs la MOYNE DE BLAINVILLE, LE BERT DU CHENE, and la MARQUE DE MONTIGNY, who all served as volunteers. They took their departure from Montreal at the commencement of February.
" After having marched for the course of five or six days, they called a council to determine the route they should follow, and the point they should attack.
"The Indians demanded of the French what was their intention. Messieurs de SAINTE HELENE and MANTET replied that they had left in the hope of attacking Orange, (Albany) if possible, as it is the Capital of New York and a place of considerable importance, though they had no orders to that effect, but generally to act according as they should judge, on the spot, of their chances of success, without running too much risk. This appeared to the savages somewhat rash. They represented the difficulties and the weakness of the party for so bold an undertaking. There was even one among them who, with his mind filled with the recollec- tion of the disasters which he had witnessed last year, enquired of our Frenchmen, 'since when had they become so desperate ?' It was our intention, now, to regain the honor of which our misfortunes had deprived us, and the sole means to accomplish that, we replied, was to carry Orange, or to perish in so glorious an enterprise.
"As the Indians, who had an intimate acquaintance with the localities, and more experience than the French, could not be brought to agree with the latter, it was determined to postpone coming to a conclusion until the party should arrive at the spot where the two routes separate-the one leading to Orange, and the other to Corlear (Schenectady). In the course of the journey, which occupied eight days, the Frenchmen judged proper to diverge towards Corlear, according to the advice of the Indians; and this road was taken without calling a new council. Nine days more elapsed before they arrived, having experienced incon- ceivable difficulties, and having been obliged to march up to their knees in water, and to break the ice with their feet in order to find a solid footing.
"They arrived within two leagues of Corlear, about 4 o'clock in the evening, and were there harangued by the Great AGNIEZ, the chief of the Iroquois from the Sault. He urged on all to perform their duty, and to lose all recollections of their fatigue, in the hope of taking ample revenge for the injuries which they had
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received from the Mohawks at the solicitation of the English, and of washing themselves in the blood of the traitors. This savage was, without contradiction the most considerable of his tribe- an honest man-as full of spirit, prudence, and generosity as it was possible, and capable at the same time of the grandest undertakings. Shortly after, four squaws were discovered in a wigwam who gave every information necessary for the attack on the town. The fire found in this hut served to warm those who were benumbed, and they continued their route, having previously detached GIQUIERES, a Canadian, with nine Indians, on the look out. They discovered no one, and returned to join the main body within one league of Corlear.
"At eleven of the clock that night, they came within sight of the town, resolved to defer the assault until two o'clock of the morning. But the excessive cold admitted of no further delay.
" The town of Corlear forms a sort of oblong square, with only two gates- one opposite the road we had taken; the other leading to Orange, which is only six leagues distant. Messieurs de SAINTE HELENE and de MANTET were to enter at the first, which the Squaws pointed out, and which in fact was found wide open. Messieurs D'IBERVILLE and de MONTESSON took the left, with another detachment, in order to make themselves masters of that leading to Orange. But they could not discover it, and returned to join the remainder of the party. A profound silence was every where observed, until the two commanders, who separated, at their entrance into the town, for the purpose of encircling it, had met at the other extremity.
"The wild Indian war-whoop was then raised, and the entire force rushed simultaneously to the attack. M. de MANTET placed himself at the head of a detachment, and reached a small fort where the garrison was under arms. The gate was burst in after a good deal of difficulty; the whole set on fire, and all who defended the place were slaughtered.
"'The sack of the town began a moment before the attack of the fort. Few houses made any resistance. M. de MONTIGNY discovered some, which he attempted to carry sword in hand, having tried the musket in vain. He received two thrusts of a spear-one in the body and the other in the arm. But M. de SAINTE HELENE having come to his aid, effected an entrance, and put every one of the garrison to the sword. The massacre lasted two hours. The remainder of the night was spent in placing sentinels and taking some rest.
" The house belonging to the minister was ordered to be saved, so as to take him alive, to obtain information from him. But, as it was not known, it was not saved any more than the others. He was slain and his papers burnt before he could be recognized.
" At daybreak, some men were sent to the dwelling of Mr. COUDRE, who was Major of the place at the other side of the
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river. He was not willing to surrender, and began to put himself on the defensive, with his servants and some Indians; but as it was resolved not to do him any harm, in consequence of the good treatment which the French had formerly experienced at his hands, M. D'IBERVILLE and the Great AGNIEZ procceded thither alone, promised him quarter for himself, and his people and his property, whereupon he laid down his arms, on parole; enter- taining them in his fort, and returned with them to see the com- mandants of the town.
In order to occupy the savages, who would otherwise have taken to drink, and thus rendered themselves unable for defenee, the houses had already been set on fire. None were spared in the town but one house belonging to COUDRE, and that of a widow who had six children, whither M. de MONTIGNY had been carried when wounded. All the rest were consumed. The lives of between fifty and sixty persons, old men, women and children, were spared, they having escaped the first fury of the attack. Some twenty Mohawks were also spared, in order to show that it was the English and not they, against whom the grudge was entertained. The loss on this occasion in houses, cattle and grain, amounted to more than four hundred thousand livres. There were upwards of eighty well built and well furnished houses in town.
" The return march commenced with thirty prisoners. The wounded, who were to be carried, and the plunder, with which all the Indians and some Frenchmen were loaded, caused considerable inconvenience. Fifty good horses were brought away. Sixteen only of these reached Montreal. The remainder were killed for food on the way.
"Sixty leagues from Corlear, the Indians began to hunt, and the French not being able to wait for them, being short of provisions, continued their route, having detached Messieurs D'IBERVILLE and Du CHESNE with two savages before them to Montreal. On the same day, some Frenchmen, who doubtless were very much fatigued, lost their way. Fearful that they should be obliged to keep up with the main body, and believing themselves in safety, having eighty Indians in their rear, they were found missing from the camp. They were waited for next day until eleven o'clock. but in vain, and no account has since been received of them.
"Two hours after, forty men left the main body without acquainting the commander, continued their route by themselves, and arrived within two leagues of Montreal one day ahead, so that there were not more than fifty or sixty men together. The evening on which they should arrive at Montreal, being extremely fatigued from fasting and bad roads, the rear fell away from M. de SAINTE HELENE, who was in front with an Indian guide, and who could not find a place suitable for encamping nearer than three or four leagues of the spot where he expected to halt. He was not
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rejoined by M. de MANTET and the others, until far advanced in the night. Seven have not been found. Next day on parade about 10 o clock in the forenoon, a soldier arrived, who announced that they had been attacked by fourteen or fifteen savages, and that six had been killed. The party proceeded somewhat afflicted by this accident, and arrived at Montreal at 3 o'clock, P. M.
"Such, Madame, is the account of what passed at the taking of Corlear (Schenectady). The French lost but twenty-one men, namely, four Indians and seventeen Frenchmen. Only one Indian and one Frenchman were killed at the capture of the town. The others were lost on the road."
Another French party, of but fifty three persons, left the Three Rivers, and fell upon an English settlement on the Piscataqua in Maine, and after a bloody engagement, burnt houses, barns and cattle in their stalls, and captured fifty-four persons, chiefly women and children.
The French and English war continued until 1697. The details of it enter largely into our general history. It was a war, so far as the colonies were concerned, growing out of disputed boundary and dominion ; the chief or immediate interest at stake, being the fur trade and the fisheries upon our northern coast. In all the war, each nation had its Indian allies, who were left, in most instances, to prosecute their own mode of warfare. At times during the war, Frontenac was enabled to succeed partially with some portions of the Five Nations, through the influence of the Jesuits and the christian Indians, in occasionally securing their neutrality ; but for the most part, they were the implacable enemies of the French. In the distracted condition of the English, the dissensions and political rivalries in their colonies; the feebleness with which they prosecuted war measures, as all must have observed, who are familiar with the history of those times ; had it not been for the aid of the Iroquois, who occupied an advantageous position to form a barrier against French incursions in a defenceless quarter, the English colonies would have suffered much worse, if indeed French conquest had not been consummated. After the disaster of Schenectady, the
NOTE .- Colden says the number of inhabitants massacred was sixty-three, and that twenty-seven were carried away prisoners. In reference to the attack upon the French in their retreat, he says :- " The care the French took to soothe the Mohawks, had not entirely its effect, for as soon as they heard of this action, a hundred of their readiest young men pursued the French, fell upon their rear, and killed and took twenty-five of them." The English accounts generally, state, that the citizens of Schenectady, not apprehensive of an attack from Montreal at such a season of the year, were all asleep, with their gates unclosed.
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remnant of a settlement left there, were for abandoning their pos- sessions. They were encouraged to remain by the Mohawks, who assured them that the Five Nations had beat the French every where, single handed, and could easily control them, if the English would do their part. The Five Nations were indignant at what they deemed the temerity of some portion of the citizens of Albany, who contemplated fleeing to New York.
During the whole period of this war, the Iroquois had uninter- rupted possession of all the region west of Onondaga lake, and in fact of the whole west of Schenectady, with the exception of some incursions of the French which will be noticed. It was an interim generally of quiet with them and other Indian nations. They made several incursions, down the St. Lawrence, attacking the French near Montreal, with considerable success.
The English soon after the breaking out of the war, made formi- idable preparations for the conquest of Quebec and Montreal, as the starting point for putting an end to French dominion in this portion of the continent. The measures of FRONTENAC, as has been before observed, looked to an end of English dominion. Little was accomplished by either in furtherance of their ultimate designs. The English expeditions to the St. Lawrence were failures ; and the French incursions were but marauding expeditions, marked with all the horrors and barbarities of savage warfare. In refer- ence to the results of the year 1691, and the failures of the English expeditions, Mr. BANCROFT remarks - "Repulsed from Canada, the exhausted [English] colonies, attempted little more than the defence of their frontiers. Their borders were full of sorrow, of captivity and death."
After the English had abandoned their designs upon the head quarters of the French upon the St. Lawrence, FRONTENAC turned his attention to the Five Nations, whom he alternately, by missions and treaties, endeavored to win, and by invasions to terrify into an alliance. In February, 1692, three hundred French, with Indian confederates, were sent over the snows, against the hunting parties of the Senecas in Upper Canada, near the Niagara."* In 1693, a large party invaded the country of the Mohawks, destroyed several castles, at one of which a small band of warriors so well resisted the invaders as to cause them the loss of thirty men.
Bancroft.
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FRONTENAC had ordered no quarters to be given, except to women and children, but a more humane policy of his Indian allies pre- vailed. They attempted to carry away prisoners, but a small force collected by PETER SCHUYLER, of Albany, pursued and liberated the captives.
Toward the close of the war, in 1696, FRONTENAC, then seventy- four years of age, headed the last French expedition to Western New York. Assembling a large force at Fort Frontenac, he crossed over to Oswego, and marching thence to the chief settle- ment of the Onondagas, found it deserted. This central nation of the Iroquois had followed the example of the Senecas and set fire to their wigwams.
The only prisoner taken, was an aged chief, who had refused to fly, or probably from weakness and infirmity, could not. The Indian allies of the French were allowed to torture him ; but he " scoffed at his tormentors as the slaves of those he despised." They gave him mortal wounds, and expiring under them, his last words were ; - "You should have taken more time to learn to meet death manfully ! I die contented ; for I have no cause of self reproach. You Indians their allies, you dogs of dogs, think of me when you shall be in the like state."
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