USA > Ohio > History of Ohio, covering the periods of Indian, French and British dominion, the territory Northwest, and the hundred years of statehood > Part 5
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Croghan and Montour were not to be alone in this famous journey. Christopher Gist, son of one of the commissioners who platted the city of Baltimore, had started out in September, 1750, as the repre- sentative of the Ohio company, to view the western land. He took occasion to assert the claim of Virginia to the country south of the Ohio, and was very much embarrassed by a shrewd Delaware chief, who asked him where the Indian land lay, if the French owned all on one side and the English all on the other. As Gist approached the Wyandot town on the Muskingum," he caught sight of British flags flying from Croghan's trading honse and the house of the chief, and was soon told that Croghan was stirring up the red men regarding the capture of traders, and the French were building a new fort on one of the branches of Lake Erie .; At this place was the first observance of Christmas in Ohio, December 25, 1750. Gist, a loyal member of the church of England, invited the white men to join him in reading prayers, but they, not being "inclined to hear any good," and preju- diced against the established church, hung off until Thomas Burney, the blacksmith, a jolly man, no doubt (who, poor fellow, stood a French siege on the Miami and lost his life with Braddock), brought some of the frontiersmen around in the afternoon, while Montour led in a party of red men. Gist, explaining that he meant no harm, or offense to any sect, read to them of salvation, faith and good works, from the homilies of his church.$ Then Montour gave Gist great distinction in the eyes of the Indians by remarking that he was of the true faith of the great king. Crowding around, they thanked the explorer, called him Annosanah, the name of a good man who once
* Muskingung, meaning Elk's Eye, was the Indian name for the Tuscara- was as well as the Muskingum. This town was on the Tnscarawas near the forks.
+ Supposed to refer to Sandusky bay.
#This was no doubt the first Protestant service in Ohio. In 1766 the Revs. Charles Beatty and George Duffield. Presbyterians, preached at New- comerstown, and March 4. 1771, the Rev. David Zeisberger, United Brethren, delivered his first sermon at the same.town .- Notes to Gist's Journal.
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dwelt with them, and begged him to take up his abode in Ohio and baptize their children. One of them surprised Gist by bringing a pin calendar, of French contrivance, to show that he always observed the Sabbath dav.
But life in an Indian town had its vivid contrasts. On the day following, Gist made this entry in his journal: "This Day a Woman who had been a long time a Prisoner, and had deserted and been retaken, and brought into the Town on Christmas Eve, was put to death in the following manner: They carried her without the Town & let her loose, and when she attempted to run away the Person appointed for that Purpose pursued her and struck her on the Ear, on the right side of her Head, which beat her flat on her Face on the Ground ; they then stuck her several times through the Back with a Dart to the Heart, scalped her & threw the sealp in the Air, and another eut off her Head. There the dismal Spectacle lay until the Evening, & then Barney Curran desired leave to bury Her, which He and his Men, and some of the Indians did just at dark."
From the Muskingum town Croghan, Montour, Gist and Robert Callender, with their party and pack horses, proceeded through Ohio to the west. They passed through the little town on the Walhonding where the white woman lived ( Mary Harris), and followed the great trail to the most westerly town of the Delawares, on Scioto, where the chief was Windaughalah, whose name signified "ambassador." He was the great war chief of the Delawares, and conspicuous in the treaty making of subsequent years. The name of his son, Buckon- gahelas, is perpetuated in the geography of the country. On Janu- ary 28th the party reached the main Shawance town, at the mouth of the Scioto. "The Shannoah town," wrote Gist, "is situate upon both sides of the River Ohio, just below the mouth of Sciddoe Creek, and contains about 300 Men. There are about 40 Houses on the South side of the River and about 100 on the North side, with a Kind of State house of about 90 feet long, with a tight cover of Bark, in which they hold their Councils." A few years later the northern part of the town was destroyed by flood.
In the middle of February Croghan and his companions came in sight of Pickawillany, and after firing a few volleys in salute and greeting, and smoking the warrior's pipe that was sent out to then, they entered the town, with hearts warmed despite the wintry weather by the sight of the British colors flying upon the log fort. They were entertained in the chief's house, where all the white traders in town were called in to meet them, and then went to the long house to meet the chief and council. Montour opened the negotiations in the figura- tive style of the red men, with whom, though their vocabulary was rich and copious, friendship was poetically styled "an open road." "Yon have made a road for our brothers, the English, to come and trade among you," he said, speaking in behalf of the Shawanees and Dela-
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wares, "but it is now very foul [alluding to the capture of traders ], great logs have fallen aeross it, and we would have you be strong like men, and have one heart with us, and make the road elear, that our brothers, the English, may have free course and recourse between you and us. In the sincerity of our hearts we send you these four strings of wampum." This was received with the usual deep-voiced "Yo- ho," from the seated eouneil, the calumet of peace was passed abont, and the offerings made, of tobacco, clothing and shirts. The pow- wow, with intermissions enlivened by dances, lasted two weeks. Hardly had Croghan and Montour begun to make headway when some Ottawa Indians eame in with wampum, tobacco and brandy from the French, but when their speaker first entered the council, "Old Brit- ain" reproached the French for "fouling the road," and turning his back upon envoy and brandy, abruptly left the house. The French ambassador went out among the Indians, and finding his arguments futile, sent up a wail of lamentation. Two days later the final answer was given the French ambassador, not by "Old Britain," but by the captain of the Maumee warriors, who, holding up four strings of black and white wampum, deelared in a warlike voice: "Brothers the Ottawas, you are always differing with the French yourselves, and vet you always listen to what they say; but we will let you know by these four strings of wampum that we will not hear anything they say to us, nor do anything they bid us." They had made a road to the sea by the sunrising, he eontinned, and taken the hand of the English, the Six Nations, Delawares, Shawanees and Wyandots. "Brothers of the Ottawas, you hear what I say; tell that to your father, the French, for that is our mind, and we speak it from our hearts."
Finally, on March 1st, the orator of the Maumees, another offieer subordinate to the chief, delivered the answer of the confederaey to the governor of Pennsylvania. They had come to a resolution, he said, never to give heed to what the French said, but always to hear and believe the English. They would come to Logstown for eouneil as soon as the corn was planted, and the distant tribes had come in. Though they were poor, they hoped their brothers would accept the gift of a bundle of skins for shoes on the road, and on their part they were heartily grateful for the clothes, which they had put on the women and children.
These proceedings, recorded by Gist in his Journal, are of interest as the first great treaty in Ohio, and convey some idea of the dignity and statesmanship of the red men. The deputations returned to the east, Gist going by the Ohio river and visiting the then famous Big Bone liek, though warned that French Indians were seeking to way- lay him. After inspeeting the lands south of the Ohio, he reached the Ohio company's warehouse, on the Potomac, opposite the present town of Cumberland, and fifteen miles from the Shawanee headquar-
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ters in 1698 to 1728. At the latter place was the residence of the famous Col. Thomas Cresap, then a member of the Ohio company, whose capture in 1736 by a Pennsylvania sheriff was a notable part of the Virginia and Pennsylvania hostilities, which led to the run- ning of Mason's and Dixon's line (begun in 1769). His son, Michael Cresap, afterward figured in the border raids of Ohio.
In May, 1751, Croghan and Montour met a great concourse of Iroquois, Delawares, Shawanees and Maumees at Logstown, and were successful in making a commercial treaty with them, although the French sent several canoe loads of presents down the Alleghany and contended for the Indian favor.
Unfortunately for the English colonies, the assembly of Pennsyl- vania was displeased with Croghan's negotiations, on account of the expense involved, and jealousy of the power of the proprietors of the colony. New York, for awhile, was left alone, by the dissensions of Pennsylvania and Virginia, to oppose the French aggression. In its behalf Col. William Johnson negotiated with the eastern Iroquois, while Joncaire and Father Piquet labored with the Senecas in the French interest. Piquet was encouraged to suggest that an army of eighteen hundred Iroquois and Ohioans could be raised to drive the English from the disputed territory and make war on Virginia. The Marquis de la Jonquiere, then governor of Canada, was asked by Gov- ernor Clinton to dismantle the new fort at Niagara, in the territory of British subjects (the Iroquois), and release traders captured in Ohio, but the Frenchinan spurned the pretensions of English anthor- ity over the Five Nations, and offered a reward for the head of George Croghan, asserting that the latter had instigated the killing of French- men. Jonquiere sent sharp orders to Celoron, now in command at Detroit, to break up the trading post at Pickawillany, and was wor- ried by equally urgent orders from France to drive out the British intruders, though France could not spare him money to build forts on Lake Erie. Yet France was at that time the powerful nation of Europe, and even on the sea, her fleet, under the command of Galis- soniere, who had returned from Quebec to resume that honor, humil- iated the British. Jonquiere died, in the midst of his anxieties, and was temporarily succeeded by Longueil, who received reports from Celoron, from Raymond at the Maumee fort, and Saint Ange at Vin- cennes, all telling of the hostile influence of the traders at Pickawil- lany, the Indian threats of war, and the killing of French traders. The red men yet adhering to the French sought refuge at Detroit, but refused to aid Celoron in the expedition he was ordered to make against Pickawillany. Though militia were sent on from the east, no move was made until Charles Langlade, a young French trader who had married a Green Bay maiden, came down the lake to Detroit with 250 Ottawas and Ojibwas. These did not shrink from conflict
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with the Manmees, and on the morning of June 21, 1752, Celoron's foree, having marched down by Kekionga, came in sight of the British flag waving over the fort of the Piankeshaw chief.
The fight that followed did not demand much valor on the part of the vietors. Most of the Manmees were away on the summer hunt, and when the squaws eame in shrieking from the fields, "Old Brit- ain" and some of the others in the village did not have time to gain the protection of the fort. Three traders were taken outside, and three others were given up by the Maumees within the fort, on condi- tion that the siege should not be prosecuted, and the prisoners should be well treated. Two traders, Andrew MeBrver and the black- smith of Muskingum, Thomas Burney, were hidden. The store- houses were plundered, a wounded trader was stabbed to death, fourteen Maumees were killed before they could reach the fort, and the proud chief who was England's hope in the West was put to death, roasted and eaten by his savage enemies." As soon as they could take a French sealp in retaliation, the Manmees of Piekawillany sent Bur- ney with it and a message to the governors of Virginia and Pennsyl- vania, saying: "We saw our great Piankeshaw king taken, killed and eaten within a hundred yards of the fort, and before our faces. We now look upon ourselves as a lost people, fearing our brothers will leave us; but, before we will be subject to the French, or call them our fathers, we will perish here." Captain William Trent and Mon- tour, carrying presents to the Manmees from Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, met MeBryer and Burney at the Shawanee town on the Seioto in July, and was told of the saek of the western outpost of trade. Trent went on, and though he found the town deserted, raised the British flag again. In his journey he met the young Pianke- shaw king, Assapansa, the Maumee chief Meechee Konahkwa or Big Turtle, afterward famous in frontier history, and the widow of Old Britain, who attended the Carlisle eouneil in 1753 and put her son under the protection of the British colonies.
The Marquis Duquesne, a heroic figure in the history of New France, had by this time arrived at Quebec as governor, and he fol- lowed up the Pickawillany stroke by an attempt to make good the frontier sign posts of Celoron. One night in the spring of 1753 some Mohawk couriers roused William Johnson from sleep by whooping and yelling to tell him that the lake was covered with the French canoes for an invasion of the Iroquois country. Fifteen hundred men, French, Canadians and Algonquins, had been sent under Marin, to
* The Pennsylvania and Virginia assemblies voted aid to the Maumees on account of the sack of Pickawillany and killing of Old Britain, but becoming fearful of the loyalty of the Indians, held back most of the presents. The Maumees then went over to the French and sent warriors to the battlefields of New York and Pennsylvania in the following war.
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occupy the upper Ohio. They were the first, says Parkman, to follow the Presque Isle route, and they fortified upon the lake and erected Fort Le Bœuf at the other end of the portage to French creek. Marin died there, and all suffered terribly from sickness, but the Indians were effectively impressed with the military power of France. The Iroquois as well as the Shawanees and Delawares on the Ohio sent embassies to Philadelphia and Virginia, declaring that they had ordered the French to keep out of the country, and asking for help. At the same time they demanded that all English settlers should be kept out of the Ohio valley ; that the numerous traders, who had pro- voked French jealousy, should be restricted to the head of the Ohio, Logstown, and the mouth of the Kanawha. Especially should the sale of liquor be stopped. "Your traders," said the Indians, "bring scarce anything but rum and flour. They bring little powder and lead or other valuable goods. The rum ruins us." Had these condi- tions been complied with, says a document of that period, the English might easily have conquered the trade and secured the affections of many of the Indian nations ; "whereas by neglecting this and suffer- ing a parcel of banditti under the character of traders to run up and down from one Indian town to another, cheating and debauching the Indians, we have given them an ill opinion of our religion and man- ners and lost their esteem and friendship."*
In this emergency the central colonial governors, though much embarrassed by the tendency of the representative assemblies to devote their time to remonstrances against taxation, did the best they could to defend their claims to the interior. Johnson, Croghan and Mon- tour were untiring in their efforts to checkmate the French intrigue. The friendly Iroquois chief, Searroyada, or Half-King, at a treaty in September, 1753, assented to an English fort at the head of the Ohio, and promised to fight the French, though he refused to permit any English settlements. Soon after, with Gist as his guide, and a few followers, George Washington set out from Will's creek station of the Ohio company, to carry to the French the order of Governor Dinwid- die that they should at once withdraw from the territory of the King of England. From the forks at the head of the Ohio he proceeded to Logstown, and up to Venango, the French outpost. There, when the wine had flowed, "They told me," said Washington, "it was their absolute design to take possession of the Ohio, and by God, they would do it: for though the English could raise two men to their one, yet they knew their motions were too slow and dilatory to prevent any undertaking of theirs."
Washington, of course, got no satisfaction from the commander at Le Bœuf, whom he visited in December. On his return he narrowly
*"Inquiry into Cause of Alienation of Delaware and Shawanese Indians. from the British Interest," 1759.
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escaped death from the bullet of a treacherous guide and from drown- ing in the icy water, but finally reached Will's creek, exhausted, and Gist half frozen.
Then came actual war. The vigorous efforts of Governor Dinwid- die, who ordered a draft of two hundred men, to be commanded by Colonel Washington, and called for aid from the Ohio Indians and the other colonies, resulted in the construction of a little fort at the head of the Ohio by the advance guard of the forces of defense. But Contrecœur came down upon this post in April, 1754, and compelled its surrender. Against Washington, who had marched with the main body of colonial troops to Great Meadows on hearing of the French advance, Junonville was sent in reconnoissance, fatally to that gallant young officer, who fell in the combat that compelled the retreat of his command. In France it was told that Junonville was treacherously murdered by "the cruel \Washinghton," and there was a general cry for revenge. "This obscure skirmish set the world on fire."* With it may be said to have begun the war for Ohio, which presently broad- ened into a struggle the issue of which founded the modern conditions of Anglo-Saxon and German supremacy around the world.
After his success in this skirmish, Washington advanced, but being unsupported, soon found it desirable to fall back to his post, called Fort Necessity. There Contrecœur attacked him July 3d, with a force of French and Indians, and after a fight in a dismal rain for nine hours, Washington capitulated. It was on July 4, 1754, that he marched out with his band of colonials from the advanced post of Anglo-Saxon power in America and in humiliation trudged back toward the upper Potomac.
He could do no better with the support he received. No Indians were with him, and the French had plenty. The advantages gained in trade in the Ohio country vanished as soon as the red men perceived the bold show of the French and the feeble motions of the English. Even the Iroquois were cold. It was dangerous to mention the Lan- caster and Logstown "treaties" to them. At one of the councils where they were asked for aid, an orator said : "We don't know what vou Christians, English and French, intend. We are so hemmed in by both of you, we have hardly a hunting place left. In a little while, if we find a bear in a tree, there will immediately appear an owner of the land to claim the property and hinder us from killing that by which we live. We are so perplexed between you that we hardly know what to say or think."
The colonies were embarrassed in defensive operations by the ris- ing tide of resistance to proprietary and royal authority, and Great Britain itself was exhausted by the recent European war, and had no worthy leaders in power. The second of the Georges, somewhat
* Parkman, "Conspiracy of Pontiac."
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more of a king than the third of that name, but possessing, says Lord Mahon, "scarcely one kingly quality except personal courage and justice," was then upon the throne. The army had become corrupt and inefficient, and was commanded by men of pompous assump- tion and pitiable incapacity. The first shock of war, that presently followed, was so disastrous to England that it forced the cry from Chesterfield that the nation was ruined.
From London came an order, at this crisis, that had vast but unex- pected significance. Commissioners from the various colonies were to meet together to make treaties with the Indians and devise a plan of common defense. It followed that most of the provinces were rep- resented in the first American congress, at Albany, in 1754, as a result of the contest for possession of Ohio. The Iroquois, who participated in the deliberations, pointed to their own success gained by union, and advised the colonists to forget their jealousies and follow the example of the Five Nations. Benjamin Franklin there made the first proposition of confederation, but it found little favor, the crown fearing the power of such a union, and the colonies dreading the supremacy of their associates. The famous Albany congress most directly affected the history of Ohio through a treaty made by Penn- sylvania with the Iroquois, establishing a boundary line within the province. "In what manner and by what means this grant was obtained, is well known to those who attended the treaty," says an authority previously quoted. Its effect was to confirm the suspicion of the western Indians that under British rule they would be crowded out as the Delawares had been from the land of William Penn. Shawanees and Delawares, as well as Iroquois, were affected, and in their own councils repudiated the grant. The land hunger of the English, their irrepressible disposition to put up a line fence, was exasperating to the red men who yet remained friendly. Everything conspired to drive them to alliance with the French, who asked for no land and appeared to be, and were at that time the strongest mili- tary power in the, world.
After the defeat of Washington the French were supreme beyond the Alleghanies. The trading posts were seized and goods confiscated. Men like Croghan were ruined, and that worthy pioneer himself, in danger of arrest by his debtors, retired for safety to a frontier post, where he was surrounded by the friendly Iroquois of the Half-King. England was sufficiently awakened to the danger of her colonies in the fall of 1754 to send over two regiments of red-coats, and General Braddock, whom Horace Walpole called "a very Iroquois in disposi- tion," to take command and drive the French beyond the lakes. The French at the same time sent reinforcements to Canada, and the navy of the expeditions elaslied in battle at sea. But as vet war was not declared. France, ruled by Louis XV, and he by Madame Pompa- dour, was already involved in the strange alliance of the stern Maria
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Theresa of Austria with the profligate Catherine of Russia to crush Frederick the Great. Louis would overlook much before he would formally invite another enemy, and England, as then ruled, was anxious to avoid a part in the impending conflict on the continent.
Though Braddock's forces were inadequate he divided them for four expeditions against the French posts from Acadie to Niagara. The most important column he led in person, against the fort that Contrecœur had built at the head of the Ohio and called Duquesne. With a force of near fifteen hundred British and colonials he had closely approached the French position when Beaujen led out nine hundred officers and soldiers, of which 637 were Indians, in large proportion from Ohio. The fight that followed is familiar to every reader of American history. It was an Indian victory, won by Indian strategy and tactics, and fought almost entirely on the success- ful side by Indians. Rallying from the first surprise the British made a gallant defense that threw the French into confusion, but the red men kept up the attack withont faltering. After three hours under fire, the army having degenerated to a mob between the raving military insanity of Braddock and the steady shrieking of bullets from an unseen foe, it was every man for himself, and the Indians indulged in ferocious chase and slaughter. Sixty-three of the eighty- six British officers were killed or wounded ; only 459 of the 1,373 sol- diers came off unhurt.
In the expedition against the French on Lakes George and Cham- plain, led by William Johnson, the Mohawk chief, Hendrick, was the ablest military man, but Johnson, managing to resist the French and Indian attack, was made a baronet. The expedition against Niagara was compelled to halt at Oswego.
The effect of this general check to British power confirmed the main part of the Ohio Indians in their judgment of French superi- ority. A Lenape league was formed, with Teedynscung as supreme chief, and attacks were made by the Ohio tribes upon the frontiers of the central colonies. Sir William Johnson appealed to the Iroquois to assert their ancient authority over the Delawares, but the latter, when summoned to council by their feudal superiors, answered : "We are men, and are determined not to be ruled any longer by von as women. We are determined to cut off all the English, except what may escape in ships. Say no more, lest we make women of von!" Indeed, the Iroquois had now been brought, between the French and English, to practically the same status that they had formerly imposed upon the Delawares. Recognizing this, the Six Nations appear to have made an alliance with Teedyuscung to fight both French and English, but this attitude could not be maintained.
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