USA > Ohio > History of the state of Ohio > Part 12
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SECOND ROUTE, W. N. W. was twenty-five miles to the mouth of Big Beaver, ninety-one miles to Tuscaroras, (the junction of Sandy and Tuscaroras Creeks at the south line of Stark county;) fifty to Mohikon John's Town (Mohican township, near Jeromeville or Mohicanville on the east line of Ashland county ;) forty-six to Junandat or Wyandot Town (Castalia or the source of Cold creek in Erie county ;) four to Fort Sandusky (at mouth of Cold creek, near Venice on Sandusky Bay ;) twenty-four to Junqueindundeh (now Fre- mont, on Sandusky River, and in Sandusky county.) The distance from Fort Pitt to Fort Sandusky was two hundred and sixteen miles; to Sandusky River, two hundred and forty miles.
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
THIRD ROUTE, W. S. W., was one hundred and twenty- eight miles to the Forks of the Muskingum, (at Coshocton ;) six to Bullet's Town, on the Muskingum, (probably in Virginia township;) ten to Waukatamike, (near Dresden, Muskingum county, we will suppose ;) twenty-seven to King Beaver's Town, near the sources of the Hockhocking, (see above for the probabilities whether this was the site of Lancaster, Fair- field county ;) forty to the lower Shawanese town, on the river Scioto, (Circleville, we presume, but the route must have been circuitous ;) twenty to Salt Lick Town, near the sources of Scioto, (this is difficult to understand, but on Hutchins' map, a small pond, situated the proper distance to the northeast, is written " Source," and seems to be the point designated ;) thence one hundred and ninety miles north- east to Fort Miamis (now Fort Wayne, Indiana, on the Mau- mee River)-the distance from Fort Pitt to Fort Miamis being four hundred and twenty-six miles.
FOURTH ROUTE, DOWN THE OHIO, was twenty-seven miles to mouth of Big Beaver, twelve to Little Beaver ; ten to Yellow Creek; eighteen to Two Creeks (just below Wells- burg, on Virginia side;) six to Wheeling ; twelve to Pipe Hill (near Pipe Creek, quite likely ;) thirty to Long Reach (probably opposite the township of Grandview, in Washing- ton county, where the Ohio River is without a bend for a considerable distance;) eighteen to foot of Reach (near Newport ;) thirty to mouth of Muskingum ; twelve to Little Kanawha River ; thirteen to mouth of Hockhocking River; forty to mouth of Letort's creek (opposite Letart township, Meigs county ;) thirty-three to Kiskeminetas (an Indian vil- lage, otherwise called " Old Town," on the Ohio bank, perhaps in Cheshire township, Gallia county ;) eight to mouth of Big Kenawha or New River ; forty to mouth of Big Sandy ; forty
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INDIAN TRAILS.
to Scioto River ; thirty to Big Salt Lick River (Brush creek, in Adams county ?) twenty to an island (opposite Manchester, in Adams county ;) fifty-five to mouth of Little Miami ; thirty to Big Miami or Rocky River, (no stoppage at Cincin- nati, as now ;) twenty to Big Bones, ("so called from the bones of an elephant found there ;") fifty-five to Kentucky River ; fifty to Falls of Ohio; one hundred and thirty-one to Wabash River; sixty to Cherokee (Tennessee) River, and forty to Mississippi. Total, from Fort Pitt, eight hundred and forty.
CHAPTER XII.
SUBMISSION AND FATE OF PONTIAC.
IN the spring of 1765, late in April, Sir William Johnson was seated in council at German Flats, far in the interior of New York, and around him gathered the representatives of all the Western tribes. What the armies of 1764 had accomplished on the waters of Muskingum and Sandusky, was then consummated by the negotiations of the sagacious superintendent. At this meeting, two propositions were made; one to fix some boundary line, west of which the Euro- peans should not go; and the savages named as this line, the Ohio or Alleghany and Susquehannah; but no definite agree- ment was made, Johnson not being empowered to act. The other proposal was, that the Indians should grant to the tra- ders who had suffered in 1763, a tract of land in compensa- tion for the injuries then done them, and this the Indians agreed to do.
With the returning deputies of Senecas, Shawanese and Delawares, George Croghan, Sir William Johnson's sub- commissioner, embarked at Pittsburgh on the 15th of May, 1765, intending to visit the Wabash and Illinois, secure the allegiance of the French who inhabited their valleys, and conclude a treaty with Pontiac and his Ottawa and Miami adherents, whose submission was yet withheld.1 His voy- age down the Ohio in two batteaux was not eventful-the Journal affording a panorama of "rich and fertile bottoms;"
1) See Croghan's Journal in Craig's Olden Time, vol. i., p. 403. (166)
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CROGHAN DESCENDS THE OHIO.
hills now withdrawn beyond these bottoms, and anon " pinch- ing close on the river," and "islands mostly lying high out of the water." About a mile below Big Beaver creek, a deserted Delaware town, "built for that nation by the French in 1756," was noticed-some of the stone chimneys yet remaining on the north side of the river. About two miles below where Steubenville stands, still on the north side of the Ohio, and near the mouth of Indian Cross creek, they passed a Seneca village, the chief of which joined the party. This place is usually designated Mingo Town, and although most of the Indians might have been Senecas, yet doubtless many from the other New York tribes were among its inhabitants. Here was afterwards the residence of Logan.
Croghan, on the 19th of May, encamped at the mouth of Little Conhowa River, and "here" he says " buffaloes, bears, turkeys, with all other kind of wild game, are extremely plenty." Five days from Pittsburgh, he came to the "mouth of Hochocen or Bottle River," passing within twenty miles above "five very fine islands ; the country being rich and level, with high steep banks to the rivers." From this place, an Indian runner was despatched to the Plains of Scioto, with a letter to the French traders from the Illinois residing there with the Shawanese, requiring them to join him at the mouth of Scioto, that they might take the oath of allegiance to the British crown, be properly licensed to trade, and also accompany Croghan to the French settle- ments on the Wabash and Illinois.
Thirty miles below Hockhocking, an encampment was made at Big Bend, now within Meigs county. Here was such abundance of buffalo, bears, deer, and all sorts of game, that the party killed whatever was needed " out of the boats ; " and still a country fine and level, with high banks, and an
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
abundance of creeks falling into the Ohio. They passed "a place called Alum Hill, from the great quantity of that mineral found there by the Indians." Discovering some Cherokees near their encampment on the evening of the 22d, a good guard was kept the first part of the night, but noth- ing more was seen of them.
At the mouth of Scioto the journalist was enraptured. " The soil on the banks of the Scioto," he writes, " for a vast distance up the country, is prodigious rich, the bottoms very wide, and in the spring of the year, many of them are flooded, so that the river appears to be two or three miles wide. Bears, deer, turkeys, and most sorts of wild game, are very plenty on the banks of the river. On the Ohio, just below the mouth of Scioto, on a high bank, near forty feet, formerly stood the Shawanese town, called the Lower Town, which was all carried away, except three or four houses, by a great flood in the Scioto. I was in the town at the time ; though the banks of the Ohio were so high, the water was nine feet on the top, which obliged the whole town to take to their canoes and move with their effects to the hills. The Shaw- anese afterwards built their town on the opposite side of the river, which, during the French war they abandoned for fear of the Virginians, and removed to the plains on Scioto. * In general, all the lands on the Scioto River, as well as the bottoms on Ohio, are too rich for anything but hemp, flax, or Indian corn."
During the next three days, which were passed in camp at Scioto, the French traders arrived from the Shawanese towns, and on the 28th the party proceeded. The river being wider and deeper, with no islands, they " drove all night." . On the 30th, the Great Miami was passed, and about forty miles below, they "arrived at the place where
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CROGHAN'S JOURNAL.
the elephant's bones are found." Under date of May 31, Croghan writes : "Early in the morning we went to the great Lick, where these bones are only found, about four miles from the river, on the south-east side. In our way we passed through a fine timbered clear wood; we came into a large road which the buffalos have beaten, spacious enough for two wagons to go abreast, and leading straight into the Lick. It appears that there are vast quantities of these bones lying five or six feet under ground, which we discovered in the bank at the edge of the Lick. We found here two tusks above six feet long; we carried one, with some other bones, to our boats, and set off. This day we proceeded down the river about eighty miles, through a country much the same as already described, since we passed the Scioto."
Passing the Falls of the Ohio and the Five Islands, the mouth of the Wabash was reached on the 6th of June, and is thus described : " At the mouth of the Ouabache we found a breast-work erected, supposed to have been done by the In- dians. The mouth of this river is about two hundred yards wide, and in its course runs through one of the finest countries in the world, the lands being exceedingly rich and well- watered ; here hemp might be raised in immense quantities. All the bottoms, and almost the whole country abounds with great plenty of the white and red mulberry trec. These trees are to be found in great plenty in all places between the mouth of the Scioto and the Ouabache ; the soil of the latter affords this tree in plenty as far as Ouicatanon, and some few on the Miami River. Several large fine islands lie in the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Ouabache, the banks of which are high, and consequently free from inundations ; hence we proceeded down the river about six miles to encamp, as I judged some Indians were sent to waylay us, and came to a
8
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
place called the Old Shawnese Village, some of that nation having formerly lived there."
Letters were sent on the following day to Lord Frazer, an English officer on the Illinois, and to Monsieur St. Ange, the French commandant at Fort Chartres, and some speeches to the Indians there, informing them of the late peace, and that Croghan was coming to conclude matters with them. All these plans were interrupted, however, on the 8th of June. At day break, the English and their allies were attacked by a party of Indians, consisting of eighty warriors of the Kicka- poos and Musquattimes, who killed two of the whites and three Indians, wounding Croghan and all the rest of the party, except two whites and one Indian. The survivors were made prisoners and plundered. In answer to the remonstrance of a Shawanese deputy, who was shot through the thigh, the marauders confessed that their "fathers, the French, had spirited them up, telling them that the Indians were coming with a body of southern Indians to take their country from them and enslave them; that it was this that induced them to commit the outrage."
Seven days' travel, at first through heavy woods, but prin- cipally "prodigious rich bottoms," clear woods and " some large meadows, where no trees for several miles together are to be seen, but with buffalos, deer and bears in plenty," brought captives and captors to Port Vincent, (now Vincen- nes,) which is described as a village of eighty or ninety French families, settled on the east side of the Wabash, and the inhabitants, as "an idle, lazy people, or parcel of rene- gades from Canada," who secretly exulted at the misfortunes of the English, and fell to bartering trifles for the valuables .of which the prisoners had been plundered-ten of Croghan's half johannes, which a savage had appropriated, being extorted
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SUBMISSION OF PONTIAC.
for a pound of vermillion. Two hundred and ten miles from Port Vincent, they came to Ouicatanon, (now Lafayette,) where fourteen French families lived in the fort, which stood north of the river. A glowing description is given of the " spacious and beautiful meadows," with their growth of " fine wild grass, and wild hemp ten or twelve feet high."
On the 25th of July, "after settling all matters happily with the natives," as Croghan indefinitely says, he started for the Miamis, and on the first of August was received with distinction at a Twightwee or Miami village, situated on both sides of the St. Josephs River, a quarter of a mile from its junction with the Miami, now Maumee. At this village, consisting of forty or fifty Indian cabins and nine or ten French Houses, the English flag was hoisted by the savages, some English prisoners surrendered, and peace established. Among these Indians Pontiac had taken refuge, but his mood was now submissive. The Indian chief and the English com- missioner smoked the calumet together and interchanged belts of peace. "He would no longer," Pontiac said, "stand in the path of the English. Yet they must not imagine that in taking possession of the French forts they gained any right to the country; for the French had never bought the land, and lived upon it by sufferance only." The impression upon Croghan by this interview with the Ottawa chief is thus stated in a letter to Sir Wm. Johnson : " Pontiac is a shrewd, sen- sible Indian, of few words, and commands more respect among his own nation than any Indian I ever saw."
The scene of this interview was not far from Fort Miamis, which stood on the east side of the junction of the St. Josephs and the Maumee, and was then "somewhat ruinous," and we presume was without a garrison.
Followed by Pontiac and other chiefs, Croghan descended
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
the Miami River in a canoe. The banks were high and the country overgrown with lofty timber of various kinds-the land level and the woods clear. "About ninety miles from the Miamis or Twightwee," quoting again from the Journal, " we came to where a large river that heads in a large lick, falls into the Miami River ; this they call the Forks (Auglaise at Defiance.) The Ottawas claim this country, and hunt here, where game is very plenty. From hence we proceeded to the Ottawa village. This nation formerly lived at Detroit, but is now settled here on account of the richness of the country, where game is always to be found in plenty. Here we were obliged to get out of our canoes and drag them eighteen miles, on account of the rifts which interrupt the navigation, (the rapids at Providence, between Lucas and Henry counties, undoubtedly.) At the end of these rifts we came to a village of Wyandots, who received us very kindly, and from thence we proceeded to the mouth of this river, where it falls into Lake Erie."
On the 17th of August, Croghan arrived at Detroit. We shall further digress by repeating his account of that position : "Fort Detroit is a large stockade, inclosing about 80 houses, and stands close on the north side of the river on a high bank ; commands a very pleasant prospect for nine miles above and nine miles below the fort ; the country is thickly settled with the French, their plantations are generally laid out about three or four acres in breadth on the river, and about eighty in depth ; the soil good, producing plenty of grain. All the people here are generally poor wretches, and consist of three or four hundred French families, a lazy, idle people, depending chiefly on the savages for subsistence ; though the land, with little labor, produces plenty of grain, they scarcely raise as much as will supply their wants, in imita-
173
INDIAN CONFERENCE AT DETROIT.
tion of the Indians, whose manners and customs they have entirely adopted and cannot subsist without them. The men, women and children speak the Indian tongue perfectly well. In the last Indian war, the most part of the French were concerned in it, (although the whole settlement had taken the oath of allegiance to his Britannic Majesty ;) they have, therefore, great reason to be thankful to the English clemency in not bringing them to deserved punishment. Before the Indian war, there resided three nations of Indians at this place ; the Putawatimes, whose village was on the west side of the river, about one mile below the fort; the Ottawas, on the east side, about three miles above the fort, and the Wyandots, whose village lays on the east side, about two miles below the fort. The former two nations have removed to a considerable distance, and the latter still remain where they were, and are remarkable for their good sense and hospitality. They have a particular attachment to the Roman Catholic religion, the French, by their priests, having taken uncommon pains to instruct them."
On the 27th, a meeting was held with the Ottawas and the other tribes of Detroit and Sandusky, when Croghan, with much flourish of Indian rhetoric, addressed them as follows :
" Children, we are glad to see so many of you here pres- ent at your ancient council-fire, which has been neglected for some time past ; since the high winds have blown and raised heavy clouds over your country. I now, by this belt, rekindle your ancient fire and throw dry wood upon it, that the blaze may ascend to heaven, so that all nations may see it, and know that you live in peace and tranquillity with your fathers, the English.
"By this belt I disperse all the black clouds from over
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
your heads, that the sun may shine clear on your women and children, that those unborn may enjoy the blessings of the general peace, now so happily settled between your fathers, the English, and you, and all your younger brethren to the sun-setting.
" Children, by this belt I gather up all the bones of your deceased friends, and bury them deep in the ground, that the buds and sweet flowers of the earth may grow over them, that we may not see them any more.
" Children, with this belt I take the hatchet out of your hands, and pluck up a large tree, and bury it deep, so that it may never be found any more ; and I plant the tree of peace, which all our children may sit under and smoke in peace with their fathers.
" Children, we have made a road from the sunrising to the sunsetting. I desire that you will preserve that road good and pleasant to travel upon, that we may all share the blessings of this happy union."
On the following day Pontiac spoke in behalf of the several nations assembled at the council :
" Father, we have all smoked out of this pipe of peace. It is your children's pipe, and as the war is all over, and the Great Spirit and Giver of Light, who has made the earth and everything therein, has brought us all together this day for our mutual good, to promote the good works of peace, I declare to all nations, that I have settled my peace with you before I came here, and now deliver my pipe to be sent to Sir Wm. Johnson, that he may know I have made peace, and taken the king of England for my father in the presence of all the nations now assembled, and whenever any of those nations go to visit him, they may smoke out of it with him in peace. Fathers, we are obliged to you for lighting up
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SUBMISSION OF PONTIAC.
our old council fire for us, and desiring us to return to it ; but we are now settled on the Miami River, [Miami of the lakes or Maumee] not far from hence ; whenever you want us you will find us there ready to wait on you. The reason why I choose to stay where we are now settled, is, that we love liquor, and to be so near this as we formerly lived, our people would be always drunk, which might occasion some quarrels between the soldiers and our people. This, father, is all the reason I have for not returning to our old settle- ments ; and where we live is so nigh this place, that when we want to drink we can easily come for it. [Gave a large belt with wampum tied to it.]
"Father, be strong and take pity on us, your children, as our former father did. It is just the hunting season of your children. Our fathers, the French, formerly used to credit his children for powder and lead to hunt with. I request, in behalf of all the nations present, that you will speak to the traders now here to do the same. My father, once more I request that you tell your traders to give your children credit for a little powder and lead, as the support of our families depends upon it. We have told you where we live, not far from here, that whenever you want us, and let us know, we will come directly to you. [A belt.]
" Father, you have stopped up the rum barrel, when we came here, until the business of this meeting was over. As it is now finished, we request you may open the barrel, that your children may drink and be merry."
A year afterwards, Pontiac visited Sir William Johnson at Oswego, where was held, on the 23d of July, another Congress of Ottawas, Pottawattamies, Hurons and Chippe- was, with ceremonials and results similar to those of the council at Detroit.
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
Thenceforth we have only vague memorials of Pontiac. About the year 1769, when more than usual distrust pre- vailed among the savages, the English traders on the Illinois were disturbed by the appearance of Pontiac on a visit to the French garrison and village on the present site of St. Louis. St. Ange, then in command of that post, was highly esteemed by Pontiac, and a citizen of St. Louis, Pierre Chouteau, who lived to a great age, was accustomed to describe the appearance of the distinguished chief on that occasion. He wore the full uniform of a French officer, the gift of Marquis of Montcalm toward the close of the French war. He remained at St. Louis for two or three days, when, hearing that a large number of Indians were assem- bled at Cahokia, on the opposite side of the river, and that some drinking bout or other social gathering was in progress, he told St. Ange that he would cross over to see what was going forward. St. Ange endeavored to dissuade him, reminding him of the little friendship that existed between him and the British. Pontiac's answer was, " Captain, I am a man ! I know how to fight. I have always fought openly. They will not murder me ; and if any one attacks me as a brave man, I am his match." He went off, was feasted, drank deeply, and, when the carousal was over, strode down the village to the adjacent woods, where he was heard to sing the medicine songs, in whose magic power he trusted as the warrant of success in all his undertakings. In the mean- while, an English trader, named Williamson, bribed a Kas- kaskia Indian with a barrel of rum, and the promise of a greater reward, if he would succeed in killing Pontiac. The assassin stole near Pontiac, in the forest, and watching his moment, glided behind him, and buried a tomahawk in his brain.
177
FATE OF PONTIAC.
This murder roused the vengeance of all the tribes friendly to Pontiac, and the Illinois were nearly exterminated in the retributive war which was waged against them.
Pontiac was buried by his friends, the French officers and residents, with warlike honors, near the fort at St. Louis. "For a mausoleum," says his accomplished biographer, "a city has risen above the forest hero ; and the race whom he hated with such burning rancor, trample with unceasing foot- steps over his forgotten grave."
CHAPTER XIII.
ENGLISH NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE WESTERN TRIBES-THE CLAIM TO KENTUCKY.
THE English government, as we have seen, never failed to assert the right of the New York tribes to treat the Ohio valley as their conquest, and before the cession by France in 1763, the English claim of sovereignty rested chiefly upon a series of treaties with the chiefs of the Six Nations in 1684, in 1701, and especially on the 14th of September, 1726, by which their lands were conveyed to England, in trust, " to be protected and defended by his majesty, to and for the use of the grantors and their heirs."
At Lancaster, in 1744, however, it was sought to obtain a different and far more important concession from these Indians. Deputies from Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland met the chiefs of the Six Nations, and after a scene of debauchery in the highest degree disgraceful to its English instigators, the Indians were persuaded to give a deed "recognizing the King's right to all lands that are, or by his Majesty's appoint- ment shall be, within the colony of Virginia."
Here was a claim to an indefinite extent of the Ohio valley by purchase, but it was very justly obnoxious to the Ohio Indiar -to the Delawares and Shawanese especially, whose villa: re within the nominal limits of the colony of Virginia, ana no indignantly denied any proprietary right in the Indians of New York.
Nevertheless, on this unsubstantial basis rested the grant
(178)
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THE LOGSTOWN TREATY.
of 1748 to the Ohio Company of five hundred thousand acres, to be principally located on the south side of the Ohio River, between the Monongahela and Kenhawa Rivers. The ex- ploration of Gist, in 1750-1, and the mere designation of a road to the Monongahela seem to have been the only effective steps towards a realization of this design.
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