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3. THE SHAWANESE .- The conflicting testimony, relative to these Bedouins of the American wilderness, is accurately stated by Gallatin.4 He conjectures that the "Shawnoes," as he writes the word, separated at an early date from the other Lenape tribes, and established themselves south of the Ohio, in what is now the State of Kentucky ; that having been driven away from that Territory, probably by the Chickasaws and Cherokees, some portion found their way, during the first half of the seventeenth century, as far east as the country of the Susquehannocks, a kindred Lenape tribe ; that the main body of the nation, invited by the Miamis and the Andastes, crossed the Ohio, occupied the country on and adjacent to the Scioto, and joined in the war against the Five Nations ; and that, after their final defeat, and that of their allies, in the year 1672, they were again dispersed in several directions. A considerable portion made about that time a forcible settlement on the head waters of the rivers of Carolina ; and these, after having been driven away by the Catawbas, found, as others had already done, an asylum in different parts of the Creek country. Another portion joined their brethren in Pennsylvania ; and some may
4) Gallatin's Synopsis, 65. Drake's Life of Tecumseh, 10.
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THE SHAWANESE. 825761
have remained in the vicinity of the Scioto and Sandusky. Those in Pennsylvania, who seem to have been the most considerable part of the nation, were not entirely subjugated and reduced to the humiliating state of women by the Six Nations. But they held their lands on the Susquehannah only as tenants at will, and were always obliged to acknowl- edge a kind of sovereignty or superiority in their landlords. They appear to have been more early and unanimous than the Delawares in their determination to return to the country north of the Ohio. This they effected under the auspices of the Wyandots, and on the invitation of the French, during the years 1740-55. They occupied there the Scioto country, extending to Sandusky, and westwardly towards the Great Miami, and they have also left there the names of two of their tribes, to wit: Chillicothe and Piqua. Those who were settled among the Creeks joined them; and the nation was once more reunited. Mr. Johnston, the Indian agent, says that this southern party lived on the Sawanee River, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico, and is supposed to derive its name from them; and that they returned thence, about the year 1755, to the vicinity of Sandusky, under the con- duct of a chief called Black Hoof. It has been reported that Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, were sons of a Creek woman married during that migration to a Shawnoe.
During the forty following years, the Shawanese were in an almost perpetual state of war with America, either as British colonies or as independent States. They were among the most active allies of the French during the seven years' war; and, after the conquest of Canada, continued, in con- cert with the Delawares, hostilities which were only termi- nated after the successful campaign of General Bouquet. The first permanent settlements of the Americans beyond
36
HISTORY OF OHIO.
the Alleghany mountains, in the vicinity of the Ohio, were commenced in the year 1769, and were soon followed by a war with the Shawanese, which ended in 1774, after they had been repulsed in a severe engagement at the mouth of the Kanhawa, and the Virginians had penetrated into their country. They took a most active part against America, both during the war of Independence, and in the Indian war which followed, and which was terminated in 1795 at Green- ville. They lost, by that treaty, nearly the whole territory which they held from the Wyandots ; and a part of them, under the guidance of Tecumseh, again joined the British standard during the war of 1812.
4. OTTAWAS .- The name of this tribe was either derived from, or communicated to the Canadian River, on whose banks they lived until driven westward by the Five Nations, where they took refuge among the Pottawatamies and Ojib- was. The western shore of Lake Huron, and the northern portion of the Michigan peninsula, was the asylum of the fugitive Ottawas. The tribe has been distinguished in the person of Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas, whose conspiracy against the British garrisons in 1763, was a master stroke of Indian sagacity, ranking its instigator with Phillip and Te- cumseh. The honor of his birth has been claimed by other tribes, and his mother was said to be an Ojibwa woman, but he was doubtless born among the Ottawas. He obtained a controlling influence over the Ojibwas and Pottawatamies, and made their confederacy with the Ottawas the basis of his combination against the English. But we must not anticipate. We have mentioned him in these terms, because the practice of antiquarian writers is to depreciate the Ottawas, and the name of the great Ottawa chief is their best vindication.
It has been remarked that, among the Ottawas alone, the
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INDIAN OCCUPATION OF 1750.
heavenly bodies were an object of veneration-the Sun rank- ing as their Supreme Deity. This tribe, whose mythology was more complicated than usual with the Indians, were accustomed to keep a regular festival to celebrate the benefi- cence of the Sun; on which occasion the luminary was told that this service was in return for the good hunting he had procured for his people, and as an encouragement to perse- vere in his friendly cares. They were also observed to erect an idol in the middle of their town, and sacrifice to it; but such ceremonies were by no means general. On first wit- nessing Christian worship, the only idea suggested by it was that of asking some temporal good, which was either granted or refused.5
Bancroft states that the word "Ottowa," signifies "tra- der," and was probably applied by the Hurons from the fact that the tribe was principally settled on and in the vicinity of an island in the Ottawa River, where they exacted a tribute from all the Indians and canoes going to, or comimg from the country of the Hurons. It is observed by a Jesuit father, Le Jeune, that although the Hurons were ten times as numerous, they submitted to that imposition ; which seems to prove that the right of sovereignty over the Ottawa River was generally recognized. After their expulsion from this aboriginal custom house, the memory of their island home seems to have been preserved ; for during the last century they sought and were suffered to take possession of the islands of Lake Erie and the peninsula of Sandusky, where their fishing and trapping parties were found by the French traders as early as 1750.
Soon after the period now under consideration, straggling parties of New York Indians were occasionally found near
5) Missions en la Nouvelle France, 1635, p. 72.
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
Lake Erie; and at least one Mingo town (the term designa- ting any of the Six Nations, but, in this instance, a party of Cayuga Indians,) was situated on the Ohio River, just below the present site of Steubenville. Logan, celebrated for the specimen of Indian eloquence attributed to him by Jefferson, was a Mingo or Cayuga, and resided in the village above mentioned. We shall have further occasion to mention the arrival of Caughnewagas and Senecas (the former, a tribe from Canada, supposed by Heckewelder to be the old Con- necticut Mohicans, mingled with various Iroquois Indians,) in different sections of the southern coast of Lake Erie. Th four tribes above named, however, alone deserve the designa tion of Ohio Indians at the date before us.
Some idea of the Indian occupation of Ohio in 1750 is now attainable. It will be seen by what precedes, that the Delawares occupied the valley of the Muskingum, and thence to Lake Erie and the River Ohio, asserting a possession over about one-half of the State; the Shawanese were soon admitted to the valleys of the Scioto and Miami Rivers, adjoining the Twigtwees or Miami Indians ; while the Wyan- dots, and a few bands of Ottawas, dwelt upon the waters of Sandusky and Maumee, but nearer the bays into which they fell than their sources. As for the Wyandots, it should be remembered that the principal seat of the tribe was oppo- site Detroit, and the Ohio settlements were in the nature of colonies from the peninsulas bordering Lake Huron. This was also the case with the Ottawas, whose villages were scattered along the shore ; although, on a map drawn in 1763, the remains of an " Ottowa fort" are visible near the present site of Plymouth, Huron county, while an Ottawa town is put down on the Cuyahoga River, about thirty miles from its mouth. The Ohio Indians, it may be necessary to add, were
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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OHIO INDIANS.
superior specimens of the race. The Delawares were the ancestral tribe, and their biography contains an unusual num- ber of remarkable personages, though none of so extraordi- nary career or character as to be known to the present gene- ration. They will receive a large degree of our notice when the history of the Moravian mission comes before us ; for it was principally among the Delawares that the missionaries were successful in making conversions. The Shawanese, whose rovings might vindicate their claim, at least, to be a lost tribe of Israel, have been frequently characterized as the " Spartans" of the race ; and certainly their constancy in braving danger and enduring all the consequences of defeat, merits the appellation. But it is by the name of Tecumseh, a son of the nation, though by an alien mother, as we have before observed of his great Ottawa prototype, that the name "Shawnee," will be commemorated in the wild annals of our aboriginal history. The Ottawas, so far as they have . ever been observed on the soil of Ohio, have hardly sustained the gravity and dignity of position, which we spontaneously assign to the Wyandot and the Delaware. Compared with his forest brethren, the Ottawa, or Tahwah, (as the early settlers called him,) whose life was nearly amphibious, by his joint avocations of trapper and fisher, seems to be rather a Pariah among his brethren, but to whom history will be more indulgent, in deference to the name of Pontiac. As for the Wyandots, ever recurring as the tribe will be in these chapters, we can do no better than to give a paragraph from Gen. Harrison's discourse, to which we have frequently referred. He gives the Wyandots the unquestioned prefer- ence among the Western Indians on the score of bravery. With the other tribes, flight in battle, when occasioned by unexpected resistance and obstacles, brought with it no dis-
40
HISTORY OF OHIO.
grace, and was rather a part of their strategy : but otherwise with the Wyandots. In the battle of the Rapids of the Miami, in which the confederated tribes were broken by Gen. Wayne, of thirteen chiefs of the Wyandots one only survived, and he badly wounded. The following anecdote illustrates this trait in their character :
" When General Wayne assumed the position of Green- ville, in 1793, he sent for Captain Wells, who commanded a company of scouts, and told him that 'he wished him to go to Sandusky and take a prisoner, for the purpose of obtain- ing information.' Wells (who, having been taken from Kentucky when a boy, and brought up among the Indians, was perfectly acquainted with their character,) answered, that 'he could take a prisoner, but not from Sandusky.' 'And why not from Sandusky ?' said the General. 'Be- cause,' answered the Captain, 'there are only Wyandots there.' 'Well, why will not Wyandots do?' 'For the best of reasons,' said Wells, 'because Wyandots will not be taken alive.'"'
CHAPTER IV.
LAKE ERIE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
CLOSELY related as Ohio is to the mighty current of the St. Lawrence, a rapid outline of its early exploration will not be deemed too discursive, although our attention will thus be recalled to events which transpired during the seventeenth century.
The magnificent water-course which constitutes the north- ern border of the Atlantic and Mississippi States, aided materially in the colonization of its extended coast. As at Plymouth, it was religious sentiment which first opened the adventurous way to the borders of our inland lakes. As early as 1616, Le Caron, an unambitious Franciscan monk, the companion of the noted Champlain, had traversed New York, and threading the Canadian peninsula, reached the rivers of Lake Huron. As Quebec was founded only eight years before, the voyage of the missionary probably deserves the distinction of a first discovery. In 1625, we hear of the Franciscans laboring with the Neutral Hurons near the Ni- agara river.
Tempting as the theme may be, we must be content with a mere chronology of the French missions on the great lakes. They were repelled from the south shore of Lake Erie du- ring the following fifty years, which was the period of their greatest activity, by the hostility of the Iroquois, who were often at war with the natives of the soil.1
1) Charles Whittlesey relates (Discourse before Ohio Historical Society in 1840, p. 8,) that trees have been found on the Western Reserve, bearing the marks of an axe, which, judging from the rings, were made in 1660. 2* (41)
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
The Jesuits succeeded all other religious orders in the labor of evangelization, and from 1634 to 1647, no less than forty-two missionaries of that society were devoted to the tribes in Upper Canada-assembling twice or thrice a year at St. Marys, a central spot upon the banks of the Matche- dash, between Lakes Toronto or Simcoe and Huron. Per- haps no passage of colonial history is so full of romantic interest as the narrative of the Wyandot Mission, of which Bancroft has furnished a faithful and fascinating picture ; but as early as 1649, the principal seat of the Jesuit Fathers, the village of St. Ignatius, was destroyed by the ruthless Mohawks, and the peaceful inmates involved in a general massacre. The names of Anthony Daniel, Jean de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lallemand, have been preserved to us, fragrant with their martyrdom in the wilderness.
Every dispassionate reader will readily respond to the tribute by the single-hearted annalist of New France. "It is certain," says Charlevoix, " as well from the annual rela- tions of those happy times, as from the constant tradition of that country, that a peculiar unction attached to this savage mission, giving it a preference over many others far more brilliant and fruitful. The reason no doubt was, that nature, finding nothing there to gratify the senses or to flatter vanity- stumbling blocks too common even to the holiest-grace worked without obstacle. The Lord, who never allows him- self to be outdone, communicates himself without measure to those who sacrifice themselves without reserve ; who, dead to all, detached entirely from themselves and the world, pos- sess their souls in unalterable peace, perfectly established in that child-like spirituality which Jesus Christ has recom- mended to his disciples as that which ought to be the most marked trait of their character." "Such is the portrait,"
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FRENCH EXPLORATIONS.
adds Charlevoix, "drawn of the missionaries of New France by those who knew them best. I myself knew some of them in my youth, and I found them such as I have painted them, bending under the labor of a long apostleship, with bodies exhausted by fatigues and broken with age, but still preserv- ing all the vigor of the apostolic spirit, and I have thought it but right to do them here the same justice universally done them in the country of their labors."
The Relations or Journals of the Jesuit Fathers contain incidental descriptions of the lake coast from "Unghiara," or Niagara, to Lake Superior, otherwise called "Tracy " and "Upper Lake." A map, published at Paris, in 1660, indicates a discovery of Lake Michigan, or "Lake of the Illinois."
In 1668, the mission of Sault St. Mary was established by Claude Dablon and James Marquette-the oldest settle- ment in Michigan.
In 1671, Marquette gathered some wandering Hurons round a chapel at point St. Ignace, on the main land north of the peninsula of Michigan.
In 1673, Marquette, accompanied by Joliet, a trader of Quebec, and five other Frenchmen, with a number of Indian guides, paddled up Green Bay in birch bark canoes, ascended Fox River to the head of navigation and crossed the Portage to the banks of the Wisconsin. Here their guides deserted the party, from fear of the Sioux, but the Frenchmen fear- lessly followed the current of the Wisconsin, until, on the 17th of June, the Mississippi was discovered.
In 1678, La Salle, accompanied by Tonti, an Italian sol- dier, and Lewis Hennepin, a Flemish friar of the order of Recollects, commenced the construction of the " Griffin," a bark of sixty tons, near the present site of Buffalo. During
44
HISTORY OF OHIO.
the next summer, this bark was ready for the voyage, and on the 7th of August, 1679, the surface of Lake Erie was first parted by the keel of civilization. The crew was thirty-four in all-sailors, hunters and soldiers-while father Hennepin was accompanied by several friars of his order.
Our purpose is not to follow this exploring expedition after leaving Lake Erie. The present digression only relates to their adventures from Niagara to Detroit. The voyage to Mackinaw-the return of the Griffin loaded with furs, and the wreck of the bark in Lake Erie-La Salle's subsequent wanderings in Illinois among innumerable discouragements- his weary journey to Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario, tra- versing the ridge which divides the basin of the Ohio from that of the lakes-his return to the Illinois in 1681, these and subsequent particulars of his heroic adventures and un- timely end in the wilderness of Louisiana, belong to general history, and we must resist the temptation to pursue the romantic record.
His companion, Hennepin, has left to us a readable book, which, authentic for our purposes of reference, has been sharply criticised and also lustily defended,2 in respect to its narrative of exploration and discovery in the valley of the Mississippi. With that controversy we have nothing to do. His sketch of Lake Erie, as it was in 1679, is our only con- cern with the gray-coated Franciscan. We even suppress the inclination to give a personal history of the doughty friar.
We repeat Hennepin's description of Niagara Falls in his own words, preserving also the typography of 1698, the date of the edition in our possession :
" Betwixt the Lake Ontario, and Erie, there is a vast and prodigious Cadence of Water which falls down after a sur-
2) Democratic Review, v. 190, 381.
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HENNEPIN'S DESCRIPTION OF NIAGARA.
prising and astonishing manner, insomuch that the Universe does not afford its Parallel. 'Tis true Italy and Suedeland boast of some such things; but we may well say they are but sorry Patterns, when compared to this of which we now speak. At the foot of this horrible Prescipice, we meet with the River Niagara, which is not above half a quarter of a League broad, but is wonderfully deep in some places. It is so rapid above this Descent, that it violently hurries down the wild Beasts while endeavoring to pass it to feed on the other side, they not being able to withstand the force of its Current, which inevitably casts them down above Six hun- dred feet.
" This wonderful Downfall is compounded of two great Cross-streams of Water, and two Falls, with an Isle sloping along the middle of it. The waters which fall from this vast height do foam and boil after the most hideous manner im- aginable, making an outrageous noise, more terrible than that of Thunder, for when the Wind blows from off the South, their dismal roaring may be heard above fifteen Leagues off.
" The River Niagara having thrown itself down this in- credible Precipice, continues its impetuous course for two Leagues together, to the great Rock above mentioned, with an inexpressible rapidity : But having passed that, its Im- petuosity relents, gliding along more gently for two Leagues, till it arrives at the Lake Ontario or Frontenac.
" Any Barque or greater vessel may pass from the Fort to the foot of this huge rock above mentioned. This rock lies to the Westward, and is cut off from the Land by the River Niagara, about two Leagues farther down than the great Fall ; for which two Leagues the people are oblig'd to carry their Goods over-land ; but the way is very good and
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
the Trees are but few and they chiefly Firr and Oaks. From the great Fall unto this Rock, which is to the West of the River, the two Brinks of it are so prodigious high, that it would make one tremble to look steadily upon the Water, rolling along with a Rapidity not to be imagined. Were it not for this vast Cataract, which interrupts Naviga- tion, they might sail with Barks or greater Vessels, above Four hundred and fifty Leagues farther, cross the Lake of the Hurons, and up to the farther end of the Lake Illinois ; which two Lakes we may well say are little Seas of fresh Water."
A chapter in Hennepin's Discoveries is devoted to Lake Erie, which is written with an accent on the last letter, and appears to have been pronounced in three syllables. He says the lake is called Erie Tejocharontiong, and " extends itself from east to west, a hundred and forty leagues in length. But (he boastfully adds) no European has ever surveyed it at all ; only I, and those who accompanied me in this discovery, have viewed the greater part of it. This lake encloses on its southern bank a tract of land as large as the Kingdom of France. It divides itself at a certain place into two channels, because of a great island enclosed betwixt them." In the narrative of the Griffin's " Trial Trip," some further particulars are given of Lake Erie :
" On the 7th of August, 1679, we went on board,3 and sailed from the mouth of Lake Erie, steering our course west-south-west with a favorable wind ; and though the ene- mies of our Discovery had given out, on purpose to deter us from our enterprise, that the Lake Erie was full of rocks and sands, which rendered the navigation impracticable, we run above twenty leagues during the night, though we
3) The typography of 1698 is conformed to the present usage.
47
THE STRAIT OF DETROIT.
sounded all that while. The next day, the wind being more favorable, we made above five and forty leagues, keeping at an equal distance from the banks of the lake, and doubled a cape to the westward, which we called the Cape of St. Francis. The next day we doubled two other capes, and met with no manner of rocks or sands. We discovered a pretty large island towards the southwest, about seven or eight leagues from the northern coast; that island faces the strait that comes from the Lake Huron.
"The 10th, very early in the morning, we passed between that island and seven or eight lesser ones ; and having sailed near another, which is nothing but sand, to the west of the lake, we came to an anchor at the mouth of the strait, which runs from the Lake Huron into that of Erie. The 11th, we went farther into the strait, and passed between two small islands, which make one of the finest prospects in the world. This strait is finer than that of Niagara, being thirty leagues long and everywhere one league broad, except in the middle, which is wider, forming the lake we have called St. Clair. The navigation is easy on both sides, the coast being low and even. It runs directly from north to south.
"The country between those two lakes is very well situa- ted, and the soil very fertile. The banks of the strait are vast meadows, and the prospect is terminated by some hills covered with vineyards. Trees bearing good fruit, groves and forests so well disposed that one would think nature alone could not have made, without the help of art, so charming a prospect. That country is stocked with stags, wild goats and bears, which are good for food, and not fierce as in other countries : some think they are better than our pork. Tur- key cocks and swans are there also very common ; and our men brought several other beasts and birds, whose names are
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
unknown to us, but they are extraordinary relishing. The forests are chiefly made up of walnut trees, chestnut trees, plum trees, and pear trees, loaded with their own fruit and vines. There is also abundance of timber fit for building ; so that those who shall be so happy as to inhabit that noble country, cannot but remember with gratitude those who have discovered the way, by venturing to sail upon an unknown lake for above one hundred leagues. That charming strait lies between forty and forty-one degrees of northern latitude."
La Salle visited the Hurons, " who inhabited the Point of Missilimakinak," and the "Outtaouatz," or Ottawas, who were three or four leagues more northward, who are described as "in confederacy together against the Iroquese, their com- mon enemy. They sow Indian corn, which is their ordinary food; for they have nothing else to live upon, except some fish they take in the lakes." Of the latter, the Indians " brought abundance of whitings and some trouts of 50 and 60 pound weight."
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