USA > Ohio > The history of the state of Ohio; from the discovery of the great valley, to the present time > Part 11
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The Indians, alarmed by this escape, immediately landed all the boats, and transferred their cargoes to the shore. Then these human demons scalped and roasted their victims. The shrieks of the sufferers, under the dreadful torture, was borne across the water to the garrison, causing every bosom to burn with the desire for vengeance.
A few days after these appalling events, an armed vessel was sent from Niagara with supplies, and with a reinforcement of about fifty troops on board. Early in the month of June the vessel entered the mouth of the river. A large detachment of Indians was sent down the river, from the siege of Detroit, to
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intercept the vessel. In the darkness of the night they embarked in a fleet of canoes, and silently they descended the swift current of the stream.
The wind having died away, the vessel dropped anchor near the head of a small island called Fighting Island. The captain of the vessel ordered his men to lie concealed, with guns loaded and primed. The small cannon, also, which he had on board, was charged almost to the muzzle with grape shot. The Indians were suffered to approach close to the vessel, when the signal was given by the stroke of a hammer upon the mast, and the little vessel itself quivered with the explosion which ensued. It seemed suddenly to be converted into a volcano in violent eruption. The nearest canoes were almost blown out of the water. The men all took sure, though hasty aim, and scarcely a bullet failed of accomplishing its deadly mission. The slaughter of the Indians, crowded together in their frail canoes, must have been terrible. How great their loss was never known. The panic-stricken war- riors paddled away with the utmost speed.
The next morning the vessel dropped a little farther down the river, where she was detained six days for want of wind. On the thirteenth of June a fair breeze came in from the south, and on the thirteenth of the month the blessed relief reached the half- famished garrison in safety. There were now three armed ves- sels lying at anchor before the fort, in the broad and rapid river. Pontiac was anxious to destroy them. He was fully conscious that he could not capture them.
With the skill of an European engineer he commenced building far up the river several immense fire rafts which, laden with com- bustibles, would be almost like solid islands on fire floating down against the vessels. Several such attempts were made, but they were thwarted by English energy and skill. The following extract from a letter dated Detroit, July 6, 1763, gives one a vivid idea of the condition of the English settlement and garrison during the siege.
" We have been besieged here two months by six hundred Indi- ans. We have been upon the watch night and day, from the com- manding officer to the lowest soldier, since the 8th of May. We have not had our clothes off, nor slept a night since the siege began. We shall continue so till we have a reinforcement. Then we hope to give a good account of the savages. Their camp lies about
MICHIGAN:ENG:CO
DEFEAT OF THE CANOES,
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a mile and a half from the fort. That is the nearest they choose to come now. 1
"For the first two or three days we were attacked by three or four hundred of them. But we gave them so warm a reception that they do not care for coming to see us, though they now and then get behind a barn or a house and fire at us at three or four hundred yards distance. Day before yesterday we killed a chief and three others, and wounded some more. Yesterday we went up with our sloop and battered their cabins in such a manner that they are glad to keep farther off."
The next day, the 9th of July, another letter was written, from which we make the following extracts. It is composed in a pecu- liar style of forced mirth and irony :
" You have, long ago, heard of our pleasant situation ! But the storm is blown over. Was it not very agreeable to hear, every day, of their cutting and carving, boiling and eating our compan- ions? To see every day dead bodies, floating down the river, mangled and disfigured ? But Britons, you know, never shrink. We always appeared gay to spite the rascals. They boiled and ate Sir Robert Devers. And we are informed by Mr. Panly, who escaped the other day from one of the stations, which was sur- prised at the breaking out of the war, and which he commanded, that he had seen an Indian have the skin of Captain Robertson's - arm for a tobacco pouch.
"Three days ago a party of us went to demolish a breast-work which the Indians had made. We finished our work and were returning home. But the fort, espying a party of Indians follow- ing us as if they intended to attack us, we were ordered back, and making our dispositions, we advanced briskly. Our front was fired upon warmly, and we returned the fire for about five minutes. In the meantime Captain Hopkins, with about twenty men, filed off to the left; and about twenty French volunteers filed off to the right, and got between the Indians and their camp fires.
" The savages immediately fled, and we returned, as was pru- dent ; for a sentry, whom I had placed, informed me that he saw a body of the Indians coming down from the woods. Our party, being but about eighty, was not able to cope with their united bands. In short, we beat them handsomely, and yet did not much hurt to them, for they ran extremely well. We only killed their leader and wounded three others. One of them fired at me
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at the distance of fifteen or twenty paces. But I suppose my terrible visage made him tremble. I think I shot him."
The leader who was killed was one of the prominent chiefs of the Ottawas. It is said that both of the English commissioners, Major Campbell and Major McDougall, were, it would seem per- fidiously, detained by Pontiac. There may have been some explanation of this which has not been transmitted to us. A direct act of treachery of that kind was not in character with Pontiac.
One of the Ottawa tribe, in revenge for the death of his chief, fell upon Major Campbell and murdered him. "The brutal assassin," writes Mr. B. B. Thatcher, " fled to Saginaw, apprehen- sive of the vengeance of Pontiac. And it is but justice to the memory of that chieftain to say, that he was indignant at the atrocious act, and that he used every possible exertion to appre- hend the murderer."
On the 26th of June a detachment, of three hundred regular troops, arrived from Niagara. They came in strong, well-armed vessels, which the savages could not venture to attack from their frail birch canoes.
Apprehensive that Pontiac, in view of such an accession of strength to the garrison, might immediately raise the siege, and escape with his warriors unpunished, arrangements were made to attack him that very night. But Pontiac proved himself decidedly a more able captain than the English leader.
He immediately sent all the women and children away, appa- rently broke up his camp, and stationed his whole force of war- riors in ambush upon the route which he knew the garrison must take to attack his camp. It is astonishing that the English, after all their past experience, could again be caught in such a trap. With singular infatuation they pressed heedlessly along in the darkness till they came to a bridge, which crossed quite a wide brook, which, since that time, has been not inappropriately called Bloody Run. Very high grass and dense thickets were on both sides of the sluggish stream. Here the warriors were concealed, every one with his rifle in hand, ready to take deadly aim at any who might be crossing the bridge.
The thoughtless troops, two hundred in number, were crossing the bridge, hastening forward to catch the savages before they could have time to escape. Suddenly a volley of musketry was
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poured in upon the troops. Nearly every bullet struck a man. Many were killed. Many more were wounded. The command- ant was one of the first who fell. All were thrown into conster- nation. As the English turned, in disorderly retreat, the bullets of the foe pursued them. The unerring aim of the Indians may be inferred from the fact, that while seventy were killed outright, but forty were merely wounded. This was an extraordinary case. Generally in battle many are wounded to one who is killed.
This engagement took place at night about a mile and a-half above the fort. This humiliating defeat aroused the English to more energetic action. An army of three thousand men was promptly raised, and sent to the relief of the ports on the lakes. Pontiac saw at once that he could not successfully compete with such a force. Too proud himself to negotiate for peace, he re- tired, far away, to Illinois. The chiefs of several of the coal- esced tribes settled the terms with the English officers.
The movements of Pontiac were still watched with much anxiety. It was greatly feared that his busy mind was active in organizing a new coalition among the remoter tribes. In a letter from Detroit, dated December 3, we find the following expressions of alarm :
" We have been lately very busy in providing abundance of wheat, flour, Indian corn and peas, from the country. In this we have so far succeeded as not to be in danger of being starved out. 'Tis said that Pontiac and his tribe have gone to the Mississippi, but we do not believe it. The Wyandotts, of Sandusky, are much animated against us. They have been reinforced lately by many villains from all the nations concerned in the war."
Shortly after this it was written : " About twelve days ago sev- eral scalping parties of the Pottawatamies came to the settlement. We now sleep in our clothes, expecting an alarm every night."
Early in the Summer of 1764, General Bradstreet succeeded in convening an immense council of Indians at Niagara. Nearly two thousand Indians attended. They represented twenty-two tribes. This fact shows very clearly how vast were the operations which the mind of Pontiac had been controlling. The haughty chieftain, while he gave his consent that the tribes, in the vicinity of Detroit, should make peace with the English, by whom they were now overpowered, would assume no personal responsibility in the act.
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" When I make peace," he said, "it shall be such a one as will be useful to me, and to the King of Great Britain. But he has not as yet proposed his terms."
It was very evident that, for many months, the movements of Pontiac caused great solicitude throughout all the extreme west- ern frontier posts.
" Mr. B. B. Thatcher, in his Life of Pontiac, writes : " It would appear that Pontiac was instigated by some of the French. It is believed that only individuals among them were guilty of the prac- tice alleged. Those at Detroit conducted themselves amicably even during the war; and some of them, as we have seen, vol- unteered to fight against the Indians. Still where Pontiac now was, there would be the best possible opportunity of exerting a sinister influence over him, there being many Frenchmen among, the Illinois, and they not of the most exemplary character in all cases.
" On the whole it seems to us probable, that while the last men- tioned combination was really an undertaking of his own, it might have 'been checked at any moment, and, perhaps, never would have been commenced, had not Pontiac been renewedly and repeatedly prejudiced, against the English interest, by the artifice of some of the French and, perhaps, some of the Indians.
" However his principles in regard to that subject might remain unchanged, no abstract inducement, we think, would have urged him to his present measures, under the circumstances to which he was now reduced. But, be that as it may, the principles them- selves need not be doubted. Nor can we forbear admiring the energy of the man in pursuing the exemplification and vindica- tion of them in practice. His exertions grew only the more dar- ing as his prospects became the more desperate."
It is difficult for us now to conceive of the terror which the coalition of Pontiac inspired. His allies were found as far north as Nova Scotia, as far south as Virginia, and on the west nearly to the banks of the Mississippi. The following brief extracts from letters, written from the several posts during the year 1763, show how extensive and deep was the alarm which was excited. From Fort Pitt, on the 3Ist of May, 1763, it was written :
"There is most melancholy news here. The Indians have broken out in divers places, and murdered Colonel C -- and his family. An Indian has brought a war belt to Tusquerora, who
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says that Detroit was invested and St. Dusky cut off. All Levy's goods were stopped at Tusquerora by the Indians. Last night eight or ten men were killed at Beaver Creek. We hear of scalp- ing every hour. Messrs. Gray and Allison's horses, twenty-five, loaded with skins are all taken."
A fortnight after this we read in a letter from the same post :
" We have destroyed the upper and lower towns. By to-mor- row night we shall be in a good posture of defense. Every morn- ing, an hour before day, the whole garrison are at their alarm posts. Ten days ago the Indians killed Patrick Dunn, and a mare of Major Smallman's ; also two other men. Mr. Crawford is made prisoner, and his people are all murdered. Our small posts I am afraid are all gone."
We have previously described the destruction at Point Peleé of the party sent from Niagara with reinforcements and supplies for the garrison at Detroit. In the following letter from Albany, dated June 16, there is reference to this calamitous event :
" You must have heard of the many murders committed on the English by different tribes of Indians, at different places. This makes many fear that the rupture is, or will become, general among the southern tribes. Lieutenant Cuyler, with a party of Green's Rangers, consisting of ninety-seven men, set out from Niagara with provisions for Detroit. Cuyler sent his servant to gather greens. The lad being gone so long, a party was sent for him, who found him scalped. He put his men in the best position for a sudden attack. The Indians fell upon them, and killed and took all but the Lieutenant and thirty of his men, who retreated back to Niagara, leaving near two hundred barrels of provisions with the enemy."
In a letter from Winchester, Virginia, June 22, we find the following statement: "Last night I reached this place. I have been at Fort Cumberland several days, but the Indians having killed nine people there, made me think it prudent to remove from those parts, from which I suppose near five hundred families have run away within this week. It was a most melancholy sight to see such numbers of poor people, who had abandoned their set- tlements in such consternation and hurry that they had scarcely anything with them but their children."
The next day we find the following, in a letter from Philadel- phia : "By an express just now from Fort Pitt, we learn that the
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Indians are continually about that place. Out of one hundred and twenty traders, but two or three escaped. It is now out of doubt that there is a general insurrection among all the Indians."
A gentleman writes again from Philadelphia on the 27th of July : " I returned home last night. There has been a good deal said in the papers, but not more than is strictly true. Shippers- "burg and Carlisle are now become our frontiers. None are living at their plantations but such as have their houses stockaded. Upwards of two hundred women and children are now living in Fort Loudoun, a spot not more than one hundred feet square. Great Briar and Jackson's River are depopulated. Upwards of three hundred persons have been killed or taken prisoners. Over a territory one hundred miles in breadth and three hundred in length not one family is to be found. By these means there are near twenty thousand people left destitute of their habitations."
Nothing can show more conclusively than the foregoing extracts the wide-spread terror which pervaded the frontier community, and the genius of the man who could organize and control so vast a coalition of untutored savages. Every well authenticated anec- dote of Pontiac exhibits him as a man of remarkable nobility of character, considering his origin and the influences by which he was surrounded.
It will be remembered that the first detachment of British . troops sent to take formal possession of the posts on the lakes conquered from the French were led by Major Rogers. Pontiac met the detachment and escorted it safely to Detroit. Major Rogers confesses that, but for his protection, he and his men would inevitably have been massacred.
As a compliment for this protection, Major Rogers sent Pontiac a bottle of brandy, His counselors advised him not to taste it. " It must be poisoned," said they; " and it is sent with a design to kill you." Pontiac laughed at their suspicions, saying, " He cannot take my life, for I have saved his.'
Though the French had surrendered all their posts upon the lakes, there was still a station, under their control, among the powerful tribe of the Illinois Indians. To this station Pontiac, with quite an imposing retinue of his warriors had retired. The English, then at peace with France, sent Lieutenant Frazer, with a company of soldiers, to that station,- undoubtedly as a spy upon the movements of the chieftain.
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Pontiac understood it in that light, and considered it an act of aggression. He, therefore, called upon the French Commandant to deliver his visitor into his hands. The officer attempted to pacify him. Pontiac replied :
" You, the French, were the cause of my striking the English. This is your tomahawk which I hold in my hand."
The Indians had by this time assembled in such large numbers. as to be quite capable of taking the law into their own hands. Pontiac ordered all the English to be arrested at once. This was promptly done. The whole company was seized, with the excep- tion of Frazer, who effected his escape to the protection of the French garrison. The exasperated savages threatened the death of all the prisoners unless their leader should be given up. The gallant Englishman, to save the lives of his comrades, came for- ward and surrendered himself.
The Indians were eager to put them all to death. Even with civilized nations this is the penalty of spies in time of war. Pon- tiac protected them all, and held back the tomahawks of his war- " riors. But considering the state of excitement among the Indians, and the improbability of his restraining individual vengeance, he advised Lieutenant Frazer to leave the country. He could not, in safety, traverse the wilderness, which was filled with roving Indian bands. A batteaux was therefore provided for him, and he floated down the river safely to New Orleans. "Pontiac," said Lieutenant Frazer, "is a clever fellow. Had it not been for him, I should never have got away alive."
We have but very scanty memorials of the eloquence of this extraordinary man. It is perhaps probable that he excelled in deeds rather than in words. We have, however, one of his speeches recorded, which he delivered in a conference with the French, at Detroit, on the 23d of May, 1763. He was endeavoring to per- suade the French to unite their forces with his, in the coalition against the English. It will be perceived that his speech indi- cates a very strong and a very logical mind. He spoke as follows :
" My brothers, I have no doubt but that this war is very trouble- some to you. My warriors, who are continually passing through your settlements, frequently kill your cattle and injure your prop- erty. I am sorry for it. I hope that you do not think that I am pleased with this conduct of our young men.
"As a proof of my friendship, recollect the war you had seven-
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teen years ago, and the part I took in it. The northern nations combined to destroy you. Who defended you? Was it not my- self and my young men? The chief, Mackinac, said, in council, that he would carry to his native village the head of your chief warrior, and that he would eat his heart and drink his blood.
" Did I not then join you ? Did I not go to his camp, and say to him, 'If you wish to kill the French, you must pass over my body and the bodies of my young men?' Did I not take hold of the tomahawk with you, and aid you in fighting your battles with Mackinac, and in driving him home to his country ? Why do you think I would turn my arms against you? Am I not the same French Pontiac who assisted you seventeen years ago? I am a Frenchman, and I wish to die a Frenchman.
" My brothers, I begin to see that, instead of assisting us in our war with the English, you are actually assisting them. I have already told you, and I now tell you again, that when I undertook this war it was only your interest I sought, and that I knew what I was about. I yet know what I am about. This year they must all perish. The Master of Life so orders it. His will is known to us, and we must do as He says. And you, my brothers, who know Him better than we do, wish to oppose His will.
" Until now, I have avoided urging you upon this subject, in the hope that, if you could not aid, you would not injure us. I did not wish to ask you to fight with us against the English. But I did not believe that you would take part with them. You will say that you are not with them. I know it; but your conduct amounts to the same thing. You will tell them all we do and say. You carry our counsels and plans to them. Now, take your choice. You must be entirely French, like ourselves, or entirely English. If you are French, take this belt, for yourselves and your young men, and join us. If you are English, we declare war against you."
In the year 1767 there was a large council of Indians held in Illinois to deliberate upon the posture of affairs. It is probable that the question was whether the war against the English should be renewed. An Indian of the Peoria tribe was present as a spy, to report the proceedings to the English. This Indian, at the close of a speech by Pontiac, plunged his knife into his heart, and the great chieftain fell dead upon the spot. Carver says that he committed the foul deed, " either commissioned by one of the
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English governors, or instigated by the love he bore the English nation."
The savage assassin fled. But the love of the Indians for their great chieftain was such that they avenged his death with the ut- most severity of barbarian punishment. Four tribes-the Otta- was, Chippewas, Pottawatamies, Sacs and Foxes-made common cause with the friends of Pontiac to annihilate the tribe to which the murderer belonged. The Peoria tribe, and two others who joined them, were, it is said, utterly exterminated,-men, women and children. Mr. Thatcher, writing of this event, says :
"There is little doubt that Pontiac continued firm in his origi- nal principles and purposes - that he endeavored to influence, and did influence, a large number of his countrymen-and that the Peoria savage, whether a personal enemy or spy, or, what is more probable, both, did assassinate him with the expectation, to say the least, of doing an acceptable service to some foreign party, and a lucrative one for himself.
" We need not assert that he was commissioned by an English governor. Pontiac was an indefatigable and a powerful man, and a dangerous foe to the English. He was in a situation to make enemies among his countrymen, and the English were generally in a situation and disposition to avail themselves of that cir- cumstance."
The death of Pontiac terminated, for several years, all hostile ties between the English and the Indians. For eight years there was comparative peace on the frontiers; and this peace would doubtless have been continued but for the atrocities inflicted upon the Indians by vagabond white men.
English traders, crossing the Alleghanies, spread rapidly through all the extensive Valley of the Ohio, both north and south of that river, exchanging their commodities for the peltries of the red men. Quite a mania for emigration rose on the east side of the moun- tains. The Valley of the Ohio was described as a paradise in its genial clime, its fertility, and its wonderful beauty of hills and vales and crystal streams. It was said, and perhaps with truth, that there was no other river on the globe which surpassed the Ohio in all the elements of attractiveness for happy homes.
The La Belle Riviere of the French, from its rise at the conflu- ence of the Alleghany and Monongahela at Pittsburgh, flows gently, in a southwesterly direction, through beautifully undulating hills
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and wide-spread lovely valleys, a distance of nine hundred miles to the Mississippi River. It is six hundred and forty miles, in an air-line from Pittsburgh to its mouth. There is certainly not a more luxuriant realm or a more genial clime upon the globe.
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