USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > History of Erie County, Pennsylvania, Volume One > Part 8
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The territories of the two classes of people rapidly came to reflect the difference in the two systems. New France continued to be a country of voyageurs, with no home-ties, and but little of stability in the way of subjugating the vast wilderness. New England, as well as her cousin colonies all along down the coast, became thriving, bustling, prosperous communities, in which the individual initiative prospered and expanded ; and the community spirit thrived in proportion as its people were able to rid themselves of their former sense of unjust interference and oppres- sion. These little communities became the home hives from whence swarmed many hardy, earnest and purposeful men and women ambitious to make their own marks within the wonderful and almost limitless wil- derness which began right at their back doors.
The French and the English differed in their temperaments, in their religion, in their traditions of government and of colonization; and in many other respects too greatly to expect their operations upon this con- tinent to progress very far without bringing on a crisis and precipitating a conflict somewhere. And so it befell that from the west and north pressure and intrigue came to be exerted more and more upon the natives who lived between the two regions; and from the east equally strenuous
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exertions were being put forth to persuade those same natives that their own interests were being far more considered by the English than by the French. Much of wilderness diplomacy was employed on both sides in the months and years which followed Denonville's fruitless and foolhardy attempt to chastise the Iroquois, resulting first in success for one side, and then seeming success for the other. The Indians proved themselves no mean diplomats when it came to playing off the one party against the other.
An important agent of the French during those years was Chabert de Joncaire, who was well acquainted with most of the Indian dialects of this western region, was a good soldier, and had so won the Indian regard as to have been formally adopted by them into the Seneca Nation, and was in consequence looked upon by them almost as one of themselves. He it was, perhaps, who was more to be reckoned with than was any other one Frenchman; and his influence with the Indian tribes was something almost uncanny.
On the side of the English about this period was a Dutch interpreter who was able to serve the English in many important missions; to attend many of the conclaves where he met the Indians and also the emisaries of the French crown; and was able to often modify the deportment of the Indians from what it would have been without his services. His name was Lawrence Claessen. The name is variously written as Claessen, Clau- sen, Claese, Clawson, Clase and Clace. He is believed to have been the first white man other than French, with a possible exception of Roose- boom and MacGregorie, to have reached this lakes region. These two men, Joncaire and Claessen, carried on much of the intercourse of the whites with the Indians; and their work laid the grounds for the future issue between the two great European powers in this land. Each party, through its interpreters and trading agents, sought to influence the na- tives against the other; and to this end they used all sorts of persuasive methods, some of them exceedingly questionable, and others more or less legitimate. Their work thus resulted in hewing a line of allegiance between the various Indian nations, on the one side favorable to the Eng- lish, on the other pledged to the French. Much valuable merchandise found its way into the wilderness to be used in the frantic endeavors of the partisans, as presents, with which to purchase the savage allegiance and co-operation. The Indians very soon learned the value of playing
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off the one party against the other, and of pretending allegiance, only to keep the political pot boiling. They either were by nature, or very early learned from their white brethren the gentle art of statecraft.
The French through Joncaire now began to bend every energy to- wards securing a foothold at Niagara from which to extend their explora- tions and trading up Lake Erie and into the coveted Ohio and Wabash regions. The Niagara district was regarded by both parties as the real key to the lakes region, and as the chief stepping stone to the great Ohio Valley.
We therefore find the French striving for the consent of the Seneca Indians to establish a trading station there. The English, likewise, jeal- ously watched events at the Niagara, fearful that they might lose that valuable vantage point. A short extract from a "Memoir on the Indians of Canada, as far as the River Mississippi, with remarks on their manners and trade" dated 1718, is illuminating as to conditions at Niagara, and by comparison to our own section as well: "The Niagara portage is two leagues and a half long, but the road, over which carts roll two or three times a year, is very fine, with very beautiful and open woods through which a person is visible for a distance of 600 paces. The trees are all oaks, and very large. The soil along the entire length of that road is not very good. From the landing, which is three leagues up the river, four hills are to be ascended. Above the first hill there is a Seneca village of about ten cabins, where Indian corn, beans, peas, watermelons, and pumpkins are raised, all which are very fine. These Senecas are employed by the French, from whom they earn money by carrying the goods of those who are going to the upper country ; some for mitasses (Algonquin word for leggings), others for shirts, some for powder and ball, whilst some others pilfer; and on the return of the French, they carry their packs of furs for some peltry. *
* * The route by the Southern is much finer than that along the Northern shore. The reason that few persons take it is, that it is thirty leagues longer than that along the north. There is no need of fasting on either side of this lake, deer are to be found there in such great abundance; buffaloes are found on the South, but not on the North shore."
Very evidently the Northern shore route mentioned would have been the way by the Ottawa River through to Green Bay. This memoir is exceedingly valuable as one of the earliest descriptions of life and activity upon the route which ultimately serves to bring European civilization
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into Erie County. It serves as an index to French activity, Indian occu- pation, and, as well, the wild animal life in this region. Deer and buffaloes are especially mentioned as abounding on this south shore of the lake; and the later designation of Fort "LeBoeuf" at Waterford, is significant of the presence in this county of those magnificent bovines in sufficient numbers to attract the comment of the early French expeditions. This document also indicates that prior to this time a sufficient use had been made of the Niagara portage to establish the trail around the falls, and to have likewise established a settlement of Indian porters at the head of the trail who found the portage travel of sufficient interest and profit to warrant their stay to care for the needs of the travellers.
However, Joncaire prevailed upon the Seneca Indians to give him some sort of assurance which he pretended to the French governor was for the building of a fortified trading post at the north end of the Niagara portage. This was speedily undertaken, and that same fall in 1720 "the Sieur de Joncaire & le Corne caused to be built in haste a kind of Cabbin of Bark where they displayed the King's Colors & honored it with the name of the Magazin Royal". This was at the foot of the four mountains, and was where Lewiston now is situated. This "Cabbin" seems to have been provided with a palisade of sharpened stakes, and to have excited much suspicion amongst the Indians, and also considerable dismay and jealousy amongst the English who heard of it immediately. The English report on it states "They have a store there well supplied with goods for the trade; and have, by means of the Indians, carried on there, up to the present time and since several years ago, a considerable trade in furs in barter for merchandise and whisky. This establishment would have enabled them (English) to purchase the greater part of the peltries both of the French and Indians belonging to the upper country." So it will be seen that both parties were upon the eve of establishing a trading post on Niagara, and that the French but barely forestalled the English in this purpose, who promptly took the Indians to book for permitting the French to construct permanent improvements in the wilderness; asserting that "The French are now buissey at Onjagerae, which ought not to be Con- sented to or admitted". The Indians were further reminded by the Eng- lish of their promises and treaty about "twenty-two years agoe to secure
their Lands and hunting Places westward of them *
* * to the Crown of great Brittain to be held for you and Your Posterity"; and con- tinuing to admonish them "The French are now buissy at onjagera which
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in a Manner is the only gate you have to go through towards your hunte- ing places and the only way the farr Indians conveniently came through where Jean Coeurs (meaning Joncaire) with some men are now at work on building a block house and no Doubt of a Garrison by the next year whereby you will be so Infenced that no Room will be Left for you to hunt in without Liberty wee know that in warr time they could never overcome you, but these proceedings in building so near may be their Invented Intrigues to hush you to sleep whilst they take possession of the Heart of Your Country this is Plainly seen by us therefore desire you to Consider it rightly and sent out to spy what they are doing at onjagera and prohibite Jean Couer building there, for where they make Settlements they Endeavour to hold it so that if he takes no notice thereof, after given in a Civil way, further Complaints may be made to
INDIAN WAMPUM BELT TO COMMEMORATE TREATY OF PEACE BETWEEN WIL- LIAM PENN AND THE INDIANS
your brother Corlear, who will Endeavour to make you Easy therein". A belt of wampum having been sent with this message, the chiefs assem- bled in council went into executive session and the matter was long and seriously debated. In the end they confirmed the position taken by the English, and pledged their further friendship to their English friends. They also reiterated their former treaty and affirmed the grant of the country to the English Crown which had been made "some twenty-two years agoe", all in a quaint reply which shows plainly enough the influ- ence of English diplomacy in its construction: "You have told us that you were Informed the French were building a house at Onjagera which As you perceive will prove prejudiciall to us and You. Its true they are Either yett building or it is finished by this time wee do owne that some Years agoe the Five Nations gave Trongsagroende Ierondoquet & Onja-
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gera and all other hunting Places westward to ye Crowne to be held for us and our posterity Least other might Incroach on us then we also parti- tion the hunting Places between us and the french Indians but since then they are gone farr within the Limits and the french got more by setling Trongsagroende and we must Joyne our Opinion with yours that if wee suffer the french to settle at onjagera, being the only way to ward hunt- ing, wee will be altogether shut up and Debarred, of means for our lively hood then in deed our Posterity would have Reason to Reflect on us there- fore to beginn in time wee will appoint some of our men to go thither to onjagera and Desire you to send one along so that in the name of the five Nations Jean Coeur may be acquainted with the Resolve of this Meet- ing and for biden to proceed any further building, but ordered to take down what's Erected." The meeting appointed three chiefs to wait upon the French at onegara, and with them went Lawrence Claessen the in- terpreter on behalf of the English.
This same Claessen had been instrumental in securing from the Five Nations on behalf of the English, that very deed mentioned in the above address on July 19, 1701, conveying "unto our great Lord and Master the King of England called by us Corachkoo and by the Christians William the third and to his heires and successors Kings and Queens of England for ever" all of that great stretch of wilderness from which the great cargoes of peltries were being secured by the French all of the countries south of lakes Huron and Ontario, and on both sides of Lake Erie, and as far west as Lake Michigan; a territory 400 miles wide and 800 miles long, "including likewise the great falls oakinagaro" reserving the liberty for the Five Nations to hunt through it as and when they pleased, the English undertaking to protect them, inferentially against the French. Some of the Indian signatures to this significant document are shown here. This deed of the Five Nations was in 1726 confirmed by the Cayugas, Senecas and the Onondagas, giving an interesting description of some of the territory more fully than in the former deed as "all along the said lake (meaning Lake Erie) and all along the narrow passage from the said lake to the Falls of Oniagara Called Cahaquaraghe and all along the River of Oniagara and all along the Lake Cadarackquis".
It will thus be seen that England had succeeded in at least matching the claims of the French to this territory ; for whereas the French claimed the country by virtue of discovery, exploration, establishment of trading posts, and erection of certain buildings of a military character at widely
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separated spots, the English also laid claim to the same territory by virtue of their own discovery and exploration along the Atlantic sea- board and the planting of colonies and cities within its eastern sections, holding that thus their claim embraced all of the country westward from the spots they had reduced to actual possession; and then, too, that they had secured from the aboriginal inhabitants who had been found in un- molested occupation and enjoyment of it, a full, fair, and comprehensive grant of it by virtue of a most legal deed which had later been confirmed and ratified by the other tribes who might have some rights not included in the first instrument. Thus the two nations stood upon their several claims to this lake country, and neither was disposed to regard the claims of the other as of the least moment. Legally it would now seem that they stood practically at a draw, with little if anything to the special advantage of either, both striving during the succeeding period not only to make sure what they already claimed, but to secure some further legal or physical advantage which would tip the scales their own way.
So, when the Five Nations desired that the English send a repre- sentative with their own delegates to Niagara to remonstrate with the French for building at that point in defiance of the wishes of the Indians and contrary to the sovereignty claimed over the place by the English by virtue of their deeds, Mr. Lawrence Claessen was the logical person to send. The delegation arrived at "Octjagara" to find a house erected there by the French "Forty Foot long and thirty wide", occupied by a French merchant, with Douville and another Frenchman, who were promptly, forcibly and emphatically notified to pull down their building and vacate the country owned by His Majesty the King of England. The Frenchmen emphatically demurred, and told the committee that "My Master is the Governor of Canada. He has posted me here to trade. This house will not be torn down until he orders it."
Again diplomacy stood at a draw, neither party disposed to yield, but rather far more determined than before to stand their several grounds. But the French had a building of a semi-military character within the disputed territories, fairly well constructed for defensive pur- poses; and until they were dislodged the English were checked in their designs of establishing a lucrative trade with the "farr Indians" of the western country who were intercepted at Niagara by the French trading post which occupied such a commanding position upon the great freight- ing route from the west. This point was therefore of supreme importance
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to the power that desired to enter the lake country for either trading or settlement purposes. Until the right of ownership and possession of the Niagara carrying place was settled the territories farther west must necessarily await later enterprise for their development. And thus Erie County, with the remainder of that territory, waited for the explorers who could safely utilize that important passage. Had the French estab- lished permanent settlements for the subjugation of the wilderness in- stead of merely seeking to enlarge their trading in furs, no doubt the history of this county would have been entirely of a different character.
From this time on the French employed the Niagara passage more and more frequently, and the Ottawa River route less and less, for their travels up and down the lakes. At last came the founding of Detroit in 1701, by La Mothe-Cadillac, who first went there by the Ottawa River route, but appears to have later used Lake Erie and the Niagara passage almost exclusively. Much passing to and fro was done by freighters, natives, explorers, and especially by the Jesuit missionaries, and very many expeditions must have passed through Lake Erie by the northern shore long before any one attempted the longer way by its southern shores.
CHAPTER VI
THE FRENCH STRUGGLE FOR TITLE.
THEY FORTIFY NIAGARA-CADILLAC FOUNDS DETROIT-FIRST WHITE WOMEN THROUGH LAKE ERIE-"THE GREAT CONVOYS"-CELORON AND TROOPS SENT TO "LA BELLE RIVIERE"-LEADEN PLATES DEPOSITED-THE "VEN- ANGO PLATE" DESCRIBED-CHAUTAUQUA PORTAGE ABANDONED-LA MER- CIER DISCOVERS PRESQUE ISLE BAY-BUILDING OF FORTS PRESQUE ISLE AND LE BOEUF-PORTAGE HARDSHIPS, SUFFERINGS AND DEATHS-MARIN'S DEATH AND BURIAL AT LE BOEUF.
Shortly after Cadillac left for the west his wife, who was Miss Marie- Therese Guyon-Dubuisson of Quebec until her marriage to Cadillac in 1687, with Mrs. Alphonse de Tonty and several other women, who were the wives of the servants and soldiers at the new settlement of Detroit, determined to join their husbands in the west. Accordingly they left Quebec on Sept. 10, 1701, and reached Fort Frontenac where they passed the winter, going on as soon as the ice permitted in the spring. These women belonged to the society classes in Quebec, and their going into the wilderness was a real epoch for Quebec, as well as for Detroit and all of the rest of this territory; for they were the first white women who had ever braved the terrors, the dangers, the toils and the hardships of travelling over the wilderness trails, and through the great portage at Niagara. Unless they were carried the eight miles of that portage around the Falls, they must most certainly have walked it, plodding the rude forest path to the upper river stretches; for there were then no horses or other beasts of burden upon the portage. Madame Cadillac upon being questioned by some of her astonished lady friends in Quebec as to her reasons for such an unheard of attempt in leaving her friends and culti-
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vated associates for the uncultivated and wilderness expanses of the west where she would have a very dull time of it, replied "that a woman who loves her husband as she ought to do has no attraction more powerful than his society in whatever place it may be; all the rest should be indif- ferent to her"; a reply which would do credit to a far more civilized society than we may think existed at that time even in Quebec, and one which all of us may do well to ponder over. Her husband in writing back later concerning her journey stated "It is certain that nothing astonished the Iroquois so greatly as when they saw them (the women). You could not believe how many caresses they offered them, and particularly the Iro- quois who kissed their hands and wept for joy, saying that French women had never been seen coming willingly to their country". The Indians concluded that the French must surely have meant them well when the peace treaties were entered into, since the French women of high rank were now willing to come into the Indian country.
Much of intrigue and of diplomatic correspondence ensued during the following period of several years, when the French further fortified their claims to our county and its related territories, by the construction of a strong, and ample stone house at the mouth of the Niagara River on its eastern margin, in 1726. This is without doubt the oldest structure in the northern portion of our country, west of the English and Dutch settlements of eastern New York, and is still standing and known as "The Castle", the oldest of the group of buildings popularly and officially designated as "Fort Niagara". The French carefully obscured their real designs from their "brothers" the Indians, by calling it "The House of Peace", a trading house, a storehouse, in fact almost any other name than its true one of a fort. Joncaire thus brought to further fruition his many years of intrigue and effort amongst the Indians in the wilderness, by obtaining their reluctant consent to build "just a little building on the Niagara" which is described by Joncaire in his correspondence with the government as a building "which will not have the appearance of a fort, so that no offense will be given to the Iroquois, who have been unwilling to allow any there, but it will answer the purpose of a fort just as well". This building carried the lines and general appearance of a great and substantial country seat for the use of a wealthy family of those days; but it was so arranged, planned and built that it was in every respect a well-built and sturdy fortress ample for those days in any reasonable attack by either English or Indians. But this establishment was not (9)
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consented to, nor accomplished, without a vast amount of intrigue, har- anguing, and journeying back and forth to wait upon the Indian chiefs in councils, parleying with them, and even a certain amount of taunting them about no longer being masters of their own territories; but that they had permitted the English to come in, and with soft words to gain their consent to trading posts and settlements in the Indian country. The plans for this house, and even the two barques required to transport the materials for it, were under way long before the French Crown had appropriated the money for its building, and long before the consent of the Indians had been obtained.
Now that the French had succeeded in securing a substantial fortress at Niagara, where they could keep stocks of provisions, goods and various classes of merchandise suitable for frontier trading purposes, they began to draw the lines upon the character of the people who sought to use the portage there.
The authorities were required to investigate all passers by, and re- quired of travellers proper passes, or licenses in the case of traders and freighters. Failing to exhibit such papers, the unlucky voyageur was taken into custody, his cargo and equipment confiscated, and he probably sent to one of the great prisons, or perchance to France, where he would have ample time in which to contemplate the intricacies of governmental supervision.
One such experience will perhaps be sufficient to illustrate the con- ditions existing at the Niagara Portage in the earlier years of the 18th century. A resident of Detroit, Desjardin by name, had visited the lower river towns of Montreal and Quebec, stocked up his great freight canoe with an ample load of goods for the western country, and in due course arrived at the mouth of the Niagara River, where his pass was demanded by Le Clerc who was then in command of the Niagara Portage. Desjardin assured the Frenchman that he was regularly licensed, but that his pass was in possession of his friend, Roquetaillade, another trader who was following him with three more canoes, and would shortly arrive. Des- jardin was detained, but allowed to move his freighter across to the west side of the river. When his friend arrived, it was learned that he only had passes for his own canoes, and none for Desjardin, whose canoe and its load were promptly sent for and taken over, as well as his own person. He was promptly sent to prison. His cargo, which seems to have been a fairly representative one for those times, and for that route, consisted
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of 6 sacks of flour, 322 pounds of lead in five sacks, 4 packages of biscuit, 1 sack of gun-flints, a large assortment of guns, 1 bundle of leather, 7 small kettles, 1 large kettle, and many packages which were opened and found to contain 4 pairs of children's shoes, 1 pair of women's slippers, a quantity of men's clothing, men's and boy's shoes, a barrel of salt, a barrel of prunes, 1 white, and 2 red, blankets, 2 pieces of calmande (a kind of woolen fabric), and rolls and rolls of other goods such as indienne, or cotton prints and estamine au dauphine; wax, French thread ("fil de Rennes"), shoemaker's thread, blue cotton stockings for women, cotton wicks for candles, cotton cloth, and many other articles. This is interest- ing as showing us the character of their loads, as well as the capacity of their great bark canoes then used in the freighting business up and down this lake region. Such loads, and many greater ones of a ton, two tons, or even larger, besides the crew and perhaps a passenger or two, were often floated east and west over this lake in the great bark canoes pat- terned after the styles learned of the Indians. On the way back they would usually be loaded with immense cargoes of pelts for the eastern markets. In one case it is stated that the trader paid the Seneca Indians at the Niagara Portage 100 beaver skins for their services in carrying his great canoes with their loads across the Portage at Niagara; leaving us to infer what the total number must have been in his load which could afford that many for the mere service at the portage.
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