USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > The history of Erie County, Pennsylvania, from its first settlement > Part 4
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The draft, it is said, was made in 1758 or 1759, and exhibited the stockade on the embankment, the bastions and gates of the fort, together with the very strong block-house in the center, which had no less than sixteen chimneys. Below the southeast corner of the fort stood a saw-mill, erected on the little stream that passes it. The draft has no notes or explanations annexed.
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French colors hoisted at a house from which they had driven John Frasier, an English subject. There they inquired for the residence of the commander. Three officers were present, and one Capt. Jean Coeur informed them that he had the command of the Ohio, but advised them to apply for an answer at the near fort, where there was a general officer. He then invited them to sup with them, and treated the company with the greatest complaisance. At the same time they dosed themselves plentifully with wine, and soon forgot the restraint which at first appeared in their conversation. In this half-intoxicated state they confessed that their design was to take possession of the Ohio, although the English could command for that service two men to their one. Still their motions were slow and dilatory. They maintained that the right of the French was undoubted from La Salle's dis- covery sixty years before, and that their object now was to prevent the settlement of the English upon the river or its waters, notwithstanding several families they had heard were moving out for that purpose.
Fifteen hundred men had been engaged in the expedition west of Lake Ontario, but upon the death of the general, which had occurred but a short time before, all were recalled excepting six or seven hundred, who now garrisoned four forts, being one hundred and fifty men to a fort. The first of the forts was on French Creek (Waterford), near a small lake, about sixty miles from Venango, north-northwest; the next on Lake Erie (Presqu'ile), where the greater part of their stores were kept, about fifteen miles from the other ; from this, one hundred and twenty miles to the carrying place, at the Falls of Niagara (probably Schlosser) is a small fort, where they lodge their goods in bringing them from Montreal, from whence all their stores are brought; the next fort lay about twenty miles farther, on Lake Ontario (Fort Niagara).
The second day at Franklin it rained excessively, and the party were prevented from prosecuting their journey. In the meantime, Capt. Jean Cœur sent for Half-King, and pro- fessed great joy at seeing him and his companions, and affected much concern that they had not made free to bring them in before, To this Washington replied that he had
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heard him say a great deal in dispraise of Indians generally. His real motive was to keep them from Jean Cœur, he being an interpreter and a person of great influence among the Indians, and having used all possible means to draw them over to the French interests. When the Indians came in, the intriguer expressed the greatest pleasure at seeing them, was surprised that they could be so near without coming to see him, and after making them trifling presents, urged upon them intoxicating drinks until they were unfitted for business. The third day Washington's party were equally unsuccessful in their efforts to keep the Indians apart from Jean Cœur, or to prosecute their journey. On the fourth day they set out, but not without an escort planned to annoy them, in Monsieur La Force and three Indians. Finally, after four days of travel through mire and swamps, with the most unpropitious weather, they succeeded in reaching Le Bœuf.
Washington immediately presented himself, and offered his commission and letters to the commanding officer, but was requested to retain both until Mons. Reparti should arrive, who was the commander at the next fort, and who was ex- pected every hour. The commander at Le Bœuf, Legardeur de St. Pierre, was an elderly gentleman with the air of a soldier, and a knight of the military order of St Louis. He had been in command but a week at Le Bœuf, having been sent over on the death of the late general.
In a few hours Capt. Reparti arrived from Presqu'ile, the letter was again offered, and after a satisfactory translation a council of war was held, which gave Major Washington and his men an opportunity of taking the dimensions of the fort and making other observations. According to their estimate, the fort had one hundred men, exclusive of a large number of officers, fifty birch canoes and seventy pine ones, and many in an unfinished state.
The instructions he had received from Governor Dinwiddie allowed him to remain but seven days for an answer ; and as the horses were daily becoming weaker, and the snow fast in- creasing, they were sent back to Venango, and still further to Shannopin's town, provided the river was open and in a navigable condition. In the meantime Commissary La Force
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was full of flatteries and fair promises to the sachems, still hoping to retain them as friends. From day to day the party were detained at Venango, sometimes by the power of liquor, the promise of presents, and various other pretexts, and the acceptance of the wampum had been thus far successfully evaded.
·
To the question of Major Washington, "by what author- ity several English subjects had been made prisoners?" Captain Reparti replied, "that they had orders to make pris- oners of any who attempted to trade upon those waters." The two who had been taken, and of whom they inquired particularly, John Trotter and James McClochlan, they were informed had been sent to Canada, but were now returned home. They confessed, too, that a boy had been carried past by the Indians, who had besides two or three white men's scalps.
On the 15th, the commandant ordered a plentiful store of liquors and provisions to be put on board the canoes, and appeared extremely complaisant, while he was really studying to annoy them, and to keep the Indians until after their de- parture.
Washington, in his journal, remarks : "I cannot say that ever in my life I suffered so much anxiety as I did in this affair. I saw that every stratagem which the most fruitful brain could invent was practiced to win the Half-King to their interests, and that leaving him there was giving them the opportunity they aimed at. I went to the Half-King and pressed him in the strongest terms. He told me that the commandant would not discharge him until the morning. I then went to the commandant, and desired him to do their business, and complained of ill treatment ; for keeping them, as they were part of my company, was detaining me. This he promised not to do, but to forward my journey as much as possible. He protested that he did not keep them, but was ignorant of the cause of their stay; though I soon found it out : he promised them a present of guns, etc., if they would wait until morning." Their journey to Franklin was tedious and very fatiguing. At one place the ice had lodged so their canoes could not pass, and they were obliged to carry
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them a quarter of a mile. One of the chiefs, White Thunder, became disabled, and they were compelled to leave him with Half-King, who promised that no fine speeches or scheming of Jean Cœur should win him back to the French. In this he was sincere, as his conduct afterward proved. As their horses were now weak and feeble, and there was no proba- bility of the journey being accomplished in reasonable time, Washington gave them, with the baggage, in charge of Mr. Van Braem, his faithful companion, tied himself up in his watch-coat, with a pack on his back containing his papers, some provisions, and his gun, and, with Mr. Gist fitted out in the same manner, took the shortest route across the country for Shannopin's town.
On the day following they fell in with a party of French Indians, who laid in wait for them at a place called Murder- ing town, now in Butler County. One of the party fired upon them ; but, by constant travel, they escaped their company, and arrived within two miles of Shannopin's town, where trials in another form awaited them. They were obliged to construct a raft, in order to cross the river ; and when this was accomplished, by the use of but one poor hatchet, and they were launched, by some accident Washington was precipi- tated into the river, and narrowly escaped being drowned. Besides this, the cold was so intense that Mr. Gist had his fingers and toes frozen. At Mr. Frasier's, (Turtle Creek,) they met twenty warriors going southward to battle, and at the Monongahela, seventeen horses, loaded with materials and stores for a fort at the forks of the Ohio, and a few fami- lies going out to settle. On the 16th of February Washington arrived at Williamsburg, and waited upon Governor Dinwid- die with the letter he had brought from the French commandant, and offered him a narrative of the most remark- able occurrences of his journey.
The reply of Chevalier de St. Pierre was found to be courteous and well guarded. "He should transmit," he said, " the letter of Governor Dinwiddie to his general, the Marquis Du Quesne, to whom it better belongs than to me to set forth the evidence and reality of the rights of the king, my master, upon the lands situated along the Ohio, and to
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contest the pretensions of the king of Great Britain thereto. His answer shall be a law to me. As to the sum- mons to retire you send me, I do not think myself obliged to obey it. Whatever may be your instructions, I am here by virtue of the orders of my general, and I entreat you, sir, not to doubt one moment but that I am determined to con- form myself to them with all the exactness' and resolution which can be expected from the best officer. I made it my particular care to receive Mr. Washington with a distinction suitable to your dignity, as well as his own quality and merit. I flatter myself that he will do me this justice before you, sir, and that he will signify to you, in the manner I do myself, the profound respect with which I am, sir, etc." -
Governor Dinwiddie and his council understood this evasive answer as a ruse to gain time, in order that they might in the spring descend the Ohio and take military possession of the whole country.
This expedition may be considered the foundation of Washington's fortunes. "From that moment he was the rising hope of the country. His tact with the Indians and crafty whites, his end rance of cold and fatigue, his prudence, firmness, and self-devotion, all were indications of the future man."
Relating to the French forts, April, 1757, we have the following : "Colonel Johnson, British Indian agent, residing at Tribeshill, New York, received intelligence through sav- ages, that a strong detachment was ascending the St. Law- rence and entering Lake Ontario, and supposing it concerned the Mohawk country, he assembled his militia and marched to Palatine, where another company of eleven or twelve hundred men joined him, sent out by the commandant at Oswego. He intrenched himself and remained in camp fifteen days, when he received intelligence that the French detachment had passed by to reinforce Belle Riviere."
A year before, in 1756, a prisoner among the Indians, who had made his escape, gave the following particulars : " Buffa- loes Fort, or Le Bœuf, is garrisoned with one hundred and fifty men and a few straggling Indians. Presqu'ile is built of
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square logs filled up with earth ; the barracks are within the fort, and garrisoned with oue hundred and fifty men, sup- ported chiefly from a French settlement begun near it. The settlement consists, as the prisoner was informed, of about one hundred families." [This French settlement is not spoken of by any other person. M. Chauvignerie, as will be seen, states that there were no settlements or improvements near the forts Presqu'ile or Le Bœuf. ] "The Indiau families about the settlement are pretty numerous ; they have a priest and schoolmaster, and some grist-mills and stills in the settlement."
In 1757, M. Chauvignerie, Jr., aged seventeen, a French prisoner, testified before a justice of the peace to this effect : " His father was a lieutenant of marines and commandant of Fort Machault, built lately at Venango." [On the author- ity of an old map at Quebec, Fort Machault was the oppo- site side of the river from Fort Venango.] "At the fort they have fifty regulars and forty laborers, and soon expect a reinforcement from Montreal, and they drop almost daily some of the detachments, as they pass from Montreal to Fort du Quesne. Fort Le Boeuf is commanded by my uncle, Monsieur de Verge, an ensign of foot. There is no cap- tain or other officer there, above an ensign ; and the reason of this is, that the commandants of those forts purchase a commission for it, and have the benefit of transporting the provisions and other necessaries. The provisions are chiefly sent from Niagara to Presqu'ile, and so from thence down the Ohio to Fort du Quesne. Sometimes, however, they are brought in large quantities from southward of Fort du Quesne. There are from eight hundred to nine hundred, and sometimes one thousand men between Forts Presqu'ile and Le Bœuf. One hundred and fifty of these are regulars, and the rest Canadian laborers, who work at the forts and build boats. There are no settlements or improvements near the forts. The French plant corn about them for the Indians, whose wives and children come to the fort for it, and get furnished also with clothes at the king's expense. Traders reside in the forts, that purchase of them peltries. Several houses are outside of the forts, but people do not care to occupy
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them, for fear of being scalped. One of their batteaux usually carries sixty bags of flour and three or four men. When unloaded, it will carry twelve men."
Frederick Post's journal, dated Pittsburg, November, 1758, says : "Just as the council broke up, an Indian arrived from Fort Presqu'ile, and gave the following descrip- tion of the three upper forts. Presqu'ile has been a strong stockaded fort, but is so much out of repair that a strong man might pull up any log out of the earth. There are two officers and thirty-five men in garrison there, and not above ten Indians, which they keep constantly hunting, for the support of the garrison. The fort in Le Bœuf River is much in the same condition, with an officer and thirty men, and a few hunting Indians, who said they would leave them in a few days. The fort at Venango is the smallest, and has but one officer and twenty-five men, and, like the two upper forts, they are much distressed for want of pro- visions."
On the 17th of March, 1759, Thomas Bull, an Indian em- ployed as a spy at the Lakes, arrived at Pittsburg. At Pres- qu'ile, he stated that the garrison consisted of two officers, two merchants, a clerk; priest, and one hundred and three soldiers. The commandant's name was Burinol, with whom Thomas was formerly acquainted, and who did not suspect him. He treated him with great openness, and told him thirty towns had engaged to join the French and come to war. He saw fifteen hundred billets ready prepared for their equipment. He likewise understood that they were just ready to set out, and were stopped by belts and speeches sent among them by the English, but would decide when a body of over-lake Indians would arrive at Kaskaskie. Burinol described a conversation he had had with the Mingoes ; that he had told them he was sorry one half of them had broken away to the English. They replied that they had buried the tomahawk with the French; that they would do the same with the English ; and wished that both would fight as they had done over the great waters, without disturbing their country ; that they wished to live in peace with both, and that the English should return home. Burinol replied, that
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he would go home as soon as the English would move off. Thomas Bull described Fort Presqu'ile "as square, with four bastions. They have no platforms raised yet ; so they are use- less, excepting in each bastion there is a place for a sentinel. There are no guns upon the walks, but four four-pounders in one of the bastions, not mounted on carriages. The wall is only of single logs, with no bank within, a ditch without. There are two gates, of equal size, being about ten feet wide : one fronts the lake, about three hundred yards distant, the other the road to Le Bœuf. The magazine is a stone house covered with shingles, and not sunk in the ground, standing in the right bastion, next the lake, going from Presqu'ile to Le Bœuf. The other houses are of square logs. They have in store a considerable quantity of Indian goods, and but little flour. Twelve batteaux they were daily expecting from Niagara with provisions. No French were expected from Niagara, but about five hundred from a fort on the north side of the lake, in the Waweailunes country, which is built of cedar stockades. The French were to come with the Indians before mentioned. There were four batteaux at Presqu'ile, and no works carrying on, but one small house in the fort. Some of the works are on the decay, and some appear to have been lately built." The officers made Thomas a present of a pair of stockings, and he went on to Le Bœuf, telling them that he was going to Wyoming to see his father.
Le Bœuf he describes " as of the same plan with Presqu'ile, but very small ; the logs mostly rotten. Platforms are erected in the bastion, and loopholes properly cut ; one gun is mounted on a bastion and looks down the river. It has only one gate, and that faces the side opposite the creek. The magazine is on the right of the gate, going in, partly sunk in the ground, and above are some casks of powder, to serve the Indians. Here are two officers, a storekeeper, clerk, priest, and one hundred and fifty soldiers, and, as at Presqu'ile, the men are not employed. They have twenty-four batteaux, and a larger stock of provisions than at Presqu'ile. One Le Sam- brow is the commandant. The Ohio is clear of ice at Venango, and French Creek at Le Bœuf. The road from Venango to Le Bœuf is well trodden ; and from thence to
1
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Presqu'ile is one half-day's journey, being very low and swampy, and bridged most of the way."
A few months after this time, twelve hundred regular troops were collected from Presqu'ile, Detroit, and Venango, for the defense of Fort Niagara, which had been besieged by the English under Gen. Prideaux. Four days before the con- quest, the general was killed by the bursting of a cannon, and the command devolved on Sir William Johnson, who carried out the plan with judgment and vigor, and the enemy were completely routed. The utmost confusion prevailed at Forts Venango, Presqu'ile, and Le Bœuf after the victory, particu- larly as Sir William sent letters by some of the Indians to the commander at Presqu'ile, notifying him that the other posts must be given up in a few days.'
August 13, we find that the French at Presqu'ile had sent away all their stores, and were waiting for the French at Venango and Le Bœuf to join them, when they all would set out in batteaux for Detroit ; that in an Indian path leading to Presqu'ile from a Delaware town, a Frenchman and some Indians had been met, with the word that the French had left Venango six days before.
About the same time, three Indians arrived at Fort du Quesne from Venango, who reported that the Indians over the lake were much displeased with the Six Nations, as they had been the means of a number of their people being killed at Niagara ; that the French had burned their forts at Ve- nango, Le Bœuf, and Presqu'ile, and gone over the lakes. At Venango, before leaving, they had made large presents to the Indians of laced coats, hats, etc., and had told them, with true French bravado, that they were obliged to run away at this time, but would certainly be in possession of the river be- fore the next spring. They were obliged to burn everything and destroy their batteaux, as the water was so low they could not get up the creek with them. The report was probably un- founded, of the burning of the forts, unless they were very soon rebuilt, of which we have no account.
A tradition has prevailed in Erie, that at this time treasures were buried, either on the site of the fort or on the line of the old French road. From the above account, we learn that
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their hasty departure was made by water, and the probability is that the company returned before winter. Spanish silver coins were found twenty years ago, to the value of sixty dollars, while plowing the old site for the purpose of making brick ; but, from appearances, they had been secreted there within the present century. The wells have been re-excavated time and again, but with no extraordinary results. Pottery of a singular kind has been found, and knives, bullets, and human bones confirm the statements of history.
In 1760, Major Rodgers was sent out by government to take formal possession for the English of the forts upon the lake, though it was not until 1763 that a definite treaty of peace was signed and ratified at Paris.
CHAPTER IV.
Pontiac-Destruction of Forts Presqu'ile and Le Bœuf, as described by Bancroft, Parkman, and Harvey-Col. Bradstreet at Presqu'ile, in 1764-Col. Bouquet's Treaty-A Detachment of British Soldiers and Indians embark at Chautauqua Lake-Hannastown burnt- Mr. Adams's Suggestion.
AT Detroit Major Rodgers first met with the Ottawa chief Pontiac, who had the largest empire and the greatest author- ity of any chief that had yet appeared in our continent. The chief treated him with distant ceremony, and intimated that, though the French had been conquered by the English, he had not ; but, at the close of the interview, they smoked the pipe of peace, and afterward he rendered the English good service in protecting their stores when passing through savage tribes. How he became inimical to the English is not cer- tainly known. He may have feared their power, and also felt with sadness the absence of French courtesy. Prejudice arose, too, from the ill behavior and offensive conduct of Irish and other convicts, who had been transported for their crimes, and been bought and employed in carrying goods up among the Indians. "When the French first arrived," said
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a Chippewa chief, "they came and kissed us; they called us children, and we found them fathers. We lived like children with them in the same lodge." " If the English did us no harm, they also manifested no interest in our affairs. They gave us no missionaries, made us no presents ; they even would not consent to trade ; and further, they were unjust to our friends, the French."
Mr. Henry, an English traveler, who passed through Can- ada and the Indian territories, about 1760, was compelled to disguise himself as a Canadian. At one time, when surrounded by Indians, he was coolly addressed by a chief in something like this strain : "The English are brave men, and not afraid of death, since they dare to come thus fearlessly among their enemies. You know that the French king is our father. You are his enemy ; and how, then, can you have the boldness to venture among us his children ? You know that his friends are our friends." They delighted to extol the power of the French, and to compare the king to an old man asleep, who would shortly arouse himself and execute vengeance upon his enemies. They also charged upon the English that, when fighting for them, their young men had been slain, and that the spirits of the slain had not been satisfied. This, according to their custom, could only be effected in one of two ways-by pouring out the blood of the nation by which they fell, or by covering the bodies of the dead, and allaying the resentment of the relations by presents. The English had never offered them presents or treaty, and they must therefore be considered still at war with them. But their hearts seemed to soften toward Mr. Henry, who came among them unarmed, and they even offered him a pipe, as a token of their friendship.
When Pontiac had formed his plan for restoring to his people their homes and hunting grounds, and "had mused until the fire burned," he determined to call around him his own tribe, the Ottawa's, and disclose to them his determination to banish forever the proud, unconciliating Englishman. He appealed with eloquence and art to their fears, ambition, patriotism, and cupidity-the love and gratitude they owcd to the French, and their hatred of the English. He next con- vened a grand council of the neighboring tribes at the River
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Aux Ecores, and invited them to action, by assuming that the Great Spirit had recently made a revelation to a Dela- ware Indian as to the conduct he wished his red children to pursue. He had directed them to abstain from ardent spirits, and to cast from them the manufactures of the white man- to resume their bows and arrows, and skins of animals for clothing. "Why," said the Great Spirit indignantly to the Delaware, " do you suffer these dogs in red clothing to enter your country and take the land I gave you? Drive them from it, and when you are in distress I will help you." A plan of campaign was concerted on the spot, and belts and speeches sent to secure the co-operation of the Indians along the whole line of the frontier. The Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawatamies were the most active of the tribes; the Miamies, Sac and Foxes, Monononomies, Wyandots, Missis- sagués, Shawnees, Pennsylvania and Ohio Delawares, and the Six Nations, participated, and all the British posts, from Niagara to Green Bay and the Potomac, were comprehended in the attack. So well arranged and executed were their plans, that nine out of eleven of the forts were captured.
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