USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > The history of Erie County, Pennsylvania > Part 3
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The year before, in 1751, it was rumored that the French were aware of the difficulties they would have to encounter in maintaining their position in New France, and were tak- ing measures to meet them. Captain Lindsay wrote Colonel Johnson, to whom all such affairs were referred, "that Bunt and Black Prince's son with their fighters had come in, and that the French had built two forts, one at Niagara carrying place, and the other on the Ohio River by Joncaire; that they had heard a bird sing that a great many Indians from his castle, and others from the Five Nations, were gone to Swegage;" in fine, that the English would lose all the In- dians if they did not bestir themselves.
Early in 1753 the French sent out a detachment from Montreal to erect other fortifications, to make good their claim by force of arms if they met with opposition, and to oblige all English subjects to evacuate. Oswego they were instructed not to molest in consideration of Cape Breton- any other post the English had settled near or claimed was to be reduced if not quitted immediately. A narrative of this expedition from Montreal, and the building of Forts Presqu'ile and Le Bœuf, is to be found in the following deposition of Stephen Coffin, which was made to Colonel Johnson, of New York, January 10th, 1754. Coffin was a New Englander who had been taken prisoner by the French and Indians of Canada, at Menis, in 1747. He had served them in different capacities until 1752, when, being detected
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in efforts to escape to his own country, he was confined in jail in Quebec ; on his release he applied to Governor Du Qnesne to be sent with the forces to Ohio, which was refused. In his own words-"The deponent then applied to Mayor Ramsey for liberty to go with the army to Ohio, who told him he would ask the Lieut. de Ruoy, who agreed to it; upon which he was equipped as a soldier and sent with a detach- ment of three hundred men to Montreal under the command of Mons. Babeer, who set off immediately with said command by land and ice for Lake Erie. They in their way stopped to refresh themselves a couple of days at Cadaraqui Fort, also at Taranto on the north side of Lake Ontario, then at Niagara Fort fifteen days from thence.
" They set off by water, being April, and arrived at Cha- dakoin, (Chataqua,) on Lake Erie, where they were ordered to fell timber and prepare it for building a fort there, ac- cording to the Governor's instructions ; but Mr. Morang com- ing up with five hundred men and twenty Indians, put a stop to the erecting a fort at that place, by reason of his not liking the situation, and the River Chadakoin being too shallow to carry out any craft with provisions, etc. to Belle Riviere .* The deponent says there arose a warm debate between Mes- sieurs Babeer and Morang thereon, the first insisting on building a fort there, agreeable to instructions, otherwise, on Morang giving him an instrument in writing to satisfy the Governor on that point, which Morang did, and then ordered Mons. Mercie, who was both commissary and en-
* Lieutenant Holland of the English fort at Oswego observed Mo- rain or Morang with his fleet pass that point on the fourteenth of May, and dispatched letters immediately to Colonel Johnson and Governor Clinton. He stated to the latter that there were "thirty odd French canoes," and that common report in Canada made the French army to consist of 6000 men and 500 Indians of the Coyhna- wagas, Scenondidies, Onogonguas, Oroondoks, and Chenundies tribes, who would not engage to go to war with the English, but would hunt at so much per month for the army.
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gineer, to go along said lake and look for a situation ; which he found, and returned in three days, it being fifteen leagues to the southwest of Chadakoin. They were then ordered to repair thither ; when they arrived, there were about twenty Indians fishing in the lake, who immediately quit on seeing the French. They fell to work and built a square fort of chestnut logs, squared and lapped over each other to the height of fifteen feet. It is about one hundred and twenty feet square, a log-house in each square, a gate to the south- ward, another to the northward, not one port-hole cut in any part of it. When finished, they called it Fort Presqu'ile. The Indians who came from Canada with them returned very much out of temper, owing, it was said among the army, to Morang's dogged behavior and ill usage of them; but they (the Indians) said at Oswego it was owing to the French misleading them, by telling them falsehoods, which they said they now found out, and left them. As soon as the fort was finished, they marched southward, cutting a wagon road through a fine level country twenty-one miles to the river __ (leaving Captain Derpontency with one hundred men to gar- rison the Fort Presqu'ile.) They fell to work cutting tim- ber boards, etc. for another fort, while Mr. Morang ordered Mons. Bite with fifty men to a place called by the Indians Ganagarahare, on the banks of Belle Riviere, where the River Aux Bœufs empties into it. In the mean time, Mo- rang had ninety large boats made to carry down the bag- gage, provisions, etc. to said place. Mons. Bite, on coming to said Indian place, was asked what he wanted or intended. He upon answering said, 'it was their father, the Governor of Canada's intention to build a trading house for them and all their brethren's conveniency ;' he was told by the Indians that the lands were theirs, and that they would not have them build upon it. The said Bite reported to Morang the situation was good, but the water in the River Aux Bœufs too low at that time to carry any craft with provisions, etc.
" A few days after, the deponent says that about one hun-
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( red Indians, called by the French the Loos, came to the Fort La Riviere Aux Bœufs to see what the French were doing; that Morang treated them very kindly, and then asked them to carry down some stone, etc. to the Belle Riviere, on horse- back, for payment, which he immediately advanced them on their undertaking to do it. They set off with full loads, but never delivered them to the French, which incensed them . very much, being not only a loss, but a great disappointment. Morang, a man of very peevish, choleric disposition, meet- ing with those and other crosses, and finding the season of the year too far advanced to build the third fort, called all his officers together, and told them that, as he had engaged and firmly promised the Governor to finish these forts that sea- son, and not being able to fulfill the same, he was both afraid and ashamed to return to Canada, being sensible he had now forfeited the Governor's favor forever. Wherefore, rather than live in disgrace, he begged they would take him (as he then sat in a carriage made for him, being very sick some- times,) and seat him in the middle of the fort, and then set fire to it and let him perish in the flames, which was rejected by the officers, who had not the least regard for him, as he had behaved very ill to them all in general. The deponent further saith, that about eight days before he left the Fort Presqu'ile, Chevalier Le Crake arrived express from Canada in a birch canoe worked by ten men, with orders (as the de- ponent afterward heard) from the Governor Le Cain (Du- quesne) to Morang to make all the preparation possible against the spring of the year to build them two forts at Chadakoin, one of them by Lake Erie, the other at the end of the carrying place at Lake Chadakoin, which carrying place is fifteen miles from one lake to the other. The said Chevalier brought for M. Morang a cross of St. Louis, which the rest of the officers would not allow him to take until the Governor was acquainted with his conduct and be- havior. The Chevalier returned immediately to Canada.
"After which, the deponent saith, when the Fort La Riviere
A
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Aux Bœufs was finished, (which is built of wood stockaded triangularwise, and has two log-houses on the inside,) M. Morang ordered all the party to return to Canada for the winter season, except three hundred men, which he kept to garrison both forts and prepare materials against the spring for the building of other forts. He also sent Jean Cœur, an officer and interpreter, to stay the winter among the Indians on the Ohio, in order to prevail with them not only to allow the building forts over there, but also to persuade them, if possible, to join the French interests against the English. The deponent further says that on the 28th of October last, he set off for Canada under the command of Captain De- man, who had the command of twenty-two batteaux with twenty men in each batteau, the remainder being seven hundred ; and sixty men followed in a few days. The 30th arrived at Chadakoin where they stayed four days, during which time M. Peon, with two hundred men, cut a wagon road over the carrying place from Lake Erie to Lake Chadakoin, being fifteen miles, viewed the situation, which proved to their liking, and so set off November the third for Niagara, where we arrived the sixth. It is a very poor, rotten, old wooden fort with twenty-five men in it. They talk of re- building it next summer. We left fifty men there to build batteaux for the army against the spring, also a storehouse for provisions, stores, etc. Stayed here two days, then set off for Canada. All hands, being fatigued with rowing all night, ordered to put ashore to breakfast within a mile of Oswego garrison ; at which time the deponent saith that he, with a Frenchman, slipped off and got to the fort, where they were concealed until the enemy passed. From thence he came here. The deponent further saith, that beside the three hun- dred men with which he went up first under the command of M. Babeer, and the five hundred Morang brought up after- ward, there came at different times, with stores, etc., one hundred men, which made in all fifteen hundred men, three hundred of which remained to garrison the two forts, fifty
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at Niagara; the rest all returned to Canada, and talked of going up again this winter, so as to be there the beginning of April. They had two six-pounders and seven four- pounders, which they intended to have planted in the fort at Ganagarahhare, (Franklin,) which was to have been called the Governor's Fort ; but as that was not built, they left the guns in the Fort La Riviere Aux Bœufs, where Morang commands. Further the deponent saith not."
The Indians of New York and the Allegheny country, as we have seen, were allied to Great Britain. A depu- tation of seven French Indians had been sent to Onondaga, the headquarters of the Six Nations, to conciliate them and to prepare the way for this expedition from Canada. Although many of the Indians favored the French, yet the deputation were informed promptly that they would not be allowed to settle upon their lands. Andrew Montour, an Indian interpreter who was present at the conference, having some commission from the Governor of Virginia, on his return conveyed the intelligence to him, and also to Gov- ernor Hamilton, of Pennsylvania. The latter addressed the Colonial Assembly on the subject, urging the necessity of protection for the friendly Indians, and suggesting the discomfort of having French forts within the limits of the province, together with the probability of the Indians deserting them for a power willing to afford them protec- tion.
The same year (1749) Celeron, in the name of Louis, took possession of the Ohio valley, an association was formed by twelve Virginians, among whom were found the names of George and Augustus Washington, called the Ohio Com- pany, which petitioned the king for a grant of land beyond the mountains. Their object was not so much to cultivate the soil or promote settlement, as to monopolize the Indian trade, to purchase and export furs, to sell goods, and erect trading houses and stores. Government readily assented to the project, as it promised quiet and prompt possession of
4
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the Ohio valley, in opposition to the advances of the French, and granted them 500,000 acres of land west of the Alle- ghenies. Of this land, two-fifths was to be selected immedi- ately, the whole was to be free from quit rent ten years, one hundred families were to settle upon it, and a garrison was to be maintained at the expense of the company as a defense against the Indians.
Christopher Gist was sent out to explore and report to the corporation, and in 1752 he, with eleven other fami- lies, made the first settlement west of the mountains. This was upon land presumed to belong to the company, and is now called Mount Braddock, being in Fayette County.
The news of the encroachments of the French having ob- tained, and the Ohio Company feeling aggrieved, applied for aid to Governor Dinwiddie, who claimed the country as a part of Virginia, and was also interested as a stockholder of the company. In General Washington, then but a youth, Governor Dinwiddie saw one fitted to lead in this difficult expedition.
On the 30th of October, 1753, accompanied by Gist, the pioneer, Van Braem, a retired soldier, who had a knowledge of French, and John Davison, Indian interpreter, he set out for the wilderness.
The instructions given Washington were to communicate at Logstown with the friendly Indians, and to request of them an escort to the headquarters of the French, to deliver his letter and credentials to the commander, and demand of him an answer in the name of the British sovereign, and an escort to protect him on his return. He was to acquaint himself with the strength of the French forces, the number of their forts, and their object in advancing to those parts, and also to make such other observations as his opportuni- ties would allow.
The Indians were not well satisfied as to the rights of either the French or English. An old Delaware sachem ex- claimed, "The French claim all the lands on one side of the
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Ohio, and the English on the other side; now where does the Indian's land lie ?" "Poor savages! between their father the French, and their brothers the English, they were in a fair way of being lovingly shared out of the whole coun- try." Three of the sachems, Tanacharison, or Half-King, from his being subject to another tribe, Jeskakake, and White Thunder, accompanied Major Washington from Logstown, as they had been directed by Governor Dinwiddie, as well as for the purpose of returning to the French commander the war belts they had received from them. This implied that they wished to dissolve all friendly relations with their gov- ernment. These Ohio tribes had been offended at the en- croachments of the French, and had a short time previously sent deputations to the commander at Lake Erie, to remon- strate. Half-King, as chief of the Western tribes, had made his complaints in person, and been answered with contempt. "The Indians," said the commander, "are like flies and mos- quitoes, and the numbers of the French as the sands of the sea-shore. Here is your wampum, I fling it at you." As no reconciliation had been offered for this offense, aid was readily granted by them to the English in their mission.
From Washington's journal we get the following particu- lars : On their arrival at Venango* (Franklin) they found the French colors hoisted at a house from which they had
* "The original drawing of Fort Venango by the French engineers is still in existence, being in the possession of William Reynolds, Esq., Meadville. In the vicinity of the fort several choice species of grapes are still growing, a line of them extending from its center to the base of the hill. They have been bearing so long that the minds of men 'runneth not to the contrary.' No doubt the original shoots were brought from 'La Belle France.'"'
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, to- gether 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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driven John Frasier, an English subject. There they inquired for the residence of the commander. Three officers were present, and one Captain Jean Cœur 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 com- pany 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 Mon- treal, 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 mean time, Captain Jean Cœur sent for Half-King, and
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professed 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 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 un- propitious 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 expected 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 Captain Reparti arrived from Presqu'ile, the letter was again offered, and after a satisfactory transla- tion a council of war was held, which gave Major Wash- ington 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.
4*
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The instructions he had received from Governor Din- widdie allowed him to remain but seven days for an answer ; and as the horses were daily becoming weaker, and the snow fast increasing, 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 mean time Commis- sary La Force 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 prisoners of any who attempted to trade upon those waters." The two who had been taken, and of whom they inquired par- ticularly, 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 study- ing to annoy them, and to keep the Indians until after their departure.
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
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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 ont : 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 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
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and stores for a fort at the forks of the Ohio, and a few families going out to settle. On the 16th of February, Washington arrived at Williamsburg, and waited upon Governor Dinwiddie with the letter he had brought from the French commandant, and offered him a narrative of the most remarkable 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 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."
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