USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > The history of Erie County, Pennsylvania > Part 4
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Governor Dinwiddie and his council understood this eva- sive 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 endurance of cold and fatigue, his pru- dence, firmness, and self-devotion, all were indications of the future man."
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
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 were 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 square logs filled up with carth ; the barracks are within the fort, and garrisoned with one 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 improve- ments near the forts Presqu'ile or Le Bœuf. ] " The Indian 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 Bœuf is commanded by my
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
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 In- dians, 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 them, for fear of being scalped. One of their batteaux usually carries sixty bags of flour and three or four men. When unloaded, they will carry twelve men."
Frederick Post's journal, dated Pittsburg, November, 1758, says : "Just as the council broke up, an Indian ar- rived 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."
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
On the 17th of March, 1759, Thomas Bull, an Indian employed as a spy at the Lakes, arrived at Pittsburg. At Presqu'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. Bur- niol 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. Burniol replied, that 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 platform raised yet; so they are useless, excepting in each bastion there is a place for a sen- tinel. 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 batteanx they were
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
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 coun- try, 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. Plat- forms 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 em- ployed. They have twenty-four batteaux, and a larger stock of provisions than at Presqu'ile. One Le Sambrow 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 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 General Prideaux. Four days before the conquest, 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 pre-
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
vailed at Forts Venango, Presqu'ile, and Le Bœuf after the victory, particularly 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 13th, 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 would all . set out in batteaux for Detroit; that in au 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 before 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 unfounded, 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 treas- ures 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 their hasty departure was made by water, and the proba- bility 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-exca- vated time and again, but with no extraordinary results.
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
Pottery of a singular kind has been found, and knives, bul- lets, 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-Colonel Bradstreet at Presqu'ile, in 1764-Colonel Bouquet's Treaty-A Detachment of British Soldiers and Indians embark at Chautauque Lake-IIannastown burnt - Mr. Adams's Suggestion.
AT Detroit Major Rodgers first met with the Ottawa chief Pontiac, who had the largest empire and the greatest authority of any chief that had yet appeared on our conti- nent. 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 certainly 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 a Chippewa chicf, "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
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
manifested no interest in our affairs. They gave us no mis- sionaries, made us no presents ; they even would not con- sent to trade; and further, they were unjust to our friends, the French."
Mr. Henry, an English traveler, who passed through Canada and the Indian territories, about 1760, was com- pelled 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 of- fered 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 Ottawas, and disclose to them his determina- tion 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 owed to the French, and their hatred of the English. He next
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
convened a grand council of the neighboring tribes at the River Aux Ecores, and invited them to action, by assuming that the Great Spirit had recently made a revelation to a Delaware 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, Chip- pewas, and Pottawatamies were the most active of the tribes ; the Miamies, Sac and Foxes, Monononomies, Wy- andots, Mississagués, 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.
Bancroft, in his history of the United States, gives the following account of the destruction of Fort Presqu'ile : " The fort at Presqu'ile, now Erie, was the point of com- munication between Pittsburg and Niagara and Detroit. It was in itself one of the most tenable, and had a garrison of four and twenty men, and could most easily be relieved. On the 22d of June, after a two days' defense, the commander, out of his senses with terror, capitulated, giving up the sole chance of saving his men from the scalping-knife. He him- self, with a few others, were carried in triumph by the Indians to Detroit."
A more detailed account is found in the " Conspiracy of Pontiac," by Parkman. He says : "There had been hot fighting before Presqu'ile was taken. Could conrage have
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
saved it, it never would have fallen. The fort stood near the present site of Erie, on the southern shore of the lake which bears the same name. At one of its angles was a large block-house, a species of structure much used in the petty forest warfare of the day. It was two stories in height, and solidly built of massive timber; the diameter of the upper story exceeding that of the lower by several feet, so that, through the openings in the projecting floor of the former, the defenders could shoot down upon the heads of an enemy assailing the outer wall below. The roof being covered with shingles, might easily be set on fire ; but, to guard against this, there was an opening, through which the garrison, partially protected by a covering of plank, might pour down the water upon the flames. This block-house stood upon a projecting point of land, between the lake and a small brook which entered it nearly at right angles. And now the defenders could see the Indians throwing up earth and stones behind one of the breastworks; their implacable foes were laboring to undermine the block-house, a sure and insidious expedient, against which there was no defense. There was little leisure to reflect on this new peril, for an- other, more imminent and horrible, soon threatened them. The barrels of water, always kept in the block-house, were nearly emptied in extinguishing the frequent fires ; and though there was a well in the parade-ground, yet to ap- proach it would be certain death. The only resource was to dig one in the block-house itself. The floor was torn up, and while some of the men fired their heated muskets from the loopholes to keep the enemy in check, the rest labored with desperate energy at this toilsome and cheerless task. Before it was half completed, the cry of fire was again raised, and, at the imminent risk of life, they tore off the blazing shingles and averted the danger. By this time it was evening. The little garrison had fought from earliest daybreak without a moment's rest. Nor did darkness bring relief, for the Indian guns flashed all night long from the
5*
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intrenchments. They seemed determined to wear out the ob- stinate defenders by fatigue. While some slept, others in their turn continued the assault, and morning brought fresh dan- gers. The block-house was fired several times through the day, but they kept up their forlorn and desperate defense. The house of the commanding officer sank into glowing em- bers. The fire on both sides did not cease till midnight, at which hour a voice was heard in French, calling out that fur- ther defense was useless, since preparations were made to burn above and below at once. Christie demanded if any one spoke English ; upon which a man in Indian dress came forward. He had been made a prisoner in the French war, and was now fighting against his own countrymen. He said, if they yielded, they would be saved alive ; if not, they would be burned. Christie resolved to hold out as long as a shadow of hope remained, and while some of the garrison slept, the rest watched. They told them to wait until morn- ing. They assented, and suspended their fire. When morn- ing came, they sent out two persons, on pretense of treating, but in reality to learn the truth of the preparations to burn the block-house, whose sides were pierced with bullets and scorched with fire. In spite of the capitulations, they were surrounded and seized, and, having been detained for some time in the neighborhood, were sent as prisoners to Detroit, where Ensign Christie soon after made his escape, and gained the fort in safety."
Mr. H. L. Harvey, formerly editor of the Erie Observer, a gentleman of research and integrity, in a lecture delivered in Erie, introduced the following account of the same event, differing, as will be seen, from both the above named ac- credited historians. He says : " The troops retired to their quarters to procure their morning repast ; some had already finished, and were sauntering about the fortress or upon the shore of the lake. All were joyous in holiday attire, and dreaming of naught but the pleasure of the occasion. A knock was heard at the gate, and three Indians were an-
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
nounced in hunting garb, desiring an interview with the commander. Their tale was soon told. They said they belonged to a hunting party, who had started for Niagara with a lot of furs; that their canoes were bad, and they would prefer disposing of them here, if they could do so to advantage, and return, rather than go farther; that their party were encamped by a small stream west of the fort about a mile, where they had landed the previous night, and where they wished the commander to go and examine their peltries, as it was difficult to bring them, and they wished to embark where they were, if they did not trade. The com- mander, accompanied by a clerk, left the fort with the In- dians, charging his lieutenant that none should leave the fort, and none be admitted, until his return. Well would it probably have been had this order been obeyed. After the lapse of sufficient time for the captain to visit the encampment of the Indians and return, a party of the latter, variously estimated-probably one hundred and fifty-ad- vanced toward the fort, bearing upon their backs what appeared to be large packs of furs, which they informed the lieutenant the captain had purchased and ordered to be deposited in the fort. The stratagem succeeded ; when the party were all within the fort, it was the work of an instant to throw off their packs and the short cloaks which covered their weapons, the whole being fastened by one loop and button at the neck. Resistance at this time was useless, and the work of death was as rapid as savage strength and weapons could make it. The shortened rifles, which had been sawed off for the purpose of concealing them under their cloaks and in the packs of furs, were at once discharged, and the tomahawk and knife completed their work. The history of savage warfare presents not a scene of more heartless and blood-thirsty vengeance than was ex- hibited on this occasion. The few who were taken prisoners in the fort were doomed to the various tortures devised by savage ingenuity, and all but two, who awoke to celebrate
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
that day, had passed to the eternal world. Of these, one was a soldier who had gone into the woods near the fort, and on his return observing a party of Indians dragging away some prisoners, escaped, and immediately proceeded to Niagara ; the other was a soldier's wife, who had taken shelter in a small stone house, at the mouth of the creek, used as a wash-house. Here she remained unobserved until near night of the fatal day, when she was made their pris- oner, but was ultimately ransomed and restored to civilized life. She was afterward married, and settled in Canada, where she was living at the commencement of the present century. Captain D. Dobbins, of the revenue service, has frequently talked with the woman, who was redeemed by a Mr. Douglass, living opposite Black Rock, in Canada. From what she witnessed, and heard from the Indians during her captivity, as well as from information derived from other sources, this statement is made."
About the same time the fort at Le Bœuf was furiously attacked by a large body of Indians, and the block-house fired at night. While the enemy believed them consumed, the ensign and his seven remaining men effected their escape, by means of a secret underground passage, having its outlet in the direction of the swamp adjoining Le Bœuf Lake. Tradition says that only one of these reached a civilized settlement. At Venango, a party of Senecas gained en- trance by stratagem, and massacred the garrison, after having tortured Lieutenant Gordon, the commander, for several nights over a slow fire. Afterward they fired and consumed the fort.
It was not the stockaded garrison alone, at this trying period, that suffered from the fury of the savages. Through the whole West the tomahawk and scalping-knife made fear- ful havoc. More than one hundred traders were struck down in the woods-the husbandman in the field and the child in the cradle shared the same unhappy fate. Emigrants were compelled to leave their homes and planted fields, and by
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