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In 1750 the Miamis again revolted, leaguing themselves with the Mascoutins on Rock River and even urging the Illinois to join them; but the latter with characteristic slavishness be- trayed the plot to the French. 4 And not long
(1) New York Coll. Documents, X, 140 and 150. Also other references.
(2) Ibid., 142.
(3) Letter to Count Maurcpas, Oct. 1748. Neill in Minn. Hist. Coll., V, 430.
(4) Letter of M. Benoist, concerning a conspiracy of the Miamis, Oct. 1, 1751. Can. Archives, 1887, p. cxc. Also Dispatch of De Vaudreuil, Sept. 18, 1750. N. Y. Col. Documents, X, 220.
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after, the French were forced to build a fort at Sault Ste Marie, "to prevent the Chippewas and other Indians from communicating with the English." "
Thus I have laboriously collected the widely scattered evidence of the real relations subsist- ing between the French and Indians. The common conception which has passed into his- tory is, that the two races dwelt together like cooing doves. But in fact, from 1737 onward the French could hardly depend upon the friendship even of the refugee tribes, the Hurons, Ottawas and others. And of the original occupants of the West all were hostile except the Illinois, a people debauched and spiritless who were fast fading away before the fury of the Foxes and the Sioux.
We catch a glimpse also of the hidden forces that were working for the overthrow of New France. Her destiny had been virtually de- cided long before the English armies encamped around Quebec. The policy by which she hoped to hold the continent had proved an utter failure; the Indians were estranged and trade demoralized; a chaos of revolt and mis- rule had set in throughout the whole magnifi- cent domain.
(1) Jonquiere to the Minister, Oct. 5, 1751. Can. Archives. CLXXXIX.
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
And has it not been likewise shown that the long and gallant resistance of the Wisconsin Indians, in the face of great odds and frightful sufferings, was the entering wedge of ruin for the French Dominion in America.
Other causes were, of course, conspiring to hurry on the French Dominion to ruin. By the middle of the century the colonial govern- ment had touched the lowest point of corrup- tion. It was the era of Bigot, the evil genius of New France. He and his accomplices were stealing millions from the king, the colonists, the soldiers and the savages. No one escaped their rapacity; even the Acadian exiles were fed on mouldered and unsaleable cod-fish, which was charged to the king at enormous prices.1 Montcalm boldly averred that the chief officials of New France were "hoping and plot- ting for the ruin of the colony in order that all recorded evidence of their peculations might be hidden under the wreck."2
Under such malign influences the fur trade sank lower and lower, until it became but an- other name for plundering the savages. Ac-
(1) Parkman. Montcalm and Wolf, II, 27.
(2) Montcalm to Marshal de Belle Isle, April 12, 1759. Cun. Archives, 1887, p. CCXXIX. Also Garneau. History of Canada, I, 547.
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cording to the admission of the French them- selves their goods were inferior and their prices enormous. The traders carried large supplies of liquors and made the savages drunk in order to swindle them more effectually. At one western post in 1754, beaver skins were sold for four grains of pepper apiece; and a pound of paint which the savages bought to improve their complexions, realized a profit of eight hundred francs.2
The savages struggled to escape from such a system of multiplied robberies. The Miamis for instance, after two or three revolts, moved eastward into Ohio in order to open trade with the English. "Our friendship," they told Gist, the envoy from Virginia, "shall stand like the lofty mountain." 3
Even in these evil times Wisconsin did not lose the prominence which it had had from the first days of the French Dominion. Green Bay now became the chief center of operations in the west for that band of corrupt officials who were plundering both the Indians and the gov- ernment.
(1) Bigot to the Minister, Oct. 1749. N. I. Coll. Docu- ments, X, 200. Also De Bougainville, in Margry's Memoirs Inedites, p. 74.
(2) Smith. Canada, I, p. LXVIII.
(3) Bancroft. History of the United States, III, 54.
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
In 1750 Marin was sent to Green Bay osten- sibly to act as governor of the northwest and to continue the explorations of Verendry in search of a passage to the Sea of the West. Really he came to manage the affairs of a se- cret partnership, of which he himself, Bigot, the intendant of the colony, and La Jonquiere, its governor, were the members.3 Their object was to monopolize as far as possible the fur trade of the Northwest, and their annual profits amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand livres, equal to as many dollars in the present day. Besides, the firm was engaged in other transac- tions. They divided among themselves the profits of Capt. St. Pierre's exploring expedi- tion, which made no discoveries, but brought back furs of great value; the governor's share, alone, it is said, amounting to three hundred thousand livres. In all the gains of the Green Bay ring, from their various enterprises, must have amounted to millions.
While thus engaged Marin became the hero of an exploit more noted than anything else in the traditionary annals of Wisconsin. But heretofore the date of it has not been fixed; and even the chief actor has been known only
(1) Memoire de Bougainville sur l'Etat de la Nouvelle France. Margry. Memoires Inedites, p. 59.
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as a "prominent French trader," otherwise unidentified.
Some time before, the Fox Indians had crept back to their old homes on the Fox river and with their wonted arrogance, began to levy tribute upon the passing traders. The com- merce of the whole Upper Mississippi country was at their mercy. Marin resolved to put a stop to this; and quietly collecting all his available forces, he set out from Green Bay with the utmost secrecy. Arriving at a point some miles below the Fox village, the force was divided, one part disembarking and going by land to attack the savages in the rear. The rest laid down in the canoes and were covered over by large tarpaulins such as were used by traders to shield their goods from the weather. Two men to row each boat were left in view. It was to all appearance a peace- ful trading fleet.
In due time the Foxes discovered the ap- proach of the fleet. Rushing to the shore they hung out a lighted torch, the usual signal for the traders to land at this aboriginal custom house. Then they squatted upon the bank and waited patiently for their customary dues. The boats rounded to, in obedience to the sig- nal and drew close to the shore; the savages
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still sat expectant but serene, with all the grave decorum of Indians upon a state occa- sion.
Suddenly the tarpaulins were flung off from the boats. A long line of armed men sprang up, with their guns pointed at the astounded Foxes. It was as if the infernal flames had burst from the depths of the river. The sav- ages had hardly sprung to their feet before many were mowed down by a volley of mus- ketry and the discharge of a swivel gun loaded with grape and canister. The rest, with a yell of dismay, fled to their village, closely pursued by the French. Here a new horror confronted
the flying mob. The flanking party had by this time reached the rear of the village; some of them, creeping stealthily in, had set on fire the frail bark cabins; and the wind was wrap- ping everything in flames.
The Foxes, rushing wildly about amidst their burning cabins, found themselves hemmed in by a storm of bullets from front and rear. Women and children ran to and fro, shrieking and blind with fright; mothers snatched their babes and fled they knew not whither.
But the warriors, long schooled by the French in such horrors, rallied and fought des-
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perately. Out of the smoke and flame they flung themselves against the force in the rear and struggled to cut their way through, with knives and tomahawks. Many succeeded and escaped into the forest, followed by throngs of women and children. The rest were hewn down, singing their death-song amidst the flames. No quarter was given and none was asked. In a few moments all was over. What a little while before had been a peaceful village, was a heap of ashes studded with the dead.
As a mere tragedy, this is rivalled by many others in the appalling story of the war against the Foxes. But the grotesque surprise, .the grim glare of humor lighting up the horror, makes an altogether matchless scene. Ac- cording to the traditions, Marin struck other blows against his enemy, but the accounts are too confused to enter into sober history. Suf- fice it that the Foxes were expelled forever from their ancient home and once more found a refuge on the Wisconsin.
But let us do no injustice to Marin. He was a soldier with a military code of morals; but he was wise, brave and loyal to France. The stern andzincorruptible Du Quesne, ad-
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mired him greatly' and selected him as the one man fitted to command on the Ohio, in that critical hour when the Indian revolt had reached its height and New France was begin- ning its last struggle for life. Thus he was called from his speculations at Green Bay to nobler tasks. A few months afterward he died; and Du Quesne wrote to the king that "the death of Marin is an irreparable loss to the colony."2
(1) New York Coll. Documents, X, 254. Also Margry, VI. 634.
(2) Du Quesne to the Minister, Oct. 7, 1753. Can. Ar- chives. 1887, p. CXCVI.
CHAPTER XI.
THE FALL OF THE FRENCH EMPIRE.
1752-1763.
The Sauks, after their expulsion from the Green Bay region, built a town on the banks of the Wisconsin near what is now Prairie du Sac. Carver, who travelled through Wiscon- sin in 1766, describes it as the largest and best built Indian town that he ever saw. "It con- tained about ninety houses, each large enough for several families, built of heavy planks, neatly jointed and covered so compactly with bark as to keep out the most penetrating rains. Before the doors were placed comfortable sheds in which the inhabitants sat when the weather would permit and smoked their pipes. The streets were both regular and spacious, appear- ing more like a civilized town than the abode of savages. The land was rich, and corn, beans and melons were raised in large quanti- ties."I
(1) Carver. Travels. 47. A very admirable account of this noted traveller is given by Durrie. Wisconsin Hist. Coll., VI, 220-270.
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
The Foxes, after their long wanderings, fi- nally settled near the mouth of the Wisconsin, on the site of Prairie du Chien. They had selected their new location with characteristic sagacity, and it soon became the great mart of the Northwest. There the adjacent tribes and even those from the remote branches of the Mississippi annually assembled about the end of May; and it was determined in a general council whether it would be best to dispose of their furs to the traders upon the spot or to transport them to the Lakes or to Louisiana.
Mining, as well as commerce, contributed to the prosperity of the Foxes. Towards the close of the 17th century the Miamis had worked the lead mines south of the Wisconsin, but probably only after the rude fashion known to the Iroquois in Canada, who hewed out long splinters of ore and cut them up into bullets.1 But the Foxes smelted the ores and carried on a regular mining industry with such jealous secrecy that no white man was permitted to come near their mines. 2
From their firm friends, the Sioux, they had obtained horses and learned the art of horse-
(1) Boucher. Canada.
(2) Early History Lead Regions. Wis. Hist. Coll., VI,
272. Washburne, Ibid., X 244. Shaw. Ibid., II, 228.
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manship, so that in a few years their warriors were all finely mounted. I
The thoughtful reader will be surprised by these tokens of great prosperity and progress on the part of a people who for more than forty years had been crushed under almost every conceivable form of disaster and suffer- ing. And his wonder will grow when he con- siders the degradation of the tribes that had clung most closely to the French. Carver, who overflows with praises of the Sauks and Foxes, describes the Chippewas as "the nasti- est people" he had ever seen, and the Illinois everywhere were a bye-word on account of their vile habits and their cowardice. 2
But the explanation is simple. The tribes that had been the most hostile to the white man, his faith and modes of life, had best pre- served the national spirit, the respect for an- cestral and public opinion, the esprit de corps upon which savage virtue depends. "They combine," writes Carver, 3 "as if actuated only
(1) Long, Voyages and Travels, 149.
(2) Pitman, Account of the Mississippi, London, 1770, p. 53, describes the Illinois as a "poor, debauched and das- tardly people," but praises the Mascoutins, Miamis, etc., as brave and warlike. Parkman admits the extraordinary degradation of the Illinois. La Salle, 207, note.
(3) Travels, 412.
11
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by one soul. The honor of their tribe and the welfare of the nation is the first and most pre- dominating emotion of their hearts. Hence proceed in great measure, all their virtues and vices. They brave every danger, endure the most exquisite torments and expire triumph- ing in their fortiude, not as a personal quali- fication, but as a national characteristic."
The wisest of the Indians saw that they must exclude the white man's influence and his faith, if they wished to preserve their own polity and the special savage virtues. When the Sene- cas, out of their conquests, gave the Shawnees a country to dwell in, they charged them never to receive Christianity from the English. "Be- fore the missionaries came," they said, "the Indians were an honest, sober and innocent people, but now most of them are rogues; they formerly had the fear of God, but now they hardly believe his existence."' Without accept- ing all that, one may see that the higher faith must necessarily be destructive even to what is best in the lower.
When in 1752 the elder Marin was ordered to take command on the Ohio, his son succed- ed him at Green Bay. Soon a new partner-
(1) Long. Voyages and Travels, 32.
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ship was formed, having the same equivocal ob- ject as the old one, but composed of the younger Marin, and Rigaud, a brother of the governor of Canada. The affairs of the new firm prospered, and in two years the partners divided between them a profit of one hundred and twelve thousand livres. 1
Outside of these transactions, Marin did good service for New France. He drew back to the colony for a time, at least, the fur trade of the Northwest, which was being di- verted to Hudson's Bay .? "In two years," he claimed, "I travelled more than two thousand leagues on foot, often in snow and ice, running a thousand dangers from savage tribes, and meeting privations of every sort. In those two years I conquered more than twenty na- tions, who have since been loyal to France and made war in our behalf.3" There is doubtless some excess of color in this, but still Marin did brilliant work.
(1) Margry. Memoires Inedites, 59.
(2) Dobbs. Account of the Hudson's Bay Countries, London, 1745, p. 43. According to a pamphlet printed in 1750, the heavy furs went to Hudson's Bay; the lighter to Canada. Short Statement, etc., p. 16. This pamphlet can be found in the library of the Minnesota Historical So- ciety.
(3) Margry, VI, 654. Also N. Y. Coll. Documents, X, 263.
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
A still more notable name is that of Charles Langlade, who came to Green Bay as a trader about the middle of the century. The brilliant service and the utter obscurity of this man cause one to almost despair of history.
In 1752 the revolt in the Valley of the Ohio was at its height, the Miamis and other tribes having entirely renounced allegiance to France. To strike terror into the hearts of these savages, an expedition mainly composed of the faithful Ottawas, was sent from northern Michigan, and Langlade, whose father was a Frenchman but his mother a sister of the Otta- wa head-chief, was placed in command. The young man, then only twenty-three years old, marched swiftly to western Ohio, with a force ot thirty Frenchman and 250 Indians. On the morning of the 21st of June, he suddenly ap- peared before Picqua, a town of four hundred families, the strongest in the Valley of the Ohio and the residence of the grand chief of the Miami confederacy. The surprise was complete, and after a short but fierce resist- ence, the Miamis surrendered. One English trader was killed and five taken prisoners, the town was burned and the grand chief of the confederacy sacrificed at a cannibal feast.
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Then young Langlade swiftly departed, leav- ing the French flag flying over the ruins.
"Thus," says Bancroft, "began the contest that was to scatter death broadcast through- out the world." The immediate results of this sharp and sudden blow were very great; the Indians, dismayed by such prompt vengeance, returned to their old allegiance, and soon throughout the Valley of the Ohio there floated no banner but that of France. But while the colonial authorities exulted in his success, they dismissed the low-born Langlade with disdain. "As he is not in the king's service, and has married a squaw," wrote Du Quesne, the gov- ernor," I will ask for him only a pension of two hundred francs, which will flatter him infinitely. 1
The young leader, therefore, resumed his former work at Green Bay, bartering calicos, needles and rum for the furs of the Indians. But three years later he was called forth again, to lead his faithful Ottawas to the relief of the little garrison at Fort Du Quesne, then imper- illed by the approach of Braddock and his army. And to the military genius of this un- trained half-breed, was due that wonderful
(1) Du Quesne to the Minister, Oct. 25, 1752. Can Achives, 1887, p. CXCI. Also Parkman. Montcalm and Wolfe, II, 84-85. Parkman's tone is as lofty as the French- man's.
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
"Defeat of Braddock," the fame of which re- sounded throughout Europe, taught the thir- teen colonies to despise the English regulars and thus led the way to the War of Indepen- dence. The statement seems incredible, but as will be seen in a note below,' is supported by the most irrefragable proofs.
We cannot follow further the life of Lang- lade. Suffice it that throughout the war he continued to render valuable although not quite so splendid services to France-each year leading down the Indian allies from the West to the aid of Montcalm. But it was all an unavailing struggle in behalf of what long had been a lost cause. The Fox wars had
(1) First: Gen. Burgoyne, writes to Lord Germain, July 11. 1777, of Langlade as "the very man, who with these tribes, (Ottawas, etc.) projected and executed Braddock's defeat." Expedition from Canada, London, 1786. Ap- pendix, p. XXI. Second: Anhurey, an officer in Bur- goyne's army, wrote in 1777, that they were expecting the Ottawas, led by St. Luc, and Langlade, and adds that "the latter is the person who at the head of the tribe which he now commands planned and executed the defeat of Gen. Braddock." (Journey, I, 315.) Third: The very circum- stantial account given by Langlade himself, in Grignon's Recollections. (Wis. Hist. Coll., III, 212-215.) Fourth: The testimony of De Peyster, commanding at Mackinaw, who in his Miscellanies alludes to Langlade as "a French officer who had been instrumental in defeating Braddock." (Ibid., VII, 135, note.) Concerning silence of French offi- cial records, see, Ibid., p. 150-1.
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shown twenty years before that it was impos- sible for French despotism to hold America. The sentence then pronounced upon the French Dominion, was finally carried into execution at the fall of Quebec.
After the occupation of the West by the English,' Langlade returned to Green Bay and founded there the first permanent settlement of white men in Wisconsin-a rude little vil- lage of French traders, the humble monument of a fallen Empire.
(1) In Sir Guy Carleton's report of 1767, Langlade's resi- dence is set down as still at Michillimackinac Brymner, Can. Archives, 1888, p. 45. +
CHAPTER XII.
THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC.
1763.
The English in their occupation of the coun- try, adopted the French policy. They did not design to form settlements in the West. It was feared that colonies in so remote a region could not be controlled and therefore the coun- try beyond the Alleghanies was shut against the emigrant. Royal orders forbade the Vir- ginians from settling in the valley of the Ohio; in Pennsylvania it was even proposed to aban- don Fort Pitt, and to bring all the settlers back to the eastern side of the mountains. "The country to the westward quite to the Mississippi, was intended to be a desert for the Indians to hunt in and to inhabit."1
Such a policy made it easy for Pontiac to organize his famous conspiracy. That bloody postscript to the history of the French Domin- ion has been strangely misinterpreted; it is commonly conceived of as a general uprising of the Western Indians against the English;
(1) Bancroft, III, 401-2.
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and its chief historian' declares that "the whole Algonquin stock with a few unimpor- tant exceptions," were engaged in it. But all that is wild and wide of the mark. The con- spiracy was confined to what we have described throughout this history as the French Indians, consisting mostly of refugee tribes who had al- ways clung to France, and it did not even in- clude all of them. That large part of the Ot- tawas that dwelt in Northern Michigan, wav- ered, and as we shall see, finally sided with the English. The Chippewas around Mack- inaw were active conspirators; but the main body dwelling at Chequamegon Bay- where were the council house and sacred fire of the nation -took no part in the revolt.2
Beyond these refugee races the conspiracy did not spread. The Miamis, the dominant confederacy in the Ohio valley, stood aloof. Above all, the tribes massed upon the Fox and Wisconsin rivers-the Menominees, Winne- bagoes, Sauks and Foxes-adhered firmly to the English cause; and it was their prompt, decisive action which sealed the fate of the conspiracy. Thus to the end Wisconsin re- mained the pivot upon which the fortunes of the West revolved.
(1) Parkman, Conspiracy of Pontiac, I, 187.
(2) Warren, Hist. Ojibways. Minn. Hist. Coll., V. 210.
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
To show this we must go back two years. On the 12th of October, 1761, Lieut. Gorrell, with seventeen men, arrived in Green Bay to assume command of the Northwest. Already the fomenters of revolt had been there. Some French traders had passed up Fox river on their way to the Sioux; and although in Eng- lish employ they had "done all that laid in their power to persuade the Bay Indians to fall upon the English, telling them that the latter were very weak and that it could be done very readily."
Some of the young warriors, always eager for any fray, were willing enough. But the ancient hatred and scorn of the French flashed forth in the answer of the head-chief of the Sauks. "The old and great man of the Sauk nation whom they call a king, told the French- men that they were English dogs or slaves now that they were conquered by the English; that they only wanted his men to fight the English for them, but he said that they should not. He called the French old squaws and commanded the young men to desist, which they did and went to their hunting." 1
The winter was spent in repairing the old French fort and the buildings; it was not until
(1) Gorrell's Journal. Wis. Hist, Coll., I, 26.
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the next season, after the Indians had returned from their hunting-grounds, that any councils were held. First came the Menominees. "They were very poor," they said, "having lost three hundred warriors lately with the small-pox and most of their chiefs in the late war in which they had been engaged by the French commandant here against the English." They were very glad to find that the English were pleased to pardon them as they did not expect it and were conscious that they did not merit it. They asked for a gun-smith, and modestly suggested that "the French always gave them rum as a true token of friendship." They rejoiced to hear that the English traders were coming among them. " We have al- ready found by experience," said the sagacious savages, "that the goods are one-half cheaper than when the French were amongst us."
Some Winnebago chiefs were present at this council and spoke to the same effect. A fort- night later, ambassadors arrived from the Sauks and Foxes, with pledges of peace and good-will. In August the chief of a more dis- tant town of the Winnebagoes came to declare that his people had never been at war with the English, nor could the French commander persuade him to it as he never knew of any
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harm the English had done him. With him came also four ambassadors from the Iowas, who said that "they had come from very far to see if I would shake hands with them and forgive them as I had done the rest."I
In March, 1763, the long looked for depu- ties of the Sioux arrived. They brought a let- ter from their king in which he expressed his joy at the coming of the English, asked for friendship and trade, and promised that if the Chippewas or any other tribe should make trouble, he would come with his warriors and wipe them from the face of the earth.
Thus all the tribes of the Northwest, from Lake Michigan to the Missouri, had welcomed the English with unbounded delight. The time was now near when their loyalty was to be put to the test. On the 15th of June, the news, came like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky, that the Chippewas had captured Mackinaw and massacred a part of its garrison. Pontiac and his fellow - conspirators had begun their work.
Not long before Pontiac had secretly visited Wisconsin and won over the Milwaukee band, a mixed village of refractory and turbulent In- dians, the offscouring of many different tribes.
(1) Ibid., p. 30-36.
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But the real tribes of Wisconsin had indig- nantly spurned his messages and war-belts. "I want no such message. I mean to do no wrong to my English friends," Carron the grand chief of the Menominees, had ans- wered. I
But Gorrell knew nothing of this, and was naturally very much alarmed. In an agony of suspense he went to the Menominee chiefs to find out what they were about to do. A grand council of the whole tribe was called, and with an ardor unusual among the stoics of the forest, all agreed that they would go to the relief of the English at Mackinaw. Swift runners were also sent to the other Indian na- tions. Three days afterward the chiefsof the Winnebagoes, Sauks and Foxes arrived in great haste, saying that their warriors were on the way. With them came Pennensha, a French trader, but a firm friend of the English, bring- ing new pledges of fidelity and assistance from the Sioux. When all the warriors had arrived another great council was convened. "All the chiefs said," writes Gorrel, "that they were glad they could now show the English how much they loved them, and that we should find
(1) Grignon's Recollections. Wis. Hist. Coll., III, 226.
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that they would keep their promise of the year before. I
Preparations were speedily made and then the relieving expedition set out from Green Bay. The Indians, fully alive to the gravity of the crisis, took precautions quite unusual for them; every night before landing to camp, they sent a large party to scour the woods in every direction in order to guard against sur- prise. "The king of the Sauks," writes Gorrel, always went in the batteau with me, and would always lay in the tent, so great was their care." When they drew near the village of the Otta- was, whom they believed to be traitors at heart,? they made ready for battle; the Eng- lish batteau was placed in the centre; the Me- nominees, stripped for action, went in the front.
At the sight of this formidable array, the Ottawas were overawed. They resolved to side with the English, although the other half of
(1) Parkman. Conspiracy of Pontiac., I, 363, at a loss for any plausible explanation of the action of the Wiscon- sin Indians, aseribes it to Lieut. "Gorrel's prudence." There is not the least spark of evidence to this effect. The reader of the preceding pages needs no explanation of the eagerness with which these savages welcomed the English as the conquerors of the hated French.
(2) Before leaving Green Bay, they told Gorrel not to trust himself to the Ottawas. Wis. Hist. Coll., I, 40.
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their nation at Detroit were fighting under the lead of Pontiac. And so the expedition was re- ceived with clamors of welcome, salutes were fired, pipes of peace were smoked, and then came feasting, dancing and councils without end. At first the Wisconsin Indians demanded that the Ottawas should join with them in reinstating the English commander, Capt. Etherington, at Mackinaw. But this the Ottawas were not will- ing to attempt, although they promised to do all in their power to conduct the English back to Montreal. And it is not likely that the latter, after they learned what was going on at De- troit and in the lower country, wished to re- main.
Gradually the bloodthirsty Chippewas also began to weaken. On the 13th day of July they came to the English very penitently. "They said that although it was the Chippe- was that struck, it was the Ottawas that be- gan the war at Detroit and instigated them to do the same. If the General would forgive them they would never act thus again." Capt. Etherington replied that if they expected any mercy they must give up their prisoners.
The next day the Chippewas returned and asked for rum. "Having no rum to give them," writes Gorrel, "they went away and
-
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said no more to us." That was the last of Pontiac's great conspiracy so far as the Northern nations were concerned. In a little while the English went on their way to Montreal, safe and rejoicing.
All that summer, the conspiracy, like a wounded serpent, dragged its hideous length through the Valley of the Ohio, carrying horror wherever it went. In the autumn it came to an end. Pontiac, dejected and sullen, wan- dered off to the West, and was killed while ca- rousing among the Illinois.
How little this noted conspiracy has been understood, is shown by a strange error into which, at this point, its chief historian has fallen. The Sauks and Foxes and other friends of Pontiac, we are gravely told, rose in fury to avenge his death, visiting their vengeance upon the Illinois as his murderers.1 And the consequent carnage is described in terms of Homeric song. But the whole state- ment, however classically adorned, is mar- velously untrue.
Our brief recital has proved that the Wiscon-
(1) Parkman, Conspiracy of Pontiac, Il, 312. Parkman blindly follows a confused traditionary account given by some writers in the early part of this century. The war of the Sauks and Foxes against the Illinois was going on be- fore Pontiac was born.
177
CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC.
sin Indians, so far from being the allies and avengers of Pontiac, were his chief enemies. Their resistance broke up his plans and brought all his schemes to nought. If the prompt ac- tion of the Wisconsin Indians had not over- awed the Ottawas and curbed the Chippewas, the latter, after completing their work in the North, would have gone to the help of their brethren at Detroit. The success of Pontiac would then have been assured. The irreso- lute Miamis would have flung themselves fully into the fight. And with the active aid of the Wisconsin tribes and their allies in the North- west, the flames of revolt would have swept the continent.
One result would certainly have followed. The contest for American independence, which virtually began the year after the conspiracy ended, would have been indefinitely postponed. The thirteen colonies, so long as their frontier was infested by hordes of fierce and irreconcil- able savages -" the most formidable foe upon the face of the earth""-would have little thought or desire of separating from the moth- er country. But all that was averted by the
(1) Barre, the companion of Wolfe, a man who knew In- dians well, thus declared in the British parliament. Ban- groft, United States, III, 337.
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178
HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
ยท prompt action of the Wisconsin Indians at the very moment when everything hung trembling in the balance.
Thus the Power that so often uses the weak things of the world to confound the mighty, used these savages for two great purpos- es; first, to undermine the rule of French des- potism in the West; then, to secure the Eng- lish in firm and peaceable possession of the continent. For a few years England held the grand empire in trust and then handed it over to its rightful inheritors, the freemen of America.
So much was done in Wisconsin for Ameri- can independence. Let no pitiful prejudice of race obscure the work done by these wild, unconscious servants of liberty. Their man- ners were rude and their morals chaotic, but at heart they were less savage than their white antagonists. They had not attained to the niceties of civilization. Neither had the three hundred who died at Thermopylae nor the vic- tors upon the field of Tours.
[THE END. ]
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