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 ECLECTIC SCHOOL READINGS 
 
 ^ THE CONQUEST ^ 
 
 f OF THE t 
 
 OLD NORTHWEST 
 
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 NEW YORK- CiNCJNNATI • CHICAGO 
 __ AME RICAN- book: ' COMPAN''^ 
 
Class _5 4:i^ __ 
 
 Book -^\g 
 
 Copyright})^ 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
THE CON()Ur:ST OF 
 
 THE OLD NORTHWEST 
 
 AND ITS SEITTEMENT BY AMERICANS 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES BALDWIN 
 
 Author of "The Discovery of the Old North%vest" " Baldwin's Readers' 
 ''The Story of Roland" ''Old Greek Stories," etc. 
 
 
 NEW YORK-:. CINCINNATI •:• CHICAGO 
 
 AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 
 

 THF LIBRARY OF 
 CONGRESS, 
 
 Two CoHEs Received 
 
 OCT. 15 1901 
 
 COPVPIOMT 
 
 ENTRY 1 
 
 CLASS <^XXc. No. 
 
 COPY 
 
 « 
 
 Copyright, 1901, by 
 AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. 
 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London. 
 
 CONQUEST O. N. W. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 While every American is familiar with the events con- 
 nected with the discovery and colonization of the eastern 
 shores of our country, the history of the Old Northwest — 
 that magnificent section of our country lying west of the 
 Alleghanies and bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio, 
 and the Great Lakes — is comparatively unknown. It 
 has a history as varied, as interesting, and as important 
 as that of any other portion of the North American conti- 
 nent, and yet few persons realize the extent to which the 
 events attending its early exploration, its conquest, and its 
 settlement have determined the destiny of our country as 
 a whole. 
 
 So far as is known to the writer, no attempt has hitherto 
 been made to relate the story of these events in a con- 
 nected order, free from extraneous details and adapted to 
 the comprehension and tastes of younger readers. Park- 
 man, in his monumental series of historical narratives, has 
 told this story in connection with many others having but 
 slight relation to the Old Northwest ; Justin Winsor, in 
 his very scholarly volumes relating to the French regime 
 in America, has done the same. But the works of these 
 writers are too voluminous for general readers, and being 
 designed for mature thinkers they fail to be attractive to 
 the majority of young people just beginning to acquire a 
 taste for historical reading. The author of this volume, 
 
4 Preface 
 
 while indebted to W'insor and Parkman and many other 
 writers for the facts which he relates, has followed his 
 own method of telling the story, keeping always in mind . 
 as the central thought the discovery and development of \ 
 the Old Northwest and its final conquest for freedom and / 
 civilization. He has not attempted a complete history, but^ 
 rather a connected series of sketches, selecting from the 
 very large number of events and incidents that might 
 have been related those which seemed to him most neces- 
 sary to the interest and the continuous unfolding of the 
 narrative. 
 
 Although this volume and its companion, **The Discov- 
 ery of the Old Northwest," are each supplementary to the 
 other, yet each relates its own story and is complete in 
 itself. The one covers a period of two hundred years, 
 from Jacques Cartier (i535) to the completion of the 
 French colonization of the Old Northwest. The other con- 
 tinues the story for another hundred years, ending with 
 the last struggle, in that region, between the forces of 
 barbarism and civilization (1832) and the completion of 
 the American conquest. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 HOW THE NORTHWEST WAS LOST TO FRANCE 
 
 The Rival Claimants 
 
 I. English and French . 
 
 The Bounds of the Old Northwest 
 The Fur Trade .... 
 The Hunting (^iround of the Iroquois 
 Looking Westward 
 Owners, or Interlopers ? 
 
 n. 
 
 HI. 
 
 IV. 
 
 V. 
 
 VI. 
 
 French Precautions 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 lU. 
 IV. 
 
 V. 
 VI. 
 
 Juchereau 
 Fort Chartres 
 Vincennes . 
 The Trespassers 
 Joncaire 
 Fort Massac 
 
 Bienville de Celoron 
 
 I. On the Allegheny 
 II. Down La Belle Riviere 
 III. Up the Great Miami . 
 
 CHRISTOrHER GiST 
 
 I. To the Muskingum 
 II. At Pickawillany . 
 
 The Key to the Ohio Valley 
 I. Legardeur de St. Pierre 
 
 35 
 37 
 41 
 
 42 
 
 45 
 
 51 
 56 
 
 59 
 62 
 
 66 
 
6 ' Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 II. Fort Le Rceuf 69 
 
 III. Unexpected Visitors 72 
 
 George Washington 
 
 I. The Wildernes.s Journey -76 
 
 II. The First Encounter 78 
 
 III. Fort Necessity ,81 
 
 IV. Fort Duquesne -83 
 
 V. Braddocic 86 
 
 HOW THE COUNTRY WAS HELD BY ENGLAND 
 
 The Great Conspiracy 
 
 I. The Napoleon of the Wilderness . .... 92 
 II. The Massacre at Mackinac ...... 99 
 
 III. The Siege of Detroit 107 
 
 England in Full Possession 
 
 I . Bouquet . . . . . . . . .117 
 
 II. The Last Hope dispelled . . . . . .120 
 
 III. The Last Post given up .121 
 
 A Yankee Traveler 
 
 I. Ambitious Plans . . . . . . . .125 
 
 II. An Early View of the Northwest , . . . .127 
 
 III. Carver's Grant 129 
 
 A Noble Red Man 
 
 I. A Dastardly Deed 132 
 
 II. Lord Dunmore's War . . . . . . -139 
 
 III. Chief Logan's Speech ....... 140 
 
 HOW THE LAND WAS WON FOR FREEDOM 
 
 For Savagery, or for Civilization ? 
 
 The Policy of the English King 145 
 
Co Jit Lilts 
 
 The Hannibal of the Northwest 
 
 I. The County of Kentucky . 
 
 11. The '' Long Knives " of the Border 
 
 III. The Capture of Kaskaskia . 
 
 IV. " The Grand Door to the Wabash " 
 V. The " Hair-buyer General" 
 
 VI. The Winning of Vincennes . 
 
 The Macjna Charta of the Northwest 
 I. The Question of Ownership 
 II. The Great Ordinance . 
 
 150 
 152 
 156 
 163 
 165 
 171 
 
 179 
 182 
 
 HOW THE WILDERNESS WAS SUBDUED 
 
 Settlers on the Ohio 
 
 I. The First Colony ...... 
 
 II. Losantiville . ....... 
 
 The Conquering White Man 
 I. Beyond the Border 
 II. Harmar 
 
 III. W^ilkinson . 
 
 IV. St. Clair . 
 V. Fallen Timbers 
 
 VI. Greenville . 
 
 The United States in Full Possession 
 I. The Surrender of the Lake Posts 
 II. '• New Connecticut 
 
 The Territory of Indiana 
 
 I. The Scattered Settlements . 
 II. Tecumseh ..... 
 
 III. Tippecanoe ..... 
 
 IV. A Harbinger of Prosperity . 
 
 187 
 192 
 
 195 
 197 
 199 
 
 200 
 203 
 205 
 
 208 
 210 
 
 213 
 217 
 22 1 
 
8 Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 SUBDUERS OF THE WILDERNESS 
 
 I. The Pioneers 230 
 
 II. A True Hero 234 
 
 The Last Struggle 
 
 I. The Sacs 240 
 
 II. A One-sided Treaty 243 
 
 III. The Removal . . . . . . . .247 
 
 IV. Black Hawk's War 250 
 
 Index 257 
 
THE CONQUEST 
 
 OF 
 
 THE OLD NORTHWEST 
 
(C ^^^ :p^ 
 
 Map showing the Old Northwest and its boundaries at the 
 present time 
 
HOW THE NORTHWEST WAS LOST TO 
 FRANCE 
 
 THE RIVAL CLAIMANTS 
 
 I. ENGLISH AND FRENCH 
 
 TWO hundred years ago there were but few EngHsh- 
 speaking people in North America. Adjoining the 
 Atlantic coast, and extending from New Hampshire to 
 South Carolina, there were twelve colonies of Englishmen ; 
 but in all these colonies taken together there were not so 
 many inhabitants as are now contained in a single city 
 like Indianapolis, or Milwaukee, or Detroit. There were 
 no roads worth speaking of, and the only means of going 
 from place to place was by water. Most of the people, 
 therefore, lived near the coast or close to some river or 
 other stream, and none of the settlements extended very 
 far inland. Some of the colonies claimed to possess 
 the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; but beyond the 
 head waters of the larger rivers, as the James and the 
 Hudson, the country was unexplored and unknown. 
 
 Hemming the settlements in on the west were tangled 
 forests traversed only by hunters and trappers and savage 
 red men ; and farther away were rugged hills and ranges 
 of mountains which extended northwardly and southwardly 
 
12 
 
 TJic Rival Claimants 
 
 for hundreds of miles, and seemed to shut off all further 
 progress toward the interior. These mountains, now 
 commonly known as the Alleghanies, marked the limits 
 
 ^^^ of the actual posses- 
 sions of the English 
 colonies. No Eng- 
 lishman had yet ex- 
 plored the country 
 beyond, and but few 
 of the colonists knew 
 or cared to know any- 
 thing about its extent 
 or its resources. 
 And yet in those very re- 
 gions, shut off as it were by 
 impassable mountain barriers, 
 were the largest lakes, the 
 longest rivers, the richest 
 mines, the most fertile lands 
 in North America. While 
 English explorers were feeling 
 their way along the shores of 
 the middle Atlantic coast and vainly 
 searching for a passageway into the 
 The English Colonies interior, men from France had as- 
 in 1700 cended the St. Lawrence, discovered 
 
 the Great Lakes, and gained access to these the choicest 
 parts of the continent. Later on they had opened another 
 way of approach to the same regions through the Gulf of 
 Mexico and up the Mississippi; they had taken possession 
 
The Bounds of the Old Xoiihzucst 13 
 
 of the entire country, for and in tiie name of the French 
 king; and they had established, here and there at wide 
 distances apart, small settlements of French people and 
 trading posts for traffic with the Indians. 
 
 Thus, while the English possessions were confined to 
 the comparatively narrow strip of country between the 
 sea and the mountains, the region claimed by 
 the French crown included more than half of the 
 North American continent. New France, as this region 
 was called, had no well-defined boundaries ; but it extended 
 from Nova Scotia to the Pacific Ocean, and from the 
 borders of Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. The 
 northern portion, which embraced the valley of the St. 
 Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the unexplored territory 
 beyond, was called Canada ; the other part, which was 
 watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries, and extended 
 from the Alleghany Mountains to an unknown distance 
 westward, was known as Louisiana. One would naturally 
 suppose that in a country owned by France, and having so 
 boundless an extent, there would be many French-speaking 
 people. But it was not so. Few as the English colonists 
 were, they still outnumbered all the French inhabitants 
 of New France. Why so vast a region should be so 
 sparsely settled we shall understand as our story proceeds. 
 
 II. THE BOUNDS OF THE OLD NORTHWEST 
 
 With the map of the United States before us, let us 
 imagine ourselves standing on the summit of one of the 
 Alleghanies near Pittsburg and looking westward. Directly 
 
14 The Rival ClaiDiauts 
 
 in front of us, and extending to the distant Mississippi, lies 
 the region now occupied, as our geographies tell us, by 
 the North Central states of the Union. When the French 
 owned this region it had no distinctive name of its own, 
 but was simply a part of Canada or of Louisiana — or, more 
 broadly speaking, of New France, just as it is now a part 
 of the United States. At a later period, because it was 
 the most northwesterly of the regions occupied by white 
 men, it was known as the Northwest. When the go\ern- 
 ment of the United States was formed and it became 
 necessary to designate each portion of our country by some 
 distinctive title, it was called the Territory Northwest of the 
 River Ohio. In our own day, when the true Northwest is 
 thought of as being in far Washington or farther Alaska, 
 it is the custom to speak of this more ancient region as 
 the Old Northwest. With the map still before us, 
 let us trace the boundaries of this region and try to gain 
 some idea of its extent and geographical features. 
 
 You will observe that nearly all of the streams which 
 flow down the western slopes of the Alleghanies find their 
 way sooner or later into a single great river, the Ohio. 
 From the place where the Ohio is formed by the meet- 
 ing of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, you can 
 trace its course in a southwesterly direction to the Mis- 
 sissippi. In the old French days it was the only road 
 through the fertile valley which it drains and enriches ; 
 and yet it was seldom visited and was but imperfectly 
 known. The Indians called it, as it is called to-day, the 
 Ohio, or the Beautiful River. By the French it was 
 known as La Belle Riviere, and was sometimes loosely 
 
The Bounds of tJie Old Nort Invest 1 5 
 
 referred to as the River of the Iroquois. For fifty years 
 after its discovery it was regarded as a much smaller 
 stream than the Wabash, of which it was supposed to 
 be a tributary. And yet the voyageur or woods ranger 
 who descended it in his canoe found that it was a long 
 journey from the river's source to its mouth ; and not 
 until he had floated and paddled between its banks for 
 more than nine hundred miles did he emerge into the 
 broader and stronger stream of the Mississippi. 
 
 With your eyes still on the map, observe closely the 
 other natural boundaries of the region partly encircled 
 by the Ohio. On its west lies the greatest of North 
 American rivers, known variously to the French as the 
 Buade, the Conception, the Colbert, and the Mississippi. 
 On its north, completely hemming it in, are the Great 
 Lakes. From the point where the Ohio flows into 
 the Mississippi, let us follow the latter northwardly toward 
 its source. We observe on our left the mouth of the 
 Missouri, to which King Louis XIV. gave the name St. 
 Philip ; on the right are many streams, the chief of which 
 are the Illinois and the Wisconsin. And now, as we 
 continue to ascend the great river, we pass through the 
 beautiful expansion known as Lake Pepin, we leave the 
 St. Croix on our right, and arrive at the Falls of St. 
 Anthony, the site of the present city of Minneapolis. A 
 few miles above this point we turn aside into the Rum 
 River which we follow to its source in the Mille Lacs. 
 Then by the shortest route we make our way by land to 
 the western extremity of Lake Superior. Our course is 
 next eastward through the entire length of that great 
 
1 6 TJic Rival Claimants 
 
 inland sea. We descend the beautiful strait known as 
 St. Mary's River and emerge into the upper waters of 
 Lake Huron. Through the middle of this lake we trace 
 our course southward to the St. Clair strait and onward 
 to the Detroit. From the head of Lake Erie we go 
 as straight as may be to the point, near its foot, where 
 now stands the city of Erie. A short journey overland, 
 where once was a favorite portage, and we arrive at a 
 small stream called French Creek, a tributary of the 
 Allegheny. It is easy now to descend to our starting 
 place, where the Ohio has its beginning. 
 
 The course which we have followed marks approxi- 
 mately the boundaries of the Old Northwest ; the lines 
 on the map which indicate that course represent a dis- 
 tance of nearly three thousand miles. The region in- 
 closed by them has an area almost equal to that of the 
 twelve English colonies of which we have been speaking. 
 It is a good deal larger than the German Empire; it 
 is twice as large as Great Britain and Ireland taken 
 together, and more than ten times the size of the king- 
 dom of Holland. It includes the territory from which 
 have been formed five great states, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
 Michigan, and Wisconsin, together with a small portion 
 of Minnesota. Here, at the present time, are the sources of 
 very much of the wealth and power of our country. Here 
 are the homes of many millions of intelligent and happy 
 people. 
 
 At the beginning of the eighteenth century there was 
 little in all this region to indicate that it was to be the 
 seat of future republics. Wild forests, tangled under- 
 
The Fur Trade 1 7 
 
 woods, boundless prairies, vast solitudes, occupied the 
 places now green with wheat fields and rustling corn, or 
 noisy with busy traffic. Savage red men wan- 
 dered at will through the woods and along the 
 watercourses, hunting and fishing and waging war with 
 their neighbors. Although the French had held pos- 
 session of the country for nearly a century, yet they 
 had made no effort to colonize it or civilize it. Here 
 and there, by the shore of a lake or on the banks of 
 some river, there was a settlement of French-speaking 
 people living there in quiet contentment, and subsisting 
 upon the products of the forest and their little gardens. 
 There were such settlements at Kaskaskia and Cahokia 
 in the Illinois Country, and later at Vincennes on the 
 Wabash. At Mackinac, at the Sault Sainte Marie, and 
 at Detroit were important posts for carrying on trade 
 with the Indians ; and at each of these places there was 
 a small fort garrisoned by soldiers from France. In the 
 heart of the wilderness, and at great distances apart 
 were other places — solitary log huts, hunters' camps, or 
 temporary stockades — where the French language was 
 heard and where fur traders and voyageurs occasionally 
 found shelter. All else was an unbroken wilderness. 
 
 III. THE FUR TRADE 
 
 The one great business of the country, in fact of all 
 New France, was fur trading, and in that business white 
 men and red were alike interested. Indian hunters and 
 French coureurs dc bois ranged the woods and explored 
 
 CONg. O.N.W. — 2 
 
i8 
 
 TJic Rival Claimants 
 
 the watercourses in search of peltries which they bartered 
 to French traders for the necessities and luxuries of savage 
 life. Rich cargoes of furs were every year sent down 
 
 the Mississippi or through 
 the lakes and the St. 
 Lawrence, to be carried 
 finally to France. There 
 they usually brought good 
 prices, and added not a 
 little to the king's reve- 
 nues and to the wealth of 
 the favored few who con- 
 trolled the business under 
 his sanction. At times, 
 however, the quantity of 
 furs was so great that the 
 markets were glutted, and 
 the hat makers and other 
 dealers would not buy all 
 that were sent ; and then not only the merchants and 
 others directly engaged in the trade, but the whole prov- 
 ince, suffered from the consequent depression of business. 
 The king and his counsellors tried many plans for the 
 regulation of the traffic in New France. At first the con- 
 trol of the country and the monopoly of trade were vested 
 in a company of merchants and speculators known as the 
 Hundred Associates. At a later period a law was enacted 
 which forbade any one to buy or sell or have dealings with 
 the Indians without first obtaining a license from the gov- 
 ernment or' its agents. The licenses were limited in num- 
 
 " Which they bartered to French traders " 
 
The Fur Trade 1 9 
 
 bcr, and were sold at })rices ranging from one thousand to 
 eighteen hundred francs. Although they were good for 
 only a year and a half, and the holders of them were 
 allowed to use only one or two canoes, yet the profits 
 were large, and licenses might be easily renewed. 
 
 This law, if it had been rigidly enforced, would have 
 limited the fur trade to a few favored persons. There 
 were numbers of young men, however, to whom the 
 wild free life of the forest offered the most tempting 
 attractions, and they refused to forego its pleasures and 
 the profits of successful trade. They therefore betook 
 themselves to the woods and became lawless coureurs de 
 bois, hunting and trapping, and trading with the Indians, 
 and never thinking of license. Indeed, it is said that at 
 one time there was hardly a family in Canada that had 
 not at least one son in the woods. Severe laws were 
 passed to restrain and punish these reckless coureurs ; 
 but how were such laws to be enforced when everybody 
 disregarded them } Even the merchants who furnished 
 the culprits with goods, and the officers of the king, 
 whose duty it was to regulate the business of the country,^ 
 secretly sympathized with the law-breakers. The illegal 
 traffic in furs increased from year to year, and the license 
 system proved a failure. 
 
 The king at last decided upon a new plan. He commis- 
 sioned one M. Oudiette to collect the royal revenues from 
 New France, and gave to him the sole right to carry across 
 the ocean all the beaver skins that were collected in the 
 colony. Any person might hunt or trap or buy or sell as 
 he chose, but all furs that were sent to France must first 
 
20 TJic Rival C/aimants 
 
 be brought to Oudiette. One fourth part of the furs thus 
 brought in were put aside for the king, and Oudiette paid 
 for the rest at a fixed price. The number of beaver skins 
 offered to him was enormous, but he was obhged to take 
 them all. The result was that poor Oudiette was ruined. 
 A new fashion of wearing very small hats had come into 
 vogue in Paris, and there was no great demand for beaver. 
 He could not dispose of his furs at any price. 
 
 Similar ventures were tried in succeeding years by other 
 merchants, but the only men who profited by them were 
 the hunters and trappers on the one hand, and 
 the king and his favorites on the other. At 
 length still another plan was adopted. A hundred and 
 fifty merchants were encouraged to form a company for 
 the sole control of the trade. A ship and a loan of seven 
 hundred thousand francs were obtained from the king, and 
 the company was required to buy at about half price all 
 the furs that were brought in by the collectors of revenue. 
 The new company fared as badly as had Oudiette and his. 
 successors ; for not being able to sell their goods the 
 unlucky merchants were forced to burn in one year more 
 than four hundred thousand pounds of beaver. After 
 seven years of failure the company was disbanded, and 
 another was formed which conducted the business with 
 but little better success. It was plain that there was mis- 
 management somewhere ; the cause of the trouble was in 
 the laws which had been enacted for the control of the trade, 
 — laws which placed everything in the hands of a monop- 
 oly and provided a revenue for the king by robbing his 
 subjects. 
 
TJic Fur Trade 
 
 21 
 
 In the meanwhile the English had learned that large 
 profits might be derived from the fur trade and from traffic 
 with the Indians. As early as 1670 an association of 
 noblemen and London merchants had incorporated the 
 Hudson's Bay Company to w^hich was given the monopoly 
 of trade in the far North. In most of the twelve colonies 
 also, there were men who made a busi- 
 ness of buying peltries from trappers 
 and Indians and shipping them to 
 England. The great forests which 
 bordered the settlements on the 
 Avest abounded in fur-bearing ani- 
 mals ; and the savages whose homes 
 were in those wilds very soon 
 learned that beaver skins could be 
 exchanged for luxuries that were 
 otherwise beyond their reach. 
 
 Among all the colonists the 
 Dutch-English at Albany 
 were the best situated for 
 carrying on this traffic. 
 They had friendly rela- 
 tions with the five nations 
 of Iroquois Indians whose 
 homes were in the region between the Great Lakes 
 and the Hudson River; and with these they very early 
 established a profitable trade. They furnished the Iro- 
 quois with firearms, encouraged them in their hostility 
 to the French, and looked quietly on while these savages 
 wrought destruction and terror among the feebler tribes 
 
 ' They very early established a profitable 
 trade " 
 
22 TJic Rival Claimants 
 
 in the West. In return, their savage alhes brought in 
 the furs and other forest products which their country 
 afforded, and bartered them for strong drink, for more 
 firearms, and for the hatchets, knives, and trinkets so 
 dear to the Indian's heart. 
 
 The Dutch-English traders had another advantage which 
 they were not slow to discover. Of all the colonies. New 
 York alone — if the French were only out of the way — 
 might have easy access to the Great Lakes, and through 
 them to the boundless regions of the Northwest. No 
 mountain barriers, as in the case of the colonies farther 
 south, debarred her from communication with the unex- 
 plored West. Why might not the entire fur trade of the 
 lake country be made to pass through Albany and New 
 York instead of going to Montreal and Quebec .'* 
 
 The Dutch-English traders dared not go openly among 
 the western Indians and compete w^ith the French for their 
 trade ; but they found means to send other red men into 
 the Northwest to tempt the natives to send their peltries 
 to Albany. The Iroquois, who had always hated and 
 opposed the French, became the middlemen between the 
 tribes on the upper lakes and these Enghsh traders. The 
 latter were not controlled by any monopoly, they were not 
 obliged to divide profits with the king, and therefore they 
 could afford to pay much higher prices for furs than had 
 ever been paid by the French. They could also afford to 
 sell their guns, knives, beads, blankets, and ** fire water " at 
 lower prices. The shrewd Iroquois soon learned to take 
 advantage of this state of things. They bought furs from 
 the lake Indians and sold them to the Albany traders at 
 
The Jlinitino- (i rounds of the Iroquois 
 
 23 
 
 English prices ; then they carried the goods which they 
 had received in barter to Canada, and sold them to the 
 French traders at French prices, making a profit by each 
 transaction. 
 
 IV. THE HUNTING GROUNDS OF THE IROQUOIS 
 
 By their wars with the neighboring tribes the Iroquois 
 had made themselves 
 the masters of a large 
 part of the western 
 country. They had 
 scattered and de- 
 stroyed the Fries, 
 whose home was on 
 the south shore of 
 the lake that bears 
 their name ; and 
 such was the dread 
 in which the Iroquois 
 were held that almost 
 the whole region be- 
 tween that lake and 
 the Ohio River was 
 deserted and left a 
 savage wilderness. 
 Only the bravest 
 hunters and maraud- 
 ing bands of Shaw- 
 nees dared to venture thither 
 
 Nowhere were there any human habitations " 
 
 Herds of buffaloes roamed 
 
 among the hills, bears and wolves lived undisturbed in the 
 
24 TJic Rival Claimants 
 
 thick woods, and nowhere were there any human habita- 
 tions. From the Hudson to the Mississippi and from the 
 Great Lakes to the head waters of the Potomac the dread 
 of the conquering Iroquois was felt. Although their 
 homes were in New York, these scourges of the wilderness 
 seemed everywhere present ; and they claimed the entire 
 region between the Illinois Country and the Alleghany 
 Mountains as their own by right of conquest. 
 
 The Hurons and Ottawas along the shores of the upper 
 lakes had suffered much from the cruel Iroquois, who had 
 driven them from their ancient homes and slaughtered 
 their people. When La Motte Cadillac, with fifty settlers 
 
 and fifty soldiers, besran to build a fort and 
 1701 
 ^ 'found a permanent post at Detroit, these Indians 
 
 besought him to protect them from their inveterate foes. 
 
 Cadillac kindly assured them that he would stand as a wall 
 
 between them and the Iroquois; and he promised that in 
 
 due time they should have vengeance, and he would help 
 
 them drive their enemies from the land. 
 
 The Iroquois, hearing of this and knowing that the 
 
 French had really built a fort at Detroit, were much 
 
 alarmed ; for they feared that Cadillac would try to carry 
 
 out his promise and would invade their Ohio hunting 
 
 grounds. They therefore held a council with agents of 
 
 the English from New York, and prayed that the king of 
 
 England would help them. The Dutch-English traders 
 
 felt now that the time was near at hand when they could 
 
 secure a large share of the fur trade in the Northwest; 
 
 others of the colonists had heard of the fertile lands and 
 
 the abundance of game in the country beyond the Alle- 
 
Looki)io^ Westward 25 
 
 ghanies, and were eager to get possession of that rich 
 region. And so the English were not long in making a 
 treaty with the Iroquois, promising them such aid as they 
 were able to give against any possible encroachments by 
 the French. 
 
 A deed was drawn up in due form, and signed by the 
 sachems of the five Iroquois nations. By this deed the 
 savages ceded " unto our souveraigne Lord, King 
 William the Third," and indirectly to the colony 
 of New York, the whole of their beaver hunting grounds, 
 including the region from Lake Ontario to Chicago and 
 from Lake Erie to the Ohio River. This territory was 
 described as being about eight hundred miles long, and 
 four hundred miles wide, and included not only Detroit, 
 but several other posts and small settlements actually 
 belonging to and occupied by the French. Thus the Eng- 
 lish, in return for vague promises of protection, secured 
 from the Iroquois the nominal right to much the greater 
 part of the country now known as the Old Northwest. 
 
 V. LOOKING WESTWARD 
 
 In the meanwhile, the colonies south of New York had 
 also begun to look westward. It was remembered in 
 Virginia that King James I. had given to that colony, 
 nearly eighty years before, a charter which described its 
 boundaries as extending " up into the land throughout from 
 sea to sea west and northwest." That the king had the 
 right to grant this charter there could be no dispute, for had 
 not John Cabot, sailing in an English vessel, discovered 
 
26 The Rival ClaitJiants 
 
 the entire eastern coast of North America many years 
 before it was visited by any other nation ? And did not 
 this discovery give to England the possession of all the 
 lands westward ? 
 
 It is related that Governor Berkeley of Virginia sent 
 out a company of explorers to find the place of " the 
 ebbing and flowing of the water on the other 
 side of the mountains, in order to the discovery 
 of the South Sea." These men traveled sixteen days 
 through the forest, and on the seventeenth saw from 
 the summit of one of the Alleghanies ** a glimmering 
 light as from water." This water, which was probably 
 the river now called the Great Kenawha, they supposed 
 to be a bay, possibly of the Pacific Ocean, possibly of a 
 lake held by the French "who had seated themselves in 
 the back of Virginia." Without descending the mountain 
 slope to make further discoveries, they contented them- 
 selves with cutting the king's name on some trees, and 
 then hurried back to tell the governor what they had seen. 
 This expedition, if indeed there is any truth in the story, 
 was made at about the time that the French were begin- 
 ning to explore the great rivers of the Northwest; and 
 when the colonists, several years later, revived their 
 claims to the ownership of the lands, the story of these 
 early Virginian explorers was related to prove that Eng- 
 lishmen and not Frenchmen were the true discoverers of 
 that region. 
 
 Forty-five years after Governor Berkeley's feeble attempt 
 to probe the secrets of the western wilderness another ex- 
 pedition was fitted out for a similar purpose by Governor 
 
L ookiug Wl 'stzua rd 2 7 
 
 Spotswood of Virginia. A company of fifty persons, the 
 governor himself being one, set out from WilUamsburg, 
 with pack horses and camp equipage, to discover a route 
 through the mountains to the great western lakes. For 
 thirty-six days, moving very leisurely, the explorers fol- 
 lowed the windings of the James River until they reached 
 its " very head where it runs no bigger than a man's arm, 
 from under a large stone." They crossed the Blue Ridge 
 and discovered the Shenandoah, ** a large river flowing 
 west." There the governor buried a bottle in which was 
 a paper whereon he had written that he took possession of 
 all that region in the name of King George of England. 
 The company had a good dinner, drank the king's health, 
 and fired off their guns ; and then, thinking they had 
 gained sufficient glory, returned to Williamsburg. 
 
 The governor was so highly pleased with his little ex- 
 pedition that he caused to be made for each of his com- 
 panions a little golden horseshoe on which was engraved 
 a Latin motto signifying, "Thus we swear to cross the 
 mountains ; " and each of the brave explorers was honored 
 with the title of *' Knight of the Golden Horseshoe." The 
 king, too, was pleased, and he made the governor a real 
 knight and called him Sir Alexander Spotswood. 
 
 More important than all this, howevei*, was the note of 
 warning which Spotswood afterward sent to the English 
 Lords of Trade : ''The British plantations are in a manner 
 surrounded by the French with the numerous nations of 
 Indians settled on both sides of the lakes. They may not 
 only engross the whole skin trade, but may, when they 
 please, send out such bodies of Indians on the back of 
 
28 TJic Rival Claimants 
 
 these plantations as may greatly distress his Majesty's 
 subjects here." And he ends by urging the government 
 to make settlements on the lakes and to fortify the passes 
 in the mountains, saying that he, himself, is ** ready to 
 undertake this project if his Majesty thinks fit to approve 
 of it." 
 
 VI. OWNERS, OR INTERLOPERS ? 
 
 While the French were still groping among the inlets 
 and bayous about the mouth of the Mississippi, and trying 
 to find a suitable place for a settlement, an incident hap- 
 pened which persuaded them that England was already 
 plotting to seize upon that part of the country. From 
 the harbor at Biloxi in what is now the state of Mississippi, 
 Le Moyne de Bienville, a young French officer, had set 
 out to explore the lower reaches of the great 
 river. With five men he made his way overland 
 to the point where the city of New Orleans now stands. 
 There the party embarked in two canoes and dropped 
 slowly down the stream, examining the low, muddy banks, 
 and seeking a suitable spot for the building of a fort. 
 Suddenly as they were passing the bend known ever since 
 as English Turn, they met an English sailing vessel, 
 armed with ten guns, that was slowly making its way 
 against the current. 
 
 Bienville, nothing daunted, hailed the ship and demanded 
 to know by what right it was thus sailing in waters belong- 
 ing to King Louis of France. The captain answered that 
 if this were indeed the Mississippi, he was not trespassing 
 on the French possessions, but only entering the province 
 
Owners, or Interlopers? 
 
 29 
 
 of Carolina, which extended from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific and embraced quite an extent of land on both 
 sides of that river. He added that he had been sent 
 out by Daniel Coxe, the proprietor of Carolina, to find 
 the Mississippi and select a good place on its banks for 
 the settling of a colony. He wished also, on his own 
 
 " Bienville, nothing daunted, hailed the ship" 
 
 account, to ascend to the country of the Chickasaws, 
 where he hoped to buy a number of Indian slaves. He 
 had sailed into this stream thinking that it might be the 
 river that he was seeking, and yet he was fearful it might 
 be some other. 
 
 The shrew^d Frenchman assured him that he had missed 
 his way. "The Mississippi is much farther w^est," said 
 he ; " and this is quite another stream, wholly within the 
 
30 The Rival Claimants 
 
 possessions of France. A few leagues above this place we 
 have many flourishing settlements and a strong fort for 
 their protection. If you will be warned by me you will 
 turn back and not venture farther into our domains, where 
 you will surely be dealt with as a trespasser." 
 
 The English captain, who had already been doubtful of 
 his course, was very easily deceived. He asked Bienville 
 for further information about the coast and the various 
 landmarks that would guide him to the Mississippi, all of 
 which the Frenchman cheerfully gave from his ready 
 imagination. Then the captain ordered the ship to be 
 turned about, and the Englishmen were soon sailing with 
 the current back toward the Gulf ; and we hear no more 
 of Daniel Coxe's scheme to colonize the valley of the 
 Mississippi. 
 
 The French quite naturally became suspicious of every 
 movement made by the English, and especially of every 
 movement that pointed westward. The very presence of 
 the English colonies along the Atlantic coast was regarded 
 as an intrusion upon territory which ought to belong to 
 France. For had not Verrazano and Ribaut, sailing 
 under the French flag, discovered the entire eastern coast 
 of North America, and thereby made France the owner of 
 the whole continent from Florida to the northern ocean } 
 The English, they said, were interlopers, and the claims 
 which they based upon Cabot's discoveries were of no 
 force ; they would have been driven out of the country 
 long ago had not the king of France been a lover of peace 
 and loath to make trouble with his neighbors. 
 
Oivncrs, or hitcrlopcrs ? 3 1 
 
 The English replied by again calling attention to Cabot's 
 voyages, which were made more than a quarter of a 
 century before Verrazano had sighted the coast of Carolina. 
 His discoveries had given to England not only the coast, 
 but the interior. "Therefore," said they, "the lake regions 
 are ours, and the Mississippi is ours; and these tres- 
 passing Frenchmen, who are the real interlopers, must be 
 driven out." 
 
FRENCH PRFXAUTIONS 
 
 I. JUCHEREAU 
 
 AS the years passed, each nation began slowly to pro- 
 vide defenses against any possible encroachment 
 upon its possessions. The French built a fort on the 
 Niagara River to make the English understand that the 
 approaches to the Northwest would be protected. The 
 English, to offset this, built a fort at Oswego and attracted 
 thither a great deal of the Indian trade that would other- 
 wise have gone down to Montreal. .The French fortified 
 their posts at Detroit and Mackinac to guard against any 
 intrusion in the region of the upper lakes. They strength- 
 ened their friendship with the Miamis about La Salle's old 
 fort on the St. Joseph, so as to protect the portage at 
 South Bend and make it difficult for an enemy to approach 
 their Illinois settlements by that favorite route. Near the 
 head of Green Bay, close by the Jesuit mission of St. 
 Francis Xavier, they maintained a stockade called Fort la 
 Bale ; and there they stationed a garrison to command 
 the approach to the Mississippi by way of the Fox River 
 portage and the Wisconsin. 
 
 All these forts were mere blockhouses, built chiefly of 
 wood, and they had no great strength to withstand the 
 attack of a determined enemy. They were the centers, 
 however, of active trade with the Indians, and they were 
 
 32 
 
JucJicrcau 33 
 
 intended not only to keep English agents and traders from 
 entering the hunting grounds of the Northwest, but also 
 to prevent the distant tribes from carrying their peltries to 
 the Dutch-English merchants at Oswego and Albany. 
 
 Very early in the century the French had seen the 
 necessity of guarding the Mississippi from the intrusion 
 of the English, and plans had been formed for the estab- 
 lishment of several armed posts at different points along 
 the river. One of these posts was erected at the mouth of 
 the Arkansas, and another near the mouth of the Ohio. The 
 latter was commanded by Captain Juchereau of Montreal, 
 
 and manned by thirty-five Canadian soldiers and 
 
 . . 1703 
 
 hunters. It was a kind of midway point between 
 
 Canada and the French settlements on the Gulf, and must 
 be passed by all persons going from one of these places to 
 the other. 
 
 No sooner was the little post inclosed with palisades 
 than Juchereau began to make plans for the enlarge- 
 ment of his settlement. It was his intention, while guard- 
 ing this entrance to the Illinois Country, to collect furs 
 and other peltries, open mines of copper and lead in the 
 neighborhood, and carry on trade with the Indians. He 
 was not successful in prospecting for minerals, for none 
 were discovered ; but his hunters brought in such great 
 numbers of buffalo skins that he found it advisable to set 
 up a tannery for turning them into leather. Quite a 
 number of Indians were attracted to the post, and Father 
 Mermet, an earnest Jesuit missionary, tried hard to con- 
 vert them to Christianity. A little village quickly sprang 
 up. In the very shadow of the stockade a temporary 
 
34 French Prccajitious 
 
 chapel was built, while the Indian wigwams were clustered 
 near by, half hidden in the tall grass of the prairie. 
 
 But the country for miles around was Httle better than 
 a morass. The oozy soil bred miasms, and the air was 
 laden with malaria. Soon nearly every person was pros- 
 trated with disease. The Indians were the chief sufferers, 
 and numbers of them died. To appease their manitou, 
 the poor savages killed forty dogs and carried them on 
 poles in solemn procession round the village. Then, in 
 their fear of the French manitou, which they believed to be 
 more powerful than their own, the medicine men cried out : 
 *' Oh, manitou of the French, have pity upon us ! Do not 
 kill us all. Strike gently. Spare us or we shall all die." 
 
 Finally, as humble suppliants, they came to Father 
 Mermet. ''Truly, good manitou," they prayed, ''thou 
 art the keeper of hfe and death. We beg of thee to 
 hold death fast in thy sack : give out life, that we may 
 not die." But neither their own prayers nor those of the 
 good priest availed to save them from the dreaded scourge. 
 Death found new victims almost every day. 
 
 Such of the Indians as survived left the place as soon as 
 
 possible. Father Mermet retired to Kaskaskia. Captain 
 
 Juchereau, himself, soon fell a victim to the pre- 
 1704 
 
 vailing disease. A party of unfriendly Miamis 
 
 — incited, it was thought, by the English — came sweep- 
 ing down the Ohio, and the remnant of the garrison hastily 
 abandoned the stricken post. Some sought safety and 
 health in the slightly older settlements farther up the 
 Mississippi, others returned to Mackinac on the lakes or 
 to Canada. 
 
Fort Chart res 
 
 35 
 
 II. FORT CHARTRES 
 
 No further attempt was made to hold the post at the 
 mouth of the Ohio, and Juchereau's little fort, which, at 
 best, was but a feeble affair, soon crumbled 
 into ruins. The necessity, however, of a strong 
 military station on the Mississippi was not 
 lost sight of. At length, when M. Pierre 
 Dugue Boisbriant was sent to take command 
 in the Illinois Country, he was directed to 
 build a strong fort at some convenient spot 
 in the neighborhood of the settlements. 
 
 The place selected for this fortress was on 
 
 the east side of the Mississippi, about sixteen 
 
 miles above Kaskaskia. The work 
 1720 
 
 was planned by skilled engineers, 
 
 and after eighteen months of labor, and a 
 vast expenditure on the part of the govern- 
 ment, it was finished and named Fort 
 Chartres in honor of the regent of France. 
 This remarkable structure stood in the 
 heart of the wilderness, a short distance 
 from the river's bank. It was four-sided 
 in form, although not a square ; and at each corner was 
 a bastion built of stone and plastered over with lime. 
 Each side was three hundred and forty feet in length, 
 and the walls were from two to three feet thick and 
 fifteen feet high. In each wall, at regular distances, were 
 loopholes for cannon. The cornices and casements about 
 the gates were of solid blocks of freestone. Within the 
 
 The French settle- 
 ments in Illinois 
 
36 
 
 FrcncJi Precautions 
 
 walls were two roomy barracks built of stone, a spacious 
 magazine, two deep wells, and houses for the officers. 
 A wide and deep ditch was begun on the outside of the 
 walls, but was never finished. The structure was said 
 to be the most convenient and the best-built fort in North 
 America. 
 
 Here, far removed from the world's civilization, dwelt 
 the French commandant with his officers and their fami- 
 lies and a goodly number 
 of soldiers and servants. 
 To this place were carried 
 the polite manners and the 
 fashions of Paris. Noble 
 gentlemen and well-dressed 
 ladies danced in the great 
 hall, or strolled among the 
 trees outside the walls, or 
 in some other manner 
 whiled away the lonely 
 hours and made the long 
 days enjoyable. Priests in 
 their black gowns, and 
 sweet-faced nuns with beads 
 
 "The polite manners and the fashions 
 of Paris " 
 
 and crucifix, were there to 
 maintain the authority of 
 the Church, to console the sick and distressed, to admonish 
 the living, and to pray for the dead. Hither came rude 
 coureurs de bois with their strange, rough manners and 
 their tales of adventure among wild men and savage beasts. 
 Hither also came traders with goods of all kinds from 
 
Vine nines 37 
 
 France, or with loads of furs and buffalo skins to be 
 carried to the market at Kaskaskia, or shipped direct to 
 Mobile on the Gulf. Half-naked Indians, too, gay with 
 feathers and horrible in their war paint, often visited the 
 fort to trade with the inmates, to see the soldiers drilling 
 on the parade ground, or to beg some favor from the 
 commandant. 
 
 Very strange and romantic was life in that remote wil- 
 derness fort, a thousand miles from the nearest center of 
 civilization, and we could wish to know much more about 
 it. But the traveler who now visits the place will fail to 
 find any remnant of the massive fortification or any me- 
 mento to remind him of the grandeur and gayety that 
 once existed within its walls. Fifty years after its com- 
 pletion the spring floods were so unusually strong that the 
 river broke through its banks, overflowed the bottoms, and 
 formed a new channel much nearer the fort. Soon the 
 western walls were undermined by the current, and two 
 of the bastions tumbled into the stream. Then slowly 
 but surely the waters wore away the land ; the barracks, 
 the garrison chapel, the officers' quarters, all were swal- 
 lowed up, and not a vestige of "the strongest fortress on 
 the continent " remained. 
 
 III. VINCENNES 
 
 At about the time that M. Boisbriant was laying the 
 foundations of Fort Chartres, the Tvvightwees, a powerful 
 branch of the Miamis, were beginning to make their influ- 
 ence felt among the western tribes. They had lately 
 
38 
 
 FrcncJi Precautions 
 
 removed from their old homes about the St. Joseph and 
 were settled along the head waters of the Wabash and 
 at their village of Kekionga near the Maumee portage. 
 Their hunting parties ranged the country to the southeast, 
 and wandered as far as to the Ohio, where they often 
 
 had dealings with trespass- 
 ing English traders or were 
 tempted by Iroquois agents 
 in the pay of the English. 
 
 Very naturally the French 
 began to feel alarmed. They 
 could not afford to lose the 
 friendship of the Miamis. 
 The safest thing to do was 
 to keep them out of the way 
 of temptation. If they could 
 be persuaded to return to the 
 St. Joseph and hunt only in 
 the secure wilds of Michigan, 
 all would be well. 
 
 The man who had most in- 
 fluence among these savages 
 was the Sieur de Vincennes, a Canadian gentleman, kins- 
 man of Louis Joliet, the explorer of the Mississippi. To 
 him the woods and great rivers of the Northwest 
 offered so many attractions that he had spent 
 his life among them, building up French interests and 
 enjoying the savage freedom of the wilderness. At the 
 suggestion of the governor of Canada, he undertook the 
 duty of persuading the Miamis to remove from the region 
 
 1719 
 
J'^iuccnncs 39 
 
 of danger. The savages listened to him with patience, 
 and when he promised to go with them to their former 
 homes on the St. Joseph, they consented, if only they might 
 wait until after the autumn hunt and the gathering in of 
 the corn. 
 
 But before the autumn came the Sieur de Vincennes 
 was taken sick ; and while the corn was still green in the 
 ear he died and was buried in the village of Kekionga. 
 ** Who now will lead us to the St. Joseph, and who will 
 befriend us there.''" asked the Miamis. "We will stay 
 where we are." 
 
 The noble Canadian was succeeded by his nephew, 
 Francois Margane, who also assumed his title of Sieur 
 de Vincennes. The young man was brave, discreet, and 
 thoroughly inured to the wild life of the woods. No one 
 was better fitted to carry on the work which his uncle had 
 begun. The Miamis looked up to him with confidence, 
 but they would not be persuaded to stir from Kekionga. 
 The best he could do was to cultivate their friendship 
 and keep a watchful eye on such of their young men 
 as were most likely to be influenced by the English. 
 
 Of all the routes between Canada and the Illinois 
 
 Country that by way of the Maumee and the Wabash was 
 
 much the shorter and easier. To aid in protecting this 
 
 route as well as to supply a kind of midway station for 
 
 traders and voyageurs, the young Sieur de Vincennes 
 
 built and fortified the post of Ouiatenon near the 
 
 1720 ? 
 present site of the city of Lafayette. This little 
 
 fort was on the north bank of the Wabash, two or three 
 
 miles above the chief villao:e of the Ouiatenon Indians. 
 
40 FrciicJi Precautious 
 
 A few years later another fort was built near the 
 
 Piankeshaw town of Chipkawkay, a hundred and twenty 
 
 miles farther down the Wabash, and the Sieur de 
 1727 ? 
 
 Vincennes was appointed to its command. A 
 
 mission was established, and a French village grew up 
 around the fort. Traders and coureurs de bois were 
 attracted to the place, and it soon became a depot where 
 immense stores of furs were collected to be shipped north- 
 ward to the Canadian markets or southward to the French 
 ports on the Gulf. The Sieur de Vincennes was not only 
 the military commander of the post, but for a few years he 
 was the leader of every important enterprise. He was 
 honored as the founder and patron of the village. Many 
 new families gathered there, and the place grew and pros- 
 pered, being in all things much like any other French settle- 
 ment in the Northwest. It was long known merely as the 
 Post on the Wabash (Poste au Ouabache) ; but after the 
 tragic death of its founder — burned at the stake by Chicka- 
 saw Indians — it was named, in his honor. Post Vincennes. 
 Life was easy at Post Vincennes. The soldiers and 
 their officers, the traders, the coureurs, and the contented 
 villagers felt very secure in their secluded home with the 
 trackless forest stretching hundreds of miles to the east of 
 them, and on the west the treeless prairies extending to 
 the setting sun. Furs were plentiful ; the Indians were 
 friendly; and but little occurred to disturb the serenity of 
 the Httle settlement. And if, now and then, rumors came 
 of trespasses by Englishmen into the regions about the 
 head waters of the Ohio, these rumors caused but little 
 anxiety — the English were still so far away. 
 
TJic Trespass ci's 4 1 
 
 IV. THE TRESPASSERS 
 
 The Shawnees in the valley of the Ohio had never been 
 firm friends of the French, and it was through them that 
 the Dutch-luiglish traders at Oswego and Albany hoped 
 finally to gain a foothold in the Northwest. The white 
 men whose tampering with the Miamis of Kekionga had 
 given the first alarm to the French, were agents of these 
 traders. They were backwoods adventurers, having all 
 the bad qualities of the French coureurs de bois and but 
 few of their redeeming traits. They were rough, bold, 
 cunning, heartless, skilled in the lore of the woods, and 
 having a thorough knowledge of Indian character. If 
 the Shawnees and Miamis chose to trade with them, how 
 could the French soldiers and traders on the Wabash or 
 at Fort Chartres or Detroit prevent their coming t 
 
 Year after year these men continued to visit the region 
 watered by the northern tributaries of the Ohio. Singly, 
 or by twos and threes, they would go to an Indian village 
 in the autumn carrying a stock of blankets and fire water 
 which the savages were always eager to buy. The agent 
 was all smiles and blandishments. He was not obliged, 
 like the French traders, to divide profits with a great 
 monopoly or with the king, and therefore he could sell 
 his goods cheap and offer high prices for furs. " You 
 may have as much fire water as you want," he would say. 
 " You need not pay for it now ; but in the spring, 
 when I come again, you may give me as many furs as it 
 is worth." Of course the foolish Indians would buy in 
 large quantities. They would spend the winter in carous- 
 
42 
 
 FrcncJi Pjrcautioiis 
 
 ing, and when the time for payment came they would be 
 in hard straits to meet their promises. More smiles and 
 more blandishments would follow ; more strong drink 
 would be produced ; and then all the furs that could be 
 gotten together would pass into the agent's hands. 
 
 It was through such means as these that the English 
 traders sought to gain and keep the friendship of the 
 
 "The agent was all smiles and blandishments 
 
 western tribes and turn them away from the French. 
 And they succeeded so well that, in the course of time, 
 a large share of the fur trade in the valley of the Ohio 
 was controlled by them and their agents. English rum 
 was plentiful, English goods were cheap, English prom- 
 ises were alluring — and these bade fair to win the hearts 
 of the wavering red men. 
 
J one aire 43 
 
 V. JONCAIKE 
 
 With every day that passed, the French became more 
 and more convinced that something must be done to 
 counteract the influence of their rivals. But what could 
 they do? If they could only drive the trespassing Eng- 
 lishmen from their territory, they might make short work 
 of the whole matter. But the agents were too wily to 
 be caught ; and it soon became plain that some of the 
 tribes were ready at any time to transfer their friend- 
 ship to the English. At length it was decided to send 
 into the Ohio Country a man of influence among the 
 Indians, who should show the Shawnees and Miamis 
 the great mistake they would make by turning away 
 from their former patrons and friends. 
 
 For this important duty Joseph Joncaire, a Frenchman 
 
 of great shrewdness and daring, was chosen. No man 
 
 understood the Indian character better than he : 
 
 1730 ? 
 no man was more highly esteemed by all the 
 
 red men of the Northwest. He was almost an Indian 
 himself. Many years before, when a young man, he had 
 been taken prisoner by the Seneca-Iroquois. His captors 
 tortured him in their usual manner, and were astonished 
 at his fortitude. They tied him to a tree and kindled 
 a fire to burn him to death ; but his courage and indif- 
 ference to pain won their hearts. They scattered the 
 burning brands, and ended by adopting Joncaire into 
 their tribe, and welcoming him as their brother. He 
 did not object to becoming an Indian. He lived with 
 the Senecas for many years, married the daughter of a 
 
44 FraicJi Precautions 
 
 Seneca chief, brought up a family of copper-colored 
 children, and became almost as much of a savage as the 
 savagest Iroquois. But he was always faithful to his 
 kinsmen, the French, and more than once did he render 
 them valuable service. He was now to aid them in 
 another manner by being their envoy to the tribes in 
 the Ohio Valley. 
 
 Joncaire, with a few Indian companions, embarked 
 upon one of the head waters of the Ohio and floated 
 down that stream toward the country of the Miamis. 
 The region between Lake Erie and the Beautiful River 
 was still for the most part an uninhabited wilderness — 
 the hunting grounds of the Iroquois and of some of the 
 smaller western nations. To white men the Ohio itself 
 was almost unknown, for since its discovery by La Salle, 
 more than half a century before, few but the most daring 
 wood rangers had visited it; and even the Indians who 
 ventured to set up their wigwams near its banks were 
 ignorant of much of the country through which it flowed. 
 
 As Joncaire with his companions canoed down the 
 noble stream, now swollen by the spring floods, they met 
 several small bands of Shawnees hunting in the forest or 
 encamped in some temporary village near the shore. To 
 all these he delivered his message from ** Onontio, their 
 loving father" the governor of Canada, telling them to 
 beware of the English. Now and then he heard news 
 of trespassing agents having crossed his path, but they 
 were always careful to keep out of his sight. Near the 
 place where now stands the city of Cincinnati he found 
 some straggUng Miamis whose homes were a little farther 
 
Fort Massac 45 
 
 westward and northward on the rivers that bear their 
 name. All listened with great attention to what he had 
 to say. They promised not to sell their furs to any but 
 French traders, and declared themselves ready to go on 
 the warpath whenever " Onontio " should call for the 
 punishment of the English. 
 
 But no sooner had Joncaire left them than they for- 
 got all their promises, welcomed the English traders to 
 their villages, and renewed their friendship with Onon- 
 tio's enemies. 
 
 VI. FORT MASSAC 
 
 While the Sieur de Vincennes was establishing the post 
 that was afterward known by his name, other Frenchmen 
 were building a small fort on the north bank of the Ohio, 
 about forty miles above the junction of that stream with 
 the Mississippi and just opposite the mouth of the Ten- 
 nessee. This fort was intended to serve as a trading post, 
 a missionary station, and a protection against raids by 
 hostile Indians from the south. Soon after Joncaire's visit, 
 it was enlarged and strengthened, and surrounded by high 
 palisades, so that it might be proof not only 
 against the attacks of unfriendly savages but also 
 against any attempted seizure by EngUsh traders or ex- 
 plorers. A garrison of French soldiers was stationed there, 
 and the place became quite a resort for the coureurs who 
 ranged the woods and prairies of the lower Wabash. Its 
 prosperity, however, was but short lived. 
 
 One morning the French soldiers, looking out over the 
 river, were surprised to see half a dozen bears ambling 
 
 V 
 
46 
 
 FroicJi Precautions 
 
 along among the bushes near the opposite bank of the 
 river. It was a strange and unusual sight, and all the 
 men in the garrison, together with the visiting coureurs 
 and traders, were wild with excitement. So far as the 
 soldiers knew, there was not an enemy 
 within a hundred miles. Why should 
 they stay cooped up within the fort 
 -, when such rare game was in sight } 
 Some of them at once 
 rushed for the boats and 
 - rowed rapidly across the 
 river. All the others ran 
 down to the water side to 
 watch the sport, leaving the 
 . gate of the stockade 
 %^/P wide open. Scarcely 
 had the boats touched 
 the opposite bank 
 when wild yells were 
 3. heard on every hand 
 and a scene of fright- 
 ful confusion began. 
 The supposed bears 
 suddenly turned into naked savages, and at the same time 
 a score of warriors rushed from the thickets on this 
 side of the river and crowded through the open gate 
 into the fort. The soldiers — many of them being without 
 arms — were taken by surprise. A terrible massacre fol- 
 lowed, and but few of the French escaped with their 
 lives. The Indians burned the fort and then, with many 
 
 " Half a dozen bears ambling along " 
 
Fort Massac 47 
 
 bloody scalps dangling from their belts, returned into 
 the woods. 
 
 Some time afterward another fort was built on the same 
 spot. It was made much stronger than the first, and was 
 garrisoned by soldiers who were not likely to be deceived 
 by savage cunning. It was called Fort Massac, in honor of 
 M. Massac, the first commander of the post; but in remem- 
 brance of the bloody slaughter that had taken place there, 
 many people were accustomed to speak of it as Fort 
 Massacre. It formed one of a chain of military posts 
 which the French planned to establish from Lake Erie 
 and the head waters of the Ohio to the Gulf of Mexico. 
 The governor of Canada and the French king were begin- 
 ning to understand that a great struggle for the possession 
 of the lakes and the Mississippi was near at hand. *' If 
 the English once gain a foothold in the West," said some 
 of the king's counselors, "we shall lose not only Louisiana 
 and the regions north and west, but Canada itself." 
 
BIENVILLE DE CELORON 
 I. ON THE ALLEGHENY 
 
 THE plan of building a line of forts for the protection 
 of French interests in the Northwest was a wise one, 
 but the work was allowed to languish. Year after year 
 passed by, and but little was accomplished. The English 
 never relaxed their claims, and their traders boldly invaded 
 the territory which the French regarded as their own. 
 Each year the French saw the fur trade setting more and 
 more toward Albany instead of toward their own trade 
 centers in Canada and on the Gulf. Their control over 
 the western Indians seemed to be growing constantly 
 weaker — they feared it would soon be lost. 
 
 At length the French government saw that something 
 decisive must be done without further delay. As a first 
 
 step, therefore, in streno^thening^ the claims and 
 1749 
 
 influence of France, M. Bienville de Celoron was 
 
 instructed to explore the Ohio region and take formal 
 
 possession of the country in the name of King Louis XV. 
 
 On a warm day in July Celoron started from Canada on 
 
 this important mission. He had with him twenty soldiers, 
 
 a large number of voyageurs, and about thirty Indians, 
 
 most of them being Iroquois. A son of the famous Jon- 
 
 caire, a half-breed Seneca having great influence among 
 
 the Indians, went with him as his interpreter and guide, 
 
 48 
 
On tlie AllegJicny 
 
 49 
 
 
 From Lake Erie Celoron and his company crossed the 
 short but difficult portage to Chautauqua Lake, where 
 they launched their fleet of Hght canoes and began their 
 voyage. Without mishap or delay they continued their 
 course to the outlet of that beautiful sheet of water and 
 then onward down the crooked 
 and shallow stream which connects 
 it with the Allegheny. " In some 
 places," wrote Father Bonnecamp, 
 the priest who went with the ex- 
 pedition, "the water was only 
 two or three inches deep ; and 
 we were reduced to the sad ne- 
 cessity of dragging our canoes 
 over the sharp pebbles, which, 
 with all our care and precau- - 
 
 tion, stripped off large slivers of 
 the bark. At last, tired and worn, 
 and almost in despair of ever seeing 
 La Belle Riviere, we entered it at 
 noon of the 29th." 
 
 It was the Allegheny River 
 upon which their canoes emerged ; 
 for that stream was then considered a part of 
 the Ohio or La Belle Riviere. At the first convenient 
 place the party landed in order to perform an important 
 ceremony which was to be repeated at various points 
 farther down the river. Soldiers and voyageurs were 
 drawn up in line upon the bank ; the priest pronounced a 
 blessing, and Celoron in a loud voice proclaimed King 
 
 portage 
 
 CONQ. O.N.W. ■ 
 
so 
 
 Bienville de Celorofi 
 
 Louis XV. to be the rightful sovereign of all the land. 
 A sheet of tin bearing the arms of France was nailed to 
 a tree, and at its foot an engraved leaden plate was buried 
 " as a token of renewal of possession heretofore taken of 
 the River Ohio, of all streams that fall into it, and all lands 
 on both sides to the source of the aforesaid streams." 
 
 As they floated down the Allegheny " 
 
 This ceremony being ended, the soldiers fired a salute, 
 the Indians and voyageurs yelled in concert, and the party 
 again took to their canoes. 
 
 As they floated down the Allegheny they passed many 
 straggling wigwams and small villages of Indians. The 
 sight of so many canoes with white men caused great 
 alarm, and men, women, and children fled into the woods. 
 Young Joncaire with all his arts of persuasion could hardly 
 
D 01V 11 La Belle Kivicir 
 
 51 
 
 make them believe that the l^'reiichmcn iiUciulecl to do no 
 harm. Whenever they could be induced to stop and listen, 
 Celoron would read to them a letter which he said was 
 from their ** great father," the king of France. 
 
 "My children," the letter ran, "since I was at war with 
 the English, I have learned that they have deceived you ; 
 and, not content with corrupting your hearts, they have 
 invaded my lands. I therefore send to you Monsieur 
 de Celoron to tell you my intentions, which are that I 
 will not endure the English on my land. Listen to me, 
 children ; mark well the word that I send you ; follow 
 my advice, and the sky will always be calm and clear 
 over your villages." 
 
 II. DOWN LA BELLE RIVIERE 
 
 In a few days the party reached a village of the 
 Delawares from which all the people had fled. . This 
 was at a place which 
 Celoron described as 
 the finest on the river. 
 It was probably at 
 the forks of the Ohio 
 where now stands 
 the city of Pittsburg. 
 There, with the usu- 
 al ceremonies, they 
 buried another leaden 
 plate, after which 
 
 they continued their voyage. They were now fairly 
 launched on the Ohio itself, the true Helle Riviere, 
 
52 Bienville de Celoron 
 
 discovered and first navigated by the Sieur de la Salle, 
 eighty years before. Eighteen or twenty miles farther 
 down, they came to a large village which the French 
 called Chininqiie, but which was known to the English 
 traders as Logstown. It was the most important place 
 on the river and was inhabited mainly by Delawares 
 and Shawnees. Here, too, lived a number of Mingoes, 
 a mixed race, descended from the Iroquois and the con- 
 quered Andastes, or Eries, of the Lake Erie region. 
 
 The savages at Logstown were not afraid of the French- 
 men, neither did they receive them very kindly. They 
 ranged themselves along the river bank and greeted their 
 visitors with a volley of musket shots. But here young 
 Joncaire's good offices were again most valuable. He 
 persuaded the chiefs to allow Celoron to land his men, 
 and a time was set for the holding of a council. 
 
 At the council Celoron read another letter which he 
 said had been written by their French father, ** Onontio," 
 the governor of Canada. '* My children," it ended, " the 
 English intend to rob you of your country ; and that 
 they may succeed, they begin by corrupting your minds. 
 As they mean to seize the Ohio, which belongs to me, I 
 send to warn them to retire." 
 
 The chiefs were not altogether pleased. " The Eng- 
 lish," they said, *' pay us the best prices for our furs. 
 Their rum and their blankets are good and cheap, and we 
 need them. Yet we will do what the great father bids us." 
 
 There were ten English traders in the town at that 
 very time ; and Celoron had but little faith in the 
 promises of the chiefs. 
 
Dozvn La Belle Rivih'e 53 
 
 As the party continued their voyage down the beauti- 
 ful river they heard of the EngHsh at many places. 
 Men from Virginia had been exploring the rich 
 valleys on the south, and they were already 
 making plans for the settlement of that region. A number 
 of wealthy Virginians had formed a company called the 
 Ohio Company; and the king of England had, that very 
 summer, granted to this company two hundred thousand 
 acres of land, to be chosen wherever they should prefer, 
 west of the Alleghanies. 
 
 At some distance below Logstown, Celoron met six Eng- 
 lishmen, who had been trading in the Northwest and 
 were returning to Pennsylvania. They had fifty horses 
 with them and a hundred and fifty bales of furs which 
 they had bought from the Miamis and Shawnees. As 
 France and England were then at peace, Celoron did 
 not dare to punish these trespassers as he thought they 
 deserved. All he could do was to bid them to leave the 
 country as quickly as possible and never come back. 
 The traders answered, very meekly, that they would obey 
 his commands ; and they carried a letter from Celoron 
 to the governor of Pennsylvania asking him to forbid 
 his subjects trespassing upon the territories of the king 
 of P^rance. It is not to be supposed that they remem- 
 bered their promises long, or that the letter had much 
 influence with the governor. 
 
 At the mouth of the Muskingum River another sheet 
 of tin was nailed upon a tree and another lead plate 
 was buried. More than sixty years afterward, some boys 
 who were playing along the river, saw the edge of this 
 
54 
 
 Bienville dc Celoron 
 
 plate jutting out from the side of a bank where the 
 stream had partly unearthed it. The foolish lads carried 
 it home, and had melted a part of it into bullets before 
 its value was discovered. What was left of it may still 
 
 be seen in the museum of the 
 American Antiquarian Society. 
 Two or three other plates have 
 since been found in other places 
 near the junction of other rivers 
 with the Ohio. 
 
 Celoron's further progress down 
 the Ohio was neither pleasant 
 nor promising. Many of the men 
 unused to the hot August weather 
 became sick. The Indians along 
 the shore were suspicious if not 
 unfriendly. It was plain that the 
 EngHsh had been tampering with 
 them and making them promises. 
 One morning, near the mouth of 
 the Scioto River, the voyagers came 
 upon a large village of Shawnees. 
 They landed some distance above 
 the place, and young Joncaire, with a flag of truce, went 
 forward to make peace with the savages. As he approached 
 the village he was greeted with fierce yells and hoots of 
 defiance. His flag was riddled with bullets, and a party 
 of young braves rushed upon him and made him prisoner. 
 Some tried to tomahawk him on the spot ; others wanted to 
 burn him alive. But there chanced to be in the village 
 
 Present appearance of 
 
 one of the lead plates 
 
Down La Pnllc Riviere 
 
 55 
 
 an Iroquois chief who had known Joncairc since his 
 boyhood. 
 
 " Let the young man go," said he. ** He is my brother, 
 and you shall not harm him." 
 
 The Shawnees hesitated. 
 They dared not offend the 
 Iroquois nation, and still 
 they did not wish to receive 
 the French. At last, how- 
 ever, they loosed their hold 
 upon their prisoner and 
 bade him go back to his 
 companions. 
 
 Celoron was now more 
 than ever anxious to win 
 the friendship of these 
 Indians, for he knew that 
 if the English should per- 
 suade them to take the 
 warpath, they would be 
 powerful foes. He there- 
 fore ordered his men to 
 embark again and drop 
 down the river to a point 
 opposite the village. 
 When the savages saw 
 them coming they rushed 
 to the shore and began 
 
 shooting at the canoes. But no one was hurt. The 
 Frenchmen landed in safety, posted guards along the 
 
 ^■f^fiy"'„^^ 
 
 His flag was riddled with bullets" 
 
56 Bienville de Celoron 
 
 river bank, and made as great a display of force as 
 they could. 
 
 As the day wore on, the Indians began to feel alarmed, 
 and sent some of their older men across the river to make 
 a treaty of peace. A council was held in Celoron's tent. 
 The chiefs expressed great sorrow that their young men 
 should have behaved so badly, and promised to help the 
 Frenchmen along in their voyage. There were some 
 English traders in the village, and Celoron demanded that 
 they should be driven out. But the Indians gave him to 
 understand that this would not be done ; and the coun- 
 cil broke up without either party having gained what it 
 wanted. 
 
 III. UP THE GREAT MIAMI 
 
 On one of the last days in August the voyagers arrived 
 
 at the mouth of the Great Miami. There Celoron buried 
 
 the last of his leaden plates and resolved to follow the 
 
 Ohio no farther. For a whole month, as Father 
 1749 
 
 Bonnecamp says, he had been exploring " La 
 
 Belle Riviere, that river so little known to the French, and 
 
 unfortunately too well known to the English." He was 
 
 resolved now to penetrate boldly into the interior of the 
 
 country, and by making friends with the natives, win them 
 
 to the support of the French cause. 
 
 On the following day, therefore, the party began a slow 
 
 and laborious voyage up the Great Miami. The heat was 
 
 oppressive, many of the men were ill, and progress was 
 
 very slow. The few Indians that were met were of the 
 
 Miami nation, and they proved to be no more friendly 
 
up tJic Great Miami 57 
 
 than the Shawnees. Ccloron tried to win their confidence 
 by giving them presents of powder and shot ; but they 
 would accept nothing from him. It was plain that English 
 traders had been among them. 
 
 Near the mouth of Loramie Creek, a hundred miles 
 from the Ohio, there was a large village of Miamis ruled 
 over by a chief known to the French as La Demoiselle, 
 but to the English as Old Britain. This village which the 
 English called Pique Town, or Pickawillany, not long 
 afterward became one of the most powerful Indian towns 
 in the Northwest and the seat of the great Miami Confed- 
 eracy. Celoron and his party stopped here for a day, and 
 a council was held with La Demoiselle and his braves. 
 
 For many years the French had been trying to persuade 
 the Miamis to return to their former hunting grounds, 
 farther to the north and out of the way of temptation by 
 the EngHsh. Celoron now endeavored to induce La De- 
 moiselle to lead his people back to their old homes at 
 Kekionga near the Maumee portage. " My children," he 
 said, addressing the chiefs in council, "you will enjoy in 
 that country the delights of life, it being the place where 
 repose the bones of your fathers and those of the Sieur de 
 Vincennes whom you much loved." La Demoiselle and 
 his chiefs listened kindly to what the Frenchman said, 
 and promised that at a convenient time they would do all 
 that was asked of them ; but any one could see that they, 
 too, had been won over to the English cause. 
 
 For three weeks the voyagers toiled up the Miami, 
 until at last the stream became so shallow as to make 
 further progress by water impossible. Then they dragged 
 
58 Bienville de Celoron 
 
 their canoes ashore and burned them. The next day 
 they bought a few horses of the Indians, and started over- 
 land through the untracked wilderness, directing their 
 
 course toward the northwest. For five days they 
 1749 
 
 struggled through the woods and at last reached 
 
 the spot where two small rivers unite to form the Maumee, 
 or as it was then called, the Miami-of-the-Lakes. Here 
 was the site of the old Miami village of Kekionga, and the 
 place where now stands the city of Fort Wayne. On the 
 north bank of the Maumee, Celoron and his companions 
 found a small stockade occupied by a few French soldiers 
 and coureurs de bois. There was not much there, how- 
 ever, to cheer the tired wanderers ; for every man at the 
 post was sick with fever and ague, and accommodations 
 were very slight for so large a company. The very next 
 day, therefore, Celoron borrowed some log canoes, and the 
 homeward voyage was begun. 
 
 A week later he was at Detroit, and on the ninth of 
 November he arrived safe at Montreal. He had been 
 absent a little over three months, had traveled a dis- 
 tance of more than twelve hundred miles, had traversed 
 unknown rivers and pierced trackless forests, had met 
 many unfriendly bands of savages, and had returned from 
 his perilous expedition with the loss of only a single man. 
 His visit to the Ohio Country must have produced greater 
 results than was at first supposed ; for, when war actually 
 began between the English and the French, the Indians 
 very generally gave their support to the latter. 
 
CHRISTOPHER GIST 
 I. TO THE JVIUSKINTGUM 
 
 MENTION has already been made of the Ohio Com- 
 pany which had been organized by wealthy Vir- 
 ginians for the purpose of trading in western lands. They 
 had obtained from the king of England a grant of two 
 hundred thousand acres to be chosen by them in any part 
 of the Ohio Valley which seemed to be the most desirable. 
 It was an easy thing for the king to give away lands 
 which he had never really possessed ; and the only con- 
 ditions which he required were that the Ohio Company 
 should build a fort on their domains and should settle 
 a hundred ^families of colonists near it. If they failed to 
 do this within seven years, the lands should revert to the 
 king. 
 
 Within less than a year after Celoron's famous voyage 
 down the Ohio, this company resolved to send out an ex- 
 pedition which should explore the country north 
 of that river, and discover, if possible, the best 
 place to locate their proposed colony. The expedition 
 was to be made, not by an officer with soldiers and 
 voyageurs and Indian hangers-on, as had been the case 
 with Celoron, but by a single man skilled in woodcraft 
 and well acquainted with savage life and manners. It was 
 conducted not by the government with a great show of 
 
 59 
 
6o Christopher Gist 
 
 power, but by a private trading and emigration company, 
 quietly and without publicity. Its object was not to take 
 formal possession of the country and drive out intruders, 
 but to discover what were its resources and by what means 
 English settlers might get into it. 
 
 The man chosen for this important service was Chris- 
 topher Gist, a hunter and trader from North Carolina, 
 whose life had been spent on the wilderness frontier. He 
 was not expected to bury leaden plates, or to make procla- 
 mations ; but he was instructed to go as far west as the 
 falls of the Ohio, to find out what Indian tribes were in 
 the country and how strong they were, to learn what 
 were the easiest routes over the mountains and through 
 the wilderness, and to see where the most level and most 
 fertile lands were located. 
 
 It was late in the autumn when he started. It lacked 
 
 but a month of Christmas when he reached Logstown. 
 
 He found there a number of traders from Pennsyl- 
 1750 
 
 vania, rough and lawless men who were ready to 
 
 do any kind of wickedness that came into their minds. They 
 were suspicious of Gist, and told him that he ** should never 
 go home safe." But Gist was not the man to be frightened ; 
 and when he informed them that he was in the service of 
 the king they gave him no further annoyance. 
 
 About the middle of December he reached the Mus- 
 kingum River, where was a village of Wyandots. These 
 Indians were a remnant of the once great Huron 
 nation, and were uncertain whether to remain friendly 
 to their old allies, the French, or join themselves to 
 the cause of the English. In their village Gist found 
 
To the Muskingum 
 
 6i 
 
 a Scotch-Irish trader named Georp^e Croghan, who had 
 great iiifiuence over all the rude rovers in the wilderness. 
 Here, too, he met Andrew Montour, one of the most 
 picturesque characters of that re- 
 markable time — a typical Indian 
 scout and interpreter, accustomed 
 from his birth to the wild life of 
 the woods. Montour's mother 
 was a half-breed of much influ- 
 ence among the Iroquois ; his 
 father, Big Tree, an Iroquois 
 chief, had been killed several 
 years before while fighting with 
 some western Indians. Andrew 
 had the features and form 
 of a Frenchman, but many 
 of the manners of an Indian. 
 He was the dandy of the 
 wilderness. His face was 
 greased and painted like 
 that of a true savage, and in his 
 ears he wore huge brass ornaments 
 *' something like the handle of a 
 basket." His cinnamon-colored coat 
 was of fine cloth, and underneath it 
 he wore a scarlet waistcoat of satin. 
 
 His necktie was black, ornamented with silver spangles. 
 He wore his shirt on the outside of his trousers ; on his 
 head was a hat of English make ; and his feet and legs 
 were protected by shoes and stockings. He had at 
 
 He was the dandy of the 
 wilderness " 
 
62 CJiristopJicr Gist 
 
 several times been of great service to the English, and 
 his Indian kinsmen held him in great esteem. 
 
 Gist stayed but a few days among the Wyandots, and 
 then went onward through the dense forest. Montour 
 and Croghan were with him. They stopped for a day 
 at a Httle village on White Woman's Creek, where lived 
 Mary Harris who had been taken captive by the savages 
 forty years before. She seemed to be content with her 
 lot, having an Indian husband and many half-breed chil- 
 dren. *' But she still remembers," says Gist, '' that they 
 used to be very religious in New England, and wonders 
 how white men can be so wicked as she has seen them 
 in these woods." 
 
 II. AT PICKAWILLANY 
 
 After visiting the Delawares on the Scioto, Gist and his 
 two companions made their way across the country to Picka- 
 willany on the Great Miami. The region through which 
 they passed was of surpassing loveliness. ** It is well 
 timbered with large walnut, ash, sugar trees, and cherry 
 trees," says Gist ; '* well watered with a great number 
 of little streams and rivulets ; full of beautiful natural 
 meadows, with wild rye, bluegrass, and clover; and abound- 
 ing with turkeys, deer, elks, and most sorts of game, 
 particularly buffaloes, thirty or forty of which are fre- 
 quently seen in one meadow." 
 
 Here some Englishmen were setting up a trading 
 post and storehouses. It was the most western point to 
 which they had yet dared venture. Since Celoron's visit, 
 a year before, the place had increased in size and im- 
 
A t Picka willany 
 
 63 
 
 portance. It now contained more than four hundred In- 
 dian famihes, and was the largest village in the country. 
 The Miami Confederacy, which included nearly all the 
 tribes in the Ohio Valley, had but recently been formed, 
 and here was the center of its power. The leader of this 
 confederacy was Old Britain, or La Demoiselle, the same 
 wild savage who had received Celoron so dubiously. He 
 
 M , Vi- Wis ^W^^ , ?-#, ^ 
 
 
 "A message of good will from the commandant at Detroit " 
 
 welcomed the three explorers very kindly, invited them to 
 his house, and hoisted the English flag over his door. 
 
 A council was called, and gifts were distributed by 
 Croghan and Montour. Gist made a speech to the assem- 
 bled warriors, and the thirty traders who happened to 
 be in the village contributed to the good cheer of the 
 occasion. The Miami chiefs were delighted, and a treaty 
 of peace was solemnly completed between them and the 
 
64 CJiristopJicr Gist 
 
 English. Some Ottawas, whom the French had sent 
 down from the lakes, ventured to put in a word of protest. 
 They displayed a French flag, treated the chiefs to a drink 
 of French brandy, and delivered a message of good will 
 from the commandant at Detroit. But Old Britain and 
 his braves mocked them. " Brothers, the Ottawas," said 
 the great war chief, " we let you know by these four 
 strings of wampum that we will not hear anything the 
 French say, nor do anything they bid us." 
 
 The Ottawas withdrew, abashed, but nursing revenge 
 for the slight that had been offered them. The very next 
 winter they fell upon a band of Miamis and killed fifty 
 of their number. 
 
 Gist, according to his instructions, took careful note of 
 the strength of the Miamis. In the report which he after- 
 ward made to his employers, he said : *' They are accounted 
 the most powerful people to the westward of the English 
 settlements — at present very well affected toward the 
 English, and fond of their allegiance with them." Thus 
 the short-sighted Indians, by temporarily turning against 
 the French, who were really their friends, were pav- 
 ing the way for their own destruction. 
 
 On the first of March Gist bade good-by to his friends 
 at Pickawillany. He had been instructed to go as far 
 west as the falls of the Ohio ; but the Miamis told him 
 that it would be unsafe to do so on account 
 of the French who were in that neighborhood. 
 He therefore turned his steps homeward, going first to 
 the mouth of the Scioto and making friends with the 
 Shawnees who lived there. On the last day of the 
 
At Pickawillaiiy 65 
 
 month he crossed the Ohio, and boldly entered a territory 
 never before trodden by the feet of a white man. His 
 course was at first southward to the head waters of the 
 Licking River. He then crossed the mountains, and 
 went eastward up the valley of the Clinch ; he passed the 
 sources of New River, and after an absence of seven 
 months finally reached his North Carolina home on the 
 Yadkin. A few weeks later he appeared in Roanoke 
 before a committee of the Ohio Company, to whom he 
 gave an account of his adventures. He had traveled a 
 distance of twelve hundred miles. His journey had been 
 a successful one, and it marks the beginning of the 
 English conquest of the Northwest. 
 
 CONQ. O.N.W. — 5 
 
THE KEY TO THE OHIO VALLEY 
 I. LEGARDEUR DE ST. PIERRE 
 
 LEGARDEUR DE ST. PIERRE was a great-grand- 
 son of Jean Nicolet, the discoverer of Lake Michigan. 
 He had been educated in France, and had the refined 
 manners and cultured habits of a French gentleman. But 
 
 he inherited from his 
 roving ancestor a love 
 of the woods and a 
 passion for adventure. 
 Much the greater part 
 of his life was spent in 
 the wilderness of Can- 
 ada and the forests of 
 the Northwest. 
 A dozen years before Celoron's famous expedition down 
 the Ohio, St. Pierre was in command of a fort at 
 Lake Pepin on the upper Mississippi. This was 
 the most western, save one, of all the French outposts 
 in the Old Northwest. It had been built for the pur- 
 pose of gaining the confidence and the trade of the Sioux. 
 The French had not yet ceased to dream of a waterway 
 across the continent to the Pacific ; and it was hoped that 
 by winning the friendship of the wild tribes of the far 
 West the discovery of that waterway would be made easier. 
 
 66 
 
 In the forests " 
 
 1737 
 
Lcgardciir dc St. Pierre 6y 
 
 To the frontier outpost on Lake Pepin wonderful stories 
 were brought of a great lake in the region of the setting 
 sun, from which three rivers poured, one toward the 
 Mississippi, one toward Hudson I^ay, and one toward the 
 western ocean. Near this westward flowing river there 
 were said to be walled towns in which white people lived 
 who did not know the use of firearms ; and tales were 
 told of strange forests of dyewood near the western coast, 
 and of wonderful black fish that sported in the waters 
 of the sea. 
 
 St. Pierre believed these stories, as did everybody 
 else, even to the governor of Canada. Various ex- 
 peditions were sent out under a certain Canadian officer, 
 the Sieur de Verendrye, and his sons ; and to aid in 
 this enterprise a temporary fort was built on the banks 
 of the distant Assiniboine. Ten years and more were 
 spent in a vain search for the great lake and the west- 
 ward flowing river. Verendrye explored the country bor- 
 dering upon the Upper Missouri, and his sons went so 
 far west that, first of Frenchmen, they saw some of the 
 peaks of the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 In the meanwhile the fort on Lake Pepin had suf- 
 fered disaster. It was submerged and partly destroyed 
 by a great freshet. The Sioux Indians looked upon the 
 outpost with distrust and refused to trade there. Hostile 
 Indians from the Green Bay region lay in ambush around 
 it, and even attempted to scale its palisades. And at 
 length St. Pierre found it wisest to burn the fort and make 
 his way, as best he could, to the nearest port on the lakes. 
 
 In the very year of Celoron's expedition down the Ohio, 
 
6^ 
 
 The Key to the Ohio Valley 
 
 1749 
 
 Verendrye, old and broken down with disappointments, 
 returned to Canada to die ; and Legardeur de St. 
 Pierre was chosen to carry on the work which 
 
 that determined hero 
 had begun. In the 
 following summer two 
 expeditions started 
 westward from Green 
 Bay — one under St. 
 Pierre himself, the 
 other under a brave 
 French officer named 
 Marin. It was ar- 
 ranged that after they 
 had crossed the con- 
 tinent they were to 
 meet at some point 
 on the shore of the 
 Pacific. 
 
 I need not say that 
 they never reached 
 the Pacific. Marin 
 soon returned ; but 
 St. Pierre was absent 
 three years, exploring 
 the Saskatchewan, and strengthening the fort on the As- 
 siniboine. It was he, or some member of his party, who 
 first applied the name " Montagues des Roches " to the 
 great range of western highlands — a name which with 
 the English became the familiar *' Rocky Mountains." 
 
 " First of Frenchmen, they saw some of the 
 peaks of the Rocky Mountains" 
 
Fort Ic lUriif 69 
 
 St. Pierre found the Indians very troublesome, niiiking 
 further explorations impossible. " It is evident," he said, 
 '' that so long as these people trade with the English there 
 is no hope of succeeding in finding a western sea. If 
 there were no luigiish settlements at Hudson's Bay, all 
 would be well." And so, at last, in the autumn of 1753, 
 he returned to Canada, disheartened because of his failure, 
 but laying all the blame for it upon the English. 
 
 II. FORT LE BCEUF 
 
 St. Pierre found the governor of Canada fully alive 
 
 to the danger that was likely to follow the English 
 
 encroachments in the Ohio Valley. Marin, upon his 
 
 return from the distant West, had been sent out 
 
 1752 
 to fortify the route which Celoron had followed 
 
 three years before. At Presque Isle, where now stands 
 
 the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, he had put up a fort of 
 
 squared chestnut logs, and there he had stored a great 
 
 quantity of both necessary and unnecessary supplies. 
 
 Then he had cut a broad road southward, twenty-one 
 
 miles through the forest. At the end of that road, on the 
 
 banks of French Creek, he had built a strong stockade 
 
 which he called Fort le Boeuf, the first fortified post on 
 
 the head waters of the Ohio. Canoes launched in the 
 
 creek there could float down to the Allegheny and thence 
 
 to any point on the disputed river. The place where the 
 
 Allegheny and Monongahela meet to form the Ohio, and 
 
 where now the city of Pittsburg stands, was recognized 
 
 as the key to the valley of the Ohio, if not to the entire 
 
JO The Key to tJie Ohio Valley 
 
 Northwest. For, from the English colonies there were 
 but two available routes to that country — one from west- 
 ern New York down the Allegheny, one from Virginia by 
 way of the Potomac and Monongahela — and both met at 
 the forks of the Ohio. 
 
 No sooner had Marin established himself at Fort le 
 Boeuf than he began to think of the next link in the chain 
 of fortifications that he was expected to build. At the point 
 where French Creek enters the Allegheny there was an 
 Indian town called Venango, and a Virginian trader whose 
 name was Fraser had built a trading post there. Marin 
 sent young Joncaire forward with sixty men to take pos- 
 session of this place. Joncaire seized the trading house, 
 and turned it into a French fortification. 
 
 The Indians who had treated Celoron so coolly and 
 had made such fine promises to Croghan and Gist, began 
 now to be thoroughly alarmed. Mingoes, Delawares, 
 Shawnees, and even Miamis sent their head men to Fort 
 le Boeuf to make matters right with Marin. The fickle 
 savages who had been so eager to welcome the English 
 now declared that they had always loved the French as 
 brothers, and that nothing could turn them away from 
 that love. The Iroquois, too, hastened to offer their 
 friendship, and many of them lent their aid in carrying 
 from Presque Isle to Le Boeuf the baggage and supplies 
 that were required for the new fort. There was scarcely 
 a tribe in the entire Ohio Valley that was not suddenly 
 won over to the cause of the French. 
 
 In the meanwhile, however, the P2nglish were not idle. 
 George Croghan, from the Indian towns on the Ohio, 
 
Fort Ic Baiif yi 
 
 had hastened to warn the governor of Pennsylvania of 
 the danger that threatened. " The point to be aimed 
 at," said he, "is the forks of the Ohio. Whoever forti- 
 fies that place first will win control of the whole valley." 
 Benjamin Franklin and other commissioners from Penn- 
 sylvania thereupon held a council with some Ohio Indians 
 who met them at Carlisle. These Indians declared that 
 if the English wished to protect their trade in the North- 
 west they riiust fortify their posts on the river before 
 the French were in a condition to prevent them. 
 
 And now an unexpected enemy put a check to the 
 movements of the French. The woods and marshes 
 through which Marin's men had toiled bravely from 
 Presque Isle to Venango were full of malaria. The 
 soldiers grew sick, and numbers of them died. As 
 winter began to approach it was deemed best to send 
 most of them back to Montreal, and to postpone all 
 further movements until the following spring. Gov- 
 ernor Duquesne, when he saw the emaciated figures of 
 those who returned, was greatly shocked. ** Past all 
 doubt," said he, "if they had gone down the Ohio, as 
 intended, the river would have been strewn with corpses." 
 
 It was just at this juncture that Legardeur de St. Pierre 
 arrived in Canada from his three years' adventures in the 
 distant West. A fortnight later, news came from Fort 
 le Boeuf that his old friend Marin had also succumbed 
 to disease, and had died bravely at his post in the 
 wilderness. 
 
 " You are the only man in Canada who can carry on 
 the work which your former comrade has so well begun," 
 
72 The Key to tJie Ohio Valley 
 
 said Governor Duquesne ; and he immediately appointed 
 St. Pierre to be commandant of the projected line of 
 military posts, with his headquarters at Fort le Boeuf. 
 
 It was the first of December when St. Pierre arrived 
 at his new place of duty. He was at that time a man 
 past the prime of life, white-haired and dignified, 
 with the air of a soldier and the manners of a 
 gentleman. Winter had already set in. A drizzling rain 
 was falling. The ground was partly covered with snow, 
 and the water courses were full of mushy ice. The lonely 
 fort in the midst of a dreary clearing, with the wild forest 
 on every side, was a picture of desolation. But to St. 
 Pierre, so lately returned from regions still more solitary 
 and remote, the place seemed reasonably comfortable and 
 not at all lonely. 
 
 III. UNEXPECTED VISITORS 
 
 At about sunset on the tenth day after St. Pierre's 
 arrival at Le Boeuf, the sentinel at the gate cried out 
 that strangers were approaching the fort. Out of the 
 woods on the south, St. Pierre saw two horsemen coming. 
 One was a tall young man, of very noble bearing ; the 
 other was an elderly backwoodsman, clad in buckskin 
 and armed with gun and knife. Behind these two came 
 half a dozen Indians and three or four white men with 
 pack horses — all wading slowly through the deep slush 
 and snow. 
 
 St. Pierre sent two of his officers out to meet the 
 strangers. They proved to be Virginians, but were never- 
 
Ihiixpcctcd Visitors 
 
 73 
 
 theless welcomed to whatever comforts the little garrison 
 was able to offer. The younger of the two horsemen 
 said that he had business of importance with the com- 
 mandant ; but after they had warmed themselves and 
 supped at the officers' tables, it was too late to speak of 
 it that night. 
 
 The next morning the young stranger was led into 
 
 " Out of the woods St. Pierre saw two horsemen coming " 
 
 the presence of St. Pierre. The commandant received 
 him very politely indeed, and very kindly. Little did he 
 suppose that the person to whom he was offering these 
 civilities was destined to become the most famous man 
 in American history, if not in the history of the world. 
 The young stranger did not understand French, and 
 hence had to speak through an interpreter. He intro- 
 duced himself as Major George Washington, adjutant- 
 
74 The Key to the Ohio Valley 
 
 general of the Virginian militia, and handed to St. Pierre 
 a letter which he had brought from Robert Dinwiddle, 
 the governor of the colony. 
 
 The commandant took the letter and went into the 
 next room to read it. It was not the kind of letter to 
 awaken pleasant feelings. It ran in substance somewhat 
 in this way : " I must desire you to acquaint me by whose 
 authority and instructions you have lately marched from 
 Canada with an armed force, and invaded the king of 
 Great Britain's territories. It becomes my duty to require 
 your peaceable departure, and to demand that you shall 
 forbear carrying out a purpose which is so likely to 
 destroy the harmony and good feeling now existing be- 
 tween my king and yours. I persuade myself that you 
 will receive and entertain Major Washington with the 
 candor and poHteness natural to your nation ; and it will 
 give me the greatest satisfaction if you will return with 
 him an answer suitable to my wishes for a very long 
 and lasting peace between us." 
 
 St. Pierre read the letter at his leisure, and delayed 
 his answer for three days. In the meanwhile he enter- 
 tained young Washington with the same hospitality and 
 kindness that he would have given an honored friend 
 and guest. On the fourth day his reply was ready. In 
 the letter which he then handed to Washington he gave 
 Governor Dinwiddle to understand that he expected to 
 hold the posts over which he had been given command, 
 and that no threats or demands on the part of English- 
 men or Virginians would cause him to withdraw from 
 the territory which he had been directed to defend. 
 
Unexpected Visitors 75 
 
 The whole matter, he said, would be referred to Gov- 
 ernor Duqiiesne at Quebec. 
 
 Major Washington took the letter and at once made 
 ready to return homeward. You may imagine the scene 
 as he bade the French commandant good-by, and rode 
 out from the little fort of Le Boeuf. The weather has 
 grown colder ; the soft slush has frozen into ice ; snow 
 is falling ; a sharp northwest wind is roaring through 
 the treetops and heaping up drifts in the valleys and 
 among the fallen timber ; it is not a promising morning 
 for beginning a journey of five hundred miles through a 
 pathless wilderness. The stately, white-haired comman- 
 dant, standing in the doorway, salutes his departing guest. 
 
 " My best wishes go with you, Major Washington ; but 
 I fear that your horses will not be able to carry you 
 far over this rough, snow-covered country." 
 
 " If they fail us, sir, we shall then get forward on foot. 
 Adieu." 
 
 " Adieu ! and may God preserve you." 
 
 And the little company files slowly across the clearing, 
 their backs to the wind, their feet slipping on the treacher- 
 ous ice, their eyes blinded by the eddying snow. They 
 enter the woods, and are seen no more by Legardeur St. 
 Pierre and the garrison at Fort le Boeuf. 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 I. THE WILDERNESS JOURNEY 
 
 THE backwoodsman who rode with Major Washington 
 to Fort le Boeuf, and who broke the path before 
 him on his departure homeward, was none other than our 
 old acquaintance Christopher Gist. His practiced eye 
 could distinguish the easiest path where any other could 
 see only an untracked waste of forest and bog and snow- 
 covered marshes. Close behind him rode Washington, 
 silent but alert ; and following at a short distance were 
 the white men with the pack horses. The Indians 
 who had guided them to the fort straggled sulkily in the 
 rear, and seemed in no mind to be of further service to 
 the party. The French soldiers had shown them great 
 kindness during their four days' stay at Le Boeuf, giving 
 them presents, and dosing them with brandy, and making 
 them fine promises in case they should desert the English. 
 Before they had gone a mile half their number had 
 turned back to the cozy shelter of the fort. 
 
 Through the dense woods and tangled thickets, now 
 wading in deep snowdrifts, now floundering in half- 
 frozen mud, now stumbling in pitfalls or struggling 
 through broken ice, Washington and his companions made 
 their slow way back to the village of Venango. They 
 had stopped at this place on their way up, and had been 
 
 76 
 
TJic Wilderness Journey 
 
 77 
 
 royally entertained by young Joncaire who told Washing- 
 ton that the French were going to hold the Ohio Valley 
 in spite of all that the English coidd do. They were 
 now received a second time, 
 and Joncaire, with the 
 politeness which he had 
 learned from his French 
 kinsfolk, did all that he 
 could to make them com- 
 fortable for the night. 
 
 In the morning Wash- 
 ington discovered that his 
 horses were really unfit to 
 be taken farther. The hard 
 journey through the wintry 
 woods had utterly broken 
 them down. He therefore 
 left them at Venango with 
 their drivers, and with Gist 
 as his only companion, 
 pushed forward on foot. 
 
 Of Washington's perilous 
 midwinter journey among 
 the snow-covered hills and 
 frozen streams of western 
 Pennsylvania, the story has 
 
 often been told, and I need not repeat it here. ^....^ ^ 
 
 from the intense cold, and in constant danger from the 
 Indians, the brave young officer and the sturdy backwoods- 
 man tramped through the desolate forest, their course being 
 
 "Through the desolate forest 
 
 Sufferin! 
 
yS George WasJiington 
 
 toward the south. They passed the forks of the Ohio, and, 
 
 stumbling through the snow for yet seven miles, safely 
 
 reached the house of the trader Fraser, who, after leaving 
 
 Venango, had established himself here, near the 
 1754 
 
 banks of the Monongahela. Late in January, 
 
 Washington was back in Virginia telling Governor Din- 
 widdle of his adventures and of his reception by Le- 
 gardeur de St. Pierre. 
 
 II. THE FIRST ENCOUNTER 
 
 The governor now saw plainly that if the English ex- 
 pected to hold the Ohio Country they must fight for it. 
 He began at once to prepare for the struggle. *' It will 
 be easier to keep the French out at the beginning than 
 to dislodge them after they have gotten in," he said. He 
 sent messages to the governors of the other English colo- 
 nies asking them to help him. But these messages were 
 not received with the favor which he expected. The 
 colonists of Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland seemed 
 to care but little who possessed the Ohio Valley. " The 
 whole trouble," said they, ** is on account of the Ohio 
 Company. Shall we risk entering into a bloody war, 
 merely to help a few rich Virginians who want to speculate 
 in western lands } " Pennsylvania was ready to protect 
 her own traders in the West, and so was New York; but 
 all dreaded to provoke a border war. 
 
 Within a month after Washington's return, a small 
 body of Virginians pushed on to the forks of the Ohio 
 and began to build a stockade there ; but hardly had the 
 
The First Encountc7' 79 
 
 first logs been put in place when word came that a 
 party of French and Indians were marching upon them 
 from Fort le Boeuf. The officer in command of the 
 Virginians now suddenly remembered that his family 
 needed him at home ; and the unfinished stockade was 
 left in charge of a young ensign. When the enemy 
 appeared with eighteen small cannon and a great host 
 of yelling Indians, what could the ensign do but surrender 
 on the best terms he could get ? 
 
 The prisoners marched out of the stockade, laid down 
 their arms, and were allowed to go back to Virginia 
 unharmed. The French began at once to complete 
 the fort, naming it Fort Duquesne, in honor of the 
 governor of Canada. 
 
 While these things were going on. Major George 
 Washington at the head of a hundred and fifty militiamen 
 was hastening to the succor of the little stockade. He 
 heard of its surrender while he was still on the farther side 
 of the mountains. *' How dare these Frenchmen attack a 
 fort protected by the flag of Great Britain!" cried Din- 
 widdle, when the news was carried back to Virginia. '' The 
 war has already begun, and it is they who have been the 
 aggressors." 
 
 Washington immediately set to work to clear a road 
 through the wilderness and over the mountains. It was 
 to extend from the upper waters of the Potomac to a 
 point on the Monongahela where the Ohio Company had 
 lately set up a storehouse ; and it was designed to aid 
 communication between the Virginia settlements and the 
 western frontier, and especially the transit of the militia 
 
So George Washiugtojt 
 
 to the disputed territory. For several days the soldiers 
 were more accustomed to the ax than to the rifle, and 
 soon a long passageway was cleared through the woods. 
 It is worth remembering that this road was the first 
 wagonway ever made from the Atlantic slope to the 
 borders of the Old Northwest. It was in use for more 
 than sixty years, and .a part of its course may still be 
 traced among the mountains. 
 
 Major Washington with his raw recruits pushed for- 
 ward, closely following the roadmakers. Before the 
 middle of May he reached a place called Great Meadows, 
 near the Youghiogheny, a tributary of the Monongahela. 
 He there met Christopher Gist, who told him that fifty 
 French soldiers, with perhaps a larger body of Indians, 
 were lurking in the forest not far away. A chief of 
 the Mingoes, who was called Half-King and who still 
 remained friendly to the English, also sent him word 
 that a strong force of the enemy was in the neighbor- 
 hood. Washington therefore brought all his supplies 
 together in a level, open space, and threw up some 
 slight intrenchments about them. He then cleared away 
 the bushes for some distance around and made what he 
 called **a charming field for an encounter." 
 
 He was only twenty-two years old, and was naturally 
 impetuous and anxious for a fight. The next day he went 
 out in search of the enemy. He soon came upon a com- 
 pany of thirty-three Frenchmen who were resting in 
 fancied security in a rocky ravine. The Frenchmen, taken 
 by surprise, sprang to their feet and tried to escape ; but 
 the Virginians were too quick for them. Washington 
 
Fort Necessity 8 1 
 
 ordered his men to fire upon the fleeing enemy. Jumon- 
 ville, the leader of the party, and nine of his followers 
 fell dead. Twenty-two others were captured, and only 
 one escaped. 
 
 Such was the beginning of the long war for the posses- 
 sion of the Ohio Valley, and in the end for the entire 
 Northwest — a war which was to involve the leading 
 nations of Europe, change the geography of our conti- 
 nent, and determine in a large measure the destiny of 
 the American people. It is interesting to remember that 
 the man who directed the first action in the great 
 struo:o:le was George Washington. 
 
 III. FORT NECESSITY 
 
 The news of the fight, if fight it can be called, was car- 
 ried quickly to Fort Duquesne and thence by way of the 
 French posts to Canada. Frenchmen everywhere were 
 horrified and indignant when they heard of this cold- 
 blooded massacre, as they called it. The Chevalier de 
 Villiers, a brother of Jumonville, hastened to Fort Du- 
 quesne, having a large following of Indians from all the 
 friendly tribes of Canada and the Northwest. There he 
 found five hundred Frenchmen and many Ohio Indians, all 
 eager to march against the invading Virginians. 
 
 A great council was called, and the commandant made 
 a stirring speech to the savage chiefs. **The English 
 have murdered my children," he said ; '' my heart is sick ; 
 to-morrow I shall send my French soldiers to take revenge. 
 By this belt of wampum, I invite you all to join your 
 
 CONO. O.N.W. — 6 
 
82 
 
 George Washington 
 
 French father and help him crush the assassins." The 
 Indians yelled their approval; and Villiers with a motley 
 army of nearly a thousand men was soon on the march. 
 
 In the meanwhile, Washington's force had been in- 
 creased to about three hundred men ; and hearing that 
 
 the French were coming, 
 he fell back to Great 
 Meadows and began to 
 strengthen the intrench- 
 ments he had made. He 
 called the place Fort Ne- 
 cessity, and determined 
 to wait there for the com- 
 ing of the enemy. The 
 fort was a flimsy affair, 
 built of logs and earth, and 
 little fitted to withstand 
 any determined attack. 
 
 On the 3d of July the 
 French and Indians under 
 Villiers came up and 
 surrounded the fort. All 
 day long, in the midst 
 of a drizzling rain, there 
 was sharp fighting. The men in the fort defended them- 
 selves as well as they could, but the odds were against 
 them. The earthworks were soon nothing but heaps of 
 soft mud, and the riflemen in the ditches stood knee deep 
 in water. Before night the Virginians had lost in killed 
 and wounded about eighty men. 
 
 " ' I invite you all to join your French 
 father ' " 
 
Fort Dnqiicsnc 83 
 
 At eight o'clock Villiers sent an officer to propose a 
 parley. Washington was glad of this, for he felt that he 
 could not hold out much longer. He was willing to sur- 
 render on the best terms that he could get ; and the 
 French, who were none too sure of their Indian helpers, 
 were anxious to end the siege as quickly as possible. Under 
 these circumstances the commanders were not long in 
 coming to an agreement. The fort was to be surrendered, 
 and Vilhers was to protect the Virginians from the 
 vengeance of his savage allies. Washington was to give 
 hostages for the safe return of the prisoners he had taken 
 in the former fight, and he with his men were then to be 
 permitted to return home with ''the honors of war." 
 
 It was on the 4th of July, just twenty-two years before 
 the Declaration of Independence was made at Philadelphia, 
 that Major Washington and his Virginia militia- 
 men marched out of Fort Necessity and abandoned 
 the defense of the Ohio Valley. Although repulsed, the 
 young commander did not feel that he had been defeated, 
 and he was determined to find some opportunity to retrieve 
 his losses. As for the British government, it began at 
 once to prepare for the war which was now no longer 
 to be postponed. 
 
 IV. FORT DUQUESNE 
 
 After their victory over the Virginia militiamen at 
 Great Meadows, the French and Indians under Villiers 
 returned in triumph to Fort Duquesne. 
 
 " This is but the beginning of the contest," said Contre- 
 
84 
 
 George WasJiingtoii 
 
 coeur, the newly arrived commandant of the post. *'We 
 hold the key to the Ohio Valley and the West. We must 
 strengthen it, and not be driven out by the English when 
 they return in greater force, as they surely will." 
 
 And he put every Frenchman to work, cutting down 
 trees, hewing logs, digging ditches, building walls, clear- 
 ing the ground. In a few weeks the little stockade was 
 
 •• The little stockade was transformed into a small but sturdy tortress 
 
 transformed into a small but sturdy fortress equal in 
 strength to any other on the frontier. It was flanked on 
 two sides by the river and on the other by a wide 
 ditch. Its ramparts were of hewed logs and earthworks 
 of great thickness ; and at each of its four corners was 
 a strong bastion with brass cannon peeping out at the 
 loopholes. The only entrance was by a drawbridge and 
 narrow gateway on the landward side. The river side 
 was protected by high paHsades of tree trunks set close 
 
Fort Diiqiicsiic <S5 
 
 together, with loopholes so arranged as to cover every 
 approach. All the trees and underbrush within rifle shot 
 of the fort were cleared away, and in the open space some 
 log huts were built for such of the troops as could not be 
 quartered in the barracks inside the walls. 
 
 At the edge of the woods the Indians pitched their bark 
 wigwams ; and within easy call from the fort eight hundred 
 warriors waited impatiently for the coming of the English. 
 Among these Indians were fighting men from all the large 
 western tribes — Hurons, Ottawas, Pottawattomies, and 
 Chippewas from the region of the lakes, and Shawnees, 
 Delawares, and Mingoes from the valley of the Ohio. The 
 Ottawas were led by a young chief of great daring whose 
 name was Pontiac ; while their neighbors, the Chippewas, 
 followed the lead of Charles Langlade, a half-breed 
 woods ranger and trader from Mackinac. In the fort 
 were several French officers who had spent years of 
 service in the wilderness — St. Ange, who was to be the 
 last commandant of Fort Chartres, Beaujeu, a captain of 
 known courage, and others whose names are now forgotten. 
 
 The autumn passed, and the French soldiers at Fort 
 Duquesne had nothing to do but to strengthen their 
 defenses and wait. The long, cold winter was 
 followed by an early spring, and the clearings 
 about the fort were planted with corn and pumpkins. 
 The Indians, growing tired of inaction, began to talk of 
 returning to their homes. Contrecoeur and his officers 
 could scarcely persuade them to wait a little longer for 
 the great affray that would surely take place before the 
 ending of the summer. 
 
S6 George Washington 
 
 V. BRADDOCK 
 
 At last, in June, some scouts of the Delawares arrived 
 from the Potomac, and brought news that a grand army 
 of real English soldiers commanded by a real 
 English general was marching slowly from the 
 Virginia frontier toward Fort Duquesne. The name of 
 the English general was Edward Braddock, and he had 
 gained renown on more than one battlefield in Europe ; 
 but, with all his bravery, he was overbearing, obstinate, 
 and some say brutal. He knew nothing at all about 
 Indian methods of fighting. He had boasted that with 
 his two regiments of regulars he would vanquish any 
 force that the French and Indians could bring against 
 him, and he had refused to listen to Dr. Franklin and 
 Major Washington when they ventured to hint that the 
 Indians had certain ways of fighting that were different 
 from those practiced by Europeans. 
 
 The Delaware scouts reported to Contrecoeur that the 
 English soldiers made a fine show, dressed in bright red 
 and moving in a long, solid column through the woods. 
 How easy it would be to skulk in the thickets and, from 
 safe hiding places, pick off these redcoats one at a time 
 like pigeons from a flock ! But there were other men in 
 the army more to be feared than Braddock's soldiers from 
 beyond the sea. These were the nine companies of Vir- 
 ginia militiamen, dressed in dull blue or brown, who 
 marched wherever they were allowed, and were plainly 
 looked down upon and despised by the pompous general. 
 
Braddock 
 
 87 
 
 The progress of the army was very s](nv. In front 
 went a eompany of woodsmen with their axes, clearing 
 a narrow roadway for the wagons and horses. The grand 
 army followed, with its baggage train and camp equip- 
 ments, stretching out in a narrow line 
 three or four miles in length. Like a 
 great red snake creeping among the 
 trees, it moved cautiously but confidently 
 onward. At the rate it was going it 
 would not reach the Monongahela before 
 the middle of summer. 
 
 Slowly as the army marched, the 
 news of its coming caused great alarm 
 at Fort Duquesne. What could a hand- 
 ful of Frenchmen and a thousand wild 
 Indians do to oppose so large a force 
 of trained soldiers .'* Should they wait 
 for Braddock to besiege the fort, and 
 then trust to fortune for the result t 
 Or should they fall back to Fort le 
 Boeuf and leave the key to the Ohio 
 Valley in the hands of the English } 
 The officers were still debating these 
 questions when, on the 8th of July, the scouts brought 
 word that the army was within less than twenty miles 
 of the fort. 
 
 "We must go out and meet it! " cried Captain Beaujeu. 
 "These English know nothing about our way of fighting. 
 We must lay a trap for them." 
 
 And then he explained his plan of forming an ambus- 
 
 The key to the Ohio 
 Valley" 
 
88 
 
 George Washington 
 
 nrm 
 
 cade, in some well-chosen spot, and shooting the redcoats 
 as they marched unwittingly into it. The French officers 
 and soldiers applauded, but the Indians hung back and 
 made excuses. '* Does our father want to die } " they 
 
 said ; "■ and does he want to 
 see us slain also "i " 
 
 That night all the Indian 
 chiefs sat in council and talked 
 over the matter for a long time. 
 In the morning they went into 
 the fort and told the officers 
 that they had decided to return 
 to their hunting grounds in the 
 West. 
 
 ** What ! " cried Beaujeu. 
 " Will you leave your father 
 here to die by the hands of 
 the English ? I have made up 
 my mind to go out and meet 
 them. Will you let me go 
 alone } " 
 
 He knew how to touch their 
 savage pride. He came before 
 them dressed as an Indian brave ; his words roused their 
 courage and shamed their cowardly fears. Before he 
 had ended his speech every chief was ready to follow 
 him. Kegs of powder and a plentiful supply of bullets 
 were set outside of the gate, and six hundred and thirty- 
 five Indians, now wild with excitement, crowded forward 
 and helped themselves to ammunition. Then, hooting and 
 
 There came out of the woods 
 a runner " 
 
Braddock 89 
 
 yelling, they marched off into the woods, with l^eaujeu and 
 two hundred and fifty l^^renchnien and Canadians. The 
 commandant, Contrecoeur, with a few French soldiers and 
 some Indians, remained in the fort. 
 
 At about the middle of the afternoon there came out of 
 the woods a runner, all breathless and covered with dust 
 and blood. And when he was brought before Contre- 
 coeur he told a story which at once changed all dread into 
 joy. He said that at a spot about seven miles from the 
 fort, and near the right bank of the Monongahela, the 
 English had fallen into the ambush, which Beaujeu had 
 set for them, and that they had been terribly defeated. 
 
 The details of the bloody battle were learned afterward. 
 As Braddock and his army were moving through a narrow 
 pass in the forest, they were suddenly fired upon by unseen 
 foes lying hidden among the trees and in the tangled 
 thickets. They could not return the fire, because no foe 
 could be seen. The Virginia militiamen intrenched them- 
 selves behind logs and rocks and fought like very Indians. 
 But the redcoated regulars, unused to this manner of 
 warfare, huddled together like frightened sheep and were 
 shot down without mercy. Braddock dashed hither and 
 thither, vainly trying to rally his troops. Four horses 
 were shot under him, and then he himself was mortally 
 wounded. The young major from Virginia, George 
 Washington, was the most conspicuous figure on the 
 field of carnage. He was the mark for more than one 
 Indian rifle, his coat was pierced with bullets, and yet, 
 strange to say, he was unhurt. 
 
 After the uneven fight had been kept u}) for nearly 
 
go 
 
 George 
 
 WasJiiugton 
 
 three hours, such of the Enghsh soldiers as were still 
 alive fled in wild panic across the river and were followed 
 by the Virginians. The French, having lost their leader 
 Beaujeu, made no attempt to pursue them, but hastened 
 back to the fort. The Indians, eager for plunder and the 
 scalps of the dead and dying, tarried on the field of battle 
 and made no effort to prevent the escape of their foes. 
 
 "The most conspicuous figure on the field of carnage" 
 
 At about sunset they began to return in straggling bands 
 to the fort. They carried with them about a dozen pris- 
 oners, whom they tortured and burned to death that 
 same night on the bank of the Allegheny within plain 
 sight of Fort Duquesne. 
 
 Of nearly fifteen hundred officers and men who had 
 marched through the mountains with Braddock, only four 
 hundred and fifty returned unharmed to Virginia. The 
 
Brad dock 91 
 
 attempt to win the Northwest by direct seizure was given 
 up. The remainder of the conflict was to be carried on in 
 places far remote from the territory in dispute. The war 
 was to involve other questions and issues, and in the end 
 it would lead to results more far reaching and decisive 
 than either French or English could have foreseen. 
 
 It is not for us to follow the progress of that war 
 with its varying fortunes. Now and then the French 
 seemed to gain some advantage, but in truth it was a 
 losing game to them from the beginning. Three years 
 after Braddock's memorable defeat another body of 
 British soldiers and Virginia reirulars marched 
 over the Alleghanies to attempt the conquest of 
 the key to the Ohio Valley. The expedition was conducted 
 by General Forbes, a British officer of known ability and 
 courage ; and he was supported by Colonel Bouquet of the 
 English army and by Colonel George Washington in com- 
 mand of two thousand Virginians. The army was four 
 months in marching from Philadelphia to the Monongahela. 
 At length, after passing the field where the bones of Brad- 
 dock's men still lay unburied, it arrived within sight of 
 Fort Duquesne late in November. The blockhouses and 
 the stockade were in ruins. They had been blown up and 
 abandoned by the French garrison who, having been 
 deserted by their Indian allies, had fled in boats down the 
 Ohio. Washington and his men took possession of the 
 place and began to rebuild the works ; and General Forbes 
 renamed the post, calling it Fort Pitt in honor of Sir William 
 Pitt who had ])lanned the campaign. The valley of the 
 Ohio was at last in the grasp of the English. 
 
HOW THE COUNTRY WAS HELD BY 
 ENGLAND 
 
 THE GREAT CONSPIRACY 
 I. THE NAPOLEON OF THE WILDERNESS 
 
 T 
 
 HE long war between the English and the French 
 
 came to an end on the 8th of September, 1760. On 
 
 that day the Marquis de Vaudreuil surrendered Montreal 
 
 to the English, and with it the whole of Canada 
 1760 
 
 and the Great Lakes and the country adjoining 
 
 them. England had gained much more than her rulers 
 
 had expected. France had lost everything. 
 
 The English made all haste to get control of their new 
 possessions. Within a week after the fall of Montreal, 
 Major Robert Rogers, a famous border ranger, was sent 
 with two hundred men to receive the surrender of the 
 French posts on the lakes. The party traveled in whale- 
 boats, skirting the southern shore of Lake Erie. From 
 Presque Isle to Detroit they saw not a single human habi- 
 tation ; all that region was still the great hunting ground 
 of the Indians, as savagely wild as when La Salle had 
 first visited it more than ninety years before. 
 
 The weather was damp and chilly, and the boatmen 
 made but slow progress through drizzling rain and mis- 
 
 92 
 
Tlic Napoleon of tJic Wildcrucss 
 
 93 
 
 leading fogs. One day they stopped to rest at the mouth 
 of an unknown river supposed to be not far from the site 
 of the present city of Cleveland. Major Rogers had 
 scarcely stepped on shore when he was met by some 
 Indian chiefs who wished to* speak with him. 
 
 '* We are come from Pontiac, 
 the king and lord of this coun- 
 try," said they. " He himself 
 is near at hand and desires that 
 you wait for him ; for he would 
 like to see you with his own 
 eyes." 
 
 In a short time Pontiac made 
 his appearance. He was a man 
 about fifty years of age ; 
 his face was dark and his 
 expression dignified. He 
 was dressed as a savage — 
 that is, with the exception 
 of a broad girdle about his 
 loins, he was not dressed at 
 all. He greeted the Eng- 
 Hsh leader very haughtily, 
 and demanded what busi- 
 ness the soldiers had in that country, and why they had 
 dared enter it without his leave. 
 
 Rogers answered that they had not come with any 
 unfriendliness toward the Indians, but to remove the 
 French, who had always been the cause of trouble between 
 the Enirlish and their red brothers. 
 
 " ' 1 stand in your path ' 
 
94 TIic Great Coiispu'acy 
 
 " I stand in your path," said Pontiac. *' I stand in your 
 path, and you need go no farther until I give you leave." 
 He then handed the major a string of wampum in token 
 of friendship, and took his leave for the day, saying, "If 
 there is anything in the country that you need, my war- 
 riors shall get it for you." 
 
 The next morning the chief came again to the encamp- 
 ment, and smoked the calumet with Rogers. He seemed 
 to be in a very friendly humor, and said that he would 
 permit the Englishmen to go forward to Detroit, and take 
 possession of the fort. He also sent runners in advance 
 to several Indian bands along the lake shore, to give 
 notice that it was by his permission that Major Rogers 
 and his men had entered the country. '* He attended me 
 constantly until I arrived at Detroit," says Rogers, " and 
 was the means of preserving the detachment from the 
 fury of the Indians who had assembled at the mouth of 
 the strait to cut us off." 
 
 Pontiac was the head chief of the Ottawas, most of 
 whom were then living in the southern peninsula of Michi- 
 gan. Through the whole of the late war he had been the 
 friend and strong ally of the French. It is said that he 
 was present when Washington surrendered at Fort Neces- 
 sity, and that he afterward took an active part in the 
 defeat of General Braddock. Just why he seemed so 
 ready to transfer his friendship to the English we shall 
 never learn. But we know that he was shrewd and had 
 ambitious projects of his own. Perhaps he already had 
 dreams of making himself the leader of a great Indian 
 confederacy. What could be more natural than that he 
 
The Napoleon of the Wilderness 95 
 
 should wish to be on the side of the victors in the war 
 that was just ended? 
 
 Major Rogers, with his two hundred followers, reached 
 Detroit on the 29th of November, and on the afternoon of 
 the same day the fleur de lis of France was hauled down 
 from the flagstaff on the fort, and the cross of St. George 
 was hoisted in its place. The French soldiers 
 and the Canadian militia laid down their arms, 
 while seven hundred savages, lately the alHes of France, 
 danced and yelled as though they themselves were the 
 victors celebrating their triumph over the defeated foe. 
 
 Detroit was at that time the most important of all the 
 lake ports. It was a kind of garden spot in the midst of 
 the savage wilderness. The fort was a large inclosure of 
 some thirty acres, surrounded by strong palisades twenty- 
 five feet high. In this inclosure were about eighty build- 
 ings, including the soldiers' barracks and a large council 
 house. Above and below, on both banks of the river, 
 were the farms and gardens of the French settlers, 
 while back of these stretched the wild forest, with its 
 giant trees and trackless mazes of underbrush. On the 
 left-hand shore, at some distance below the fort, was a 
 straggling village of Pottawattomies, whose ancestors had 
 once lived in the Green Bay region. On the opposite 
 shore were the bark lodges and corn patches of the Wyan- 
 dots, descendants of the ancient Hurons. 
 
 Above the French settlement, but on the shore opposite 
 the fort, was the chief village of the Ottawas ; and a little 
 beyond, on the Isle de la Peche, was the oven-shaped 
 cabin of Pontiac, " the king and lord of all this country." 
 
96 The Gnat Conspiracy 
 
 Just below Pontiac's island, and shielding it from the view 
 ot the soldiers in the fort, was the larger Isle au Cochon 
 (now called Belle Isle), covered for the most part with 
 thick underwoods and forest trees. 
 
 As soon as the fort was well in the hands of its new 
 masters, Major Rogers returned to the East, leaving the 
 post in charge of Captain Campbell, who was soon after- 
 ward succeeded by Major Gladwyn. A small party of 
 English soldiers was sent out to secure and hold the French 
 fort at the forks of the Maumee, where now stands the city 
 of Fort Wayne ; and another detachment went northward 
 to receive the surrender of Mackinac and of the Sault 
 Sainte Marie. 
 
 To the Indians, who had all their lives enjoyed the 
 friendship of the French, this coming of the Enghsh was 
 by no means a pleasant event. It was like exchanging 
 kind neighbors for untrustworthy strangers. *' When the 
 French came among us," said a Chippewa chief, "they 
 came and kissed us — they called us children, and we 
 found them fathers ; we lived like children in the same 
 lodge." It was not so with the EngHsh. They came as 
 masters, looking upon the savages as beings of a lower 
 order who had no rights of their own. To the haughty 
 Pontiac this was galling and not to be borne. He saw 
 that he could expect nothing from a people who felt no 
 sympathy with his race, and whose only object was to 
 gain wealth and power for themselves. ** The conduct of 
 the French," he declared, ''never gave rise to suspicion; 
 but the conduct of the English never gives rest to it." 
 
 For a time he brooded over the matter, sitting moodily 
 
TJic Napolcoi of tJic Wildcnicss 97 
 
 in his wigwam or wandering alone in the woods. Then 
 he decided to unite all the Indian trihes in one grand 
 uprising against the English. lie began by making 
 speeches. He visited the different villages throughout 
 the Northwest, and by his strong power of persuasion 
 stirred up in every warrior's breast fierce hatred for the 
 English and savage desire for revenge. He reminded 
 the tribes of their former happiness with their brothers, 
 the French, and told them of the wrongs which they 
 would suffer from the English. He declared that their 
 father, the king of France, was only waiting for them to 
 try to help themselves, when he would hasten his soldiers 
 forward to aid them. He dwelt upon the number and 
 prowess of the tribes that would join him, and spoke of 
 the ease with which they could crush the English, and of 
 the joy with which they would welcome the return of the 
 French. 
 
 "The Great Spirit has bidden me tell you," he said to 
 his followers, " that you must not drink the Englishman's 
 rum, and that you must cast away the blankets you have 
 bought from him, and whatever else he has given you to 
 make you weak and cowardly." And then he told them 
 of a vision which a Delaware chief had had. " The Great 
 Spirit said to him : ' Why do you suffer these dogs in red 
 coats to enter your country and take the lands I have 
 given to you } Drive them from it. Wipe them from the 
 face of the earth ; and then when you are in trouble, I 
 will help you.' " 
 
 Nor did Pontiac end with merely arousing his hearers 
 against the English. He urged them to return to their 
 
 CONQ. O.N.W. — 7 
 
98 TJie Great Conspiracy 
 
 primitive habits of barbarism. ** My children," he said, 
 "you have forgotten the customs of your forefathers. 
 Why do you not clothe yourselves in skins, as they did, 
 and use the bows and arrows and stone-pointed lances 
 which they used .? You have bought guns, knives, kettles, 
 and blankets from the white men ; and, what is worse, you 
 have drunk the poison fire water which turns you into 
 fools. Fling all these things away ! Live as your wise 
 forefathers lived in the days that are gone ! " 
 
 The pleadings, commands, and fiery eloquence of Pon- 
 tiac moved the Indians as they had never been moved 
 before. All the tribes from the Great Lakes southward 
 to the Tennessee, and from the Iroquois country westward 
 to the Mississippi, joined themselves in one great league 
 for the destruction of the English. 
 
 Of this league Pontiac was the absolute master and 
 director. He knew where every English post was situ- 
 ated, and had learned all about its strength. He there- 
 fore assigned to each chief his particular place and the 
 work which he was expected to do. The destruction of 
 the posts on the St. Joseph and the Wabash was assigned 
 to the western Indians, that of the forts south of Lake 
 Erie to various bands of Iroquois, that of Mackinac and 
 the Sault to the Chippewas and Wyandots, that of Detroit 
 to himself and his immediate followers. Never did any 
 commander display more skill or more determined energy 
 than did Pontiac in organizing this great movement for 
 the union of all the tribes against the encroachments of a 
 stronger race. He has been called, and not without 
 reason, the Napoleon of the wilderness. 
 
The Massacre at Mackinac 99 
 
 11. THE MASSACRE AT MACKINAC 
 
 The order was given that upon the same day — a day 
 
 in May — every English post west of Niagara should be 
 
 attacked and destroyed. It was to be a work of 
 
 1763 
 extermination, and not an Englishman was to be 
 
 spared. The traders in the Indian villages were the first 
 
 to suffer. Of these there were more than a hundred and 
 
 twenty among the different tribes, and only two or three 
 
 escaped with their lives. Most of the forts were captured 
 
 as Pontiac had planned. In some, the garrisons were 
 
 taken wholly by surprise and all were massacred. At 
 
 Presque Isle on Lake Erie the fort was bravely defended 
 
 for two days. The Indians having at last undermined it 
 
 and laid a train ready for blowing it up, the garrison was 
 
 obliged to surrender ; some of the prisoners were killed at 
 
 once, and others were carried captive to the Indian towns 
 
 in the Northwest. 
 
 Fort Pitt, at the forks of the Ohio, was besieged for 
 nearly three months. At length a detachment of British 
 soldiers commanded by Colonel Bouquet was ordered to 
 its succor. After hard fighting and the loss of a hundred 
 men. Bouquet gallantly forced his way to the fort, gave 
 relief to the beleaguered garrison, and scattered the be- 
 sieging savages. 
 
 In the Northwest, dreadful scenes were being enacted. 
 Next to Detroit, Mackinac was then the most important of 
 all the posts on the lakes. The old trading post and fort at 
 Point St. Ignace had been abandoned several years before, 
 and a new fort, known as Fort Mackinac, had been built on 
 L.ofC. 
 
lOO The Great Conspiracy 
 
 the south side of the strait. Why this change had been 
 made it is impossible to say, but the new Mackinac, hke 
 the old, was long the favorite place of resort for voyageurs 
 and woods rangers, and the point whence the traders 
 shipped their furs to the eastern markets. 
 
 The stockade, which stood near the shore, inclosed 
 nearly two acres ; and within it were about thirty houses, 
 including the soldiers' barracks, some storerooms, and the 
 dwellings of a few Canadian families. There were bas- 
 tions at the corners of the stockade, and on each of two 
 of these a small brass cannon was mounted. The British 
 garrison consisted of thirty-five men commanded by Cap- 
 tain Etherington. There were also in the fort some traders, 
 and among them Alexander Henry, the first English mer- 
 chant to venture into that remote and unfriendly region. 
 
 The Chippewas, whose principal village was then on the 
 island of Mackinac, had always hated the English. Al- 
 though their tribe had dwelt for several generations in the 
 immediate neighborhood of the French posts, they were 
 still as savage as their ancestors whom Jean Nicolet had 
 discovered catching fish from the rapids of the Sainte 
 Marie. Their neighbors, the Ottawas, had taken more 
 readily to civilized ways ; for they lived in log houses, cul- 
 tivated little patches of ground, and ardently professed the 
 Catholic faith. All had been warmly attached to the 
 French, and all viewed the coming of the English with 
 marked disapproval. 
 
 These bands had chiefs of their own and did not 
 acknowledge the authority of Pontiac. But when his 
 runners came to them bearing his war belt of black and 
 
The Massacre at Mackinac 1 01 
 
 purple wampum, they very readily promised to join in the 
 
 great conspiracy. The savage Chippewas were wrought 
 
 up to a high pitch of excitement, and they determined to 
 
 destroy the hated English in their own way and without 
 
 the help of the Ottawas. 
 
 The month of May had passed, and already the work of 
 
 destruction had begun. The garrison at Mackinac were 
 
 living in careless ease and security, for they had 
 
 I "763 
 heard no news from the south, and they were in 
 
 ignorance of the great uprising. Their savage neighbors, 
 
 however, knew what was going on, and were only biding 
 
 their time to strike the decisive blow. Some friendly 
 
 Canadians had warned Captain Etherington that the 
 
 Indians were plotting trouble; and one had brought him 
 
 word that they were getting ready to destroy all the 
 
 forts on the lakes. But the foolish, conceited captain 
 
 told them that he had no fear of Indians, and advised 
 
 them to go about their own business. He even threatened 
 
 to punish the next person who should whisper any such 
 
 stories in his hearing. 
 
 A chief whose name was Wawatam, and who was the 
 
 sworn friend of Henry, the English trader, came into the 
 
 fort one day and with signs of the deepest distress asked 
 
 Henry if the English had heard any bad news. He then 
 
 besought the trader to leave the fort with him and go to 
 
 the Sault Sainte Marie ; '' For there are strange Indians 
 
 in this neighborhood," said he, "and it is not safe for you 
 
 here." When Henry treated his warning with lightness and 
 
 refused to leave the fort, the chief went sadly away, the 
 
 tears rolling down his dusky cheeks. 
 
102 TJic Great Conspiracy 
 
 The 4th of June was a hoHday at Mackinac, for it was 
 the birthday of the EngUsh king. Early in the morn- 
 ing the Chippewas paddled over from their island and 
 invited the officers and soldiers to come out and see a 
 game of "baggatiway," or Indian ball, that was to be 
 played between their own warriors and a party of visiting 
 Sacs. They said that a great wager had been made, to be 
 paid to the victorious party, and they promised Captain 
 Etherington that he should see rare sport. 
 
 The day was warm and sultry. The soldiers were 
 relieved from duty. The gates of the stockade were 
 thrown wide open, and officers and men stood carelessly 
 around watching the progress of the game. Indians and 
 whites mingled freely in the crowds that were lounging in 
 the shade of the tall palisades. The Chippewa squaws were 
 wrapped in huge blankets as though it were a midwinter 
 day ; but the English were too deeply interested in the 
 game to take notice of this. Had any person lifted one 
 of these blankets he might have seen a frightful array of 
 knives and tomahawks, all ready to be handed to those 
 who were to take part in the bloody work of the day. 
 
 The game of baggatiway, called *' lacrosse " by the 
 French, was played with a ball and bats. At either end of 
 the ground a tall post was planted as a goal ; and the object 
 of each party was to drive the ball to the post opposite its 
 own. In such a game there was necessarily much noise 
 and violence. On either side were hundreds of lithe sav- 
 ages, each carrying a bat of a peculiar form, and running 
 and struggling to gain possession of the ball. All were 
 naked or nearly so, their long black hair streaming in the 
 
TJic Massacre at Mackijiac 
 
 103 
 
 wind, and their copper-colored bodies glistening in the 
 sun. It often happened, of course, that the ball could not 
 be driven directly toward the desired goal, and then it was 
 knocked sideways or anywhere that would put it in a 
 good position ; and the whole crowd of yelling, struggling 
 savages ran after it. 
 
 Captain I^therington was with his officers outside of the 
 
 "The ball was thrown within the stockade " 
 
 fort, watching the game. He was in fine spirits, and to 
 please the Chippewas had made a heavy wager in their 
 favor. Several warriors were lounging carelessly about 
 the gate, seeming to be deeply interested in the game. 
 The soldiers were scattered here and there, and all were 
 unarmed. 
 
 Suddenly, as if by accident, the ball was thrown 
 within the stockade. With loud shouts both Chippewas 
 and Sacs rushed through the gate as though in pursuit 
 
I04 TJic Great Conspiracy 
 
 of it ; but no sooner were they within the fort than the 
 shouts were changed to dreadful war whoops. Henry, 
 the fur trader, who was in his own room writing, was 
 startled at the sound. He rushed to his window and 
 looked out. All within the stockade and without was in 
 the wildest confusion. He saw the savages snatch their 
 weapons from the waiting squaws and begin the work of 
 slaughter. Without the power to help any one, he beheld 
 his dearest friends cut down and scalped and their bodies 
 mangled in the most horrible manner. Not one EngHsh- 
 man escaped. The captain, a few of his officers, and 
 some traders were taken as prisoners, but all the rest were 
 soon slain. The French and Canadians were unharmed, 
 and several stood looking upon the massacre with much 
 the same interest as that with which they had watched 
 the game of ball. 
 
 Henry hastened to conceal himself in the garret of a 
 half-breed Canadian, — the same Charles Langlade who 
 had led the Chippewas at the time of Braddock's defeat. 
 He thus escaped the first wild rage of the savages, but 
 on the following day he was discovered and dragged 
 from his hiding place. The Indians crowded around 
 him, brandishing their knives and threatening to kill 
 him. Their fury had cooled, however, and they were 
 not so bloodthirsty as they had been before the massacre. 
 A Chippewa chief named Wenniway, who had taken a 
 sudden and strange Hking for Henry, declared that he 
 would adopt him in place of a brother who had been 
 killed in battle ; and for a time the hfe of the trader 
 was safe. 
 
TJic Massacre at Mackinac 105 
 
 A few days after this the Chippewas took their pris- 
 oners to one of their small villages which stood on the 
 shore not far from the head of Thunder Bay. Here was 
 the home of their great chief Minavavana. The captive 
 soldiers were tied together, two and two, and led into the 
 council house, where, with long ropes round their necks, 
 they were exhibited like wild beasts, and subjected to the 
 taunts and abuse of their captors. 
 
 Henry and the other traders were also taken into the 
 council house, but were spared this harsh treatment. The 
 chiefs came in and sat down to enjoy the sight, and 
 among them was Minavavana himself. Suddenly there 
 was a movement by the door, and Henry was rejoiced to 
 see his old friend Wawatam pushing his way through the 
 crowd. Wawatam said not a word, but sat down and 
 smoked with Minavavana and the chief who had taken 
 Henry under his protection. After a time he arose and 
 went out, but soon returned, followed by his squaw. 
 The woman carried costly presents in each hand, and 
 these she laid at the feet of the chiefs. Wawatam then 
 made a speech. 
 
 "Friends and kinsmen," he said, ''you all know what 
 I feel. You have friends and brothers and children whom 
 you love as yourselves ; and how would you feel if, like 
 me, you beheld your dearest friend, your brother, in the 
 condition of a slave — a slave exposed every moment to 
 insult, and threatened with death .? This case, as you all 
 know, is mine. You see before you my friend and brother 
 among slaves — himself a slave ! 
 
 ** You all well know that, long before the war began, 
 
io6 
 
 TJic Great Conspiracy 
 
 I adopted him as my brother. From that moment he 
 became one of my family, so that no change of circum- 
 stances could break the cord which bound us together. 
 He is my brother ; and because I am your relation, he is 
 therefore your relation too. How then can he be your 
 slave.?" 
 
 He then said that, to avoid all disputes, he had brought 
 to the chiefs the presents that were before him — presents 
 
 Mackinac Island at the present tinae 
 
 of sufficient value to buy off every claim that any man had 
 on his brother. 
 
 Minavavana then arose and spoke. He spoke of the 
 bond of brotherhood between Wawatam and the English 
 trader, accepted the present that had been brought, and 
 ordered the prisoner to be released. Wawatam took Henry 
 by the hand and led him to his own lodge. He gave him 
 
TJic Mcissaar at Afackiiiac 107 
 
 food and drink, spread furs for him to lie upon, and 
 treated him with every kindness. 
 
 But it was several months before the trader was able to 
 return to his own people. He was carried first to the 
 island of Mackinac, where most of the Chippewa band 
 had retired in fear of the vengeance of the EngUsh. 
 Toward the end of summer all crossed over to the north 
 end of Lake Huron, where they stopped awhile to fish. 
 Then they scattered to their winter hunting grounds, each 
 Indian with his family following the path that pleased 
 him best. All winter long, Henry, in the garb of a 
 wild Indian, trudged through the snows by the side of 
 his brother Wawatam, hunting the moose and the elk. 
 In the spring he contrived to make his way to the English 
 settlements. 
 
 The destruction of the fort at Mackinac led to many 
 important changes. When peace came the English de- 
 cided not to rebuild the fort on the mainland. They took 
 possession of the cliff-bound island of Mackinac, near the 
 middle of the strait, fortified it, and there established a 
 new and more secure post. 
 
 III. THE SIEGE OF DETROIT 
 
 Detroit being the strongest and most important of all 
 the posts, Pontiac had decided to make it his own prey. 
 Its capture would require great skill and caution, 
 and he was unwilling to intrust so hazardous an 
 undertaking to any of his chiefs. Had no one betrayed 
 his plot, he would probably have been successful, and his 
 great conspiracy might have had a different ending. 
 
[o8 
 
 TJie Great Conspiracy 
 
 In the village of the Pottawattomies there was a beauti- 
 ful girl of the Chippewa nation named Catherine. She 
 was a great favorite at the fort, and had become attached 
 
 to Major Gladwyn, the 
 day before that which 
 massacre, she carried to 
 
 commandant. On the 
 Pontiac had set for the 
 the fort a pair of elkskin 
 moccasins which she had 
 made and ornamented for 
 her white friend and pa- 
 tron. She seemed to be in 
 great trouble about some- 
 thing, and tears were in her 
 eyes as she put the present 
 in the major's hands and 
 hurried from the room. But 
 she lingered long within 
 the stockade as though 
 anxious to say something 
 and yet afraid to speak. 
 At length Gladwyn him- 
 self noticed her unusual 
 conduct, and asked her 
 what it was that was 
 weighing on her mind. 
 She at first refused to answer, but after much urging 
 was persuaded to tell all that she knew of Pontiac's 
 designs. 
 
 She had learned everything. She told Gladwyn that 
 early on the following day Pontiac would come to the fort 
 and ask to hold a council with the Eno:Hsh officers. With 
 
 She had learned everything 
 
The Siege of Detroit 109 
 
 him would be sixty of his trustiest braves, each with a gun 
 hidden under his blanket. On the outside of the stockade 
 all the Indian warriors would be ready at a signal to rush 
 into the fort. Pontiac would make a speech in the coun- 
 cil, and at a certain moment would offer a peace belt of 
 wami)um, holding it upside down. At this signal his 
 braves would utter the war whoop, and fire upon the offi- 
 cers ; the Indians at the gate would rush into the fort, and 
 massacre the garrison ; every Englishman would be killed, 
 but the French settlers would be spared. 
 
 That same afternoon WiUiam Tucker, a soldier at the 
 fort, came to Gladwyn with a similar story. Tucker had 
 been captured by the Indians when he was a child, had 
 been adopted by them, and had lived many years in the 
 family of an Ottawa brave. He told Gladwyn that his 
 Indian sister had warned him to leave the fort, saying that 
 Pontiac intended, on the morrow, to seize it by strategy 
 and destroy all its inmates. 
 
 Gladwyn, thus doubly warned, began at once to guard 
 against surprise. There were at that time a hundred and 
 thirty soldiers and ofticers in the fort, besides several 
 traders with their families and employees. Two small 
 English vessels, the Gladwyn and the Beaver, were an- 
 chored in the river, but too far away to be of any service. 
 At sunset the great gates of the fort were closed. The 
 guards were doubled ; the arms were examined ; the am- 
 munition was arranged ; and every man in the fort was 
 ordered to be ready for service at a moment's call. But 
 as yet no one but Major Gladwyn and his officers knew 
 the character of the threatened danger. 
 
no TJic Great Conspiracy 
 
 The day had been rainy and the night was dark. The 
 warriors of the Hurons and the Pottawattomies had left 
 their own villages early in the evening, and gathered at the 
 council ground of their great chief, in the Ottawa town 
 opposite the Isle au Cochon. In the middle of the night 
 the English officers, anxiously watching from the pali- 
 sades, heard, far away, the booming sound of the Indian 
 drum and the wild, discordant notes of the war song, 
 mingled with hoots of defiance and yells of victory. All 
 doubt was now at an end. They knew that the savages 
 were dancing the war dance around their council fire, and 
 making ready for the bloody work of the morrow. Every 
 person in the fort was aroused and on the alert, and the 
 hours until morning were full of anxiety and suspense. 
 
 The day dawned upon a quiet and peaceful scene. The 
 fog that was resting upon the river soon faded away, 
 and then the sentinels saw a fleet of canoes crossing the 
 river a mile or two above the fort. They moved slowly, 
 as if heavily laden, and yet only two or three Indians 
 could be seen in each. Every boat, in fact, was full of 
 warriors, lying flat in the bottom so as to escape the 
 notice of the English. 
 
 Pontiac and his men landed at a point where they could 
 not be seen from the fort, and soon many of the warriors 
 found their way to the open common on the north side of 
 the stockade. Then the women and children from the 
 villages began to arrive, as though it were a general holi- 
 day, and they had come to see the games. Yet all seemed 
 restless and anxious, and it was very plain that they were 
 not in a peaceful mood. 
 
The Siege of Detroit III 
 
 At about ten o'clock Pontiac and sixty of his braves 
 came down the river road, marching solemnly in Indian 
 file to the eastern gate of the stockade. Their faces were 
 besmeared with [)aint, and their heads adorned in the 
 most fantastic style. All were wrapped in long colored 
 blankets, which they drew closely about their shoulders. 
 As they reached the gate it was opened to receive them. 
 With stately tread the great chief led his followers into 
 the inclosure and down St. Anne Street to the council 
 house. But to his surprise and dismay he found himself 
 marching between ranks of soldiers fully armed ; and at 
 every turn of the street he saw groups of traders and 
 sturdy backwoodsmen, with long knives in their belts and 
 rifles in their hands. Men also stood at the guns on the 
 bastions, waiting only the word of command. 
 
 At the council house. Major Gladwyn and his officers 
 were waiting to receive their savage visitors. 
 
 '* Why do I see so many of my father's young 
 men standing in the streets with their guns } " asked 
 Pontiac. 
 
 Gladwyn answered that it was customary to exercise 
 the soldiers every morning. '' Come any day at this hour, 
 and you shall see them with their guns." 
 
 After some delay the chiefs seated themselves. As 
 was the custom, they smoked together for some time in 
 silence ; but any one could see that they were ill at 
 ease. At length Pontiac arose and made a speech. He 
 spoke of the number and prowess of his braves and of 
 their deeds in war — and his eyes flashed and his voice 
 rose in tones of exultation as he called to memory the 
 
112 
 
 TJic Great Conspiracy 
 
 savage victories in which they had borne a part. Then 
 he spoke of the English and of their great power and of 
 their recent triumphs — and with bowed head and suppH- 
 cating voice he acknowledged their superior wisdom and 
 pleaded for their friendship. His whole speech was a won- 
 derful display of natural 
 oratory. At one time he 
 raised the belt of wampum 
 as if to give the signal for 
 his followers to begin the 
 attack ; but at that mo- 
 ment, at a slight signal 
 from Major Gladwyn, a 
 drum was beaten, there 
 was a ratthng of arms at 
 the door, and the rapid 
 tramp of soldiers was 
 heard in the street. The 
 chief paused, he stam- 
 mered, and then presented 
 the belt in the usual man- 
 ner, and sat down. 
 
 Major Gladwyn then 
 spoke. He told the chiefs 
 '•At one time he raised the belt of wampum" that they should have the 
 
 friendship of the English as long as they deserved it ; 
 but he declared that in case of any perfidy on their 
 part they should be most fearfully punished. He then 
 dismissed the council. 
 
 ** I will come again in a few days," said Pontiac. " I 
 
TJie Siege of Detroit 1 1 3 
 
 will then bring my women and children ; for I want them 
 all to shake hands with their English father." 
 
 The chiefs then marched away as they had come. The 
 gate, which had been closed during the council, was 
 opened to allow them to pass out. Pontiac walked sul- 
 lenly to the river, got into his canoe, and paddled back to 
 the Ottawa village on the opposite shore. 
 
 On the following morning Pontiac again visited the fort. 
 With him were three of his most trusted warriors, and 
 in his hand he bore the pipe of peace. " My fathers," 
 said he to the officers, "evil birds are flying in the air. 
 They have whispered false tales in your ears. They have 
 told you that we are not your friends. Believe them not. 
 We love the English as brothers, and, to show that this 
 is true, we have come to smoke the pipe of peace with 
 you." 
 
 After smoking with the officers, the wily chief bade 
 them good-by and went out to confer with the Wyandots 
 and the Pottawattomies, and with them lay new plans for 
 the destruction of the fort. 
 
 At about noon on the next day, the 9th of May, a great 
 
 throng of savages appeared on the common behind the 
 
 fort. *'Why are the gates closed against us.''" 
 
 1763 
 cried Pontiac. '' My young men wish to go m 
 
 and enjoy the fragrance of the calumet with their English 
 
 fathers." 
 
 Gladwyn answered that the chief himself might come in 
 
 if he wished, but that he would have none of his rabble 
 
 inside of the stockade. Pontiac turned and strode back 
 
 to his warriors. All pretense of friendship was at an end. 
 
 CONQ. O.N.W. — 8 
 
114 TJie Great Conspiracy 
 
 Brandishing his tomahawk, he called out for vengeance, 
 and his voice was answered by the yells of hundreds of 
 enraged savages. The bloody work began at once. One 
 party rushed madly toward a little house on the farther 
 side of the common, where an old Englishwoman lived 
 with her two sons. These they massacred. Others 
 pushed off in canoes to the Isle au Cochon and murdered 
 a discharged sergeant who had a garden there. The 
 rage of Pontiac was so great that no man dared speak 
 to him, and yet he took no part in these wild deeds. 
 That very day he ordered the village of the Ottawas to be 
 removed to the western shore, so that his warriors in 
 going back and forth would not be delayed by the river. 
 The wigwams were hastily taken down, and before the 
 next morning all were ferried over and again erected on 
 the green banks of the little stream then known as 
 Parent's Creek, but since called Bloody Run. Another 
 wild war dance was danced. Ottawas, Wyandots, Potta- 
 wattomies, and Chippewas, all rallied around the chief, 
 and with fierce yells cried out for vengeance upon the 
 hated English. 
 
 A resolute attack was then made upon the fort. From 
 behind houses, fences, and trees the savages kept up a 
 brisk fire all day long ; but they were afraid of the small 
 cannon in the blockhouses at the corners of the stockade, 
 and did not dare to come near enough to do any damage. 
 
 Then a regular siege began. Savage bands from the 
 west and south came, one after another, to the aid of 
 Pontiac ; and a host of bloodthirsty warriors surrounded 
 the stockade day and night. The besieged were obliged 
 
TJic Siege of Detroit 1 1 5 
 
 to be on the watch every moment. For weeks neither 
 officers nor men took off their clothes to sleep ; their arms 
 were always at hand ; and every person was ready for 
 duty at a moment's call. 
 
 The savages tried every means of annoyance. Floating 
 fire rafts were sent down the river in order to destroy the 
 two schooners that were anchored under the guns of the 
 fort. Sharpshooters lurked in hiding places to pick off 
 the sentinels who might carelessly show themselves above 
 the defenses. Parties of warriors were sent out in every 
 direction to cut off all help that might be sent to the 
 beleaguered garrison. 
 
 In June a vessel containing supplies and a reenforce- 
 ment of fifty men was captured by the Indians. Soon 
 afterward another vessel carrying provisions and ammuni- 
 tion reached the mouth of the Detroit River. There the 
 men landed to pass the night ; but while they slept a 
 band of savages fell upon them and killed or captured 
 almost the entire company. 
 
 In July a reenforcement of two hundred and fifty sol- 
 diers under Captain Dalzell reached the fort in safety. 
 On the next day a sortie was made against the Indian 
 encampment near Parent's Brook. It was an unfortunate 
 affair. The English fell into an ambush and werfe driven 
 back with great loss. Not long after this, however, the 
 Indians began to show signs of weakening. Their food 
 was becoming exhausted, and they were suffering from 
 hunger. They had expected to destroy the fort at a single 
 blow, but as months went by and they were still kept out- 
 side of the stockade they lost their enthusiasm and their 
 
Ii6 TJic Great Conspiracy 
 
 patience. As the time for the autumn hunt came on, they 
 began to fall away ; and with the beginning of winter 
 only the Ottawas remained faithful to their chief. 
 
 Pontiac, although seeing that his cause was becoming 
 hopeless, continued to annoy the garrison all winter and 
 far into the next summer. At length Sir William 
 Johnson, the British agent in western New York, 
 succeeded in making a treaty of peace with the Senecas, 
 then the most powerful of the Iroquois nations. This 
 opened up the way along the southern shore of Lake Erie 
 and made it possible to send relief to Detroit. A force of 
 nearly three thousand soldiers was placed under the com- 
 mand of Colonel Bradstreet, who was instructed to give 
 the Indians of the Northwest a thorough chastisement and 
 compel them to sue for peace. 
 
 Most of the tribes, however, had already grown tired of 
 the war, and were willing to make peace without compul- 
 sion. Bradstreet and his little army arrived at Detroit in 
 August, and were received with great joy by the belea- 
 gured garrison who for fifteen months had lived in the midst 
 of alarms, cut off from all communication with the world. 
 Pontiac himself had retired secretly into the forest, and 
 it was an easy matter to arrange peace with his former 
 followers. A great council was held and the savages 
 readily agreed to bury the hatchet and become good sub- 
 jects of the king of England. Bradstreet then sent detach- 
 ments to take possession of Mackinac and the Sault Sainte 
 Marie. The terrible war which Pontiac had inaugurated 
 was at an end. 
 
ENGLAND IN FULL POSSESSION 
 I. BOUQUET. 
 
 While the lake tribes were being subdued, Colonel 
 Bouquet at Fort Pitt was preparing to invade the Ohio 
 country and compel the Shawnees and other tribes of that 
 region to sue for peace. Early in October, he set 
 out from the forks of the Ohio with fifteen hundred 
 soldiers. In front went a company of woodsmen, brawny 
 wielders of the ax, who hewed their way through the forest 
 and made a passable road for the host which followed. 
 Behind was a long train of pack horses, and droves of cattle 
 and sheep that were taken along for the subsistence of the 
 troops. Their progress was slow, but on the tenth day 
 they reached the Tuscarawas River at a point almost west 
 of Fort Pitt and directly south of the place where the 
 city of Cleveland now stands. They were now in the 
 midst of the Indian country, and their coming struck 
 terror into the hearts of the already conquered savages. 
 
 As Colonel Bouquet continued his march down to the 
 Muskingum, the chiefs of the various bands met him and 
 begged him to appoint a time and place for a council. 
 This request was readily granted, and, on the day agreed 
 upon, white men and red met under the spreading branches 
 of oaks and maples, to discuss the questions of war and 
 peace. 
 
 117 
 
ii8 
 
 England iji Full Possession 
 
 After all had smoked for a long time in silence, the 
 spokesman of the Indians arose. His name was Turtle 
 Heart, and he was a chief of the Delawares. 
 
 "Brother," said he, addressing Colonel Bouquet, ** this 
 war was neither your fault nor ours. It was the work of 
 the nations that live to the westward, and of our wild 
 young men who would have killed us if we had not con- 
 
 " Under the spreading branches of oaks and maples " 
 
 sented. We now put away all evil from our hearts, and 
 we hope that your mind and ours will once more be united 
 together. 
 
 " Brother, it is the will of the Great Spirit that there 
 should be peace between us. We, on our side, now take 
 fast hold of the chain of friendship ; but, as we cannot 
 hold it alone, we desire that you will take hold also, and 
 we must look up to the Great Spirit that he may make us 
 strong, and not permit this chain to fall from our hands. 
 
Bouquet 1 1 9 
 
 " Brother, these words come from our hearts, and not 
 from our Hps. You desire that we should deliver up your 
 fiesh and blood now captive amon^^ us ; and to show you 
 that we are sincere, we now return you as many of 
 them as we have at present been able to bring. You 
 shall receive the rest as soon as we have time to collect 
 them." 
 
 Eighteen white prisoners were at once delivered up to 
 their friends, and each chief gave to Bouquet a bundle of 
 small sticks which indicated the number of captives still 
 held by his people, and whom he agreed to set free as soon 
 as possible. Three days later, another council was held, 
 and Colonel Bouquet made a long speech to the a'ssembled 
 chiefs. It was a stern and unrelenting speech, and filled 
 his red hearers with fear and humility. 
 
 " I give you twelve days," said Colonel Bouquet, *' to 
 deliver into my hands all the prisoners in your possession 
 without exception ; and you are to furnish these prisoners 
 with clothing and provisions, and with horses to carry 
 them to Fort Pitt. When you have fully complied with 
 these conditions, you shall then know on what terms you 
 may obtain the peace you sue for." 
 
 This speech had the desired effect of hastening matters ; 
 and when, a few weeks later. Bouquet's army marched 
 back to Fort Pitt, more than two hundred men, women, 
 and children, who had been delivered from captivity, 
 returned with it and were restored to their relatives and 
 friends. Many of these returned unwillingly ; for the 
 Indians had been kind to them, and they had grown to love 
 the wild life of the woods. 
 
120 
 
 England in Full Possession 
 
 II. THE LAST HOPE DISPELLED 
 
 Although defeated on every hand and deserted by his 
 alhes, Pontiac had not yet lost hope, nor was he among 
 those who sued for peace. He had retired in disappoint- 
 ment and rage to the Wabash country, hoping to stir up 
 the western tribes, and prevent them from making 
 the English. Here, indeed, he had 
 more reason to hope for success. 
 For the French posts on the Wa- 
 bash and the Mississippi had not 
 yet been surrendered to the 
 English. The French traders 
 who still plied their vocation in 
 these regions were fearful that 
 the coming of the English would 
 work their ruin ; and they used 
 every means to persuade the 
 Indians to revolt. 
 
 " Your father, the king of 
 
 France," said they, " intends 
 
 surely to help you. Before many 
 
 moons have passed you will see 
 
 his white-coated warriors whom 
 
 " His fiery eloquence stirred the j^^ j^^g ^^^>^ ^^ figj^t for y^^. 
 hearts of all that heard him " _ ,. , . 
 
 Do not trust the English ; do 
 
 not permit them to come near you. They want only to 
 
 drive you from their homes, and to take your lands for 
 
 their own." 
 
 Pontiac found numbers of Indians who were wiUing to 
 
The Last Post given up 121 
 
 promise him aid. He passed down the Wabash, stopping; 
 at the French posts of Ouiatenon and Vincennes, and visit- 
 ing the villages of the Kickapoos, the Miamis, and the 
 Piankeshaws. His fiery eloquence stirred the hearts of 
 -all that heard him ; but no organized plan was made for 
 resisting the English, who were sure to come. With four 
 hundred warriors at his heels, he hastened across the 
 prairies to Fort Chartres on the Mississippi, above whose 
 bastions the white flag of France was still floating. The 
 great chief had known the commandant, St. Ange, in hap- 
 pier days for them both, and he hoped now to gain his 
 support. 
 
 ** Father," said he, *' I love the French, and I have come 
 hither with my warriors to avenge their wrongs. I re- 
 member the battles which we fought together against the 
 English dogs, and now I come to ask you to give me arms 
 and ammunition and men, that I may carry on the war." 
 
 St. Ange was obliged to refuse this request ; but he 
 tried to soothe the wounded feelings of the chief by giv- 
 ing him presents and praising his courage. Pontiac, in 
 bitterness of heart, turned away, angrily crying out against 
 such hollow friendship. 
 
 III. THE LAST POST GIVEN UP 
 
 Early in the summer of the following year. Sir William 
 Johnson determined to send a trustworthy messenger to 
 the Wabash country to prepare the French and 
 Indians for the coming of the EngHsh forces. 
 In looking about for a suitable person to undertake this 
 perilous mission, whom could he better choose than our 
 
122 England in Full Possession 
 
 old acquaintance, George Croghan, who had been the 
 companion of Gist in his famous visit to the Miamis fif- 
 teen years before ? Croghan, with two boats and some 
 white companions, started from Fort Pitt about the middle 
 of May. Floating down the Ohio, he took careful note 
 of its windings and of the nature of the country which it 
 watered. The river flowed majestically onward through 
 one vast stretch of wilderness land. Forests of oak and 
 walnut and maple trees shut out the view on either side. 
 Buffaloes and wild game of every kind were abundant, 
 and the whole country seemed to be a hunter's paradise. 
 
 The Shawnees in the valley of the Scioto hastened to 
 make their peace with Croghan. But as he passed far- 
 ther down the Ohio he found the Indians less ready to 
 submit to the English. In June, when near the mouth 
 of the Wabash, he was taken prisoner by some strolling 
 Kickapoos and Mascoutins, who probably thought that 
 they were thus serving the cause of the French. Croghan, 
 however, was so well acquainted with Indian character 
 that he quickly won the esteem of his captors. They 
 treated him with unwonted kindness, and carried him to 
 Vincennes, where he found the French commandant very 
 courteous, and quite ready to surrender the post whenever 
 the Enghsh should demand it. There were at that time 
 about eighty French families at Vincennes, living in con- 
 tented ease upon the products of the forest and their little 
 garden plots. On the outskirts of the village were clusters 
 of Indian huts where certain of the Twightwees and other 
 tribes dwelt under the protection of the French fort. 
 
 Croghan was allowed to remain only a day or two at 
 
The Last Post given up 123 
 
 Vincennes, and was then sent up the river to Ouiatenon. 
 There he was set at liberty, and a council with the 
 Indians was called. The French garrison had already 
 abandoned the fort ; but a dozen French families were liv- 
 ing inside of the little stockade, and two or three traders 
 were there for the purpose of buying furs. For several 
 days Croghan was kept busy, smoking the peace pipe and 
 making treaties with the various tribes that dwelt in that 
 region. All seemed ready to receive their new rulers. 
 They promised to give up any prisoners that were among 
 them, and to hoist the English flag over their villages. 
 
 Having finished his business with these tribes, Croghan 
 started across the country to Fort Chartres ; but hardly 
 had he lost sight of the Wabash when he was met by a 
 band of warriors under the leadership of a stern, eagle- 
 eyed chief whom he at once recognized as the great 
 Pontiac. The meeting was a friendly one. Pontiac had 
 lost all hope of receiving aid from the French, and he was 
 now on his way to make peace with the English. " He 
 was a shrewd, sensible Indian," said Croghan, afterward. 
 
 All now returned to Ouiatenon, and a solemn council 
 was held with the Ottawa chief and his friends. Pontiac 
 offered the belt of peace and declared his friendship for 
 the English. He had been deceived by the French, he 
 said ; he would no longer stand in the way. 
 
 The speech in which Croghan replied °to the great chief 
 was so like an Indian's that every one of his dusky hearers 
 was charmed with its eloquence, and all pledged their 
 undying friendship to the English. 
 
 Croghan 's mission to prepare the western tribes for the 
 
124 England in Full Possessio7t 
 
 coming of the English was now ended, and he thought it 
 unnecessary to go forward to Fort Chartres. He therefore 
 hastened to Detroit, whither he was followed by Pontiac. 
 Another council of peace was held with the lake tribes. 
 
 *' Father," said Pontiac, '' we have all smoked out of this 
 pipe of peace. It is your children's pipe, and as the war 
 is all over, and the Great Spirit and Giver of Light, who 
 has made the earth and everything therein, has brought 
 us all together this day for our mutual good, I declare to 
 all nations that I have settled my peace with you ..." 
 
 Before the end of September, Croghan was at Oswego, 
 New York, where he reported to Sir William Johnson all 
 that he had seen and done. In the meanwhile Captain 
 Thomas Stirling had been chosen as the best man to take 
 possession of the Western country. With his famous 
 Black Watch regiment, composed of a hundred and 
 twenty Highlanders, he at once started down the Ohio. 
 The voyage was a quick and prosperous one, and the 
 regiment arrived at Fort Chartres without any mishap. 
 On the loth of October the white flag of France, 
 which had floated for half a century over that 
 famous fortress, was hauled down, and the cross of St. 
 George was hoisted in its stead. 
 
 Thus, at last, the Northwest was won by England. But 
 England, as Mr. Bancroft says, had not achieved this 
 conquest for herself. She became "not so much the 
 possessor of the valley of the West as the trustee, com- 
 missioned to transfer it from the France of the Middle 
 Ages to the free people who were making for humanity 
 a new life in America. " 
 
A YANKEE TRAVELER 
 I. AMBITIOUS PLANS 
 
 AT the close of the war which gave the Northwest to 
 the EngHsh there was living in Connecticut a 
 dreamer of dreams whose name was Jonathan Carver. 
 When a young man he had enhsted in the British army, 
 and by his energy and courage he had finally 
 risen to the rank of captain. The great North- 
 west with its hidden mysteries and its future possibilities 
 had interested him from his childhood. He had read of 
 Jean Nicolet, of La Salle, of Hennepin, and of Veren- 
 drye ; and he was fired with a desire to complete the 
 discoveries which they had begun. He would trace the 
 Mississippi to its source ; he would lay bare the mystery 
 of the great westward flowing river; he would discover 
 the lon^-sought water route to the Pacific. 
 
 There were other less visionary plans which he hoped to 
 carry out. He would make correct maps and charts of the 
 country so lately added to the possessions of Great Britain, 
 and he would gain a knowledge of its soil, its products, and 
 its inhabitants. Then he would ascertain the breadth of 
 the North American continent at its widest part, and 
 would learn what was the nature of its surface and what 
 the extent of its rivers and mountains. In case he should 
 succeed in all these schemes, he proposed to establish a 
 
 125 
 
126 A Yankee Traveler 
 
 trading post on the Pacific coast near the so-called straits 
 
 of Annian, which, having been discovered by Sir Francis 
 
 Drake, belonged of course to the king of England. 
 
 In June, 1766, Captain Carver started from Boston on 
 
 his enterprise of discovery. Three months later he reached 
 
 Mackinac, the most western of the Ens^lish posts 
 1766 
 
 on the lakes. There he obtained a supply of 
 
 goods for use in dealing with the Indians, and then 
 
 pushed onward to Green Bay. 
 
 At the head of the bay, and not far from the old Jesuit 
 mission of St. Francis Xavier, there was a stockade which 
 had been built by the French and called Fort la Baie. 
 The history of this fort was well known to Carver. A 
 small EngHsh force under Lieutenant Gorell had taken 
 possession of it in 1761, and had rechristened it Fort 
 Edward Augustus. The walls were in a ruinous condi- 
 tion, and the place was but poorly fitted to withstand an 
 attack from any foe. But Lieutenant Gorell was as wise 
 as he was brave. He treated the Indians with great fair- 
 ness, and at the same time made them understand that he 
 would punish any false deaHng on their part. In this way 
 he won their respect and friendship. Ten days after the 
 bloody massacre at Mackinac, an Indian messenger 
 brought the news to Green Bay, together with a letter 
 of warning and advice from Captain Etherington, who 
 was then a prisoner of the Ottawas. 
 
 Obedient to his captain's orders, Lieutenant Gorell 
 abandoned Fort Edward Augustus and embarked all his 
 men in canoes, saying that he was going to Mackinac to 
 restore order. Ninety Indian warriors went with him. 
 
Afi Early Viciv of the Nort Invest 127 
 
 At the village of L'Arbre Croche, near Mackinac, he 
 found Captain Etherington and eleven other prisoners — 
 all who remained from the massacre — in the hands of the 
 Ottawas. He called a council of the chiefs, and by wise 
 and courageous action persuaded them to give the Kng- 
 lishmen their freedom. Then all embarked again, and 
 escorted by a fleet of Indian canoes, started toward 
 the white settlements in the east. A month later they 
 reached Montreal, having come by the old French route 
 down the Ottawa River. 
 
 II. AN EARLY VIEW OF THE NORTHWEST 
 
 When Jonathan Carver reached Fort Edward Augustus 
 it was in the same ruinous condition in which Lieutenant 
 Gorell had left it. A few French families were living 
 within the stockade, and on the other side of the river 
 were some small French houses with little gardens around 
 them. Carver thought that it was a very pleasant though 
 lonely place, and the people seemed to be comfortable and 
 contented. 
 
 Going on up the river, he came to Lake Winnebago, and 
 visited the chief town of the Winnebagoes which was then 
 on Doty's Island. Here were about fifty houses, all 
 strongly built and surrounded by palisades. The ruler of 
 the tribe was a woman, who received Carver kindly and 
 entertained him as hospitably as she could. Farther up 
 the lake was another but smaller town of the same tribe. 
 
 Carver, following the course of Marquette and Joliet, 
 soon came to the portage between the Fox River and the 
 
128 A Yankee Travelei' 
 
 Wisconsin. Here his canoe was carried for a mile and 
 a half — part of the way over a wet meadow and part of 
 the way through a straggling forest of oak and pine. 
 
 From the portage he descended the Wisconsin to the 
 great village of the Sacs at the place now called Prairie du 
 Sac. ■ This village, if we are to believe his very doubtful 
 story, was a wonderful place. He tells us that the houses 
 were built of hewn planks with broad porches in front, 
 and so disposed as to form long and beautiful streets. A 
 great trade in provisions was carried on there, and lead 
 was so plentiful that it could be picked up in the streets. 
 
 On the left bank of the Mississippi River, just above the 
 mouth of the Wisconsin, was Prairie du Chien, the princi- 
 pal village of the Fox Indians, which Carver describes as 
 being another very busy place. Throughout this whole 
 region not a single white man was to be found ; but while 
 passing through Lake Pepin, a few days later, the traveler 
 was shown the ruins of the fort where Legardeur de St. 
 Pierre had lived and traded with the Sioux more than 
 twenty years before. 
 
 Our traveler explored the country along both banks of 
 the Mississippi as far as to the St. Francis River in 
 Minnesota. One day as he was standing near the place 
 now occupied by the twin cities, St. Paul and Minneapolis, 
 he pictured to himself the future of the region about the 
 head waters of the Mississippi. Here, thought he, was a 
 place designed by nature for the seat of a future great 
 empire. Eastward, the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence 
 would afford an easy communication with the Atlantic 
 seaboard. Southward, the Great River would give ready 
 
Carver s Grant 
 
 129 
 
 access to the Gulf. Westward, the-re would doubtless 
 soon be discovered some practical route to the Pacific 
 coast. Northward, there were water ways leading to Hud- 
 son Bay and the unexplored regions bordered by the Arc- 
 tic seas. And then, as if gifted with the spirit of proph- 
 ecy, Carver made this note in his journal: *'As the seat 
 of empire from time immemorial has been gradually pro- 
 gressive toward the west, there is no doubt that, at some 
 future period, mighty kingdoms will emerge from these 
 wildernesses, and stately palaces and solemn temples, with 
 gilded spires reaching the skies, will supplant the Indian 
 huts, whose only decorations are the barbarous trophies 
 of their vanquished enemies." 
 
 III. CARVER'S GRANT 
 
 1766-67 
 
 For one whole winter. Carver lived among the Sioux 
 Indians, and according 
 to his own account he 
 made himself 
 so agreeable 
 to these savages of the 
 distant West that they 
 adopted him into their 
 tribe and made him one 
 of their chiefs. While 
 sitting by the camp fires 
 of his dusky friends, or 
 resting in their wigwams, 
 he busied himself taking notes of his discoveries and making 
 
 CONQ. O.N.W. — 9 
 
130 A Yankee Traveler 
 
 maps of the Northwest country. His maps were drawn 
 with much care and were based both upon his own observa- 
 tions and upon the reports brought to him by the Indians. 
 
 He beheved that the great westward flowing river which 
 Verendrye and St. Pierre had sought for in vain would 
 yet be discovered ; and in one of his maps he placed its 
 source in a small lake a little way west of the source of 
 the Mississippi. This river he called the '' Origan," and 
 he traced its probable course as it flowed through un- 
 bounded plains to the far distant Pacific. As for the 
 Rocky Mountains, mentioned by Legardeur de St. Pierre, 
 he argued that they had no existence except as " a single 
 peak of bright stones " rising out of the plains north of 
 the great river. 
 
 For some reason which he never explained, Carver did 
 not go much farther west. Late in the summer he re- 
 turned to the lakes, and in the following year he reached 
 Boston. He had traveled, according to his own estimate, 
 about seven thousand miles. His theories and the story 
 of his explorations awakened much interest ; and there 
 were men of wealth who were wiUing to aid him in finding 
 
 a way from the Mississippi to the Pacific. But 
 1768 
 
 trouble was already brewing between the colonies 
 
 and the mother country, and, before any plans could be 
 
 matured, the breaking out of the Revolutionary War put 
 
 an end to all further thoughts of new discoveries in the 
 
 distant West. 
 
 After the death of Carver his descendants claimed that 
 
 the Sioux Indians had granted to him a tract of land more 
 
 than a hundred miles square in the western part of what 
 
Carvers Grant 13 1 
 
 is now the state of Wisconsin. A deed in Carver's hand- 
 writini;-, signed by two Indian chiefs, was presented in 
 evidence of this grant. In it the boundary Hne of this 
 tract was described as beginning at the Falls of St. An- 
 thony and running thence "on the east banks of the Mis- 
 sissippi, nearly southeast, as far as the south end of Lake 
 Pepin, and from thence eastward five days' travel, account- 
 ing twenty English miles per day, and from thence north 
 six days' travel, and from thence again to the Falls of St. 
 Anthony on a direct straight Hne." Many persistent 
 efforts were made to induce Congress to confirm and 
 legalize this grant, but all finally failed. For nearly fifty 
 years the territory, known as '* Carver's Tract," was dis- 
 tinctly marked and named on all maps of the Northwest. 
 
A NOBLE RED MAN 
 
 I. A DASTARDLY DEED 
 
 WHILE Pontiac and his warriors were carrying terror 
 and destruction to many English posts in the 
 Northwest, there was one Iroquois Indian of great influ- 
 ence who remained the firm friend of the whites. This 
 was Tah-gah-jute, the son of a chief of the Cayugas. He 
 had been brought up near a Moravian settlement in central 
 Pennsylvania, and had been given an EngHsh name, John 
 Logan, in honor of the secretary of William Penn, who 
 was revered as a steadfast friend of the Indians. It is 
 by this name that he is always known in history. 
 
 Logan, until misfortunes overwhelmed him, was one of 
 Nature's noblemen. Among white people and red he was 
 famed, not only for his fine appearance and his engaging 
 manners, but also for the uprightness of his character. 
 He was more than six feet tall, straight as an arrow, hand- 
 some in form and feature, an Apollo of the wildwood. 
 He was courteous to all men, and gentle particularly to 
 children. His word, once given, was never broken ; he 
 was loyal to his friends ; he seemed to be the very soul of 
 honor. The Indians of all tribes respected him for his 
 courage and for his skill as a hunter. The rude back- 
 woodsmen and the white vagabonds of the frontier es- 
 teemed him as a man superior to themselves, declaring 
 
 132 
 
A Dastardly Deed 133 
 
 that he was "the best specimen of humanity they had ever 
 met with." 
 
 During the progress of Pontiac's war, Logan kept him- 
 self aloof from the rest of his people. He spent his time 
 in hunting and trapping among the mountains and in 
 dressing skins to sell to the Pennsylvanian traders. When 
 his savage friends tried to persuade him to dig up the 
 hatchet and join them on the warpath, he plainly told 
 them that he preferred to stay at home with his wife and 
 children. 
 
 A short time after the close of the war he removed with 
 his family to the banks of the Ohio not far from where 
 the town of Steubenville now stands. The Mingoes, who 
 were relatives of the Iroquois, and whose homes were in 
 that region, had long* admired Logan for his woodcraft 
 and his wisdom, and they now chose him to be their chief. 
 He found that many white men had collected at different 
 places in the country south of the Ohio. Some of these 
 were criminals who had fled to the wilderness to escape 
 punishment for their wicked deeds ; some w^ere hunters 
 who liked nothing so well as the wild, rough life of the 
 frontier ; some were traders, with a plentiful supply of 
 fire water for the Indians and no sense of honor in their 
 hearts ; a few were honest pioneers anxious to make new 
 homes in the wilderness. 
 
 These men were the vanguard of the great western 
 movement which was just then beginning, and which in 
 time was to overrun and subdue the better part of the con- 
 tinent. They would have crossed the Ohio and opened 
 settlements in the Northwest had they dared ; but the 
 
134 A iV^/^/r Red Man 
 
 English Parliament had made that river the boundary line 
 between Virginia and the Indian country, and no white 
 man was permitted to settle or remain on its northern side. 
 Often, however, in spite of all this, some lawless border 
 ruffian would push his way into the forbidden land and 
 perhaps commit some outrage upon the savage inhabitants. 
 Then the Indians would retaliate by crossing to the south 
 side of the river and doing a like injury to the settlers 
 there. 
 
 Matters were in this state when Chief Logan set up his 
 lodge on the banks of Yellow Creek on the north side of 
 the Ohio. There was much ill feehng between 
 the Indians and the backwoodsmen, and as time 
 went on this feeling grew worse and worse. At last the 
 crisis came. A daring pioneer, named Walter Kelly, had 
 made his home in the woods of the Kenawha Valley, 
 eighty miles from the nearest stockade. One night a 
 prowling band of Shawnees came upon the lonely cabin, 
 burned it to the ground, and murdered the pioneer and 
 his defenseless family. Soon after this it was reported 
 that some other Indians had crossed the Ohio and stolen 
 several horses from a party of land-grabbers who were 
 encamped near the Kenawha. 
 
 The ruffians and backwoodsmen cried loudly for ven- 
 geance. They were anxious for an Indian war, and these 
 two outrages seemed to give them an excuse for beginning 
 it. Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, had 
 reasons of his own for wishing to punish the Indians, and 
 he at once sent word to the backwoodsmen to be in readi- 
 ness to repel any attack that the Indians might make upon 
 
A Dastaiiily Deed 135 
 
 them. This was ri«;htly understood as meaning that they 
 might attack the Indians if they chose. 
 
 The land-grabbers sought out Michael Cresap, the son 
 of a famous frontiersman of the same name, and made 
 him their captain. With them also was a daring young 
 Virginian, George Rogers Clark, who had come out to 
 survey a grant of land near the mouth of the Kenawha. 
 Other men joined them, hunters, backwoodsmen, and law- 
 less vagabonds, and all marched down to the spot where 
 the city of Wheeling now stands. There were already a 
 dozen log houses and a stockade there ; and Colonel Zane, 
 the founder of the settlement, gave the company a gener- 
 ous welcome. 
 
 A few days afterward Captain Cresap, with a few of 
 his men, waylaid a small company of friendly Indians in 
 canoes, killed and scalped them, and returned to Wheeling, 
 boasting of what they had done. Colonel Zane, and some 
 of the better men among the pioneers, loudly condemned 
 this deed, declaring that such wanton murder would call 
 for revenge and provoke a bloody Indian war. 
 
 "That is just what we want!" cried the ruffians. 
 " Nothing can help this colony so much as a good Indian 
 war." 
 
 That same evening Cresap learned that a party of 
 Shawnees was encamped at the mouth of Captina Creek, 
 a few miles below Wheeling. The next morning he led 
 his company out, attacked the unsuspecting savages, and 
 shot three of them, the others escaping into the woods. 
 
 Having begun the work of slaughter, these white men 
 thirsted for more and more blood. The nearest settle- 
 
136 A Noble Red Man 
 
 ment of Indians was that of the Mingoes under Logan, 
 
 several miles up the river. Under the rule of their wise 
 
 and gentle-hearted chief they had always been 
 1774 •' ■' 
 
 known as the friends of the white people ; but 
 
 they were Indians, and to Cresap and his followers all 
 
 Indians were alike. Some of the men proposed that, since 
 
 the war had now begun, they should march upon Logan's 
 
 camp on Yellow Creek and destroy it. They thereupon 
 
 crossed the river and started upon their savage errand. 
 
 But there were some in the company who had not lost 
 all sense of humanity. They began to think of the kind 
 of errand upon which they were bent. They were march- 
 ing, not against enemies, but against friends. They were 
 planning to murder defenseless women and children ; for 
 they knew that Logan's warriors were absent hunting. 
 They had not gone many miles, therefore, before they 
 began to feel ashamed of themselves. A halt was called, 
 and all the better men among them declared that they 
 would go no farther. Cresap, perhaps not unwillingly, 
 was obliged to change his plans, and all returned to 
 Wheeling. 
 
 On the left-hand bank of the Ohio, opposite the mouth 
 of Yellow Creek, was a tract of fertile land called " Baker's 
 Bottom " from the name of a backwoods trader who had 
 built a cabin there. To this place came thirty-two of the 
 most lawless men of the border, determined upon the 
 destruction of Logan's camp. They were led by Daniel 
 Greathouse, a ruffian of the lowest type who had persuaded 
 them that the Indians were about to make a raid across 
 the river at that pomt. 
 
A Dastardly Deed 
 
 m 
 
 Baker's trade was the selling of whisky to the Indians; 
 and the Mingoes, both men and women, were in the habit 
 of crossing the river to buy liquor from him. Being a man 
 without conscience or character, he was easily persuaded 
 by Greathouse to help carry out a plot, one of the most 
 disgraceful in the history of the Northwest. 
 
 " They were fired upon by the white ruffians" 
 
 On the last day of April a small party of Indian women 
 and children paddled across the river and were lured to 
 Baker's cabin. In the party were several of Logan's 
 own family, and others who were dear to him. While 
 Greathouse and his men lay hidden in the woods. Baker 
 plied his visitors with liquor. Three of the men became 
 hopelessly drunk, and the other warriors were persuaded 
 
138 A Noble Red Man 
 
 to empty their guns by firing at a mark. Then Great- 
 house and four or five others suddenly rushed out and 
 murdered them all except a little babe, the child of 
 Logan's sister. Some Indians on the other side of the 
 river, hearing the guns, jumped into their canoes and pad- 
 dled across to the help of their friends, but before they 
 could reach the shore they were fired upon by the white 
 ruffians who were waiting for them, and nearly all were 
 killed. 
 
 This cold-blooded outrage set the whole Indian country 
 ablaze. Runners were sent to convey the news to all the 
 tribes, and soon a strong war party under Logan had 
 crossed the river, and was carrying death and destruction to 
 all the white settlements along the border. The war which 
 Lord Dunmore and Captain Cresap had thought would 
 result in so much benefit to Virginia was actually begun. 
 
 The colony of Pennsylvania had all along held that 
 white settlers should not encroach upon the country of the 
 Indians. The Pennsylvanians wished to trade with the 
 savages, not to dispossess them of their lands, and for that 
 reason were anxious to keep their friendship. They there- 
 fore sent messages to the different tribes, deploring the 
 outrages that had been committed, and condemning the 
 lawless men who were responsible for them. 
 
 In the great struggle which followed, the Indians re- 
 tained their friendship toward Pennsylvania, and sought 
 revenge only upon Virginia. But since all the Mononga- 
 hela Valley was claimed by Virginia, many of the first 
 incursions of the savages were into territory which now 
 forms a part of Pennsylvania. 
 
Lord Diiuvwrc s War 1 39 
 
 II. LORD DIJNMORE^S WAR 
 
 Lord Dun more lost no time in preparing to crush the 
 Indians of the Northwest. At the head of an army of 
 fifteen hundred Virginians he marched to Fort 
 Pitt. From that place, with a fleet of a hundred 
 canoes, he descended the Ohio to the mouth of the Hock- 
 hocking, where he built a stockade which he called Fort 
 Gore. Then he marched across the country westward to 
 the Scioto, and established a fortified camp, not far from 
 Old Chillicothe, the principal town of the Shawnees. 
 From this camp various parties were sent out against the 
 different Indian settlements in the valley of the Scioto, 
 villages were burned, cornfields were destroyed, and the 
 savage bands were scattered and driven into the thick 
 forest. 
 
 In the meanwhile, an army of frontiersmen, under Colo- 
 nel Lewis, had marched down the Kenawha, and had 
 camped at Point Pleasant, on the south side of the Ohio. 
 There, while waiting for orders from Lord Dunmore, they 
 were suddenly attacked by a large Indian war party under 
 a Shawnee chief, known as Cornstalk. The battle that 
 followed was one of the most desperate that has ever been 
 fought between white men and red. There were about a 
 thousand men on each side, and from early dawn until 
 nearly sunset the conflict raged with varying fortune. 
 Finally, by a well-conducted flank movement, the Virgin- 
 ians made a fierce and resistless charge upon the Indians. 
 The latter were panic-stricken ; they fled in great disorder 
 across the Ohio, and hastened with what si)eed they could 
 
140 A Noble Red Man 
 
 toward their villages on the Scioto. There, however, 
 they found Lord Dunmore, ravaging their homes and car- 
 rying destruction before him. Disheartened and wholly 
 subdued. Cornstalk, with his leading warriors, humbly 
 appeared before Dunmore and begged for peace. 
 
 Cornstalk had gone into the war unwillingly. He had 
 urged his people, at the very beginning, to make peace 
 with the Virginians ; but his hot-headed young men would 
 not listen to his advice. At last, in sheer desperation, he 
 cried out, ** Since you will fight, you sJiall figJit !'' and 
 plunged with all his savage energy into the conflict. The 
 end was as he had foreseen. His conquered people were 
 obliged to accept any terms that the haughty English lord 
 would give. 
 
 A council was held, and a treaty was made. The In- 
 dians solemnly promised that no white man on the Ohio 
 should be molested, and that none of their own people 
 should be permitted to cross to the southern side of that 
 river. They also agreed to give up all their prisoners and 
 return the horses that had been stolen from the whites. 
 On the Qther hand, Lord Dunmore promised that no white 
 man should be permitted to land on the north bank of the 
 Ohio, or to enter the Indian country — a promise which, 
 like all others made to the Indians, was never intended to 
 be kept. 
 
 III. CHIEF LOGAN^S SPEECH 
 
 During all this unhappy war, Logan, the Mingo chief, 
 had been one of the most active among the Indian lead- 
 ers. The thought of the wrongs which he had suffered 
 
Chief Logaii s Speech 141 
 
 urged him to seek revenge. At the head of his band of 
 young men, he made raid after raid into the settlements 
 across the Ohio ; but even while he was killing and burning 
 and carrying terror before him, his strange tenderness of 
 heart would often assert itself, and the kindliness of his 
 nature would stay his hand. Frequently, at the moment 
 of victory, he would spare those whom he had set out to 
 destroy ; and more than one captive was saved from tor- 
 ture and death by his timely interposition. 
 
 At last, when defeat came, Logan was not among those 
 who sued for peace. When urged to attend the council 
 with Lord Dunmore, he sullenly refused, saying that he 
 was not a talker but a fighter. John Gibson, a frontiers- 
 man well acquainted with the Indians, was sent to speak 
 with him. He led Gibson aside into the edge of a grove, 
 and there delivered a speech which the frontiersman wrote 
 down and carried to Lord Dunmore. This speech is the 
 most famous specimen of Indian oratory that has come 
 down to us, and I quote it here in the condensed form in 
 which it was written out and published by Thomas Jeffer- 
 son, ten years after its delivery. It must be remembered 
 that while the thoughts are Logan's the manner of express- 
 ing them is Jefferson's. 
 
 *' I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entered 
 Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat ; if ever 
 he came cold and naked and he clothed him not. During 
 the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained 
 idle in his cabin, an advocate of peace. Such was my love 
 for the whites that my countrymen pointed as they passed 
 and said, ' Logan is the friend of the white man.' I had 
 
142 A Noble Red Man 
 
 even thought to have lived with you but for the injuries of 
 one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood 
 and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not 
 even sparing my women and children. There runs not 
 a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. 
 This called on me for revenge. I have sought it. I have 
 killed many. I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my 
 country I rejoice at the beams of peace ; but do not harbor 
 a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt 
 fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who 
 is there to mourn for Logan } Not one." 
 
 One evening, around a camp fire on the Scioto, were 
 gathered a number of backwoodsmen and borderers who 
 had followed Lord Dunmore in his conquest of the Ohio 
 Valley. Among them were George Rogers Clark, Michael 
 Cresap, Simon Kenton, and some others whose names are 
 famous in the annals of the Northwest. One of them had 
 obtained a copy of Logan's speech, and read it aloud by 
 the light of the flames. They listened and could but ad- 
 mire its pathetic eloquence and the proud disdain with 
 which Logan disclaimed any desire for peace on his own 
 account. 
 
 '* And you, Cresap," cried George Rogers Clark, turning 
 sharply around, ** what a great man you are ! Why, you 
 not only get credit for all your own deeds, but the Indians 
 put everything else on your shoulders." 
 
 Cresap sprang up in anger. ** If Dan Greathouse were 
 here," he exclaimed, *' I would tomahawk him for that das- 
 tardly murder of Logan's kin ! " 
 
Lord Duiiinorc s War 
 
 143 
 
 After the war Loi^an felt himself alone in the world. 
 He wandered from place to place, having no home and 
 caring little for the friendship either of red men or of 
 white. Conflicting stories are told of the manner of his 
 death, but there is little doubt that he was treacherously 
 slain by one of his own people to whom he had given 
 some slight offense. 
 
 " Cresap sprang up in anger 
 
 Lord Dunmore's war accomplished much more than 
 Dunmore himself could have dreamed. It so completely 
 cowed the Indian tribes of the Northwest that when the 
 Revolution began, a year later, they hesitated to make an 
 alliance with Great Britain for the purpose of attacking 
 the frontiers of Virginia ; it opened the way for the settle- 
 ment of the rich Kentucky region south of the Ohio ; it 
 strengthened the claim which Virginia was making for the 
 
144 ^ Noble Red Man 
 
 possession of the greater part of the Northwest; and, 
 finally, it made it possible for the Northwest to be won by 
 the colonial forces, and, therefore, in the end, to become 
 a part of the United States instead of remaining a part of 
 Canada. 
 
HOW THE LAND WAS WON FOR FREEDOM 
 
 FOR SAVAGERY, OR FOR CIVILIZATION? 
 THE POLICY OF THE ENGLISH KING 
 
 AT the time that Viiicennes and the posts in the Illinois 
 Country were deliv^ered up to the I^nglish the French 
 population of the Northwest did not greatly exceed five 
 thousand. In this number were included strolling traders, 
 voyageurs, coureurs de bois, and about five hundred negro 
 slaves. 
 
 The French disliked the thought of becoming subjects 
 of the king of England. In Canada they could not help 
 themselves, and therefore had to make the best of it ; but 
 many of those who lived in the Illinois Country abandoned 
 their homes and crossed the Mississippi where they sup- 
 posed the French king still held possession. They did not 
 know that all the region beyond the river had been secretly 
 ceded to Spain. Some of them gathered about the new 
 post of St. Louis ; others settled at the somewhat older 
 village of St. Genevieve, nearly opposite Kaskaskia ; 
 and still others made their way southward to New 
 Orleans. 
 
 No settlers from the colonies east of the Alleghanies 
 came into the Northwest to make up for the loss of these 
 
 CON(J. O.N.W. — lO 145 
 
146 For Savagery, or for Civilization f 
 
 emigrants. The country remained a savage wilderness 
 with no white inhabitants save the few French people who 
 remained in their little settlements, and the soldiers and 
 traders who were stationed at the English posts. It was 
 the intention of the British government to resign the 
 entire region north of the Ohio to the possession of the 
 Indian tribes — ^to make of it a true Indian country under 
 the protection of the English crown. 
 
 Not only were the colonists in Virginia, Pennsylvania, 
 and New York forbidden to make settlements in the North- 
 west, but all entrance into that region was prohibited, and 
 it was proposed to destroy the settlements which already 
 existed there. 
 
 Three years before the beginning of our Revolutionary 
 
 War, orders came from England to dislodge the French 
 
 in the Wabash Country ; and General Gae^e, the 
 1772 . . . ^ ^ 
 
 British military commander in the Northwest, 
 
 made proclamation warning all white settlers, English as 
 well as French, to remove from the country. But it was 
 shown that the people at Vincennes had clear titles to their 
 lands, — some of them made nearly seventy years before ; 
 and when the matter was appealed to those higher in 
 authority, the order of banishment, although not with- 
 drawn, was allowed to rest unheeded and unenforced. 
 
 About a year before the battle of Lexington, a law was 
 enacted by the British Parliament declaring the whole of 
 the Northwest to be a part of Canada, restoring the laws 
 that had been in force during the French rule, and confirm- 
 ing the Catholic priesthood in all their former rights, privi- 
 leges, and property. It was a strange enactment, and was 
 
The Policy of tJic English King 147 
 
 designed to benefit neither the French inhabitants nor 
 the CathoHc clergy, but to prevent the American colo- 
 nists, who were now making themselves heard, from 
 getting possession of the richest portion of the continent. 
 The colonists were already on the verge of revolution ; 
 and the passage of this law increased the bitterness 
 with which they were beginning to regard the mother 
 country. 
 
 Virginia claimed the greater part of the Northwest as 
 her own. It was hers by the terms of the charter which 
 she had received from King James in 1609. New York 
 also claimed a large portion of the same territory, having 
 acquired it through various treaties with the Iroquois Indi- 
 ans. Pennsylvania also had claims based on a treaty 
 made with the Iroquois at Lancaster. All the colonies 
 had aided in rescuing this region from the French, and 
 they now saw it about to be severed from them and formed 
 into a vast inland province from which white men must be 
 excluded. Every true American cried out against this act 
 of Parliament. It was one of the many deeds of tyranny 
 with which the people charged the English king, and 
 was therefore one of the causes of the American Revo- 
 lution. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the Indians of the Northwest were 
 becoming reconciled to the English government, and at the 
 same time bitterly hostile to the colonists. Why was this ? 
 The English king had assured them that their hunting 
 grounds should not be invaded ; his soldiers were ready to 
 protect them from intrusion ; his traders gave them good 
 goods in exchange for their peltries, and supplied them 
 
148 For Savagery, or for Civilization ? 
 
 with an abundance of cheap rum. The colonists, on the 
 other hand, were eager to open up settlements in the wil- 
 derness ; they wished to destroy the Indians' hunting 
 grounds in order to make homes for themselves ; and they 
 cared nothing for trade with the savages nor did they 
 wish their friendship on any terms. 
 
 When, therefore, the war of the Revolution broke out, 
 the Indians were soon won over to the side of the English 
 king. General Hamilton, the lieutenant-governor of Can- 
 ada with headquarters at Detroit, had but to send out his 
 war belt, and thousands of warriors were ready to seize the 
 tomahawk and scalping knife and join in bloody forays 
 upon the American frontiers. 
 
 The commanders of the British posts on the Wabash 
 
 and the upper Mississippi encouraged the savages to send 
 
 out bands to lay waste the borders of Viro:inia and 
 1777 ' 
 
 destroy the newly formed settlements south of 
 
 the Ohio. By direction of the king's ministers, the Indians 
 
 were supplied with arms and ammunition for carrying 
 
 on their murderous warfare ; and by order of General 
 
 Hamilton prizes were offered for the scalps of Americans, 
 
 whether of men, women, or children. In the spring of 
 
 a single year, no fewer than fifteen bands of bloodthirsty 
 
 savages crossed the Ohio, and urged on by promises from 
 
 the king's officers, committed many fiendish outrages. 
 
 How were the American people, while struggling for 
 
 their independence, to put a stop to such barbarities } 
 
 How could the scattered settlers in the frontier regions of 
 
 Kentucky and Virginia be protected from the raids of 
 
 these savage bands.'' How could the great Northwest, rich 
 
TJic Policy of tJic EuglisJi King 149 
 
 in undeveloped resources, be won for American homes and 
 American control? The solution of these questions was 
 made possible by the wisdom and daring of a young Vir- 
 ginian whose acquaintance we have already made — 
 George Rogers Clark. 
 
THE HANNIBAL OF THE NORTHWEST 
 I. THE COUNTY OF KENTUCKY 
 
 George Rogers Clark was but twenty-two years old when 
 he accompanied Lord Dunmore's expedition into the Ohio 
 wilderness. He was born of good parentage in Albermarle 
 county, Virginia, and had the true instincts of a bold fron- 
 tiersman and leader of men. His business was that of sur- 
 veyor, and upon his first visit to the border, a short time 
 before Cresap's murderous exploits, he made himself known 
 among the frontiersmen by his skill in woodcraft, no less 
 than by his fearlessness and untiring energy. 
 
 Early in the spring, after the close of Dunmore's war, 
 Clark gave up his claim on the Kenawha and went down 
 
 to Kentucky where Daniel Boone and other bold 
 
 1775 
 
 pioneers were just beginning to found a new com- 
 monwealth in the wilderness. After spending some weeks 
 in that land of promise, he returned to his home in Vir- 
 ginia, where he learned that the war between the colonies 
 and the mother country had actually begun. 
 
 The next summer he was again in Kentucky, having 
 
 walked there alone through the unbroken wilderness. He 
 
 spent much of his time in the woods, but visited 
 1776 
 
 all the little settlements and became acquainted 
 
 with the hardy pioneers, making himself useful to them 
 
 in many ways, and being chosen by them to command 
 
 150 
 
The Comity of Kentucky 
 
 151 
 
 the backwoods militia. The settlements were in constant 
 danger of attacks by the Indians ; and since the region 
 was claimed by Virginia as a part of her i)ossessions, the 
 pioneers naturally looked to her for some sort of protec- 
 tion. But Virginia was 
 very busy with other affairs 
 just then, and the handful 
 of pioneers in distant Ken- 
 tucky began to feel as if 
 they had been forgotten. 
 
 At last the Kentuckians 
 chose two delegates to go 
 to Virginia and lay theii 
 case before the governor 
 and the state convention at 
 Williamsburg. George 
 
 Rogers Clark was one of 
 the delegates ; and in ac- 
 cepting the appointment 
 he declared that if theii 
 petition should be refused, 
 the Kentucky colonists 
 ought to take matters in . 
 their own hands and set 
 up an independent state. 
 
 When the two men 
 reached Williamsburg, 
 
 they found that the convention had already adjourned, 
 and they must deal directly with the governor, Patrick 
 Henry. The petition which they carried prayed that the 
 
 ^'%^^^ill^'>^ ^^ 
 
 "Again in Kentucky, having walked 
 there alone " 
 
152 
 
 TJic Hannibal of tJic Northivcst 
 
 new settlements might be formed into an independent 
 county, and that the " prime riflemen " of Kentucky might 
 be given an opportunity to do their part in the struggle that 
 
 was then going on with 
 Great Britain. Clark also 
 asked for five hundred 
 pounds of gunpowder for 
 the use of the riflemen ; 
 and when this was about 
 to be refused he pointedly 
 told the governor that a 
 country which was not 
 worth defending was not 
 worth claiming. In the 
 end he obtained the pow- 
 der; and later, when the 
 convention reassembled, 
 the new county of Ken- 
 tucky was formed with 
 boundaries nearly the same as those of the present state. 
 
 He pointedly told the governor 
 
 II. THE "LONG KNIVES'' OF THE BORDER 
 
 In the following spring the Indian raids upon the border 
 settlements became so frequent as to be truly alarming. 
 One savage band after another crossed the Ohio, 
 hunting for scalps to sell to the British com- 
 mander at Detroit. They skulked stealthily through the 
 forest and appeared suddenly where they were least 
 expected. The pioneer working in his clearing was shot 
 
 1777 
 
The '' Lon<; A'/N'irs'' of t lie Border 153 
 
 down by sonic hidden foe ; his house was burned ; his 
 cattle were destroyed ; his family was carried into cap- 
 tivity. The hunter returning home with his game was 
 waylaid and murdered. Women going to the spring for 
 water were tomahawked by lurking savages. Children 
 playing on the doorstep were snatched up by some Indian 
 hawk and never again seen by their parents. Outside of 
 the forts no life \vas safe. If matters went on in this way, 
 there would soon be an end to the settlements west of the 
 AUeghanies. 
 
 No man understood the situation better than George 
 Rogers Clark ; and he at once began making plans not 
 only to protect the Kentucky settlements but to save the 
 whole Northw^est. He first sent two young hunters to 
 Vincennes and the Illinois Country to learn how strong 
 the British were at those places, and whether the French 
 settlers were friendly to them. They came back in June, 
 and their report was so favorable that Clark decided to 
 make a bold movement for the conquest of the entire 
 region north of the Ohio. The ''prime riflemen " of Ken- 
 tucky were willing to follow him wherever he should lead, 
 but they were too few to undertake so great an enterprise 
 without aid from others. He must have more men ; and 
 he therefore hurried back to Virginia to lay his scheme 
 before the governor. Winter had already begun when he 
 reached Williamsburg. 
 
 Patrick Henry, the governor, listened with great inter- 
 est to the plans which Clark unfolded. He was willing 
 and anxious to help carry out the enterprise, but the fight- 
 ing men of Virginia were all needed to oppose the British 
 
154 ^Z'^^' Haiiniba! of the Nort Invest 
 
 armies along the seaboard, and none could be spared for 
 the defense of the West. At last, however, Clark was 
 given a colonel's commission, and was authorized to raise 
 seven companies, each of forty men, in the backwoods 
 settlements west of the Alleghanies. To each man was 
 promised a bounty of three hundred acres of land in the 
 conquered territory. 
 
 When Colonel Clark was ready to leave Williamsburg 
 the governor handed him two sets of instructions. One 
 of these directed him to give full protection to 
 the Kentucky settlements ; the other, which was 
 kept secret, authorized him to attack the British post at 
 Kaskaskia. The governor also gave him twelve hundred 
 dollars in paper money, together with an order upon the 
 American commandant at Fort Pitt for as much powder 
 as his men would need. 
 
 The name of George Rogers Clark was well known to 
 the backwoodsmen in the valley of the Monongahela, and 
 many of them hastened to enlist under his command. But 
 in May, when he finally started from Redstone Old Fort 
 (Brownsville), Pennsylvania, and by way of Fort Pitt em- 
 barked upon the Ohio, only about one hundred and fifty 
 men were ready to follow him. They went down the river 
 in a small flotilla of boats, and with them were several 
 families of fearless settlers, intent on finding new homes 
 in the distant West, despite of the dangers to be encoun- 
 tered there. At the mouth of the Kenawha River another 
 company of backwoodsmen joined the little army ; but as 
 yet no one except Clark himself supposed that they were 
 to go beyond the Kentucky border. 
 
The '' Loiio; Knives'' of the Border 
 
 155 
 
 The men whom Colonel Clark was leading to the con- 
 quest of the Northwest had been gathered from the scat- 
 tered clearings, the hunters' camps, and the lonely log 
 cabins along the streams which flow down the western 
 slopes of the mountains. They were of the same type as 
 their Kentucky kinsmen whom 
 they were hastening to succor. 
 You must not think of them 
 as uniformed soldiers, marching 
 in rank and file to the sound of 
 the drum and fife. They w^ere 
 clad in their hunter's garb: a fur 
 cap, a fringed hunting shirt of 
 buckskin, held at the waist by 
 a broad belt, leggings also of 
 buckskin, and moccasins of un- 
 tanned leather. For weapons 
 each carried a long flint-lock 
 rifle, very heavy and clumsy, 
 but sure to hit the mark at a 
 hundred paces ; and some had 
 scalping knives and small tom- 
 ahawks stuck in their belts. 
 They knew nothing about 
 military drill, but they were 
 
 skilled in woodcraft and in Indian fighting, and were 
 famed alike for their hardihood and daring. Among 
 the savages they were known as ** Long Knives," prob- 
 ably because of their weapons, but more probably 
 because of their fearless energy and the terrible deter- 
 
 They were known as ' Long 
 Knives ' " 
 
1 56 The Hannibal of the N art Invest 
 
 mination with which they were accustomed to punish 
 their enemies. 
 
 When the flotilla reached the falls of the Ohio, all 
 landed on a little island opposite the site of the present 
 city of Louisville. Here the settlers who were in the 
 company decided to remain with their families, and a 
 stockade was built for their protection. Log cabins were 
 put up inside of the stockade ; the trees and underbrush 
 surrounding it were cleared away ; and corn was planted in 
 the rich soil. The island was named Corn Island, and its 
 location seemed so safe and withal so pleasant that many 
 of the backwoodsmen were tempted to make it their home. 
 
 Colonel Clark spent several days on Corn Island, drill- 
 ing his rude soldiers ; and there he was joined by a number 
 of recruits from the Kentucky settlements and from east- 
 ern Tennessee. At length, when he deemed that the time 
 had come for going forward, he made known to his men 
 the plan which he had in mind to march against the British 
 posts. The most of them received this announcement 
 with cheers, and were eager to follow him ; but a few 
 openly refused to go farther, and finally deserted him and 
 returned to their homes. 
 
 III. THE CAPTURE OF KASKASKIA 
 
 On the 24th of June, the little army again embarked 
 
 upon the Ohio. The boats were poled up the stream 
 
 until they were fairly within the main channel ; 
 
 then, being skillfully propelled with the current, 
 
 all passed safely over the falls. At the very moment that 
 
 they were shooting swiftly through the rapids, the sun was 
 
TJic Capture of Kaskaskia 157 
 
 darkened in a total eclipse. The backwoodsmen, i[;no- 
 rant of the cause of this phenomenon, hailed it as an omen 
 of success, and with cheers and shouts of encoura<^ement 
 rowed onward down the swift stream. 
 
 After two days and two nights of steady work at the 
 oars, the party landed near the spot where stood the old 
 French post of Fort Massac, now deserted and in ruins. 
 Some hunters who had just come from the French settle- 
 ments on the Mississippi happened to be encamped at the 
 same place, and one of them agreed to pilot the little army 
 across the country. 
 
 Colonel Clark had decided to strike the first blow 
 at Kaskaskia, for he had learned that the British garrison 
 there was not so strong as that at Vincennes. He had also 
 made up his mind that in case he should not be successful, 
 he would retreat across the Mississippi, and find refuge 
 among the Spanish at St. Louis. He was now a hundred 
 and thirty miles from Kaskaskia, and the country through 
 which he intended to march would have been impassable 
 to any ordinary army. It would have been easier to go 
 all the way by water, but he knew that spies were kept 
 on the Mississippi below the British posts, and these might 
 carry the news to Kaskaskia of his coming and thus put 
 the enemy on guard. He therefore hid his boats in a 
 little creek near Fort Massac, and began the toilsome 
 march across the country. 
 
 The route lay for the most part through a low, flat, 
 prairie region, intersected by sluggish streams and muddy 
 swamps. It was a strange army that struggled through this 
 untrodden wilderness to the conquest of an empire. There 
 
158 TJie Hannibal of tJic NortJnvest 
 
 was neither a horse, nor a cannon, nor a uniformed soldier 
 in the entire force. Wading through ponds and marshes, 
 swimming across creeks and rivers, floundering in bound- 
 less fields of black mud, toiling through seas of matted 
 weeds and prairie grass, the dauntless Long Knives 
 pushed bravely on in a northwestwardly course. 
 
 Soon after dark on the 4th of July, they reached a point 
 on the south bank of the Kaskaskia River, which they were 
 
 told was less than a mile above the town. Here 
 1778 
 
 was a farmhouse in which a Frenchman lived 
 
 with his large family ; and from the Frenchman, Colonel 
 
 Clark learned many particulars about the state of affairs 
 
 at the British post. A number of boats were found moored 
 
 to the bank, and soon the whole army was rowed across to 
 
 the opposite shore, and landed in the outskirts of the 
 
 town. Colonel Clark hastily formed his men in fighting 
 
 order, and made them a brief speech, telling them that 
 
 ** the place must be taken at all events." 
 
 The garrison was under the command of a certain M. 
 Rocheblave, a French officer who had joined the British 
 army ; and at the time of Colonel Clark's arrival, most 
 of the men were at a dance in the guard hall of the fort, 
 having no thought that an enemy was marching against 
 them. The commandant himself was in bed. 
 
 Some of the Americans, with Colonel Clark at their head, 
 burst suddenly upon the party of merrymakers, and de- 
 manded the surrender of the fort. 
 
 *' You may go on with your fun," said Clark, ** but re- 
 member that you are now dancing under the flag of Vir- 
 ginia, instead of that of Great Britain." 
 
The Capture of Kaskaskia 
 
 IS9 
 
 There was no resistance. Some of the Virginians who 
 could speak French ran through the village, telling the 
 people what had happened, and warning them that every 
 person seen in the streets would be shot down. All the 
 roads were guarded to prevent any one from escaping and 
 carrying the alarm to the other villages. 
 
 " I don't suppose," says Clark, ** that greater silence ever 
 
 / 
 
 / / 1% \ ^\ \ w<% ^ 
 
 " ' You may go on with your fun,' said Clark 
 
 reigned among the inhabitants of a place than did at this. 
 Not a person could be seen ; not a word could be heard 
 from them for some time. But, designedly, the greatest 
 noise was kept up by our troops through every quarter of 
 the town ; . . . and in about two hours the whole of the 
 inhabitants were disarmed, and informed that if one was 
 taken attempting to make his escape, he should be imme- 
 diately put to death." 
 
i6o 
 
 TJic Hannibal of tJie NortJiwest 
 
 The French people were much alarmed. They had 
 heard strange tales of the barbarity and cruelty of the 
 Long Knives, and had been taught to regard them as wild 
 beasts in human form. They waited in great fear through- 
 out the night, expecting to be massacred in their homes. 
 
 Early in the morning. Father Gibault, the priest of 
 the village, came with some of the leading citizens, and 
 
 We trust that you will not separate parents from their children ' " 
 
 begged Colonel Clark to be merciful to the unoffending 
 people. *' If they must be carried into captivity," said the 
 priest, ** we trust that, in the goodness of your heart, you 
 will not separate parents from their children ; and we also 
 pray that you will permit each person to carry away such 
 clothing and food as may be necessary for the support 
 of life." 
 
 *' Do you take us for savages ? " cried Colonel Clark. 
 ** Do you think that Americans intend to strip women and 
 
TJic Capture of Kaskaskia i6i 
 
 children, or take the bread out of their mouths ? Please 
 inform your people that they are at liberty to go about 
 their business as usual, and that none of them will be 
 disturbed." 
 
 The priest lost no time in carrying the good news to his 
 flock, and soon there was general rejoicing through the 
 village. French settlers, relieved from all fear, hastened 
 to welcome the Americans as their deliverers from the yoke 
 of the British. M. Michel, one of the wealthiest men in 
 the village, invited Colonel Clark to his home — a fine 
 French house with broad piazzas on every side, an ideal 
 place in the midst of half-savage surroundings. 
 
 A volunteer company of French militia joined the 
 Americans, and a detachment of thirty horsemen under 
 Captain Bowman was sent up the left bank of the Missis- 
 sippi to surprise Cahokia, and the other French settlements 
 north of Kaskaskia. The people of these places, hearing 
 how kindly the Americans had treated the Kaskaskians, 
 joyfully welcomed them as friends. Fort Chartres, which 
 had once been the " most commodious and best-built fort 
 in North America," was found deserted and in ruins. The 
 river had undermined its walls. 
 
 Thus, without the loss of a man. Colonel Clark had by 
 one bold stroke made himself the master of all the posts 
 in the Illinois Country. This was but little more, however, 
 than the beginning of the great work which he had set out 
 to do. His next move was to overawe and conciliate the 
 Indians. At Cahokia he held numerous councils with the 
 chiefs of the leading tribes of the Northwest, and by his 
 skillful management won their friendship. 
 
 CONQ. O.N.W. — II 
 
1 62 TJic HaiDiiba! of the Noi't Invest 
 
 " The Long Knife is our brother," said they. " We will 
 help him fight the redcoats." 
 
 " I do not want your help," said Clark. " All I ask is 
 that you stand out of my way while I am driving the red- 
 coats out of your country." 
 
 Ten days after the capture of Kaskaskia Father Gibault 
 and a few other Frenchmen of great influence were sent 
 to Vincennes to persuade the settlers on the Wabash 
 to surrender peaceably to the Americans. The British 
 commander at Vincennes had lately gone to Detroit, and 
 the place was without defenders. After listening to Father 
 Gibault, the people went in a body to the church and there 
 took the oath of allegiance to Virginia. Officers were 
 chosen, a body of militia was formed, and they hastened 
 to take possession of the empty fort, which was known as 
 Fort Sackville, and to hoist the American flag above its 
 walls. The French began now '* to act as freemen," says 
 Colonel Clark. " They began as citizens of the United 
 States, and informed the Indians that their old father, 
 the king of France, was come to life again and was mad at 
 them for fighting for the Enghsh, that they would advise 
 them to make peace with the Americans as soon as they 
 could. The Indians began to think seriously. Throughout 
 the country this was the kind of language they generally got 
 from their ancient friends of the Wabash and the Illinois." 
 
 About the first of August, Father Gibault returned to 
 Kaskaskia with the good news. Colonel Clark was greatly 
 pleased with the success of the enterprise. Had 
 he, indeed, conquered the whole of the North- 
 west without fighting ? In order to give the people of 
 
** The Grand Door to tJic WabasJi'' 163 
 
 Viucennos the support which they hiid a riij;ht to expect, 
 he sent Captain Leonard Hehn with a single soldier whose 
 name was Henry, to take charge of the post at that place. 
 
 IV. "THE GRAND DOOR TO THE WABASH" 
 
 The two Americans arrived safe at Vincennes and were 
 welcomed with much heartiness by the French inhabitants. 
 Captain Helm carried with him a letter from Colonel 
 Clark to the chief of the Piankeshaws who lived in the 
 neighborhood. This chief was called by his people ** The 
 Grand Door to the Wabash," and such was his power that 
 nothing could be done among the Indians without his con- 
 sent. Colonel Clark was very anxious, therefore, to make 
 this man his friend. 
 
 In a few days a messenger brought from the chief an 
 answer to the letter. He told Captain Helm that he was 
 glad to see one of the Long-Knife chiefs in Vincennes ; 
 but that, since the matter to be decided was an important 
 one, he must talk with his counselors about it. Would 
 not the chief of the Long Knives be patient } 
 
 The captain tried to be very patient, and in the course 
 of time he received an invitation to attend a council of 
 the Piankeshaws and their friends. The council met; the 
 chiefs and the captain smoked long and solemnly; and 
 then the Grand Door to the Wabash arose to speak. He 
 declared that the eyes of his people had been opened and 
 that his warriors would bloody the land no more for the 
 English. He leaped in the air, struck his breast, called 
 himself a brave chief, said that he was a Long Knife, and 
 
164 TJic Hannibal of the Nor'tJnvest 
 
 took Captain Helm by the hands. The other chiefs fol- 
 lowed his example, and the evening was spent in merriment. 
 The next day Captain Helm went back to his fort, glad that 
 this matter had been brought to so happy an ending. 
 
 In the meanwhile, still other good fortune was in store 
 for Colonel Clark at Kaskaskia. A rich Spanish trader 
 named Francois Vigo, whose home was at the Spanish 
 post of St. Louis, came across the river to visit him. He 
 was anxious, he said, to take the hand of the American 
 commander who had so skillfully captured the Illinois 
 posts. He was so highly pleased with what had been 
 done that he gave Clark twelve thousand dollars in gold, 
 in exchange for written orders on the French commandant 
 at New Orleans ; for France had lately made a treaty with 
 the United States and was now actively aiding the Ameri- 
 cans in their war for freedom. Not long afterward, Vigo 
 suppUed Clark with still other funds ; and from New 
 Orleans came seventy-three hundred dollars in gold, be- 
 sides a boat load of powder and swivels for the use of the 
 backwoods army. 
 
 Without the aid of Vigo, Colonel Clark could not 
 have paid his soldiers, he could not have maintained him- 
 self in the IlUnois Country, and the conquest of the North- 
 west might never have been completed. It is sad to relate 
 that this benefactor of our country, Francois Vigo, was 
 never repaid for the services which he so generously 
 rendered. Nearly sixty years later he died at Terre 
 Haute, Indiana, childless and in poverty, while nearly 
 twenty thousand dollars which he had lent to Clark 
 remained unpaid. A county in Indiana has been named 
 
The '' Ilair-Ihiycr (jcucrar' 165 
 
 in his honor. The people of the Northwest should re- 
 member his services and build him a monument. 
 
 When the news of Clark's conquest reached the ca])ital 
 of Virginia, the governor and assembly began at once to 
 devise means for holding on to the pos^sessions thus 
 wrested from Great Britain. The whole country north 
 of the Ohio was erected into a new county, to be known 
 as the County of IlHnois, with its seat of government at 
 Kaskaskia. Captain John Todd, a Virginian of influence 
 who was serving in Clark's army, was appointed the first 
 governor of this vast region, and he was instructed to 
 ''cultivate and emulate the affections of the French and 
 Indians," and to aid Colonel Clark in his military operations. 
 
 V. THE '-HAIR-BUYER GENERAL" 
 
 Long before any word of these matters could be carried 
 to Kaskaskia, a new danger threatened which seemed 
 likely to turn the tide of American success. Of course 
 the news of Clark's invasion soon reached the ears of 
 Henry Hamilton, the lieutenant-governor of Canada and 
 British commandant at Detroit. The ''hair-buyer gen- 
 eral," as Hamilton was called on account of his paying 
 bounties for scalps, was just then busy planning an expe- 
 dition against Fort Pitt ; for he had never dreamed that 
 the Americans would venture to attack the Illinois posts. 
 On the very day that the first rumor came of the surrender 
 of Vincennes he had sent out a party of savage warriors 
 to harry the defenseless settlements beyond the Ohio. " I 
 pray the Master of Life to give you success," he said, as 
 
1 66 The Hannibal of tJic Nort Invest 
 
 he presented a bright new tomahawk to a painted chief 
 and sent him forth on his bloody errand. 
 
 The first news from Vincennes did not trouble him 
 much. " The post has probably been surprised by a 
 strolling company of backwoodsmen," he said; "it will 
 be easy enough to take it again." But when word came 
 soon after that not only Vincennes but all the Illinois 
 posts were in the hands of the Americans, he began to 
 bestir himself. He saw that he must make some decisive 
 movement or else lose the entire Northwest. His first 
 care was to secure the help of his Indian neighbors. He 
 held a great powwow with the Ottawas, the Pottawatto- 
 mies, and the Chippewas whose villages were near Detroit. 
 Oxen were roasted whole over glowing heaps of charcoal ; 
 and red men and white men feasted together, and danced 
 the war dance, and whetted their scalping knives, and 
 vowed to stand by each other as brothers until every Long- 
 Knife rebel was destroyed. 
 
 For many days every man at Detroit — British, French, 
 or Indian — was busy helping to get things ready. Fifteen 
 large boats were loaded with provisions, powder and lead, 
 clothing, and other supplies, and sent on in advance to the 
 mouth of the Maumee. On the 7th of October, Hamilton 
 with his little army was ready to start. His force con- 
 sisted of a hundred and seventy-seven British and French, 
 and about sixty Indians ; but so many other savages 
 joined him on the way that before he reached Vincennes 
 he found himself in command of more than five hundred 
 men. 
 
 As the men in their boats pushed off into the Detroit 
 
riu 
 
 Uaii-lhi Ycr (icucral 
 
 167 
 
 River, Fcither Potior, tlic venerable Jesuit priest, stood on 
 the bank and ^ave his solemn blessini;- to the Freneh vol- 
 unteers who were thus embarking in the service of the 
 king of Kngkmd. The party rowed down the Detroit 
 River to Lake Erie, and then crossed, in the face of a 
 blinding snowstorm, to a point near the mouth of the 
 
 "To Little River, one of the sources of the Wabash " 
 
 Maumee, where now stands the city of Toledo. There 
 they remained a day, putting their boats in order and 
 shivering with cold, for the wind was so strong that they 
 could not light a fire. Very early on the following morn- 
 ing they began the ascent of the river, some in boats, some 
 in canoes, and some marching in a disorderly manner 
 along the shore. 
 
 There had been but little rain during the fall, and the 
 w^aters of the Maumee were very low. In some places the 
 
1 68 TJic Hannibal of tJic Nortliivest 
 
 boats scraped upon the muddy bottom, or grounded upon 
 a sand bank. The progress of the party was very slow, 
 and it took more than two weeks to reach the portage at 
 the forks of the river. Some of the boats, with all the 
 baggage, besides several canoes, were then carried nine 
 miles to Little River, one of the sources of the Wabash. 
 ** Here," says Hamilton, " the waters were so uncommonly 
 low that we should not have been able to pass but that at 
 a distance of four miles from the landing place the beavers 
 had made a dam which kept up the water ; this we cut 
 through to give a passage to our boats, and having taken 
 in our lading at the landing passed all the boats. The 
 beaver are never molested at that place by the traders or 
 Indians, and soon repair their dam, which is a most ser- 
 viceable work upon this difficult communication." 
 
 Twenty miles below this place the little army reached 
 the Wabash, but their troubles were not yet at an end. 
 The river was not only shallow, but was full of floating 
 ice, which threatened to crush the boats, and made all 
 progress dangerous. " It was sometimes a day's work," 
 says Hamilton, *' to get the distance of half a league." 
 They stopped at every Indian village to hold council with 
 the chiefs, to give presents, and to persuade the warriors 
 to join them. Near the Wea village, where stood the old 
 fort of Ouiatenon, they captured four Frenchmen from 
 Vincennes, whom Captain Helm had sent out as scouts 
 to look for their approach. Soon afterward heavy rains 
 came on, and the river grew deeper. The boats were now 
 more easily managed, and the rest of the voyage was 
 soon accomplished. Hamilton, with his motley following, 
 
The ** I fair-Buyer General 
 
 169 
 
 reached Vincenncs on the 17th of Decemher, having been 
 seventy-one days in coming from Detroit. 
 
 Captain Helm did not learn of the approach of the enemy 
 until the red coats of the British were within sight of the 
 town. The French militia who had helped him garrison the 
 fort were much alarmed, 
 for they knew that 
 they could not hold the 
 place against so strong a 
 force. They were there- 
 fore allowed to go to their 
 homes, and the only gar- 
 rison left in the fort was 
 Captain Helm and his 
 single soldier, Henry. 
 How should these two 
 men defend the place 
 against five hundred } 
 Fort Sackville was in a 
 half-ruined plight. It was 
 a mere stockade, without 
 barracks, and was in no 
 way fitted to withstand a 
 siege. There was not 
 
 even a well inside the walls, and there was no lock to the 
 gate. But it contained two cannon, two swivels, and some 
 ammunition ; and Captain Helm made up his mind not 
 to surrender without some show of resistance. 
 
 A loaded cannon was wheeled to the open gate, and 
 Henry stood by it, ready to fire upon the approaching 
 
 No man shall enter here until I know 
 the terms ' " 
 
170 TJie Hannibal of the NortJnvest 
 
 enemy. Hamilton, at the head of his British regulars, 
 came forward and demanded the surrender of the garrison. 
 
 ** No man shall enter here," said Captain Helm, " until 
 I know the terms." 
 
 " You shall have the honors of war," said Hamilton, 
 supposing that the fort was filled with Long Knives. 
 
 Helm, after a short parley, accepted the terms, and 
 between lines of red-coated British and painted Indians 
 the garrison marched out — one officer and one man. 
 Just what were Hamilton's feelings v/hen he saw that 
 this was the entire strength of the Americans at Vin- 
 cennes he does not tell us. He at once took possession 
 of the fort, and began to put it in better condition. Some 
 of his Indian allies camped on the outskirts of the town, 
 and others returned to their homes. The winter was 
 now well begun, and he deemed it prudent to wait 
 until spring before marching against Colonel Clark at 
 Kaskaskia. 
 
 On the second day after taking the fort, Hamilton sum- 
 moned all the people of Vincennes to meet in the church. 
 There were in all six hundred and twenty-one men, women, 
 and children ; but some of the men were absent hunting 
 buffaloes. When they had assembled according to his 
 order, he required them to ask God's forgiveness for being 
 so wicked as to take sides with the Americans ; and then 
 every man was made to take an oath to be a good and 
 faithful subject of the king of England. It is not likely 
 that many of these light-hearted Frenchmen regarded this 
 oath as a binding one, or remembered it longer than their 
 own safety required. 
 
The Winnmg of Vine nines 1 71 
 
 VI. THE WINNING OF VINCENNES 
 
 In the meanwhile Colonel Clark was spending most of 
 
 his time at Cahokia, making treaties with the Indians and 
 
 otherwise strengthening his position. It was not until in 
 
 January that he heard that Hamilton had retaken Vincennes. 
 
 What should he do ? He knew that if he staid 
 
 1770 
 in the Illinois towns until spring, the British 
 
 and Indians would march against him with a superior 
 force, and either capture his little band of backwoodsmen 
 or drive them across the Mississippi. But he was not 
 the man to think of retreating. He began at once to 
 prepare for defense. He sent out scouts and runners 
 to keep him informed of Hamilton's movements. He 
 strengthened the fort at Kaskaskia. He drilled his sol- 
 diers every day and kept them in constant readiness for 
 an attack. 
 
 One day near the end of January Colonel Vigo suddenly 
 appeared in Kaskaskia, bringing important news from the 
 Wabash. Some time before Christmas he had gone from 
 Kaskaskia to Vincennes to carry money and other aid to 
 Captain Helm. Not knowing that the latter place had 
 been captured by the British, he had been taken prisoner 
 by an Indian scouting party and delivered up to the "hair- 
 buyer general." Hamilton, he said, had treated him 
 kindly, and, as he was a Spanish citizen, had allowed 
 him to return to St. Louis upon his promise that, during 
 his journey thither, he should do nothing to injure the 
 British cause. Vigo had hastened back to St. Louis; 
 and then, feeling no longer bound by his promise, he 
 
1^2 Tlie Hannibal of the Northivcst 
 
 had recrossed the Mississippi and hurried to Kaskaskia 
 to tell Colonel Clark all that he had learned. 
 
 He said that Hamilton had sent the most of his troops 
 back to Detroit, and that only about eighty men remained 
 in the garrison at Vincennes. Most of the Indians also 
 were gone to their homes for the winter. It was Hamil- 
 ton's intention to recall all these in the early spring and, 
 with five hundred southern Indians who had promised to 
 join him, make an attack up Kaskaskia. 
 
 " I think that this is your time for action," said Vigo. 
 
 " I think so, too," answered Clark ; and he began to get 
 ready to march immediately against Vincennes. Within a 
 week he had equipped a large rowboat with two small 
 cannon and six swivels and loaded her with supplies. 
 This boat, which he named the Willing, he placed in com- 
 mand of Captain John Rogers with forty-six men, who 
 was directed to take her round to the mouth of the Wabash 
 and there wait for further orders. On the afternoon of 
 the 4th of February, the Willing started on her 
 voyage, while the soldiers and the people of Kas- 
 kaskia stood on the shore and bade her Godspeed. It is 
 worth remembering that she was the first American gun- 
 boat that ever floated on our inland waters. 
 
 The very next day Colonel Clark with one hundred and 
 seventy men marched out of Kaskaskia. Father Gibault, 
 standing by the roadside, blessed the backwoods heroes as 
 they passed, and the whole town turned out to see them 
 start on their long journey. They crossed the Kaskaskia 
 River and marched to a knoll three miles away, where they 
 encamped to wait for some needful supplies. Two days 
 
The Wiiuiiug of Vincciincs 173 
 
 later they started in earnest across the bleak prairies. The 
 distance to Vincennes by the route which they followed 
 was more than two hundred miles. The winter had been 
 a mild one, and the sprin<^ freshets had already begun. The 
 prairies were covered with mud and ice, the water courses 
 were swollen, the meadows were flooded, there were no 
 roads, no bridges. Often the men were obliged to wade ; 
 sometimes they were waist deep in water ; none but those 
 accustomed to the hardships of pioneer Hfe could have 
 endured that painful march. But Clark himself led them, 
 suffering cold and hunger and privation with the rest, and 
 by his cheerful words encouraging every man to do his best. 
 
 On the thirteenth day after starting, they were within 
 nine miles of Vincennes, and heard the morning gun from 
 the fort. But the whole country was covered with water, 
 and there was no place on which to encamp. It was neces- 
 sary now to change their course, and on the following morn- 
 ing they reached a spot of dry ground on the bank of the 
 Wabash some distance below the town. Here they paused 
 for a little rest. A rough canoe was hewn from a drifting 
 log, and two men undertook to paddle it down the river to 
 meet the Willing. 
 
 Soon afterward a boat with five Frenchmen in it was 
 seen crossing the stream. On being hailed by the sentry, 
 the men came ashore and were questioned by Colonel Clark. 
 They told him that the British in the fort were resting at 
 their ease and had no thought of an enemy being near. 
 The people of Vincennes, they said, were heartily tired of 
 English rule and would gladly welcome the Virginians. 
 They not only offered Colonel Clark their boat, but told 
 
174 The Hannibal of the Northivest 
 
 him of two canoes that were adrift above them and could 
 easily be obtained. 
 
 Three days later, in the boat and the canoes, the army 
 was ferried across the Wabash to a Httle hill, called by the 
 Frenchmen the " Mamelle." From this spot the soldiers 
 were obliged to wade four miles through water which came 
 sometimes to their necks. *' We plunged into it with cour- 
 age," says one of the men, " Colonel Clark being first, tak- 
 ing care to have the boats take those that were weak and 
 numbed with cold." 
 
 They finally reached a dry spot of ground covering 
 about ten acres, and there the little army had a much-needed 
 rest. " Fortunately, as if designed by Providence," says 
 Colonel Clark, ** a canoe of Indian squaws and children 
 was coming up to town and took through part of the plain 
 as a nigh way. It was discovered by our canoes. They 
 gave chase and took the Indian canoe, on board of which 
 was near half a quarter of buffalo, some corn, tallow, and 
 kettles. This was a grand prize, and was invaluable. 
 Broth was immediately made and served out to the most 
 weakly with care. This little refreshment, and fine weather, 
 by the afternoon, gave new life to the whole. Crossing a 
 narrow deep lake, in the canoes, and marching some dis- 
 tance, we came to a copse of timber called Warriors Island. 
 We were now in full view of the town, not a shrub between 
 us, at about two miles distant." 
 
 In the meanwhile Hamilton, secure in his fort, was 
 unaware of the approach of an enemy. He supposed that 
 Clark and his backwoodsmen were still in Kaskaskia. One 
 night word was brought to him that a number of camp fires 
 
The Winning of Vinccnncs 1/5 
 
 could be seen on the high ground south of the town. This 
 did not alarm him, for he supposed that they had been 
 built by Indians ; but in the morning he sent out a company 
 of scouts to find out about them. The scouts, rather than 
 cross the great stretch of water that lay between them and 
 the place where the fires were seen, rode out by another 
 way and failed to find anything at all. That very evening 
 Clark and his men made a bold rush into the town. Some 
 of the soldiers went through the streets to let the people 
 know of their coming, and a band of riflemen pushed for- 
 ward and threw up earthworks in front of the fort. 
 
 Hamilton, when he first heard the noise in the town, 
 supposed that it was made by some carousing Indians ; but 
 when he saw the Americans actually within rifle shot of the 
 fort he hastily manned his guns and tried to open fire upon 
 them. By this time many of Clark's men were in position, 
 and as often as the portholes were opened, they poured in 
 such a volley of musket shots that the cannon were very soon 
 silenced. Several men in the fort were severely wounded. 
 
 The next morning Colonel Clark sent a letter to Hamil- 
 ton ordering him to surrender, and declaring that if it be- 
 came necessary to storm the fort he should have the 
 " treatment justly due to a murderer." While waiting for 
 answer to this summons the Americans ate a breakfast 
 which had been supplied to them by the townspeople. It 
 was the first " meal of victuals " they had had for six days. 
 
 In a short time an answer came from the fort : " Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor Hamilton begs leave to acquaint Colonel 
 Clark that he and his garrison are not disposed to be awed 
 into any action unworthy of British subjects." 
 
176 TJie Hannibal of tJic NortJnvest 
 
 Then the firing began again, hot on both sides ; but in 
 the afternoon Hamilton sent a second letter, this time ask- 
 ing for a truce of three days. Clark answered that, while he 
 would consider no terms but surrender, he would consent 
 to have a conference at the church, if Hamilton would 
 meet him there with Captain Helm who was a prisoner in 
 the fort. 
 
 There was a stormy meeting at the church. Hamilton 
 tried in vain to secure favorable terms of surrender ; while 
 Clark, stubbornly refusing, upbraided him for sending 
 out Indian marauding parties to lay waste the border 
 settlements. '* I told him that I knew the greater part of 
 the principal Indian partisans of Detroit were with him ; 
 that I wanted an excuse to put them to death, or otherwise 
 treat them as I thought proper ; that the cries of the 
 widows and the fatherless, on the frontiers, now required 
 their blood at my hands." 
 
 In the meantime a terrible tragedy was going on outside. 
 A party of Indians whom Hamilton had sent across the 
 Ohio on a foray upon the border settlements had just 
 returned in triumph, expecting the usual rewards. As 
 they did not know that the Americans were in the town, 
 they were easily entrapped and captured. While Clark 
 was parleying in the church, his men tomahawked these 
 savages in front of the fort and threw their bodies into 
 the river. 
 
 Before the day was ended, Hamilton agreed that the 
 garrison should surrender as prisoners of war. It was a 
 great humiliation to him to be obhged to yield, as he said, 
 to ** a set of uncivilized Viro:inia woodsmen armed with 
 
The Wiuniiig of Viiiccnncs \yy 
 
 rifles " ; but what else could he do ? His men — seventy- 
 nine in all — marched out and laid down their arms. The 
 British flag was hauled down, the American colors were 
 again hoisted, and the stockade received a new name, 
 Fort Patrick Henry. 
 
 News had already come that some volunteers from 
 Detroit were on their way down the Wabash to reinforce 
 Hamilton, bringing with them several boat loads of pro- 
 visions, clothing, and ammunition. No sooner was the 
 fort in his hands than Colonel Clark sent Captain Helm 
 with fifty-two men to meet and capture this party. Three 
 weeks later Helm returned, having met the boats near 
 Ouiatenon and taken forty prisoners besides the supplies 
 which were valued at fifty thousand dollars. At about 
 the same time the gunboat Willing arrived, having been 
 long delayed by the strong currents of the flooded river. 
 The men on board were much cast down because they 
 were too late to help with the fighting ; but they rejoiced 
 with their comrades over the complete victory that had 
 been gained. 
 
 So many prisoners had been taken, that Clark found 
 himself unable to keep them, and he released the most of 
 them on parole. Hamilton and his leading officers were 
 sent under a guard to Virginia. The journey 
 thither, as we already know, was a long and hard 
 one in those days, and they traveled for the greater part 
 of the way on foot. It was already May when the guard 
 reached Williamsburg, and they were the first to tell in 
 Virginia the story of the conquest of Vincennes. So 
 slowly did news travel in those days. 
 
 CON(>. O.X.W. — 12 
 
178 
 
 TJie Hannibal of tJic NortJiivcst 
 
 Hamilton, for "instigating the Indians to practice every 
 species of barbarism upon American citizens without dis- 
 tinction of age, sex, or condition," was imprisoned in irons. 
 He remained a prisoner for nearly eighteen months, and 
 was then permitted to go to New York on parole. 
 
 Colonel Clark was now in full control of the Illinois 
 Country and the Wabash Valley, and the British had no 
 longer a sufficient force at Detroit to cause him any un- 
 
 " So slowly did news travel in those days " 
 
 easiness. In a word, by a bold march and a series of 
 masterly movements comparable to the famous achieve- 
 ments of Hannibal in olden times, he had won the entire 
 Northwest for the United States of America. When the 
 treaty of peace should be signed at the close of the Revolu- 
 tionary War, the vast region between the Ohio and the 
 Great Lakes would not be a part of Canada but a posses- 
 sion of the new republic. 
 
THE MAGNA CHARTA OF THE NORTHWEST 
 
 I. THE (2UEST10N OF OWNERSHIP 
 
 BY the treaty of peace signed at Paris after the close 
 of the Revokitionary War, the whole of the North- 
 west, extending to the Lake of the Woods and 
 the Mississippi River, was transferred to the 
 United States. Neither British nor Americans had any 
 true idea of the vast importance of this region. The Brit- 
 ish regarded it only as an Indian country, a wilderness of 
 woods and prairies likely to remain for ages without civi- 
 lized inhabitants. It was valuable for its furs and the 
 profits that might be derived from trade with the In- 
 dians — nothing else. The Americans claimed it by right 
 of conquest. They knew something about the wonderful 
 richness of its soil, and supposed that certain portions 
 might in time become settled by the overflowing popula- 
 tion of the Atlantic states. " The Americans, in pushing 
 their possessions to the distant West, are preparing for 
 their remote posterity a communication with the Pacific," 
 wrote one of the ministers of France. This was true, but 
 the Americans did not realize that it was so. 
 
 One of the first great questions to be settled by the 
 American Congress was, " To which of the states does the 
 territory northwest of the river Ohio belong ? " Virginia 
 claimed almost the whole of it, and cited the charter 
 
 1-79 
 
i8o TJie Magna CJiarta of the NortJnvcst 
 
 which she had received from King James I. in 1609, and 
 which described her boundaries as including almost every- 
 thing between the Atlantic and the Pacific. But Connect- 
 icut also had an old charter, granting to her the zone lying 
 between 41^0' and 42° 2' north latitude, and extending from 
 Rhode Island to the South Sea. She therefore laid claim 
 to a strip about sixty miles broad, stretching across the 
 whole width of the Northwest. Massachusetts, for a simi- 
 lar reason, claimed a somewhat wider strip north of that 
 of Connecticut. New York, being unable to show any 
 charter from an English king, based her claims upon the 
 deed by which the Iroquois Indians, more than eighty years 
 before, had ceded away all their hunting grounds between 
 the Great Lakes and the Ohio. 
 
 There is no telling how the disputes growing out of these 
 conflicting claims would have been settled, had it not been 
 for the firmness of the three small states, Delaware, New 
 Jersey, and Maryland. These states had always had defi- 
 nite western boundaries, and they were unable to find any 
 excuse whatever for claiming for themselves a part of the 
 territory beyond the Alleghanies. They believed that the 
 possession of the Northwest by Virginia, or any other of 
 the larger states, would give that state too much power, 
 and be injurious to the nation as a whole ; and they refused 
 to join the Union unless the sole control of that 
 territory should be given to the federal govern- 
 ment. Delaware and New Jersey soon gave up the fight; 
 but Maryland held out until New York agreed to sur- 
 render everything to the jurisdiction of Congress. It was 
 not long until Virginia, whose claim was probably stronger 
 
The Question of Ownership i8i 
 
 than that of any other state, gave up her title to the North- 
 west. Two years later, Massachusetts followed suit, and 
 deeded to the Federal government all her lands west of 
 the western boundary of New York. The territory thus 
 ceded embraced the southern half of the present states of 
 Michigan and Wisconsin. 
 
 Connecticut was loth to give up her claims; but in 1786 
 she yielded so far as to cede all of her strip except that 
 portion which lay between its eastern boundary and a 
 north and south line drawn a hundred and twenty miles 
 west of that boundary. The tract which she thus retained 
 extended across the northern part of Ohio, and has since 
 been known as the Western Reserve. It was supposed to 
 include about four million five hundred thousand acres ; but 
 of course it had never been surveyed, and its exact area 
 was unknown. With the exception of this reservation, 
 which was to remain for some time under the control of 
 Connecticut, the whole of the Old Northwest was now 
 united as one territory under the government of the 
 Congress of the United States. It was known officially 
 and on the maps as "The Territory Northwest of the 
 River Ohio." 
 
 But the states were not the only claimants which it be- 
 came necessary to satisfy. The Indians whose homes and 
 hunting grounds were in this region, had really the best 
 right to it. It is true that they did not make much use 
 of the land, and they scarcely knew what was meant by 
 land ownership. But it would not have been just to de- 
 prive them of their hunting grounds without giving them 
 something in return. 
 
1 82 The Magna Chart a of the Xorthwest 
 
 Treaties were therefore held with the chiefs of the Iro- 
 quois and with those of their vassal tribes, the Wyaiidots, 
 Chippewas, Ottawas, Delawares, and Shawnees ; and the 
 red men agreed to give up all claims to the lands immedi- 
 ately adjoining the Ohio, keeping for themselves only a few 
 reservations, and the regions bordering the lakes. They 
 of course had but a very dim understanding of what this 
 compact meant. The most of them supposed that the 
 wilderness would still remain in its wildness, and that they 
 would be free to come and go, just as in the time when the 
 French were the owners of the soil. 
 
 II. THE GREAT ORDINAxNCE 
 
 The Northwest being now a part of the public domain 
 
 of the United States, it became the duty of Congress to 
 
 devise laws for its government. An Ordinance 
 1787 
 
 was therefore passed which secured to the future 
 
 inhabitants of that region the rights of freemen, and has- 
 tened the coming of that prosperity which gives to the 
 Northwest its preeminence to-day. Among the public 
 documents of all ages this Ordinance deserves to be 
 ranked with the Declaration of Independence and the 
 Magna Charta of Old England — documents which, as 
 Lord Brougham has said, should always hang in the cabi- 
 nets of kings. ** I doubt," says Daniel Webster, ** whether 
 one single law of any lawgiver, ancient or modern, has 
 produced effects of more distinct, marked, and lasting 
 character than the Ordinance of 1787." 
 
 This Ordinance provided that the territory, when its 
 
The Great Ordinance 183 
 
 population became sufficiently lar^^e, mi^ht be divided into 
 not less than three nor more than five states, and that 
 whenever any state should have sixty thousand inhabitants 
 it might be admitted into the Union " on an equal footing 
 with the original states in all respects whatever." More- 
 over, these states, when once in the Union, could never be 
 separated from it by any means or under any circumstances. 
 
 The most important provisions were those relating to 
 slavery and education — they marked a distinct step in 
 advance of any other public utterances that had ever been 
 made. When we remember that slaves were held at that 
 time in all the original states, and that there was no gen- 
 eral sentiment in favor of universal freedom, we can but 
 wonder at this declaration : " Tliere sJiall be neither sla- 
 very nor involuntary servitude in the said lerritory, other- 
 wise than in the punishment of crimes whe^'cof the party 
 shall have been duly convicted!' 
 
 The honor of originating this section of the great Ordi- 
 nance has been claimed for both Thomas Jefferson of Vir- 
 ginia and Nathan Dane of Massachusetts. It is certain 
 that Richard Henry Lee and William Grayson, delegates 
 in Congress from Virginia, were also very active in laboring 
 for its passage. And it is interesting to remember that 
 it was finally adopted unanimously, and that of the eigh- 
 teen delegates who voted for it eleven were from Southern 
 states. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding the prohibition of slavery, invol- 
 untary servitude was long permitted in the Northwest. 
 Slavery had been authorized there by Louis XIV., while 
 the country was under the rule of France. Many of the 
 
1 84 The Magna Charta of tJic NortJiwcst 
 
 French settlers at Kaskaskia and on the Wabash were 
 still the owners of slaves, and their right to continue to 
 hold them was not disputed. Other settlers who after- 
 ward came into the territory from the south or the east 
 sometimes brought with them the bondmen which the laws 
 of the older states permitted them to own, and they were 
 seldom molested. Indeed, for several years, the sentiment 
 of the people in the Northwest was favorable to slavery, 
 and at one time a convention was called and a petition 
 drawn up, praying Congress to suspend this article of the 
 Ordinance. It was not until more than fifty years after 
 this region became a part of the American repubUc that 
 slavery was wholly abolished within its limits. 
 
 The article on education was rather indefinite in its na- 
 ture, for it made nothing obligatory ; but it served as a 
 rallying-cry for the friends of progress, and in the years 
 that followed helped not a little in promoting the cause of 
 the public schools. It was very brief : ''Religion, morality, 
 and knowledge being necessary to good government and tJie 
 Jiappiness of mankind, schools and the means of education 
 shall forever be e neon raged.'' 
 
 Two years before this, Congress had passed a land ordi- 
 nance providing for the survey and sale of the millions of 
 acres included in the public domain north of the Ohio. 
 This ordinance directed that in every congressional town- 
 ship of thirty-six sections of land, one section (six hundred 
 and forty acres) should be reserved ** for the maintenance 
 of common schools within the said township." This was 
 the beginning of a custom which has resulted in giving to 
 every western state in the Union a magnificent school 
 
The Cinat Oniinancc 
 
 185 
 
 fund; for from that time the practice of settin<; apart for 
 educational purposes one thirty-sixth of all the public lands 
 has been always observed. It ^ave to the public schools 
 in the five states of the Old Northwest nearly five millions 
 of acres, the sale of 
 which has produced for 
 the free education of her 
 children nearly twenty 
 millions of dollars. It 
 also gave to each state 
 one entire township, or 
 a little more than twenty- 
 three thousand acres for 
 the founding and sup- 
 port of a state university. 
 Among other provi- 
 sions of the great Ordi- 
 nance was one doing 
 away with the old Eng- 
 lish law of primogeniture, and declaring that all the 
 property of a deceased person should be divided equally 
 among his children. Another gave to every person the 
 right to worship as he believed best. Still another de- 
 clared that every citizen having a freehold of fifty acres 
 should be entitled to vote. The section which related to 
 the Indians is interesting chiefly because of the manner 
 in which it was afterward wholly ignored. " T/ie utmost 
 good faith shall always be observed toivard the Indians ; 
 their lands and their property shall never be taken from 
 them without their consent ; and in their property, rights, 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 
 18 
 
 17 
 
 SCHOOL 
 SECTION 
 
 15 
 
 14 
 
 13 
 
 19 
 
 20 
 
 21 
 
 22 
 
 23 
 
 24 
 
 30 
 
 29 
 
 28 
 
 27 
 
 26 
 
 25 
 
 31 
 
 32 
 
 33 
 
 34 
 
 3.J 
 
 36 
 
 Diagram of a Congressional Township, 
 showing how the sections were num- 
 bered 
 
1 86 The Magna Chart a of the Northivest 
 
 and liberty they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless 
 in just and huvful wars authorised by Congress ; but laivs, 
 founded in justice and humanity, shall from time to time 
 be made for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for 
 preserving peace and friendsJiip zvith tJiem'' 
 
HOW THE WILDERNESS WAS SUBDUED 
 
 SETTLERS ON THE OHIO 
 I. THE FIRST COLONY 
 
 TEN days after the passage of the great Ordinance, Con- 
 gress made its first important sale of public lands in 
 the Northwest The buyers were a company of New 
 England speculators calling themselves the Ohio 
 Company (very different from the first ''Ohio 
 Company " of which Washington was a member), and their 
 leader was a Massachusetts clergyman named Manasseh 
 Cutler. The land which they had selected fronted upon 
 the north bank of the Ohio, and lay chiefly between the 
 mouth of the Muskingum and that of the Scioto.^ It was 
 supposed to contain one million five hundred thousand 
 acres, and the amount to be paid for it was one million 
 dollars in soldiers' certificates. 
 
 Already a great tide of immigration into the newly 
 opened region had set in from the East. While some of 
 the first people to come were honest hunters, who loved 
 the woods and felt a pure delight in facing the dangers of 
 pioneer life, others were merely the refuse of the older 
 settlements, restless vagabonds such as are always found 
 
 1 See map on page 210. 
 187 
 
1 88 
 
 Sctt/crs on tJie Ohio 
 
 moving along in the van of civilization 
 
 Many were ruf- 
 fians of the worst sort, criminals escaped from justice, 
 half-savages, who came into the wilderness in order to 
 indulge their wicked instincts. These built their cabins 
 and squatted here and there, wherever their fancy led 
 them. They never stopped to ask about the ownership 
 
 "These flatboats were rude affairs " 
 
 of the land, but were regardless alike of the rights of the 
 Indians and of the laws of their own government. 
 
 Following this scum of the earth came the real settlers 
 • — men who were attracted thither by the cheapness of the 
 land and its amazing fertility, and who hoped to build in 
 the new country permanent homes for themselves and 
 their children. They crossed the mountains in wagons, 
 carrying all their earthly goods with them. When they 
 reached the Youghiogheny, or the Monongahela, flatboats 
 
The First Colony 189 
 
 were built to carry them to Pittsbur^^, and thence down 
 the Ohio to such places as they deemed most inviting 
 for new settlements. These flatboats were rude affairs, 
 hastily put together, and built neither for speed nor for 
 comfort. They carried an average of about twenty per- 
 sons each, besides livestock, household goods, and farming 
 implements. On the decks of the larger boats rough 
 shelters of canvas or of boards were built for the protec- 
 tion of the women and children during the tedious voyage. 
 It is said that within the first four months of the year 1788 
 more than two hundred of these rude craft passed down 
 the river to various points along its shores. 
 
 As soon as the Ohio Company had secured a title to its 
 gr-eat tract in the Muskingum Valley, efforts w^ere made to 
 
 induce people of the better sort, and especially 
 
 1788 
 old soldiers whom the war had made poor, to go 
 
 west and settle upon its lands. Early in the spring, a 
 large party of New Englanders, with General Rufus Put- 
 nam as their leader, set out for the country of promise. A 
 long barge, bullet-proof and stanch, had been built for 
 them on the Youghiogheny, and named the Mayflower in 
 memory of the historic vessel which had borne the Pilgrim 
 Fathers to the shores of the New World. 
 
 On the second day of April, the pioneers with their 
 families and their household effects were safely embarked, 
 and the Mayflower was swiftly propelled down the stream, 
 now swollen and turbulent with the rains of spring. The 
 voyage was marked by few adventures. The boat glided 
 into the broader stream of the Monongahela, and holding 
 steadily on its way, was soon floating past the heights 
 
1 90 
 
 Settlers OH tJie OJiio 
 
 where stood Fort Pitt, the key to the Ohio Valley. Once 
 on the beautiful river, the progress of the voyagers was 
 quite rapid ; and on the seventh of the month, they saw 
 through the fog of the spring morning the dim outlines 
 
 of a stockade — Fort Har- 
 mar — below the mouth of 
 the Muskingum. Here 
 they brought the May- 
 floiver to a halt ; with great 
 labor they pushed her 
 against the current, and 
 guided her into the smaller 
 stream where the water 
 flowed with less turbulence. 
 The peninsula on their 
 right was covered with a 
 growth of forest trees 
 among which could be seen 
 strange mounds and earth- 
 works, built ages before by 
 an unknown race. It was 
 a lovely spot, and there the 
 pioneers decided to make 
 their homes. The May- 
 Jlowei' was moored to the 
 eastern bank of the Muskingum, and the little company 
 disembarked. Log cabins were hastily built ; plots of 
 ground were cleared ; grain was planted ; and a stockade, 
 called Campus Martins, was erected for security against 
 the Indians. 
 
 "The Fourth of July was celebrated 
 
TJic First Colojiy 191 
 
 Such was the bc^i;inning of the first American colony 
 planted within the limits of the Old Northwest. " No 
 colony in America," said Washington, "was ever settled 
 under such favorable circumstances." In the course of the 
 first year, a hundred and thirty-two men, with fifteen 
 families, arrived, and the new city of Marietta — so named 
 in honor of the French queen, Marie Antoinette — was 
 laid out. 
 
 The Fourth of July was celebrated with great speech- 
 making, and a banquet at which the colonists and their 
 visitors were regaled with "venison barbecued, buffalo 
 steaks, bear meat, wild fowl, and a little pork, as the 
 choicest luxury of all." Five days later. General 
 St. Clair, the newly appointed governor of the 
 Northwest Territory, arrived at the settlement ; and on the 
 fifteenth, he made his grand public entrance into the little 
 city, where he was received by General Putnam and the 
 citizens " with the most sincere and universal congratu- 
 lations." 
 
 Before the summer was ended the governor had organized 
 a great tract of territory, including the eastern half of the 
 present state of Ohio, into a county, which he named Wash- 
 ington County. Judges and other officers were appointed, 
 and a county court was opened in one of the blockhouses 
 of the Campus Martins. It was a great day in the annals 
 of the Old Northwest, for it marked the beginning of a 
 new order of things — the American order. The sheriff, 
 from the doorstep of the rude little courthouse, made 
 proclamation : — " Oyez ! Oyez ! a court is open for the 
 administration of even-handed justice, to the poor and 
 
192 
 
 Settlers on tJie Ohio 
 
 the rich, to the guilty and the innocent, without respect 
 of persons ; none to be punished without trial by their 
 peers, and then in pursuance of the laws and evidence 
 in the case." Then the Rev. Manasseh Cutler offered 
 up a prayer in the presence of the governor and of the 
 
 judges seated on their high 
 benches of justice, the officers 
 were called up and duly sworn, 
 and the business of the day 
 was begun. 
 
 Thus was the first county 
 organized, thus was the first 
 court of justice opened, and 
 thus was the American idea 
 of civil government first in- 
 troduced into the Old North- 
 west. 
 
 II. LOSANTIVILLE 
 
 It was not long until other 
 settlements were begun at 
 widely separated points in the 
 newly opened country. Judge 
 
 " • Oyez ! Oyez 
 
 John Cleves Symmes of New Jersey purchased a large 
 
 tract of land fronting on the Ohio and lying between the 
 Great Miami and Little Miami rivers. The tract 
 was supposed to comprise a million acres, but 
 
 when it was surveyed, it proved to contain not quite one 
 
 third of that amount. 
 
 A little more than five months after the arrival of the 
 
Losantiville 
 
 193 
 
 New England settlers at Marietta, several well-loaded 
 barges, bearing sixty colonists from New Jersey, floated 
 down the river. These people were well supplied with 
 household necessities and farming tools, and carried with 
 them fourteen large wagons and fifty-six horses. Late 
 in September they landed near the mouth of the Little 
 Miami, and at a point op- 
 posite the place where the 
 Licking pours its Kentucky 
 waters into the Ohio they 
 marked out a plan for a 
 town. But there were In- 
 dians in the neighborhood, 
 and the settlers feared to 
 remain. They therefore 
 returned to their barges and 
 
 rowed back to Maysville, a new settlement on the Ken- 
 tucky side of the river. Before Christmas, however, 
 many of them descended again to the Little Miami, a 
 blockhouse was built, land was cleared, and the colony 
 was established in its new home. 
 
 ''What name shall we give to our settlement.-^" asked 
 the colonists. 
 
 The leaders of the enterprise suggested calling it Cin- 
 cinnati, in honor of the patriotic society that had been 
 organized at the close of the Revolution. But John Filson, 
 a schoolmaster who was surveying the town and laying off 
 its streets, insisted that it should have a name that meant 
 something. 
 
 " Call it Losantiville," said he. 
 
 CONQ. O.N.W. — 13 
 
194 Settlers on tJie Ohio 
 
 '* But what does Losantiville mean ? " 
 
 " It is a word made up from four languages. Trans- 
 lating it backward, as we must often do in Latin, it means 
 ville (French) the town, anti (Greek) opposite, os (Latin) 
 the mouth, L (an English abbreviation) the Licking — the 
 town opposite the mouth of the Licking." 
 
 The ingenuity of the schoolmaster pleased the settlers, 
 and the name Losantiville was adopted ; but when Gov- 
 ernor St. Clair paid a visit to the place a year later, he 
 declared that the town should be called Cincinnati. A 
 paHsaded fort was soon built for its protection, and named 
 Fort Washington ; and three hundred soldiers were sent to 
 occupy it and overawe the Indian tribes who were already 
 becoming alarmed at the rapid incoming of settlers. 
 
THE CONQUERING WHITE MAN 
 
 I. BEYOND THE BORDER 
 
 IT was several years before any important settlements 
 were attempted west of the Great Miami. In the 
 Wabash Country and the IlHnois Country, the Indians still 
 roved unmolested, and but few white men ventured to 
 invade the wild solitudes of the woods and prairies. 
 
 The French people at the old posts of Vincennes and 
 Kaskaskia were in a distressing condition. When George 
 Rogers Clark invaded their country, they did all they 
 could to help him. They gave him money and supplies, 
 and in many cases impoverished themselves to aid the 
 American cause. In return they received only certificates 
 of indebtedness from the Virginia government — and most 
 of these certificates were never paid. Later on, some law- 
 less Americans, pretending to be officers from Virginia, 
 visited their settlements and oppressed and robbed the 
 simple people in a most shameful manner. To add to 
 the sum of their misfortunes, there were heavy rains, and 
 the rivers, swollen to unusual heights, swept away their 
 crops ; early frosts destroyed their corn ; and the In- 
 dians, who had formerly been their friends, were now their 
 enemies. 
 
 In their great distress to whom should these people 
 turn if not to the Americans who claimed jurisdiction of 
 
 »95 
 
196 TJic Conquering WJiite Man 
 
 their country ? Father Gibault, our old acquaintance who 
 had given such valuable aid to George Rogers Clark, ac- 
 cordingly sent a memorial to Governor St. Clair, telling 
 him of the sad condition of his people. " Loaded with 
 misery, and groaning under the weight of misfortunes 
 accumulated since the Virginia troops entered their coun- 
 try," said he, *' the unhappy inhabitants throw themselves 
 under the protection of your excellency." 
 
 When the governor visited these distant settlements in 
 the following spring, he found that all he had been told was 
 
 true. To him the French settlers appeared to be 
 1790 
 
 the gentlest and kindest people he had ever met. 
 
 But they were woefully ignorant, not one in fifty being able 
 
 to read or write. Their modes of life and methods of labor 
 
 had not changed for a century. They were honest and 
 
 cheerful, constant in their attendance at church, and 
 
 devoutly religious. But they had not kept pace with the 
 
 progress of the world, and seemed to belong rather to the 
 
 Middle Ages than to the new era of progress which was 
 
 then dawning over the world. 
 
 The territorial legislature, before which their case was 
 finally laid, could not restore to them their former pros- 
 perity, nor do much to reconcile them to the new order of 
 things. Indeed, among the pushing Americans who were 
 laying the foundations of a great new empire in the North- 
 west, there were few who felt any sympathy for these slow- 
 going people of an alien race. 
 
 In the lake regions the British still held the ports of 
 Detroit and Mackinac, and through them all the northern 
 part of the Northwest Territory. This was done in direct 
 
Harmar 197 
 
 violation of the treaty of peace signed in 1783; but the 
 United States was not yet strong enough to assert its full 
 rights. And so the fur trade of the Northwest remained 
 in the hands of the English ; English agents continued to 
 deal with the Indian tribes; and English influence long 
 delayed the settlement of the lake country. It was believed, 
 too, and not without reason, that English intrigues had 
 much to do in inciting the Indians to make war ui)on the 
 colonists in the Ohio Valley. 
 
 II. HARMAR 
 
 The Indians had never felt friendly toward the Ameri- 
 cans. The coming of so many settlers into the southern 
 part of their ancient hunting grounds filled them with 
 alarm. The lawless deeds of white ruffians, who had 
 entered their country for purposes of plunder, exasperated 
 them beyond measure. 
 
 Although the red men no longer crossed the Ohio to 
 harry the Kentucky borders, yet bands of Kentuckians 
 still made warlike raids into the Indian country, and took 
 tenfold vengeance for the injuries they had suffered in 
 former years. Even when treaties were made and signed, 
 the whites were the first to break them. " The frontier 
 settlers," said Washington, ''entertain the opinion that 
 there is not the same crime (or indeed no crime at all) in 
 killing an Indian as in killing a white man." 
 
 Under these circumstances what could be more natural 
 than that the tribes should refuse to abide by the treaties 
 which their chiefs had made, and combine to resist the 
 
1 98 TJic Conquering White Man 
 
 invaders ? Stung to madness, they demanded that the 
 whites should withdraw to the south of the Ohio ; and a 
 long and bloody war began. 
 
 The pioneers who had ventured farthest into the wilder- 
 ness were of course the first to suffer. Prowling bands 
 of Indians infested the woods and made life outside of a 
 stockade very insecure. Their modes of harassing the 
 backwoodsmen seemed to vary with their varying moods. 
 Sometimes they " contented themselves with seizing the 
 horses or driving away the cattle of an emigrant, depriving 
 the wretched family of the means of support, and reserv- 
 ing further vengeance until a more suitable time. Some- 
 times an Indian warrior would creep into a settlement 
 by stealth and create general dismay by carrying away a 
 child, or robbing a family of the wife and mother. Some- 
 times a father was the victim, and the mother and children 
 found themselves alone in the backwoods deprived of their 
 protector and provider. Many a lonely cabin was attacked 
 in the night and all the inmates pitilessly slain." 
 
 In order to put an end to these barbarities, and oblige 
 the savages to abide by the treaties they had made, it was 
 decided to send out General Harmar with a body of troops 
 to punish the restless tribes as severely as possible. 
 
 On a day in early October General Harmar left Fort 
 Washington at the head of nearly fifteen hundred men, 
 intending to invade and overrun the country of 
 the Miamis. The little army marched northward, 
 following almost the same route that Celoron with his 
 French soldiers had taken thirty-six years before. Within, 
 a Httle over two weeks he reached the Miami villages near 
 
Wilkinson 1 99 
 
 the old Maiimcc portage and not far from the present site 
 of Fort Wayne. The villages were deserted ; but Harmar 
 burned their three hundred huts and a large supply of 
 corn which he found stored away. And then, like some 
 would-be heroes of a later time, he reported to his superiors 
 that he had dealt the enemy a terrible blow and had ac- 
 complished all that he had set out to do. 
 
 The wary savages, however, hung on the flanks of his 
 army ; his men were entrapped in ambuscades ; and he was 
 at last obliged to return to the Ohio, having suffered losses 
 much greater than those he had inflicted upon the enemy. 
 It was plain that Harmar was not the man to be intrusted 
 with an enterprise so difificult and so important; nor would 
 it be possible to subdue the Indians without some greater 
 show of force and many new recruits to the army of the 
 Northwest. 
 
 III. WILKINSON 
 
 While Governor St. Clair was waiting at Fort Wash- 
 ington for the arrival of aid from the East, he sent out 
 General Wilkinson with five hundred and twenty-three Ken- 
 tucky horsemen to punish the tribes in the valley of the 
 Wabash. These men were fearless backwoodsmen well- 
 trained in Indian warfare, and the expedition was assured 
 of success from the start. Fully armed and equipped, they 
 rode in a northwesterly direction through the thickly 
 wooded region which now comprises the central part of 
 Indiana. 
 
 Their progress at first was slow, but at the end of a 
 week they reached the Wabash near the site of the present 
 
200 The Co]iqucri)ig White Man 
 
 city of Logansport. There, in the midst of cornfields, they 
 found an Indian town which they captured without resist- 
 ance. " I encamped in the town that night, and the next 
 morning I cut up the corn, burned the cabins, mounted the 
 young warriors, squaws, and children, in the best manner 
 in my power, and leaving two infirm squaws and a child, 
 with a short talk, I commenced my march for the Kickapoo 
 town in the prairie." 
 
 In this manner, capturing, burning, and destroying, the 
 Kentucky rangers swept down the Wabash Valley until 
 they reached a point a little below the mouth of the Tippe- 
 canoe near the present Lafayette. By that time the horses 
 were tired out, and the men were murmuring because of 
 being led so far into the enemy's country. Wilkinson 
 thought it wisest, therefore, to return to the settlements. 
 
 Just three weeks from the day of his departure from 
 Fort Washington, he arrived with his rangers at the falls 
 of the Ohio, having traveled four hundred and fifty miles 
 and carried distress and terror into the heart of the Wabash 
 country. President Washington was so much pleased with 
 the results of this raid that he said, ''The enterprise, 
 intrepidity, and good conduct of these Kentuckians are 
 entitled to pecuHar commendation." 
 
 IV. ST. CLAIR 
 
 The next year St. Clair himself led an army into the 
 
 country of the Miamis. His soldiers were for 
 
 the most part raw recruits, " men purchased from 
 
 prisons, wheelbarrows, and low resorts of the Eastern 
 
St. Clair 
 
 20 1 
 
 cities," who were eager to fight Indians at two dollars a 
 month. The supplies were no better than the men ; the 
 food for the army was insufficient ; the powder was of the 
 poorest quality ; the horses and oxen were ill-fed and little 
 able to endure the hardships of a campaign 
 in a country where there were no roads. 
 
 It was not until October that St. 
 Clair's forces were ready to start. 
 On the fourth of that month the 
 march was begun from Fort Ham- 
 ilton, a new stockade on the Great 
 Miami about twenty-five miles from 
 Cincinnati. There were barely two 
 thousand men in the army, and only a 
 small portion of these were experienced 
 soldiers. After cutting their 
 way through the forest for 
 forty-two miles, they stopped 
 to build another stockade which 
 they named Fort Jefferson. 
 
 The march was then resumed, 
 the course of the army being 
 directed toward the Miami towns 
 near the head of the Maumee. 
 ber, St. Clair found himself in the heart of the enemy's 
 country, and went into camp on the banks of the Wabash 
 not far from its source. The next morning the camp was 
 attacked by a large force of Indians, and a dreadful battle 
 ensued. The Indians were led by Little Turtle, a Miami 
 chief of great discretion and bravery. Concealed among 
 
 Eager to fight Indians at two 
 dollars a month " 
 
 On the third of Novem- 
 
202 The Conquering White Man 
 
 the trees and high grass, they poured a constant and de- 
 structive fire into the half-formed ranks of their foes. 
 
 St. Chiir himself showed the greatest bravery. Although 
 weak and suffering from continued ill health, he rode into 
 the thickest of the fight, encouraging his men by his pres- 
 ence. Several horses were killed under him, and although 
 eight balls passed through his hat and clothes, he himself 
 was unhurt. The slaughter was terrible. Four fifths of 
 the officers and nearly one half of the men were killed or 
 wounded. The ground was covered with bodies, and the 
 little river was red with blood. What could St. Clair do 
 but order a retreat "^ 
 
 The retreat soon became a wild flight, and it so con- 
 tinued until the survivors found themselves safe behind 
 the stockade of Fort Jefferson. It is estimated that St. 
 Clair had fourteen hundred men in the fight, and that of 
 these scarcely fifty escaped unhurt. The carnage would 
 have been even greater had not the Indians been so eager 
 to secure plunder. After the conflict was over, they began 
 in their savage way to avenge their wrongs still further by 
 the most brutal treatment of the woimded and dying. 
 
 "You make war against us to rob us of our land," they 
 would say. ** Here, then, you may have as much land as 
 you want!" And they would cram the eyes and throats 
 of their wretched prisoners full of clay and sand. 
 
 The blame for this terrible defeat was ascribed, and 
 entirely without reason, to St. Clair. People accused him 
 of cowardice, inefficiency, and even of treason. When, 
 some years later, he asked Congress to compensate him 
 for his services, and in his old age relieve him from want, 
 
Fallen TiDibcrs 203 
 
 his petition was refused, and he was publicly reproached as 
 a "pauper." Five months after the battle he was forced 
 to resign his commission, and General Anthony Wayne 
 was chosen to lead the campaign against the Indians. 
 
 V. FALLEN TIMBERS 
 
 It was not until nearly two years after St. Clair's defeat 
 that General Wayne was prepared to make a decisive 
 movement ao^ainst the enemy. On the 7th of 
 October he reached a point about six miles north 
 of Fort Jefferson, and there he determined to make his 
 winter camp. The camp was carefully laid out and forti- 
 fied, and named Fort Greenville. It occupied the site of 
 a part of the present town of Greenville in Ohio. Here 
 the little army remained several months, and the soldiers 
 were drilled every day in the tactics of Indian fighting 
 and in the use of the saber and the bayonet. 
 
 The British at Detroit were much alarmed when they 
 heard of Wayne's careful preparations ; for they imagined 
 that he might be intending to march against them instead 
 of against the Indians. In order to be prepared for 
 such an emergency, the lieutenant governor of Canada 
 marched out with three companies of British regulars, 
 and built a fort at the lower end of the rapids of the 
 Maumee, a short distance from the place where Maumee 
 City now stands. The Indians had been encouraged by 
 the British to stand their ground against the Americans, 
 and the building of this fort gave them great hopes of aid 
 from Canada. 
 
204 The Conquermg White Midi 
 
 In the following August, Wayne marched into the heart 
 of the Indian country. His army consisted of about twenty- 
 six hundred men, all of whom had been well drilled 
 1794 
 
 and thoroughly prepared for the work that was 
 
 to be done. He did not stop to capture defenseless vil- 
 lages and destroy cornfields, but he sought out the Indian 
 warriors "in their chosen stronghold. On the 19th he 
 reached a place on the Maumee about four miles above 
 the new British fort. On account of the great number of 
 trees here that had been blown down by a hurricane, thus 
 making a passage through the woods almost impossible, 
 this place was called Fallen Timbers. Here, among the 
 prostrate trees and matted brush and dense underwoods, 
 the Indians were lying in wait. 
 
 As a band of horsemen were floundering along through 
 bushes and briers, a number of Indians arose from their 
 hiding places and fired upon them. This was a signal for 
 the beginning of the fight. The mounted soldiers were 
 formed in position and ordered to move forward under 
 cover of the river bank ; and the foot soldiers were 
 directed to charge upon the lurking places of the savages, 
 driving them out at the point of the bayonet, and follow- 
 ing them up so closely that they would have no time to 
 reload their guns. These orders were given quickly and 
 were readily obeyed. The Indians were taken by sur- 
 prise. They arose and fled ; and the Americans won a 
 complete victory. 
 
 Many of the fleeing Indians were pursued to the very 
 walls of the British fort ; and it was with difficulty that 
 Wayne could restrain his men from storming the post 
 
Greenville 
 
 205 
 
 itself. " As it was," says an early historian, " many of 
 the Kentucky troops advanced within gunshot, and in- 
 sulted the garrison with a select volley of oaths and epi- 
 thets, which must have given the British commandant a 
 high idea of backwoods gentility." 
 
 VI. GREENVILLE 
 
 After his victory at Fallen Timbers, Wayne, with his 
 little army, marched slowly up the Maumee. His course 
 
 
 
 ■ <^ 
 
 '• His course was marked by widespread devastation " 
 
 was marked by widespread devastation. Scouting parties 
 were sent out who destroyed the cornfields and villages for 
 fifty miles on each side of the river. Never before had the 
 Indians of the Northwest met with so signal a defeat, and 
 never had they been punished with so great severity. 
 
2o6 The Conquering White Man 
 
 Nearly a month was occupied in this progress of destruc- 
 tion ; and it was late in September when the army reached 
 the head of Maumee, where was the famous portage to 
 the Wabash. There a strong stockade was built, and 
 named Fort Wayne ; and there the general received delega- 
 tions from the Indian tribes, and listened to their proposi- 
 tions for peace. Some of the chiefs hesitated, still hoping 
 for assistance from the British ; but the wisest among 
 them were in favor of giving up the struggle. ** The 
 Americans are now led by a chief who never stops," said 
 Little Turtle ; " the night and the day are alike to him. 
 And during all the time that he has been marching upon 
 our villages, notwithstanding the watchfulness of our young 
 men, we have never been able to surprise him. Think 
 well of it. There is something that whispers to me that 
 it will be prudent to listen to his offers of peace." 
 
 At Greenville, the next year, the chiefs met in council 
 with General Wayne, and a treaty of peace was made. 
 The Indians gave up all claims to the lands east 
 of the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers, and 
 south of an irregular line drawn about halfway between 
 Lake Erie and the Ohio to the head waters of the Wabash, 
 and thence southwestwardly to the mouth of the Kentucky 
 River.i They also made grants of large tracts of land in 
 the Lake region. One of these was a strip six miles wide 
 fronting on Lake Erie and the Detroit River and extend- 
 ing from the Raisin River to Lake St. Clair. This, of 
 course, included the post of Detroit, which was still occu- 
 pied by the British. Another tract on the mainland north 
 
 ^ See map on page 210. 
 
Greenville 207 
 
 of the Strait of Mackinac, together with the island of Bois 
 Blanc, was deeded to the United States as '*an extra and 
 voluntary gift of the Chippewa nation." Among other 
 reservations ceded to the Americans were the lands occu- 
 pied by the post at Mackinac, a tract of land six miles 
 square at the mouth of the Chicago River, a large area at 
 Fort Wayne and the Maumee portage, and several thou- 
 sand acres in southern Indiana, which had been granted by 
 Virginia to George Rogers Clark. In return for all these 
 concessions and voluntary gifts, the Indians received pres- 
 ents of goods valued at one hundred and twenty thousand 
 dollars and the promise of an annual payment of ninety- 
 five hundred dollars. It has been said, by way of compli- 
 ment to General Wayne, that no chief or warrior who 
 gave him the hand at Greenville ever again lifted the 
 hatchet against the United States. 
 
THE UNITED STATES IN FULL POSSESSION 
 I. THE SURRENDER OF THE LAKE POSTS 
 
 THE war thus happily brought to an end had been in 
 progress seven years. It had cost much treasure 
 and many lives. More than fifteen hundred men, women, 
 and children in Kentucky alone had been massacred or 
 carried into captivity, and the number of sufferers on the 
 north side was proportionately greater. The Indians had 
 lost much more than the whites. The bravest of their 
 warriors had been slain, their villages had been burned, 
 their fields had been destroyed ; they were utterly broken 
 and dispirited. For sixteen years there was no further up- 
 rising among them, and there was peace throughout the 
 Northwest. 
 
 The British officers and the English traders at Detroit 
 had all along hoped that the Indians would succeed in 
 their struggle for the Northwest. Although not daring 
 to take any active part in the war, they had constantly 
 encouraged the savages to keep on fighting. Even after 
 the great defeat at Fallen Timbers, the lieutenant governor 
 of Upper Canada held a council with the chiefs on the 
 Maumee, and tried to persuade them not to make peace. 
 
 " All the country north of the Ohio belongs by right to 
 you," he said, "and you must not give it up. I myself 
 will see the great man at Quebec ; and we will tell the 
 
 208 
 
The Surrender of tJie Lake Posts 209 
 
 king, our father, about your grievances, and he will per- 
 mit us to help you. In the spring our soldiers will come 
 to your aid, and we will drive the Americans out of your 
 hunting grounds." 
 
 But the Indians had listened too often to such words as 
 these. Year after year they had been deceived with false 
 promises of help from the British. They turned away 
 silently, and resolved to seek peace. 
 
 The treaty which was made at Greenville was a death- 
 blow to the hopes of the English at Detroit. They had 
 hitherto interposed the Indians as a kind of wall between 
 themselves and the Americans. By this means they had 
 been able for thirteen years to hold unlawful possession of 
 the lake posts and control the profitable fur trade of the 
 Northwest. They now clearly saw that the time was near 
 at hand when they must retire from American territory. 
 
 That time came even sooner than they expected. 
 Through the efforts of John Jay, our minister to Eng- 
 land, a new treaty was made with Great Britain, in which 
 it was stipulated that all posts and places in the United 
 States that were then held by the British should be ab- 
 solutely evacuated on the first day of June, 1796. 
 
 1796 
 Even after this there were some delays on the 
 
 part of the officers in charge of these posts. But on 
 the nth of July, the British having taken their leave, the 
 stars and stripes were hoisted over the fort at Detroit and 
 all the settlements in the lake regions became American. 
 The entire Northwest was at last under the full control of the 
 American people, and, with the exception of a small portion, 
 was under the direct jurisdiction of the Federal government. 
 
 CONCI. O.N.W. — 14 
 
2IO 
 
 TJic United States in Full Possessioji 
 
 II. ^-NEW CONNECTICUT" 
 
 While the Indian war was in progress the state of 
 Connecticut did not forget the strip of land which she 
 still claimed on the southern shore of Lake Erie, and 
 which is knowii in history as the Western Reserve. About 
 the time that the unfortunate St. Clair was giv- 
 
 mg up his com- 
 mission, she made a free 
 gift of a portion of it to 
 such of her inhabitants 
 as had suffered severely 
 from the ravages of the 
 British during the Revo- 
 lution. 
 
 This portion included 
 a tract of five hundred thou- 
 sand acres lying across the 
 western end of the Reserve and 
 bounded on the north by the 
 lake shore ; and the land was to be divided among the 
 sufferers in proportion to the amount of their losses. 
 The tract was at first called "The Sufferers' Lands," but 
 soon acquired the title by which that portion of Ohio is 
 still known, "The Fire Lands." It was not until sixteen 
 years later that these lands were divided into plots, and 
 settlers began to occupy them. 
 
 In 1795 the remaining part of the great Reserve was 
 sold by order of the general assembly of Connecticut. No 
 surveys or measurements were made, but it was purchased 
 
** Nciv Coiniccticiit " 211 
 
 as a whole by ihirty-five kind si)ccu]at()rs, who agreed to 
 
 pay for it the sum of twelve hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 The money thus reeeived by the state was set apart as 
 
 a perpetuid investment for the support of the common 
 
 schools. It is interesting to remend^er that no small ])art 
 
 of the present school fund of Connecticut was thus derived 
 
 from the sale of lands in the Old Northwest, to which 
 
 she had no better claim than that based upon an ancient 
 
 charter given to her in ignorance by King Charles II. 
 
 The thirty-five purchasers of the Western Reserve soon 
 
 afterward sent out a company of fifty surveyors, who 
 
 were to lay off the tract into townships each five miles 
 
 square, and divide the townships into sections of a size 
 
 convenient for the purposes of intending settlers. It 
 
 was on the 4th of July when these surveyors with several 
 
 others reached the mouth of Conneaut Creek, on 
 
 1796 
 the shore of Lake Erie. They decided to make 
 
 this place their headquarters, and named it, in honor of the 
 
 day, the ** Port of Independence." Speeches were made 
 
 and toasts were offered, and the settlement of the Western 
 
 Reserve was begun. 
 
 Three weeks later, General Moses 'Cleaveland, the leader 
 
 of the surveying company, went farther west and landed 
 
 at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. There, with a few 
 
 others, he started a new settlement — a settlement which 
 
 prospered and finally developed into the enterprising city 
 
 known by his name.^ When the surveyors had com- 
 
 1 The first newspaper published in this lake settlement was issued in 1830, 
 and was to be called the "Cleaveland Advertiser." When the first number 
 was being made up, the editor discovered that the title was a little too long for 
 
212 TJie United States in Full Possession 
 
 pleted their work, they found that the purchasers of the 
 Reserve were entitled, not to four milHons of acres, as 
 they had supposed, but to something less than three mil- 
 lions. For all political purposes this tract was still under 
 the jurisdiction of Connecticut, although some of the pur- 
 chasers supposed that they were now independent of any 
 state and might set up a separate government of their 
 own. They proposed to establish here the " State of 
 New Connecticut," to be governed by the company, much 
 in the same manner as the colony of Virginia had been 
 governed by a company in England. But Congress, as 
 well as the state of Connecticut, had something to say 
 about this; and so, in 1800, the latter made a formal 
 transfer to the Federal government of all jurisdiction 
 whatsoever over the territory in question. 
 
 After seventeen years of waiting the United States was 
 at last in complete possession of the Northwest. 
 
 the page. He therefore omitted the letter " a " in the first syllable of the 
 name, and " Cleaveland " became " Cleveland." The people were pleased 
 with the new spelling, and the abbreviated form was soon generally adopted. 
 
THI<: TERRITORY OF INDIANA 
 I. THE SCATTERED SETTLEMENTS 
 
 AFTER the close of the long Indian war great numbers 
 of settlers began to pour into the Ohio Valley. These 
 stopped at various places east of the present state of Indi- 
 ana ; for there was plenty of land for all who came, and 
 but very few cared to provoke the Indians by crossing 
 the line which marked the limits of the white man's pos- 
 sessions. Down the Ohio again came an endless pro- 
 cession of boats loaded with settlers and their belongings. 
 In the first year after the treaty more than a 
 thousand vessels passed Marietta. The pioneer 
 who came into the wilderness to hew out a home for his 
 family could now buy the land direct from the government 
 without becoming the victim of land speculators. The 
 "siren song of peace and agriculture" was heard even 
 in the depths of the forest. Fear had fled from the land, 
 and to all classes of people there was safety. What 
 wonder if the country was soon dotted with clearings and 
 farmhouses and villages ? 
 
 In the same year that Connecticut gave up her pre- 
 tensions to the Western Reserve, Congress divided the 
 Northwest Territory into two parts, and placed 
 each under a separate government. The bound- 
 ary line between these two divisions was in part the same 
 as that which had been drawn between the Indians' 
 
 213 
 
214 
 
 TJic Territory of Indiana 
 
 country and the country that had been ceded to the 
 whites by the treaty at Greenville. It extended from 
 the mouth of the Kentucky River straight to Fort Recov- 
 ery, near the source of the 
 Wabash, and thence due north 
 through Michigan. The 
 division east of this line 
 retained the old name, "The 
 Territory Northwest of the 
 River Ohio." The other 
 division, being the country 
 of the Indians, was called 
 " Indiana Territory." The 
 capital of the eastern divi- 
 sion was Chillicothe, on the 
 Scioto River, and General 
 St. Clair remained its governor. 
 The capital of Indiana Territory 
 was Vincennes, and its govern- 
 ment was placed in the hands of 
 William Henry Harrison. 
 
 In the vast territory of Indiana, 
 
 which included about four fifths 
 
 of the entire Northwest, there 
 
 were at the beginning of the nineteenth century scarcely 
 
 a dozen settlements. The chief of these were at the 
 
 falls of the Ohio on the lands granted to George 
 1801 
 
 Rogers Clark, — at Vincennes on the Wabash, 
 
 and at Cahokia and Kaskaskia on the Mississippi. In 
 
 none of these were there more than a thousand people. 
 
 The boundary line 
 
Tlic Scattcnd ScttUtnoits 
 
 215 
 
 There were military posts at Fort Wayne, at Fort Massac 
 on the Ohio, and at Mackinac; and a tew white famihes 
 were settled at Green Bay and two or three other points. 
 
 On the north side of the Chicago 
 River, not far from the 
 there was a single dwellin 
 a kind of blockhouse con- 
 taining a storeroom and 
 rooms for eating an( 
 sleeping. Here live( 
 alone a French trader 
 whose name was Le 
 Mai. The house itself 
 had been built twenty 
 years before by an- 
 other trader, Jean 
 Baptiste Point de 
 Saible, and it is sup- 
 posed to have stood 
 quite near the spot 
 where Father Mar- 
 quette passed his last 
 winter more than a 
 century earlier. 
 
 De Saible was a 
 French mulatto who had lived a long time among the 
 Indians, and gained their complete confidence. His house 
 soon became a great trading center for the tribes west 
 of the lake, and especially for the Pottawattomies. There 
 they bartered the furs of beavers and minks, and the skins 
 
 His house soon became a great trading 
 center " 
 
2i6 Tlie Territory of Indiana 
 
 of buffaloes and bears for guns and knives, blankets and 
 rum ; and soon Monsieur de Saible was able to retire from 
 business with a handsome fortune. He was succeeded by 
 Le Mai in 1796 ; and in the year of which we are speaking 
 the lonely house on the bank of the Chicago River (Garlic 
 Creek) was a favorite resort for the red hunters of 
 
 I8OI . . ^ , , , . . c ^ 
 
 the prairie. Such was the beginning or the metrop- 
 olis of the Northwest, which before the end of the century 
 then beginning would number its inhabitants by the million. 
 The few settlements that have been mentioned were 
 separated by hundreds of miles of unexplored wilderness. 
 There were no roads and no means of conveyance from 
 place to place. There were no travelers except hunters 
 and traders ; and the Indians who lived there were by no 
 means friendly to trespassers who crossed the border line 
 of their country. When General Harrison was appointed 
 governor of this wild and unsettled region, it became one 
 of his chief duties to make treaties with the various sav- 
 age tribes, to keep them at peace with the government and 
 with each other, and if possible to secure from them still 
 further grants of lands in the territory which they had 
 reserved. Within the next five or six years he was able 
 to purchase from them for the United States several large 
 tracts in the most fertile parts of the Wabash and Ohio 
 valleys. At a treaty held at Fort Wayne in 1803, the 
 Miamis, Shawnees, and other tribes sold to the govern- 
 ment more than two million acres, receiving therefor the 
 pitiable sum of four thousand dollars. Other treaties 
 followed, and several other similar bargains were made. 
 The United States was never known to pay the Indians 
 
TccmnscJi 21/ 
 
 too much for their hinds, neither were the agents who 
 were sent out to deal with them ever known to favor them 
 with undue kinchiess, excei)t as a means of securing some 
 sort of advantage over them. 
 
 II. TECUMSEH 
 
 Among the Shawnees there was at that time a warrior 
 of great influence and ability whose name was Tecumseh. 
 When he was a mere child his father had been killed in 
 battle with the white invaders of his country ; and through- 
 out his life he had brooded upon the wrongs which his 
 people had been obliged to endure. As a young man he 
 had been one of the most daring among those who had 
 defeated Harmar and St. Clair; and even the disaster at 
 Fallen Timbers did not wholly dishearten him. He was 
 thirty-five years old when the great land sale occurred at 
 Fort Wayne. He still hoped that at some time and in some 
 way his nation might recover their lost hunting grounds. 
 When he saw the limits of the Indian country growing 
 smaller and smaller with each successive treaty with the 
 white men, and realized that the red men would soon be 
 deprived of all that they owned, he made up his mind to 
 give his life, if need be, for the defense of his people. 
 
 His first plan was to unite all the tribes of the North- 
 west in a great league similar to that which had been 
 formed by Pontiac forty years before. He was not a 
 chief, nor had he any voice in the councils of the Shaw- 
 nees ; but his fine common sense and his known courage 
 had gained for him great influence, both in his own tribe 
 
2i8 The Territory of Indiana 
 
 and among others. His brother, Ellskevatawa, commonly 
 known as the " Prophet," greatly aided him in all his 
 plans. 
 
 Tecumseh declared that bribes and bad whisky had 
 been used to induce the chiefs to sell the lands of the 
 tribes. He also claimed that since the lands were really 
 the property of the Indian nation as a whole, the chiefs 
 of no particular tribe could sell or dispose of any part of 
 it without the general consent. That this plea was a 
 just one we can hardly deny ; but when Tecumseh made 
 his appeal to Governor Harrison, he was told that the 
 question must be decided by the President. ** I hope, 
 then," said Tecumseh, "that the Great Spirit will put 
 sense enough into the President's head to induce him to 
 decide aright and direct you to give up this land. It is 
 true he is so far off that he will not be injured by the 
 war. He may sit still in his town and drink his wine, 
 while you and I will have to fight it out." 
 
 The decision of the President, as might have been 
 foreseen, was not in favor of Tecumseh's claims. The 
 United States had bought the lands ; and, no matter of 
 whom it had bought them, or at what price, it would 
 continue to hold them. Tecumseh was now more than 
 ever intent upon war. With his brother he visited the 
 tribes in the South, as well as those in the Northwest, and 
 tried to persuade them to join his confederacy. Tecumseh 
 was untiring in his efforts, and went everywhere. To an 
 American officer whom he met among the Iroquois in 
 1809, he said that he "had visited the Florida Indians, 
 and Indians so far north that snow covered the ground 
 
Tecum sell 
 
 219 
 
 in midsummer." Near the mouth of the Ti])])ecan()c River, 
 just abo\'e the present city of Lafayette, the Prophet had 
 gathered a great following of discontented warriors from 
 many tribes ; and to influence them by an appeal to their 
 superstitions, he had established 
 a kind of religious order, with 
 mysterious ceremonies and pre- 
 tended communings with the 
 spirit world. 
 
 At length, by invitation of 
 Governor Harrison, Tecumseh 
 made a visit to Vincennes. He 
 had with him seventy-five war- 
 riors fully armed, and he held 
 himself like a conqueror 
 rather than suppliant. 
 The governor received him at his 
 own house courteously, and asked 
 him to be seated with him in the 
 shade of the veranda. The red 
 man haughtily refused, saying, .^7 
 " Houses were built for you to jl 
 hold councils in, but Indians hold 
 theirs in the open air." 
 
 Governor Harrison then went 
 out and talked with the warrior 
 
 in the open common before his house. Tecumseh con- 
 ducted himself gravely after the Indian manner, and de- 
 livered an eloquent speech in which he recited the many 
 wrongs that his people had suffered at the hands of the 
 
 1810 
 
 
 He held himself like 
 a conqueror" 
 
220 TJie Tei'ritory of Indiana 
 
 Americans. At the close of his speech an officer invited 
 him to take a seat by the side of his ** father, the governor." 
 He shook his head, and sat down on the ground, saying : 
 ''The sun is my father and the earth is my mother. I will 
 repose on her bosom." For nearly two weeks the governor 
 and the warrior were in almost daily consultation, and 
 many speeches were made by each. 
 
 ''Brother," said Tecumseh, "this land that was sold, 
 was sold only by a few. If the land is not restored to us, 
 you will see, when we return to our homes, how it will be 
 settled. Brother, I wish you would take pity on the red 
 people and do what I have requested." 
 • But the conference closed without anything being accom- 
 plished. Everything was referred to '' the great father at 
 Washington." The governor assured his savage visitor 
 that " the moon would sooner fall to the ground than the 
 President would suffer his people to be murdered with im- 
 punity, and that he would put petticoats on his warriors 
 sooner than give up a country which he had fairly bought 
 from its true owners." 
 
 Disappointed, but not down-hearted, Tecumseh returned 
 haughtily to his people. He had pondered so long on the 
 misfortunes of his race that his mind was full of bitterness 
 toward all Americans, and he hated Governor Harrison 
 beyond all measure. In a few days, with twenty trusted 
 warriors, he started again for the South, determined to 
 carry out his plan of uniting all the tribes in one wide- 
 spread conspiracy. 
 
 When the territorial legislature met at Vincennes in the 
 following autumn, Governor Harrison urged the necessity 
 
Tippecanoe 221 
 
 of procuring still more kinds from the Indians. "The 
 eastern settlements," he said, "are separated from the 
 
 western by a considerable extent of Indian lands, 
 
 ^ 1810 
 
 and the most fertile tracts that are within our ter- 
 ritorial bounds are still their property. Almost entirely 
 divested of the game from which they had drawn their 
 subsistence, it has become of little use to them ; and it 
 was the intention of the government to substitute, for the 
 scanty supplies which the chase affords, the more certain 
 support which is derived from agriculture. By the con- 
 siderate and sensible among them, this plan is considered 
 as the only one that will save them from utter extirpation. 
 But a most formidable opposition has been raised to it by 
 the warriors, who will never agree to abandon their old 
 habits until driven to it by necessity. As long as a deer 
 is to be found in their forests, they will continue to hunt. 
 Are, then, those extinguishments of Indian title, which are 
 at once so beneficial to the Indian, the territory, and the 
 United States, to be suspended on account of the intrigues 
 of a few individuals } Is one of the fairest portions of the 
 globe to remain in a state of nature, the haunt of a few 
 wretched savages, when it seems destined by the Creator 
 to give support to a large population, and to be the seat of 
 civilization, of science, and true religion } " 
 
 III. TIPPECANOE 
 
 Through the next spring and summer fear and uneasi- 
 ness prevailed all along the border. The Indians had 
 begun in various ways to annoy the settlers, stealing 
 
222 
 
 The Territory of Ijidiana 
 
 horses, killing cattle, and threatening to destroy the grow- 
 ing crops. Life was unsafe. The backwoods farmer was 
 obliged to carry his rifle with him even when 
 plowing his fields. Every lonely cabin became a 
 kind of fortified outpost, with loopholes in the walls, and 
 
 1811 
 
 " Every lonely cabin became a fortified post " 
 
 '^ the doors barred and guarded against 
 surprise. Straggling savages prowled 
 around the settlements, intent on mischief ; 
 and it was known that bands of warriors were collect- 
 ing at the Prophet's town on the Tippecanoe with the 
 avowed purpose of making trouble. It seemed as if the 
 former dreadful days of terror and blood and midnight 
 forays were about to come again. It was plain to every 
 one that another Indian war was at hand, and the people 
 
Tippecanoe 223 
 
 of the territory declared that if the government would 
 
 not help them, they would take matters into their own 
 
 hands. 
 
 Governor Harrison was convinced that the time for 
 
 decisive action had come. In the last week of September, 
 
 therefore, he set out from Vincennes with a 
 
 1811 
 strong force of militia and regulars, and marched 
 
 northward through the Wabash bottoms toward the Indian 
 rendezvous at Tippecanoe. At the end of a week the 
 army reached a point on the eastern bank of the river, 
 where, according to Indian tradition, a bloody battle had 
 once been fought between the Iroquois and the Illinois. 
 This place was called by the French settlers " Battaille 
 des Illinois," and is now occupied by the flourishing city 
 of Terre Haute. Here an encampment was made, and 
 the army remained for three weeks engaged in building a 
 fort which the soldiers called Fort Harrison. Provisions 
 were scarce, and the supplies that should have followed 
 were long delayed ; and so it was not until the last day of 
 October that the governor was able to resume the march. 
 On the 6th of November he reached the mouth of the 
 Tippecanoe and saw the Indian village in plain view, about 
 a mile and a half distant. The soldiers were anxious to 
 make an immediate attack, but Governor Harrison, wish- 
 ing to avoid bloodshed if possible, sent forward a messen- 
 ger to invite the Prophet to a conference. The messenger 
 made his way to the outskirts of the village, but the In- 
 dians whom he met refused to speak with him, and he was 
 obliged to return without seeing the prophet or any of the 
 leading warriors. 
 
224 ^^^(^ Territory of Indiana 
 
 A deputation of three Indians came out from the town 
 soon afterward, and asked the governor why he had thus 
 brought an army out against them. They said that their 
 people desired to keep the peace, and they begged that 
 he would wait until the next day, when their chiefs would 
 meet him in council and learn what he wished them to 
 do. The governor willingly agreed to this, saying that 
 his army would encamp near by for the night, and that 
 no hostilities should be committed. 
 
 A suitable place was therefore found, and the soldiers 
 settled themselves for the night, being much dissatisfied 
 because there was no immediate prospect of fighting. 
 They slept on their arms, their guns being loaded and 
 their bayonets fixed. Strong guards were placed on duty, 
 and every precaution was taken to prevent surprise. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the Prophet was busy stirring up 
 his followers to the fighting point and urging them to 
 make a bold stroke in defense of their new religion and 
 their country. The Great Spirit, he said, was on their 
 side and would give them the victory. No white soldiers 
 could withstand them, but would fall before them as the 
 wheat before the sickle. In the darkness of the night, 
 he moved silently from wigwam to wigwam, arousing his 
 warriors and instructing each one in the part he was to 
 take ; and not a sound of all that was going on reached 
 the ears of the sentinels before the American camp. 
 
 At about two hours before sunrise the camp was at- 
 tacked by a great horde of savages, so suddenly that they 
 were within the lines before many of the men could get 
 out of the tents. The morning was dark and cloudy, and 
 
Tippecanoe 225 
 
 the Indians being concealed in the gloom, had much the 
 advantage of the white men just roused from their sleep 
 and plainly visible in the light of the glowing camp fires. 
 The struggle which followed was a terrible one, and for 
 a time the army was almost surrounded. Ikit the officers 
 were experienced Indian fighters, and the men bravely 
 held their ground. Above the din and roar of battle 
 the voice of the Prophet could be heard, urging his 
 warriors onward and promising them a sure victory and 
 great rewards. 
 
 Daylight soon came and revealed a scene of blood and 
 slaughter seldom equaled in savage warfare. Governor 
 Harrison was in the thickest of the fight ; his hat was 
 pierced by a bullet ; his officers were shot down by his 
 side; but he himself escaped injury. In the gray dawn 
 he ordered a charge to be made upon the savages. The 
 onslaught was most furious. The Indians, driven at the 
 point of the bayonet, turned and fled ; many of them 
 were killed, and the rest hid themselves in a swamp where 
 they could not be followed. 
 
 The battle had been a short one, but the loss on both 
 sides was great. Of the Americans, thirty-seven were 
 killed and one hundred and fifty-one wounded, several of 
 whom afterward died of their injuries. The number of 
 Indians slain will never be known, as many are supposed 
 to have been carried away by their comrades. 
 
 On the following day a company of mounted riflemen 
 rode into the town, the Prophet's famous capital. The 
 only Indian found there was a chief who had broken his 
 leg. All the rest had fled in a great panic, leaving behind 
 
 CONQ. O.N.W. — 15 
 
226 TJie Territory of hidiana 
 
 them their household utensils, and even some of their 
 arms. A large quantity of corn was found, and many 
 hogs and fowls ; and these were gladly seized upon by the 
 troops. 
 
 Governor Harrison, believing that this severe defeat of 
 the Indians would oblige them to seek peace, set out as 
 soon as possible on his return march. The army reached 
 Fort Harrison just one week after the battle, and from 
 that point the wounded were sent forward in boats. On 
 the 1 8th of November, the governor with a large portion 
 of his army arrived at Vincennes, where he received the 
 thanks and congratulations of the territorial legislature. 
 
 Had the Indians been led by the wiser and more pru- 
 dent Tecumseh instead of by the visionary Prophet, the 
 contest would doubtless have been begun in another way, 
 and the Americans might not have won the victory so 
 easily. But Tecumseh was still absent in the South, try- 
 ing to persuade the Chickasaws and the Cherokees to aid 
 his conspiracy. When he heard of the defeat at Tippe- 
 canoe, he hastened home ; but he arrived too late to 
 retrieve his fallen fortunes. He reproached his brother 
 for disobeying his orders, which were to keep peace with 
 the white men until his return. It is said that when the 
 Prophet tried to excuse himself, the angry warrior seized 
 him by the hair and shook him as a dog shakes a raccoon. 
 
 From that time the Prophet had no further influence. 
 Many of the chiefs hastened to make their peace with 
 Governor Harrison, and to gain further favor promised 
 to give the deceiver the punishment that he deserved. 
 They even went so far as to seek him out and threaten 
 
Tippccaiioc 
 
 227 
 
 to kill him. "You have hcd to us," said they, abusing 
 him. "You told us that the white people were crazy 
 and could do nothing ; but we found them to be in their 
 right senses, and able to fight like the bad spirit him- 
 
 se 
 
 If." But they never dcHvcred him to Governor Harri- 
 
 " 'You have lied to us.' said they " 
 
 son ; and he was suffered to remain among them, despised 
 and disregarded until the day of his death. 
 
 As for Tecumseh, he gave up his plan of an Indian 
 confederacy; and as the War of 1812 was then in prog- 
 ress, he went to Canada and allied himself with the Eng- 
 lish, and became an officer in the king's army. In the 
 battle that was fought on the River Thames, he 
 was the most striking figure. Even before the be- 
 ginning of the fight he foresaw that the English must be de- 
 feated. This meant to him the end of all hope, and he made 
 
 1813 
 
228 The Territory of Lidiana 
 
 up his mind not to leave the field of battle alive. He took 
 off the British uniform which had been given him, and put 
 on the war dress of an Indian brave. Then, with a wild 
 war whoop, he dashed into the thickest of the fight, where 
 he soon found the death which he desired. 
 
 IV. A HARBINGER OF PROSPERITY 
 
 At the very time that Governor Harrison was marching 
 
 against the Prophet at Tippecanoe, the first steamboat on 
 
 the Ohio River was laiinched at Pittsburg. The name of 
 
 the vessel was the Orleans, and as it floated down 
 1811 
 
 the river belching smoke from its tall funnel, the 
 
 settlers along the banks were filled with wonder and con- 
 sternation. There were no newspapers in that region, and 
 news of every kind traveled but slowly. Not many of 
 the people had ever heard of a steamboat, and the strange 
 craft was regarded as some monster that might carry death 
 and devastation in its track. At one place it was thought 
 to be the British army, and the people fled in terror to the 
 hills until it was safely past. At other places it was be- 
 lieved to be a comet that had fallen into the river and was 
 floating down to the sea. 
 
 The coming of that strange craft, however, was the har- 
 binger of greater prosperity in the Northwest. Trade with 
 New Orleans and with the new towns on the Ohio and 
 Mississippi was quickened and increased. Other steam- 
 boats came, and there were demands for grain and wool and 
 furs and pork to be shipped to the markets down the river. 
 Commerce had begun. People in the Atlantic states were 
 
A Harbinger of Prosperity 229 
 
 told about the possibilities and resources of the Northwest, 
 and the tide of immigration soon increased. 
 
 When finally the war with luigland ended, and the In- 
 dians now no longer encouraged by British intrigue were 
 ready to give up their lands and retire to other homes be- 
 yond the Mississippi, a new era dawned upon the country. 
 Ohio had already been admitted into the sisterhood of 
 states. In 18 16, Indiana came into the Union with bound- 
 aries essentially as they are to-day ; and two years later 
 Illinois was admitted. ]^ut it was not until icS37 that 
 Michigan was allowed to become a state; and Wisconsin 
 remained a territory still eleven years longer. 
 
SUBDUERS OF THE WILDERNESS 
 
 I. THE PIONEERS 
 
 HOW very slowly everything moved in those days ! 
 From the time the first settlement was made at Mari- 
 etta, more than half a century elapsed before the wilder- 
 
 " Subduers of the wilderness " 
 
 ness was entirely subdued and the whole land had become 
 a land of homes. 
 
 There were no railroads, no telegraphs, no means of 
 rapid travel. Post offices were few and far between ; the 
 mails were carried on horseback or in slow-going boats ; the 
 
The ri oncers 231 
 
 rates of postaL;e were very hii^h. A newspaper was rarely 
 seen. It reciiiired a month lor news to {)ass from Indiana 
 to the Atlantic states. To the people living in Massachu- 
 setts, or Virginia, or the Carolinas, the '' Ohio Country," as 
 it was still called, was a far-distant region — farther than 
 the I'hilippine Islands seem to us now, and much more 
 difficult to reach. All that they knew about the great 
 Northwest they had learned from hearsay, or from letters 
 written by friends or neighbors who had gone there in the 
 hope of bettering their fortunes. Sometimes, but very 
 rarely, a traveler would return from "the Ohio" or *' the 
 Indiana," bringing wonderful accounts of that region. He 
 became the admired hero of a dozen neighborhoods ; men 
 would ride miles to see and talk with him ; and his stories 
 with many additions and variations would be carried from 
 mouth to mouth and repeated in a hundred humble homes. 
 Thereupon the "western fever" would begin to rage, and 
 first one household and then another would be seized with 
 an intense desire to emigrate to the new settlements. But 
 thousands who would have been glad to go were kept back 
 on account of the difficulties and dangers that lay in the 
 way. 
 
 Emigrants from New England and New York found that 
 the easiest way of reaching the Northwest was by going 
 up the Mohawk valley and along the shores of the lakes; 
 and, therefore, all the northern portions of Ohio and Indi- 
 ana, and much the greater part of Michigan, were settled 
 by pioneers from the Eastern and Middle states. These 
 people were not wealthy ; not all were blessed with even 
 the common necessaries of life. But they had come from 
 
232 Subducrs of tJic Wilderness 
 
 a land of schools, and they brought into the wilderness a 
 sincere love of knowledge and a little of that air of refine- 
 ment which they had been accustomed to in their earlier 
 homes. They came expecting to meet with many hard- 
 ships, and yet resolved to subdue the wilderness and lay 
 the foundations of prosperity for those who should follow 
 them. They were not the sort of people that fail. 
 
 Emigrants from the South — from Kentucky and Vir- 
 ginia and the Carolinas — found plenty of vacant land in 
 the rolling country adjoining the river, and in the densely 
 wooded plains of southern Ohio and Indiana. Some of 
 them ventured as far as to the prairie lands of Illinois; but 
 instead of opening farms where the ground was cleared 
 and ready for cultivation, they made their homes in the 
 woodlands, where they cleared little patches of ground and 
 were content with raising enough corn and fruit to keep 
 their families from starving. Nearly all of these Southern 
 pioneers were very, very poor. They had come from a 
 land where slavery had made labor disgraceful. They had 
 been attracted to the Northwest because of the cheapness 
 of the land and the abundance of game. The men would 
 rather hunt in the wild woods than cut down trees and 
 make themselves farms and comfortable homes. They 
 were ready to subdue the wilderness, but with guns instead 
 of axes. They were satisfied with the barest comforts — 
 were indolent, easy-going, and much given to putting 
 things off till to-morrow. They were uncouth in dress, 
 rough in manners, and inclined to be boastful. And yet 
 they were honest in their dealings, kind-hearted, and gen- 
 erous. The latchstrings of their cabins were always out 
 
The Pioficcrs 233 
 
 for the entertainment of neighbors and strangers alike. 
 They were for the most part unedueated. Many could 
 neither read nor write ; and they distrusted book learning 
 as something that made its possessor unfit for the duties of 
 life. They needed only to be awakened and brought into 
 contact with the currents of modern enterprise. The time 
 was coming when they, too, would have a hand in the 
 building of commonwealths and the founding of worthy 
 institutions. 
 
 But not all of those who came from the South were of 
 this class of unenterprising squatters. Many men of intel- 
 ligence and high respectability left their old homes in 
 Carolina, or Virginia, or Kentucky, and made trial of new 
 fortunes in various parts of the Northwest. Some came 
 to assist in founding religious communities where all their 
 neighbors would be of the same faith. Some came because 
 their consciences were opposed to slavery, and they could 
 not bear the thought of bringing up their children in the 
 midst of it. Many came because no other place offered so 
 many advantages to poor men who wished to make homes 
 for their families. 
 
 Nor, on the other hand, were all those who came from 
 the East men of enterprise and moral uprightness. Some 
 were vagabonds hiding from justice. Some were specu- 
 lators and schemers, intent upon making quick and easy 
 fortunes whether by chance or fraud. Some were as in- 
 dolent, as rude, as uncouth, as the most shiftless pioneers 
 from the pine barrens of the South. 
 
 How very diverse, then, in character and manners, in 
 enterprise and expectations, were the pioneers who sub- 
 
234 Siibducrs of tJic Wilderness 
 
 dued the wilderness of the Old Northwest! But — when 
 all had united in one common cause, when the weak were 
 uplifted by the strong, when the bad were improved by 
 contact with the good, when intelligence triumphed over 
 ignorance — what a race of giants were they ! 
 
 II. A TRUE HERO 
 
 John Stirling was a typical pioneer of the class who may 
 be called the Makers of the Northwest. He was one of 
 those who came from the South for conscience' sake : he 
 could not bear to see human beings in bondage ; he wanted 
 to bring up his children in a land dedicated to freedom. 
 He could trace his ancestry for four centuries through a 
 long line of English gentry, and every one of his forefathers 
 had been a champion of liberty. The story of his life in 
 the Northwest is but the story of a thousand others as 
 brave, as self-sacrificing, as ingenious, as industrious 
 as he. 
 
 In a single small wagon drawn by two horses, John 
 Stirling brought his family and his household goods across 
 the mountains by way of Cumberland Gap and through the 
 half-settled districts of Kentucky. He crossed the Ohio 
 near the mouth of the Great Miami, and then made his 
 way northwestwardly into the almost unbroken wilderness, 
 looking for a suitable place to make his home. The roads 
 for hundreds of miles were little better than wood paths ; 
 over a part of the course he was obliged to cut his own 
 way among fallen trees and through thick underwoods. 
 The journey from beginning to end occupied nearly six 
 
A True Hi 
 
 '10 
 
 235 
 
 weeks, and yet John Stirling and his family were thankful 
 that it had been so short. 
 
 Having selected the spot for his farm, the pioneer's next 
 care was to become its possessor. He bought it from the 
 government at a dollar and a quarter an acre, and when 
 this was paid he had scarcely a cent left. But of what use 
 would money be in a place where there was nothing to buy } 
 
 With the help of his two boys 
 he felled trees and cleared a 
 small space for the homestead. 
 He cut the logs into pro])cr 
 lengths and with them built 
 the walls of a rude cabin. He 
 hewed rough puncheons for the 
 floor, rived long boards for the 
 roof, made a great fireplace of 
 flat stones, built a chimney of 
 sticks and clay, and within five 
 days had finished a habitation 
 that was to be the shelter and 
 home of the family for twice 
 that many years. Not a nail 
 nor a brick was used in the construction of that house, — 
 nails and bricks were luxuries which the onward march 
 of civilization would by and by bring into that region,— 
 but the time for such luxuries was not yet. 
 
 For weeks, during that first spring in the forest, the 
 doorway of the cabin was closed simply by hanging a bed- 
 quilt loosely from the top, like a kind of curtain. The 
 wolves howled around the cabin at night ; the pioneer was 
 
 The wolves howled around the 
 cabin " 
 
236 S lib duel's of the Wilderness 
 
 not disturbed by such sounds — the hunger wolf was more 
 to be dreaded than the gray beast that skulked in the 
 thickets. Until his first small crop of corn had ripened, he 
 was by no means sure of food for the winter. He carried 
 his grain fifteen miles to mill and waited for it to be ground 
 in order not to disappoint the expectant family, hungry for 
 bread and eagerly waiting for the grist of meal. 
 
 The first twelve months were months of sore trial ; but 
 the end of the year found John StirHng firmly established 
 in his new home, and beyond the reach of want. Even 
 in the very darkest moments, he saw in imagination the 
 wilderness giving place to fields of yellow grain and 
 orchards of overladen trees ; and these thoughts g^ive him 
 fresh courage and strength for further conquests. 
 
 Little by little the great trees and the thick underwoods 
 gave way before the three sharp axes of the Stirlings. 
 Every year new deadenings were made in the woods, and 
 broader patches of corn and wheat and flax were planted 
 in the openings. Herds and flocks increased and flourished 
 in the woodland pastures, without expense and without 
 special care. And sooner than he had dared hope, the 
 pioneer began to see the realization of his dreams. 
 
 The comforts of civilized life, however, were long want- 
 ing. For several years all the clothing of the family was 
 homespun : tow-cloth and linen from flax raised on the 
 farm ; jeans and linsey-woolsey, of flax threads interwoven 
 with wool from the farmer's own sheep. Nobody was idle. 
 Wife and daughters were busy from daylight till dark, 
 caring for the cows and the poultry, digging in the garden, 
 carding the wool, turning the spinning wheel, mending 
 
A True Hero 237 
 
 garments, knitting, sewing, churning ; and, if need be, 
 they were neither afraid nor ashamed to do a day's work 
 in the field — it was all a part of the family economy. 
 
 The farmer himself was a jack-at-all-trades, and good 
 at more than one. He manufactured his own chairs and 
 tables ; he tanned the hides of his beeves into fairly good 
 leather; he made his children's shoes and hats; he wove 
 jeans and tow-cloth for his own clothing and that of the 
 boys; he knew something about coopering and harness 
 making; he could make a spinning wheel or a turning 
 lathe ; he repaired the clocks as well as the wagons of 
 his less skillful neighbors, and even built barns and houses 
 for them ; and in the long winter evenings, by the light of 
 the fire in the broad chimney, he tied brooms, and taught 
 his boys and girls how to read and write. 
 
 When, in time, the farm produced more grain than the 
 family and the livestock needed for food, Mr. Stirling began 
 to think how he might dispose of the surplus. During the 
 first few years the nearest market was on the Ohio, more 
 than fifty miles distant; but that was only a trifle of three 
 days' journey, and the entire trip, going and coming, could 
 be made in a week. Over roads of the worst sort, a few 
 bushels of wheat, and perhaps some vegetables or a pail 
 of butter, were hauled to that distant market. It was 
 rather a holiday than anything more serious ; for the 
 farmers of the neighborhood usually went together in 
 caravan style, camping by the roadside at night, and 
 withal making a right merry time of it. The produce was 
 bartered for salt and such other necessary things as could 
 not be made at home. Now and then a few yards of 
 
238 Subdncrs of the Wilderness 
 
 calico or some ribbons or some bits of queensware were 
 carried home to rejoice the good wife and the grown-up 
 daughters. There was no hardship in all this. The long 
 journey once or twice a year relieved the monotony of 
 pioneer life — the markets would certainly be nearer some 
 time. 
 
 And little by little the markets did come nearer; and 
 there were not only larger crops, but the price of grain was 
 higher, and the farmer began to know, by actually seeing 
 it, the color and shape of money. One comfort after an- 
 other came to lighten the labors of the household. The 
 buzz of the steam sawmill, and after a while the whistle of 
 the locomotive, became famiUar sounds. The boys and 
 girls gradually laid aside their homespun and put on, 
 especially on Sundays, clothing made of " boughten 
 goods " ; and the farmer himself indulged now and then 
 in some inexpensive luxury which he had hitherto de- 
 nied himself. One after another he put aside his weaving 
 and tanning and shoemaking and carpentering ; and finally 
 he had nothing to do but give his whole attention to his 
 farm and stock. A neat "frame house" was built nearer 
 the roadside, and the old log cabin, the scene of many joys 
 as well as sorrows, was deserted. Comfort and plenty 
 abounded. The blessings of civilization, following in the 
 wake of honest labor, had come at last. 
 
 But after his life of privation and toil, John Stirling was 
 not the man that he might have been had another lot been 
 his. His health had been enfeebled by exposure in the 
 woods and fever-breeding marshes ; his face had been 
 bronzed by the scorching heat of many summers, and 
 
A True Ilcro 239 
 
 wrinkled by the cold of as many winters ; his head had 
 been whitened by sad experiences, and his hand had lost 
 its former strength and cunning. Besides all this, the 
 habits of the backwoodsman clung to him ; he was a 
 stranger to the refinements of life ; his language was as 
 full of inaccuracies as his manners were uncouth ; he could 
 ill adapt himself to the changed order of things which the 
 schools, the railroads, and the development of the natural 
 wealth of the country had brought about. 
 
 Yet as a compensation for all his labors and losses, the 
 rugged pioneer of the Old Northwest had this thought to 
 console him : he was one of ten thousand veterans who 
 had made conquest of a mighty empire, developed its re- 
 sources, and bequeathed it as a rich heritage to coming 
 generations. He was one of the snbduers of tJie luildeniess. 
 No hero of history, no warrior patriot, ever served his 
 country better, or earned laurels more nobly. The world 
 may forget what he suffered and what he accomplished, 
 but his monument shall remain as long as our country 
 endures. What is his monument } It is the Old North- 
 west itself, now the center of the republic, and the crown- 
 ing factor of our country's greatness. 
 
THE LAST STRUGGLE 
 I. THE SACS 
 
 IN the early part of the eighteenth century there was Hv- 
 ing in Wisconsin a powerful tribe of Indians known as 
 the Outagami, or Fox nation. These savages loved noth- 
 ing better than the warpath ; and for many years their very 
 name was a terror among the French settlers and traders 
 in the region of the Great Lakes. They were so active in 
 stirring up trouble, and in doing deeds of violence to their 
 neighbors, both white and red, that they became known as 
 the " Firebrands of the Northwest." At length, however, 
 
 after a long struggle with the French, the tribe 
 I '706 
 
 was almost exterminated. The few warriors who 
 
 remained alive, no longer felt themselves strong enough to 
 stand alone among the unfriendly nations that surrounded 
 them ; and so, leaving their ancestral homes, they joined 
 themselves with the Sacs, a kindred tribe whose lands bor- 
 dered both shores of the Mississippi. 
 
 This occurred about the year 1736, when the Foxes 
 numbered only two hundred or three hundred women and 
 children, and perhaps sixty warriors. They settled in the 
 neighborhood of Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi, and 
 for a time were so quiet as to be almost forgotten. From 
 that day the Sacs and Foxes were closely united, and they 
 
 became, in fact, one and the same nation. The Foxes in- 
 
 240 
 
The Sacs 241 
 
 creased in numbers and in strength, and when Jonathan 
 
 Carver visited their village in 1766, he found it second in 
 
 importance only to the metropolis of the allies at Prairie 
 
 du Sac. 
 
 On the north bank of the Rock River, about a mile above 
 
 its mouth, was the village of Saukenuk, destined soon to 
 
 be the center and favorite home of the Sac and 
 
 1767 
 Fox nation. In the very year after Carver's visit 
 
 to the Northwest, a child was born in this village, who was 
 to become the last patriot red man to defend his country 
 against the resistless tide of civilization. The name of 
 this child was Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, or Black Hawk. 
 His great-grandfather was the mighty chief Thunder, who, 
 a hundred years before, had led the Sac people from their 
 old home near Montreal, and settled them in the rich valley 
 of the Wisconsin. 
 
 During his boyhood young Black Hawk distinguished 
 himself by his skill in the use of the tomahawk and the bow 
 and arrow, his ability to endure suffering without complaint, 
 and his courage in the face of danger. He was only fif- 
 teen when, with his father, he went on the warpath against 
 the Osages, and took his first scalp. When he returned 
 to Saukenuk, he was permitted to join the warriors in the 
 scalp dance, in which they celebrated their victory. This 
 was a great honor for a mere boy, and the heart of the 
 young savage was filled with ambition to excel in the craft 
 and deeds of war. Before he was a year older, he led a 
 party of seven into the Osage country, and fearlessly at- 
 tacked a band of the enemy ten times as numerous. This 
 exploit gave him great fame among his people, and from 
 
 CONQ. O.N.W. — 16 
 
2^2 TJic Last Struggle 
 
 that day he was regarded as one of their bravest braves. 
 When he was nineteen, his father was killed in battle, and 
 Black Hawk ** fell heir to the medicine bag of his fore- 
 fathers." He was now, although not a chief, one of the 
 leading men of his nation ; and for fifty years his voice 
 was the controlling one in the councils of the Sacs and 
 Foxes. 
 
 The lands claimed by the Sacs fronted on the Missis- 
 sippi, and extended for hundreds of miles between the 
 Illinois and the Wisconsin. The country to the north and 
 south of Saukenuk abounded in game, and was the most 
 beautiful region in all that section of the Northwest. Un- 
 der the rule of Black Hawk the village became the chief 
 center of the nation, and nearly all the Sacs made their 
 homes there. The houses which they built were similar 
 in many respects to those which the French found in the 
 Huron villages of Canada, two hundred years before. The 
 framework, which was of poles, was covered with sheets 
 of elm bark held in place by thongs of buckskin. Each 
 building was from thirty to one hundred feet in length, and 
 from fifteen to forty feet in width. At each end was a 
 narrow entrance, which was closed in rough weather by a 
 heavy curtain' of buffalo hides. Inside, down the center, 
 were as many firepits as there were families in the lodge ; 
 while along the walls were ranges of rude sleejiing bunks 
 made of elastic poles over which were thrown the skins of 
 bears and other furry animals. 
 
 The village itself was a populous and busy place, and at 
 the time of Black Hawk's greatest power it is said to have 
 contained nearly a thousand families. The men of this 
 
A Onesided Treaty 243 
 
 savage community occupied themselves in hunting and in 
 fighting their ancient enemies, the Osages and the Sioux, 
 on the other side of the Mississippi. And in the rich bot- 
 tom lands of the Rock River, the women raised large crops 
 of corn, beans, and pumpkins, having at one time more 
 than eight hundred acres under cultivation. A Httle be- 
 low the village was Rock Island, in the Mississippi, a place 
 especially beloved by the Indians. " It was our garden," 
 says Black Hawk, " supplying us with strawberries, black- 
 berries, gooseberries, plums, apples, and nuts of different 
 kinds. Being situated at the foot of the rapids, its waters 
 supplied us with the finest fish. In my early life I spent 
 many happy days on this island. A good spirit had charge 
 of it, which lived in a cave immediately under the place 
 where the fort now stands. This guardian spirit has often 
 been seen by our people. It was white, with large wings 
 like a swan's, but ten times larger. We were particular 
 not to make much noise in that part of the island which it 
 inhabited, for fear of disturbing it. Bat the noise at the 
 fort has since driven it away, and no doubt a bad spirit has 
 taken its place." 
 
 II. A ONE-SIDED TREATY 
 
 The beauty and fertility of the Rock River Valley could 
 not long remain hidden from the eyes of the American 
 pioneers ; and to see that country was to covet its posses- 
 sion. 
 
 In 1804 a Sac warrior who was visiting St. Louis had a 
 quarrel with an American backwoodsman and killed him. 
 
244 
 
 TJie Last Struggle 
 
 held in the village 
 
 What was the cause of the quarrel, or from whom the 
 provocation came, we shall never know, nor is it now impor- 
 tant. The Sac was put in prison to await his trial, and his 
 comrades carried the news to Saukenuk. A council was 
 and by Black Hawk's advice it was 
 determined to send four chiefs 
 to St. Louis to see the Ameri- 
 can commander there and do 
 all they could to secure the 
 release of the prisoner. They 
 were to offer to pay for the 
 person killed, thus satisfying, 
 as they supposed, both his 
 family and the law. " This," 
 says Black Hawk, "was the 
 only means with us of saving a 
 person who had killed another 
 — and we then thought it was 
 the same way with the whites." 
 The four chiefs departed 
 with the good wishes of the 
 whole nation. The relatives 
 of the prisoner blacked their 
 faces and fasted, hoping that 
 the Great Spirit would take pity on them and return the 
 husband and father to his wife and children. 
 
 It was many weeks before the Sacs heard anything at 
 all from their ambassadors. Every heart was beginning 
 to be filled with uneasiness when one day it was reported 
 that the four chiefs were encamped on the river bank a few 
 
 " A Sac warrior had a quarrel 
 
A Oiic-sidcd Treaty 245 
 
 miles below the village. Why did they not come directly 
 home and report the success of their mission ? It was 
 plain that they had no good news to bring. 
 
 Early the next morning a council was called. The coun- 
 cil lodge was crowded with warriors, and the four chiefs 
 made their appearance. To the astonishment of all, they 
 wore fine coats of American make, and had shining medals 
 pinned to their breasts and dangling from their necks. 
 After the customary smoking, their leader arose and gave 
 an account of their adventures. He said that they had 
 been kindly received by the American ** father " at St. 
 Louis, and that when they had told him the object of their 
 visit, he listened with interest to everything they said. 
 Then he told them that the Americans wanted a small strip 
 of land along the shore of the great river, in order that 
 they might work the lead mines there ; and he promised that 
 if the Sacs would sell it to them, he would be glad to do 
 everything in his power to please them. With this, he gave 
 them some fine presents, and plenty of whisky to drink. 
 In the end, they consented to give him certain parts of 
 their country both on the Mississippi and on the Illinois, 
 and he agreed, on the part of the great father at Washing- 
 ton, to pay the Sacs a thousand dollars a year for this con- 
 cession. All this was set down in writing and signed with 
 great ceremony. They supposed that now their friend 
 would be set free ; but about the time they were ready to 
 start home, they saw him taken out of prison and shot 
 dead before their eyes. This, they said, was all they 
 could remember. 
 
 Such is the Indian side of the story of the treaty of 1804 
 
246 TJic Last Struggle 
 
 at St. Louis, by which the American government obtained 
 nearly all the lands of the Sacs and Foxes east of the Mis- 
 sissippi. Black Hawk never acknowledged the validity 
 of this treaty. '* I will leave it," said he, "to the people of 
 the United States to say whether our nation was properly 
 represented in this treaty, or whether we received a fair 
 compensation for the extent of country ceded by these four 
 individuals." 
 
 The officers who made this hard bargain with the In- 
 dians had inserted a clause in the treaty, which provided 
 that the Sacs might continue to occupy their lands as they 
 chose, so long as these lands were owned by the United 
 States government. There can be but little doubt that 
 this clause was intended to deceive the red men into a 
 belief that they should always remain secure in their old 
 homes ; but, be this as it may, it postponed the evil day 
 for several years. The Sacs continued to hunt and fish, 
 and to fight the Sioux as of yore ; the Rock River bottom 
 produced its crops of corn and pumpkins, and Rock Island 
 its fruits and nuts ; and the village of Saukenuk prospered 
 and remained the most important Indian town in the 
 Northwest. 
 
 Black Hawk was never thoroughly pleased with the 
 Americans, and the fact of the treaty ever having been 
 made gave him great anxiety. He says : ** I had not dis- 
 covered one good trait in the character of the Americans 
 that came to the country. They made fair promises, but 
 never fulfilled them. The English, however, made but 
 few promises, and we can always rely on their word." 
 This explains why, in the War of 18 12, he and his young 
 
The RiDioval 247 
 
 men joined forces with tlie I^ritish. Throu<;h the greater 
 part of that war l^lack Hawk was one of the most active 
 among the Indian allies of Great l^ritain. He took ])art 
 in several important battles, and moi-e than one American 
 ])risoner was saved by him from ruthless murder. It is 
 said that he was in the great battle of the Thames and 
 saw the death of the famous Tecumseh ; but of this there 
 is serious reason for doubt. He seems to have foreseen the 
 result of the war, and before it was fairly over he returned 
 to Rock River. 
 
 III. THE REMOVAL 
 
 White squatters soon afterward began to come into the 
 country. Although all the land belonged to the govern- 
 ment, and none of it could yet be sold, these off- 
 
 i8iti 
 scourings of the older settlements set up their 
 
 cabins where they chose, and selected the best lands in the 
 river bottoms for their own. One day Black Hawk, while 
 hunting in the neighborhood of a squatter's cabin, was set 
 upon by three white men, who accused him of killing their 
 hogs. He denied the accusation, but what of that .? The 
 men took the flint out of his gun, and then gave him so 
 severe a beating with sticks that he was lamed for several 
 days. Imagine how such treatment as this would rankle 
 in the heart of so proud a savage as Black Hawk. 
 
 With each passing year the squatters came in greater 
 and greater numbers. They encroached upon the Indians' 
 fields, and fenced in large portions of the richest ground 
 for themselves. They even tore down some of the huts in 
 the village, and once when Black Hawk returned from a 
 
248 
 
 TJic Last Struggle 
 
 hunt, he found a family of squatters occupying his lodge. 
 Nevertheless, in spite of all these provocations, Black 
 Hawk kept the peace and restrained his warriors from 
 violence. He repeatedly complained to the American 
 commander at St. Louis, who promised to lay the matter 
 
 before the great father at Wash- 
 ington ; but the only reply was 
 that the land had been bought 
 by the white people, and the red 
 people must give it up. 
 
 The Sacs and Foxes were 
 informed that lands had been 
 provided for them on the west- 
 ern side of the Mississippi, and 
 the Indian agent at Saukenuk 
 advised them to give up peace- 
 ably and remove thither. Many 
 of the Foxes about Prairie du 
 Chien did this, and a Sac chief 
 whose name was Keokuk per- 
 suaded a large number of the 
 Saukenuk Indians to join them 
 on the reservation which the 
 government had set apart for 
 them in Iowa. 
 Black Hawk refused to go. He had lived for more than 
 fifty years in the Rock River country. It was the place of 
 his birth. It had been the home of his father and grand- 
 father, and there the bones of his ancestors were buried. 
 He loved his country with its fair prairies, its wild woods, 
 
 •■ A Sac chief whose name was 
 Keokuk " 
 
The RluiovuI 249 
 
 and its broad rivers ; and he was loath to f;ivc it up. With 
 a number of his people, therefore, he remained on the east 
 side of the river, and hoi)ed that at some time and in some 
 way justiee would be done. 
 
 Soon a rumor was set afloat that Black Hawk had threat- 
 ened some of the squatters. This rumor was magnified 
 into a report that the Sacs were preparing to make a raid 
 upon the border settlements. Then it was declared that 
 the savages had already begun the work of devastation. 
 The whole country was alarmed. The militia of the state 
 was called out, and General Gaines at the head of six com- 
 panies of regulars took possession of Rock Island, where 
 a fort had already been built. A council was called, and 
 
 Black Hawk was summoned to attend. He came 
 
 1831 
 at the head of his warriors, all hideous with war 
 
 paint and carrying their war clubs. Keokuk and Wapello, 
 
 the Fox chief, were also there. General Gaines opened the 
 
 council with a speech, explaining the object of his mission 
 
 and ending by advising Black Hawk's followers to consult 
 
 their own interests and go peaceably to the reservation 
 
 across the river. 
 
 Black Hawk then arose and declared that the Sacs had 
 never sold their country, and that they were determined to 
 hold on to their village. 
 
 General Gaines, appearing to be very angry, here cried 
 out : " Who is this Black Hawk .? Who is Black Hawk .? " 
 
 Very straight and dignified, as became a brave warrior, 
 the old Indian answered : — 
 
 *' Black Hawk is a Sac! His forefathers were Sacs! 
 All the nations know him to be a Sac ! " 
 
250 TJic Last Struggle 
 
 " Very well," said Gaines, " I am here neither to beg nor 
 to hire you to leave your village. My business is to remove 
 you, peaceably if I can, but forcibly if I must. If within 
 two days you are not all on the other side of the Missis- 
 sippi, I will adopt measures to put you there by force." 
 
 Black Hawk, flaming with anger, declared that he would 
 never consent to leave his old home ; and the council broke 
 up. 
 
 On the morrow a number of Sacs, who were afraid to 
 resist longer, crossed the river and joined Keokuk. Soon 
 afterward a company of mounted soldiers and backwoods 
 militia arrived in the neighborhood of Saukenuk and went 
 into camp a short distance below the village. Black Hawk 
 saw now that he must submit, and so as soon as night 
 had come all his people embarked in canoes, and, bidding 
 good-by to their old homes, paddled silently across the 
 Mississippi. A few days later the militia marched into 
 Saukenuk, set fire to the lodges, and watched the once 
 famous village of the Sacs disappear in flames. 
 
 IV. BLACK HAWKVS WAR 
 
 On the last day of June a new treaty was made by 
 
 which Black Hawk and the Sac chiefs agreed to remain 
 
 on the reservation west of the river, and never to 
 1831 
 
 cross to the east side without the consent of the 
 
 President of the United States. The government, on its 
 
 part, agreed to give them corn in place of that which had 
 
 been left growing in the fields, and promised to help them 
 
 open their new farms on the reservation. With this Black 
 
Black Hawk's War 251 
 
 Hawk seemed to be satisfied, and all mi<^ht have ^^one well 
 
 had he been able to f()r<;et the old home from which he 
 
 had been driven. 
 
 A short time after this, a lying Indian, whom Black 
 
 Hawk had sent on a mission to Canada, returned to the 
 
 Sac settlement and reported that the l^ritish 
 
 . 1832 
 
 commander at Maiden had told him that the 
 
 Americans could not force the Sacs to leave their lands. 
 *' He said, also, that in the event of war we should have 
 nothing to fear; for the British father would stand by us 
 and aid us." Much else of the same sort did this mis- 
 chief maker report, to the effect that the Ottawas, the 
 Chippewas, and the Pottawattomies were all ready to join 
 the Sacs in opposition to the United States. 
 
 All this filled the mind of Black Hawk with a new hope, 
 which was strengthened by a promise from White Cloud, 
 the prophet of the Winnebagoes, that he should have the 
 help of that nation also. " For myself," says he, '* I was 
 growing old, and was willing to spend the rest of my days 
 anywhere. But I wished, above all, to see my people happy. 
 This had always been my constant aim ; and I now began 
 to hope that our sky would soon be clear." 
 
 He laid the matter before Keokuk and Wapello, but 
 they told him that he had been deceived by liars, and 
 advised him to abide by the new treaty. He then 
 determined to take matters into his own hand. In the 
 following spring he astonished the Illinois militia by 
 suddenly appearing in the Rock River Valley with all 
 the warriors and women and children that would follow 
 him. It is by no means certain what Black Hawk in- 
 
252 The Last Struggle 
 
 tended to do, and the fact of his taking the women 
 and children with him would seem to indicate that he 
 did not mean war. He had been invited by White Cloud 
 to spend the summer among the Winnebagoes and plant 
 corn there, and it is not unlikely that he intended to 
 go into Wisconsin in response to this invitation. Never- 
 theless he had violated his agreement not to cross the 
 Mississippi ; the whole country was alarmed, and there 
 were rumors of a general Indian uprising. All the out- 
 rages committed on the settlers by straggling Winneba- 
 goes and Kickapoos were ascribed to Black Hawk, and 
 there was a call from all quarters for protection by 
 the United States government. 
 
 Black Hawk, when he learned of the alarm he was 
 causing, at first defied the American government, and 
 boasted of the trouble he would cause. Then realizing 
 the mistake he had made, and despairing of reaching 
 the Winnebagoes, or of being aided by the British or 
 any of the lake tribes, he sent a flag of truce to Major 
 Stillman, the commander of a body of militia that was 
 in close pursuit of his band. The major, instead of re- 
 specting the flag, made prisoners of its bearers and soon 
 afterward sent a detachment of soldiers to attack a 
 small body of Sacs that were seen in the distance. The 
 Sacs were routed, and two of their number slain ; and the 
 militiamen, wild with thoughts of victory, gave chase to 
 the remainder. Black Hawk, who was at supper in the 
 woods near by, heard the clamor and hastily summoned 
 his warriors, of whom he had scarcely two hundred. As 
 the militiamen rushed heedlessly and without order through 
 
Black Hawk's War 253 
 
 the shadowy woods, their ardor was suddenly cooled at 
 sight of scores of swarthy savages rising up suddenly 
 from the thickets and giving vent to the dreadful war 
 whoop. They turned and ran for life, scarcely thinking 
 of resistance. Black Hawk's warriors followed them, 
 killing some, and filling the rest with such a panic of fear 
 that they did not stop until they were safe behind doors 
 at Dixon, twenty-five miles away. 
 
 Elated by this victory, many of Black Hawk's followers 
 went out in small parties, contrary to his orders, and 
 began to harry the outlying settlements. Many a deed 
 of blood was committed, and the alarm of the country 
 was increased by exaggerated accounts of the strength 
 of the savage forces and of the widespread devastation 
 they were causing. 
 
 But why follow the details of this painful story } After 
 the defeat of Stillman's militiamen. Black Hawk's little 
 army was vigorously pursued by strong forces of United 
 States troops. Several times they were overtaken, and 
 in the fights that followed were sorely defeated. At last, 
 hemmed in and despairing, Black Hawk decided to seek 
 safety for himself and people by recrossing the Missis- 
 sippi. The weary and discouraged Indians were overtaken 
 at Bad Axe in Wisconsin, just as they were preparing to 
 go over the river. They were surrounded, and, although 
 they offered to surrender, an indiscriminate slaughter of 
 men, women, and children was begun. Many of the 
 women threw themselves into the stream, and with their 
 children on their backs attempted to swim to the opposite 
 shore. Others embarked on rude rafts or in leaky 
 
2 54 ^-^^^ Last Struggle 
 
 canoes, and made all haste to escape. Vainly did Black 
 Hawk and his braves stand their ground and attempt to 
 cover the flight of the helpless fugitives. A white man 
 who was present at this slaughter says : " When the 
 Indians were driven to the bank of the Mississippi, some 
 hundreds of men, women, and children plunged into the 
 river, and hoped by diving to escape the bullets of our 
 guns. Very few, however, escaped our sharpshooters ; 
 and those who did reach the western bank of the river 
 werQ butchered in cold blood by a party of Sioux, their 
 hereditary enemies, who had been brought there for that 
 purpose by the Federal officers." 
 
 Black Hawk and a few of his men made their way 
 through the lines of attacking soldiers, and escaped into 
 the woods ; but a few days later the chief was discovered 
 by some Winnebagoes, who delivered him to the Americans. 
 After being kept in prison at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, 
 for several months, he was taken to Washington, where he 
 had a conference with President Jackson. 
 
 The President asked him why he had gone to war with 
 the American people. He answered in true Indian fash- 
 ion in a little speech which showed that although he had 
 been defeated, his spirit was not crushed. " I am a man," 
 he said, '* and you are another. I did not expect to con- 
 quer the white people. I took up the hatchet to avenge 
 injuries which could no longer be borne. Had I borne 
 them longer, my people would have said, * Black Hawk is 
 a squaw ; he is too old to be a chief; he is no Sac' This 
 caused me to raise the war whoop. I say no more of it. 
 All is known to you." 
 
Black Hawk's War 
 
 ^SS 
 
 After being exhibited in the eastern cities, he was 
 allowed to return to the remnant of his people in Iowa, 
 among whom he lived until his death in October, 1838. 
 
 The Black Hawk War was the last effort made by the 
 Indians of the Old Northwest to retain their ancestral 
 
 " ' I am a man, and you are another ' " 
 
 hunting grounds. Henceforth the country was to have 
 peace, and the development of its resources was to proceed 
 without hindrance from barbarous natives or alien foes. 
 Its conquest was complete. 
 
 Many years ago the Hon. William H. Seward, in a 
 speech before a western audience, ventured to predict that 
 '' power would not much longer linger on the narrow strip 
 between the Atlantic and the slopes of the Alleghanies ; 
 
256 The Last Stn/o-cr/e 
 
 but the commanding field would soon be in the upper 
 Mississippi Valley, whence men and institutions would 
 speak and communicate their will to the nation and the 
 world." It has been reserved for people now living to 
 see the fulfillment of this prediction. 
 
INDEX 
 
 ALBAJSTY, N.Y., 21,22. 
 
 Alleghany Mountains, 12, 13, 26,69; first 
 
 road over, 79. 
 Allegheny River, 14, 48. 
 Andastes, 52. See Erie Indians. 
 Annian, Straits of, 126. 
 Arkansas River, 33. 
 Assiniboine River, 67, 68. 
 
 Bad Axe, Wisconsin, 253. 
 
 " Baker's Bottom," 136. 
 
 Bancroft quoted, 124. 
 
 Beaujeu, French officer at the defeat of 
 Braddock, 85-89. 
 
 Belle Isle, 96. 
 
 Berkeley, Governor, of Virginia, 26. 
 
 Bienville, Le Moyne de, 28. 
 
 Biloxi, Mississippi, 28. 
 
 Black Hawk, Sac warrior, 241-243 ; in 
 War of 1812, 246, 247; embittered 
 against the Americans, 247, 248 ; his 
 war, 250-254 ; in captivity, 255. 
 
 Boisbriant, Pierre Dugue, 35, 
 
 Bonnecamp, Father, 49, 56. 
 
 Boone. Daniel, 150. 
 
 Bouquet, Colonel, British officer, 91, 99, 
 116-119. 
 
 Bowman, Colonel, captures Cahokia, 
 161. 
 
 Braddock, Edward, British general, 86- 
 90. 
 
 Bradstreet, Colonel, 116. 
 
 British posts on Wabash and Missis- 
 sippi, 148. 
 
 Brougham, Lord, quoted, 182. 
 
 Buade River, 15. See Mississippi. 
 
 CONcj. O.N.W. — 17 2 
 
 Cabot, John, discovers North America, 
 
 25. 30- 
 
 Cadillac, La Motte, 24. 
 
 Cahokia, in the Illinois Country, 17, 161, 
 170, 214. 
 
 Campbell, Captain, at Detroit, 96. 
 
 Canada, 13, 14; surrendered to the 
 English, 92. 
 
 Captina Creek, 135. 
 
 Carlisle, Penn., council at, 71. 
 
 Carolina, 28, 30. 
 
 Carver, Jonathan, travels in the North- 
 west, 125-131, 241. 
 
 Celoron, Bienville de, 48-58, 68, 70, 
 198. 
 
 Charles II., 211. 
 
 Chicago, 25, 207, 215. 
 
 Chickasaw Indians, 29, 40, 226. 
 
 Chillicothe, capital of Northwest Terri- 
 tory, 214. 
 
 Chininque, 52. See Logstown. 
 
 Chipkawkay, 40. See I'incennes. 
 
 Chippewa Indians, 85, 96, 98, 100-107, 
 114, 166, 1.82, 207. 
 
 Cincinnati, 44; settlement of, 193. 
 
 Clark, George Rogers, birth, 150; in 
 Lord Dunmore's war, 142; great task 
 to be performed, 149; in Kentucky, 
 151-153; receives colonel's commis- 
 sion, 153; heads expedition to the 
 Northwest, 154-156; captures Kaskas- 
 kia, 156-162; in the Illinois Country, 
 164; wins Vincennes from the British, 
 170-178 ; receives grant of land from 
 Virginia, 297, 214. 
 
 Cleaveland, General Moses, 211. 
 
 57 
 
258 
 
 Index 
 
 Cleveland, Ohio, 92, 117; founding of, 
 
 211. 
 Colbert River, 15. See Mississippi, 
 Connecticut, claims a portion of the 
 
 Northwest, 180, 181, 209; surrenders 
 
 all claims to the United States, 211, 
 
 212. 
 Contrecoeur, French Commandant at 
 
 Fort Duquesne, 83, 89. 
 Corn Island, 156. 
 
 Cornstalk, Shawnee chief, 139, 140. 
 Coxe, Daniel, 29. 
 Cresap, Michael, 135, 142. 
 Croghan, George, 61,63, 70, 121, 123, 124. 
 Cutler, Manasseh, 187. 
 Cuyahoga River, 206, 211. 
 
 Dalzell, Captain, at Detroit, 115. 
 
 Dane, Nathan, 183, 
 
 Delaware Indians, 51, 52, 62, 85, 86, 116, 
 
 118, 182. 
 Delaware, state of, opposes claims of 
 
 larger states, 180. 
 Detroit, 17, 24, 41, 58, 63, 92, 94-98, 123. 
 
 148; surrendered to the English, 95; 
 
 besieged by Pontiac, 98, 107-116; 
 
 Indian raids from, 152, 165; General 
 
 Hamilton at, 165; held by British, 
 
 196, 203, 206; surrendered to the 
 
 United States, 208. 
 Dinwiddle, Robert, governor of Virginia, 
 
 74. 79. 
 Dixon, Illinois, 253. 
 Drake, Sir Francis, 126. 
 Dunmore, Lord, governor of Virginia, 
 
 134, 138 ; his war, 139-144. 
 Duquesne, Fort. See Fort Duqiiesne. 
 Duquesne, Governor, of Canada, 71, 75, 
 
 79. 
 Dutch-English traders, 21, 24. 
 
 Ellskevatawa, the " Prophet," 218. 
 
 See Prophet. 
 English colonies, 11, 13, 25, 30, 78; fur 
 
 traders, 21, 41, 48, 53, 56, 60, 62, 69, 
 
 146. 
 English Turn, 28. 
 Erie Indians, 23. 
 Erie, Lake. See Lake Erie. 
 
 Etherington, Captain, English ofificer at 
 Mackinac, 100, 126. 
 
 Fallen Timbers, Battle of, 203, 217. 
 
 Fiison, John, 193. 
 
 " P'ire Lands," 210. 
 
 Forbes, General, British officer, 91. 
 
 Fort Chartres, 35, 41, 122, 124, 161. 
 
 Fort Duquesne, 79, 80, 83-91. See Fort 
 
 Pitt. 
 Fort Edward Augustus, 126, 127. 
 Fort Gore, 139. 
 F"ort Greenville, 203, 205. 
 Fort Hamilton, 201. 
 Fort Harmar, 190. 
 Fort Harrison, 223, 226. 
 P^ort Jefferson, 201, 202, 203. 
 Fort la Bale, 32, 126. 
 Fort le BcBuf, 69-75. 
 Fort Massac, 45-47, 157, 215. 
 Fort Necessity, 82. 
 Fort Niagara, 32. 
 Fort Patrick Henry, 177. 
 Fort Pitt, named by General Forbes, 91 ; 
 
 besieged by Indians, 99; 116, 119,121, 
 
 139, 154, 165. 
 Fort Sackville, 162. 
 P'ort Washington, 193, 198, 199, 200. 
 Fort Wayne, 58, 96, 199; built, 296, 214; 
 
 treaty of, 216. See Kekionga. 
 Fox Indians, L28, 240, 241, 248. 
 Fox River, 127. 
 Franklin, Benjamin, commissioner to 
 
 treat with Indians, 71; not listened to 
 
 by General Braddock, 86. 
 Fraser, English trader, 70, 78. 
 French Creek, 16, 69. 
 French, discoveries in North America, 
 
 12; settlements in Illinois, 17, 35; 
 
 precautions, 32, 69; posts in Illinois 
 
 and on the Wabash, 119, 145, 146, 
 
 195 ; settlers on Green Bay, 127 ; in 
 
 Canada, 145. 
 Fur Trade, 17-23, 33. 48, 53, 197, 215. 
 
 Gage, General. British military com- 
 mander in the Northwest, 146, 
 Gaines, General. American officer, 249. 
 Gibault, Father, 160, 161, 163, 172, 196. 
 
Inde: 
 
 259 
 
 Gist, Christopher, 59-64, 70, 76, 77, 
 80. 
 
 Gladwyn, Major, commander at Detroit, 
 96, 1 08- 1 16. 
 
 Gorell, Lieutenant, at Green Bay, 126. 
 
 " Grand Door to the Wabash," 163. 
 
 Grayson, William, 183. 
 
 Greathouse, Daniel, border ruffian, 136, 
 142. 
 
 Great Kenawha River, 26. See Kenawha. 
 
 Great Meadows, 80, 82, 83. 
 
 Great Miami River, 56-58. 192. 
 
 Green Bay, 32, 68, 95, 126, 215. 
 
 Greenville, Ohio, 205, See Fort Green- 
 ville. 
 
 Half-King, a Mingo chief, 80. 
 
 " Hair-buyer General," 165. See Ham- 
 ilton, General. 
 
 Hamilton, General, lieutenant-governor 
 of Canada, 148 ; recaptures Vincennes, 
 165-170 ; surrenders the post to Ameri- 
 cans, 170-176; prisoner of war, 177, 
 178. 
 
 *' Hannibal of the Northwest," 150. See 
 Clark, George Rogers. 
 
 Harmar, General, 197-199, 217. 
 
 Harris, Mary, captured by Indians, 62. 
 
 Harrison, William Henry, first governor 
 of Indiana Territory, 214, 216; deal- 
 ings with the Indians, 218; with Te- 
 cumseh, 219-226. 
 
 Helm, Captain Leonard, 162, 163, 168- 
 170, 177. 
 
 Henry, Alexander, English trader at 
 Mackinac, 100-107. 
 
 Henry, Patrick, governor of Virginia, 
 
 151. 153- 
 Hockhocking River, 139. 
 Hudson Bay, 129. 
 Hudson's Bay Company, 21. 
 Hundred Associates, The, 18. 
 Huron Indians, 24, 60, 85, no. 
 
 Illinois Country, French settlements 
 i". 17.33. 145. 153'- conquest of, 156- 
 178. 
 
 Illinois, county of, 165. 
 
 Illinois, state, 229. 
 
 Intliana, state, 229. 
 
 Indiana, territory of, 213-229. 
 
 Iroquois Indians, friendly to English, 21; 
 hunting grounds of, 23,44; and Jon- 
 caire, 43; friendly to French, 70; in 
 Pontiac's league, 98; make treaties 
 with New York and Pennsylvania. 147, 
 180; make treaty with the United 
 States, 182. 
 
 Isle au Cochon (Belle Isle), 95. 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, 254. 
 
 James I., charter to Virginia, 25, 180. 
 
 James River, 27. 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, his version of Logan's 
 
 speech, 141; aids in framing the great 
 
 Ordinance, 183. 
 Jesuits, 32, 33, 166. 
 Johnson, Sir William, 115, 121, 124. 
 Joliet, Louis, 38, 127. 
 )oncaire, Joseph, 43-45. 
 Joncaire, the younger, 48, 50, 52, 54, 70, 
 
 11- 
 Juchereau, French officer, 32. 
 Jumonville, P'rench captain, 81. 
 
 Kaskaskia, 17, 34, 35, 154, 214 ; capture 
 of, by Americans, 156-162; Colonel 
 Clark at, 171. 
 
 Kekionga, 37, 39, 40, 57. 
 
 Kenawha River, 26, 134, 139, 154. 
 
 Kenton, Simon, 142. 
 
 Kentucky, 148, 150-152, 154. 
 
 Keokuk, Sac chief, 248, 251. 
 
 Kickapoo Indians, 121, 200. 
 
 " Knights of the Golden Horseshoe," 
 27. 
 
 La Belle Riviere, 14, 49. See Ohio 
 
 River. 
 La Demoiselle, 57. See Old Britain. 
 Lafayette, Indiana, 39, 219. 
 Lake Erie, 16, 23, 49, 52, 92. 
 Lake Michigan, 66. 
 Lake Ontario, 25. 
 Lake Pepin, 66, 67, 128. 
 Lake Superior, 15. 
 Lake Winnebago, 127. 
 Lake of the Woods, 179. 
 
26o 
 
 Index 
 
 Langlade, Charles, at Fort Duquesne, 58 ; 
 at Mackinac, 104. 
 
 L'Aibre Croche, 127. 
 
 La Salle, Sieur de, 52, 92, 125. 
 
 Lee, Richard Henry, 183. 
 
 Le Mai, trader at Chicago, 215, 216. 
 
 Lewis, Colonel, in Lord Dunmore's 
 war, 139. 
 
 Lexington, Battle of, 146. 
 
 Licking River, 65, 193. 
 
 Little River, source of Wabash, 167, 168. 
 
 Little Turtle, Miami chief, 201, 206. 
 
 Logan, John, Iroquois chief, 132; chosen 
 chief of Mingoes, 133; his family mur- 
 dered, 136-138; his famous speech, 
 141 ; his death, 143. 
 
 Logansport, Indiana, 200. 
 
 Logstown, 52, 60. 
 
 " Long Knives," 152-156, 163. 
 
 Loramie Creek, 57. 
 
 Losantiville, 192. See Cincinnati. 
 
 Louis XIV., 15, 28, 183. 
 
 Louis XV., 48, 50. 
 
 Louisiana, 13, 14, 47. 
 
 Louisville, Kentucky, 155. 
 
 Mackinac, 17, 96, 116, 126, 207; mas- 
 sacre at, 99-107. 
 Mackinac Island, 107, 206. 
 Magna Charta of the Northwest, 182-186. 
 Margane, Francois, 39. See Vincennes. 
 Marietta, Ohio, first American settlement 
 
 in the Old Northwest, 190-192, 213, 
 
 230. 
 Marin, French officer, 68, 69, 70, 71. 
 Marquette, Father, on Fox River, 127; 
 
 at Chicago, 215. 
 Maryland, opposes claims of larger 
 
 states, 180. 
 Mascoutin Indians, 121. 
 Massac, Fort. See Fort Massac. 
 Massac, M., 46. 
 Massachusetts, claims a portion of the 
 
 Northwest, 180. 
 Maumee City, 203. 
 Maumee River, portage, 37, 39, 57, 96, 
 
 123, 166-168, 199, 204, 207. 
 Mayjlower, emigrant boat on the Ohio, 
 
 189. 
 
 Maysville, Ohio, 193. 
 
 Mermet, Father, 33. 
 
 Miami Indians, 32, 35, 37, 40, 56, 57, 63, 
 
 198, 216. 
 Miami-of-the-Lakes, 58. See Maumee. 
 Miami River, 57. See Great Miami. 
 Michigan, 38, 181 ; a state, 229. 
 Mille Lacs, 15. 
 
 Minavavana, Indian chief, 105. 
 Mingo Indians, 52, 80, 85, 133, 136. 
 Minneapolis, Minnesota, 128. 
 Mississippi River, 15, 28, 33, 35, 65, 125, 
 
 130, 228. 
 Missouri River, 15, 68. 
 Mobile, 36. 
 Monongahela River, 69, 78, 79, 87, 89, 
 
 138, 154, 188. 
 Montagues des Roches, 68, See Rocky 
 
 Mountains. 
 Montour, Andrew, "the dandy of the 
 
 wilderness," 61, 62, 63. 
 Montreal, surrendered to the English, 92. 
 Muskingum River, 53, 60, 116-119, 187, 
 
 189. 
 
 Napoleon of the Wilderness, 92- 
 98. See Pontiac. 
 
 " New Connecticut," 210. 
 
 New France, extent, 13; surrendered to 
 the English, 92; England in full pos- 
 session, 124. 
 
 New Jersey, opposes claims of larger 
 states, 180; emigrants from, settle in 
 Ohio, 192. 
 
 New Orleans, 28, 145, 164, 228. 
 
 New River, 65. 
 
 New York, colony of, 22, 24, 78, 147. 
 
 New York, state of, claims a portion of 
 the Northwest, 180. 
 
 Nicolet, Jean, 65, 100, 125. 
 
 Ohio Company (first), 53, 59, 65, 78, 
 
 79- 
 Ohio Company (second), 187. 
 Ohio River, 14, 33, 43, 48-56, 121, 124, 
 
 133, 154-157, 188, 213 ; first steamboat 
 
 on, 228. 
 Ohio, state, 229. 
 Old Britain, a Miami chief, 57, 63. 
 
Index 
 
 261 
 
 Old Chillicothc, 139. 
 
 Old Northwest, boundary and extent, 12, 
 14, 16; claimed by the Iroquois, 25; 
 French outposts in, 32,66; first roati 
 into, 80; surrendered to the linglish, 
 92; scene of I'oiitiac's conspiracy, 99; 
 won by England, 124; eft'ects on, ot 
 Lord Dunmore's war, 143; declared 
 to be a part of Canada, 146; Indian 
 hunting grounds, 147; Americans 
 claim it by right of conquest, 179; 
 united in one government, 181; the 
 great Ordinance provided for its 
 government, 182-187; United States 
 in full possession of, 212; divided into 
 two territories, 213; a harbinger of 
 prosperity, 228 ; the pioneers, 230-239 ; 
 last struggle for possession, 240-254. 
 
 "Onontio," Indian name for the governor 
 of Canada, 44, 52. 
 
 Ordinance for the government of the 
 Northwest, 182-186. 
 
 " Origan," a westward-flowing river de- 
 scribed by Carver, 130. 
 
 Orleans, first steamboat on the Ohio, 
 228. 
 
 Osage Indians, 241, 242, 
 
 Oswego, N.Y., 32, 124. 
 
 Ottawa Indians, 24, 63, 85, 94, 100, no, 
 114, 166, 182. 
 
 Ottawa River, 127. 
 
 Oudiette, French officer, 19, 20. 
 
 Ouiatenon, 39, 112, 113, 168. 
 
 Pacific Ocean, dreams of a waterway 
 to, 26, 66, 125, 129, 130. 
 
 Pennsylvania, 71, 78, 138, 147. 
 
 Pennsylvania traders, 53, 60, 133, 138. 
 
 Piankeshaw Indians, 40, 163. 
 
 Pickawillany, 57, 62. 
 
 Pioneers, the, 230-240. 
 
 Pique Town, 57. See Pickawillany. 
 
 Pittsburg, 51, 69, 78, 188, 228. 
 
 Point de Saible, Jean Baptiste, first in- 
 habitant of Chicago, 215. 
 
 Point Pleasant, battle of, 139. 
 
 Pontiac, Indian chief, at Fort Duquesne, 
 85, 94; meets Major Rogers, 93; his 
 home, 95; arouses the Indian tribes, 
 
 96, 97 ; leader of a great conspiracy, 
 88, 102, 217; besieges Detroit, 107- 
 116; in the Wabash country, 119-123; 
 his last public speech, 124. 
 
 I'otier, Father, at Detroit, 166. 
 
 l^otomac River, 79, 86. 
 
 Pottawattomies, 85, 95, 108, 114, 166, 
 
 215- 
 Prairie du Chien, 128, 240, 248. 
 Prairie du Sac, 128, 241. 
 Presque Isle, 69, 70, 92, 99. See Erie. 
 Prophet, the, Shawnee Indian, brother 
 
 of 'Iccumseh, 218, 221-227. 
 Putnam, Rufus, 189. 
 
 Raisin River, 206. 
 
 Redstone, Old Fort, 154. 
 
 Ribaut, 30. 
 
 Nocheblave, French officer in command 
 
 at Kaskaskia, 158. 
 Rock Island, 243, 246, 249. 
 Rock River, 241, 242, 246. 
 Rocky Mountains, discovered by Veren- 
 
 drye, 68; described by Carver, 130. 
 Rogers, Major Robert, 92, 93. 
 
 Sac Indians, 102, 128, 240-255. See 
 Black Hawk. 
 
 St. Ange, French officer, at Fort Du- 
 quesne, 85. 
 
 St. Anthony's Falls, 15, 131. 
 
 St. Clair, Anthony, first governor of 
 Northwest Territory, 191, 214; at Cin- 
 cinnati, 194; visits the French settlers 
 at Kaskaskia, 196; his disastrous 
 Indian campaign, 200-203, 209, 217. 
 
 St. Clair Strait, 16. 
 
 St. Croix River, 15. 
 
 St. Francis River, 128. 
 
 St. Francis Xavier, Mission of, 32, 
 126. 
 
 St. Genevieve, 145. 
 
 St. Ignace, Pomt, 99. 
 
 St. Joseph River, Michigan, 37, 38, 98. 
 
 St. Lawrence River, 128. 
 
 St. Louis, 145, 157, 171, 243, 244. 
 
 St, Mary's River, 16. 
 
 St. Paul, Minnesota, 128. 
 
 St. Philip River. See Missouri. 
 
262 
 
 Indcj 
 
 St. Pierre, Legardeur de, 66-75, 128, 130. 
 Saskatchewan River, 68. 
 Saukenuk, Sac village, 241, 242, 246. 
 Sauit Sainte Marie, 17, 96, 116. 
 Schools in the Old Northwest, 184, 185. 
 Scioto River, 54, 62, 64, 121, 139, 140, 142, 
 
 187. 
 Seneca Indians, 43. See Iroquois. 
 Seward, William H., quoted, 255. 
 Shawnee Indians, 23, 40, 52, 54, 85, 
 
 116, 121, 134, 135, 139, 216, 217. 
 Shenandoah River, 27. 
 Sioux Indians, 68, 128, 129, 130, 254. 
 Slavery forbidden in the Northwest, 
 
 183. 
 South Bend, Indiana, 32. 
 Spain secures the country west of the 
 
 Mississippi, 145. 
 Spotswood, Sir Alexander, governor of 
 
 Virginia, 27. 
 Steamboat, first, on Ohio, 228. 
 Steubenville, Ohio, 133. 
 Stillman, Major, 252, 253. 
 Stirling, John, typical pioneer, 234-239. 
 Stirling, Captain Thomas, 124. 
 Symmes, John Cleves, 192. 
 
 Tah-gah-jute, 132. See Logan. 
 
 Tecumseh, 217-228, 247. 
 
 Terre Haute, Indiana, 164, 223. 
 
 Thames River, Canada, battle, 227, 247. 
 
 Thunder, Sac chief, 241. 
 
 Thunder Bay, 105. 
 
 Tippecanoe River, 200, 219 ; battle of, 
 
 221-226. 
 Todd, Colonel John, first governor of 
 
 Illinois, 165. 
 Toledo, Ohio, 167. 
 Turtle Heart, Indian chief, 118. 
 Tuscarawas River, 117, 206. 
 Twightwees, 37, 112, 122. See Miami 
 
 Indians. 
 
 Vaudreuil, Marquis de, surrenders 
 
 Montreal, 92. 
 Venango, 70, 76, 77. 
 Verendrye, Sieur de, explores the far 
 
 West, 67-69, 130. 
 Verrazano, 30. 
 
 Vigo, Fran9ois, Spanish trader, aids in 
 the conquest of the Northwest, 164, 
 171. 
 
 Villieis. Chevalier de, at Fort Necessity, 
 81-83. 
 
 Vincennes, Fran9ois Margane, Sieur de, 
 
 39. 45- 
 Vincennes, post and village, 39, 112, 145, 
 
 153; captured by Americans, 162-178; 
 
 capital of Indiana Territory, 214, 219, 
 
 220. 
 Vincennes, Sieur de, 39, 57, 
 Virginia, colony of, 25, 138, 147, 150, 
 Virginia, state of, claims the Northwest, 
 
 179- 181. 
 Virginians, 72, 78, 89, 139; capture Kas- 
 
 kaskia, 156-162. 
 
 Wabash Country, 119, 121, 146, 199. 
 
 Wabash River, 37, 39, 45, 98, 121, 123, 
 168. 
 
 Wapello, Fox chief, 249, 251. 
 
 Washington, George, a messenger to 
 St. Pierre, 72-75 ; his return through 
 the wilderness, 76; leads Virginia 
 militia across the Alleghanies, 80; at 
 Fort Necessity, 81 ; with Braddock, 
 89; takes possession Fort Duquesne, 
 91 ; pleased with Wilkinson's raid, 
 200. 
 
 Washington County, Ohio, 191. 
 
 Wayne, General Anthony, campaign 
 against the Indians, 203-205; treaty at 
 Greenville, 206. 
 
 Wawatam, Chippewa chief, loi, 107. 
 
 Wea, 168. See Ouiatenon. 
 
 Webster, Daniel, 182. 
 
 Wenniway, Chippewa chief, 104. 
 
 Western Reserve, 181, 209-211, 213. 
 
 Wheeling, 135. 
 
 White Cloud, Winnebago chief, 251, 
 252. 
 
 White Woman's Creek, 62. 
 
 Wilkinson, General, his raid into the 
 Wabash country, 199. 
 
 Williamsburg, Virginia, 27, 151, 153, 
 177. 
 
 Willing, The, first American gunboat, 
 172, 177. 
 
Index 
 
 263 
 
 Winnebago Indians, 127, 252, 254. 
 Wisconsin, 131, 229, 240. See Carver, 
 
 Jonathan. 
 Wisconsin River, 15, 128. 
 Wyandot Indians, 60, 62, 95, 98, 114. 
 
 182. See Huron Indians. 
 
 Yankek Traveler, a, 125-131. See 
 
 Carver, Jonathan. 
 Youghiogheny River, 80, 188. 
 
 Zane, Coi.onei,, founder of Wheeling, 
 on the Ohio, 135. 
 
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