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Preface TO THE SIXTH EDITION.
Preface TO THE SIXTH EDITION.
I chose the subject of this book as affording better opportunities than any other portion of American history for portraying forest life and the Indian character; and I have never seen reason to change this opinion. In the nineteen years that have passed since the first edition was published, a considerable amount of additional material has come to light. This has been carefully collected, and is incorporated in the present edition. The most interesting portion of this new material has been supp
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Preface TO THE FIRST EDITION.
Preface TO THE FIRST EDITION.
T he conquest of Canada was an event of momentous consequence in American history. It changed the political aspect of the continent, prepared a way for the independence of the British colonies, rescued the vast tracts of the interior from the rule of military despotism, and gave them, eventually, to the keeping of an ordered democracy. Yet to the red natives of the soil its results were wholly disastrous. Could the French have maintained their ground, the ruin of the Indian tribes might long hav
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Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY.—INDIAN TRIBES EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY.—INDIAN TRIBES EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
T he Indian is a true child of the forest and the desert. The wastes and solitudes of nature are his congenial home. His haughty mind is imbued with the spirit of the wilderness, and the light of civilization falls on him with a blighting power. His unruly pride and untamed freedom are in harmony with the lonely mountains, cataracts, and rivers among which he dwells; and primitive America, with her savage scenery and savage men, opens to the imagination a boundless world, unmatched in wild subli
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Chapter II. 1608-1763. FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN AMERICA.
Chapter II. 1608-1763. FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN AMERICA.
T he American colonies of France and England grew up to maturity under widely different auspices. Canada, the offspring of Church and State, nursed from infancy in the lap of power, its puny strength fed with artificial stimulants, its movements guided by rule and discipline, its limbs trained to martial exercise, languished, in spite of all, from the lack of vital sap and energy. The colonies of England, outcast and neglected, but strong in native vigor and self-confiding courage, grew yet more
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Chapter III. 1608-1763. THE FRENCH, THE ENGLISH, AND THE INDIANS.
Chapter III. 1608-1763. THE FRENCH, THE ENGLISH, AND THE INDIANS.
T he French colonists of Canada held, from the beginning, a peculiar intimacy of relation with the Indian tribes. With the English colonists it was far otherwise; and the difference sprang from several causes. The fur-trade was the life of Canada; agriculture and commerce were the chief sources of wealth to the British provinces. The Romish zealots of Canada burned for the conversion of the heathen; their heretic rivals were fired with no such ardor. And finally while the ambition of France gras
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Chapter IV. 1700-1755. COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES.
Chapter IV. 1700-1755. COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES.
T he people of the northern English colonies had learned to regard their Canadian neighbors with the bitterest enmity. With them, the very name of Canada called up horrible recollections and ghastly images: the midnight massacre of Schenectady, and the desolation of many a New England hamlet; blazing dwellings and reeking scalps; and children snatched from their mothers’ arms, to be immured in convents and trained up in the abominations of Popery. To the sons of the Puritans, their enemy was dou
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Chapter V. 1755-1763. THE WILDERNESS AND ITS TENANTS AT THE CLOSE OF THE FRENCH WAR.
Chapter V. 1755-1763. THE WILDERNESS AND ITS TENANTS AT THE CLOSE OF THE FRENCH WAR.
W e have already seen how, after the defeat of Braddock, the western tribes rose with one accord against the English. Then, for the first time, Pennsylvania felt the scourge of Indian war; and her neighbors, Maryland and Virginia, shared her misery. Through the autumn of 1755, the storm raged with devastating fury; but the following year brought some abatement of its violence. This may be ascribed partly to the interference of the Iroquois, who, at the instances of Sir William Johnson, urged the
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Chapter VI. 1760. THE ENGLISH TAKE POSSESSION OF THE WESTERN POSTS.
Chapter VI. 1760. THE ENGLISH TAKE POSSESSION OF THE WESTERN POSTS.
T he war was over. The plains around Montreal were dotted with the white tents of three victorious armies, and the work of conquest was complete. Canada, with all her dependencies, had yielded to the British crown; but it still remained to carry into full effect the terms of the surrender, and take possession of those western outposts, where the lilies of France had not as yet descended from the flagstaff. The execution of this task, neither an easy nor a safe one, was assigned to a provincial o
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Chapter VII. 1760-1763. ANGER OF THE INDIANS.—THE CONSPIRACY.
Chapter VII. 1760-1763. ANGER OF THE INDIANS.—THE CONSPIRACY.
T he country was scarcely transferred to the English, when smothered murmurs of discontent began to be audible among the Indian tribes. From the head of the Potomac to Lake Superior, and from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, in every wigwam and hamlet of the forest, a deep-rooted hatred of the English increased with rapid growth. Nor is this to be wondered at. We have seen with what sagacious policy the French had labored to ingratiate themselves with the Indians; and the slaughter of the Mon
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Chapter VIII. 1763. INDIAN PREPARATION.
Chapter VIII. 1763. INDIAN PREPARATION.
I interrupt the progress of the narrative to glance for a moment at the Indians in their military capacity, and observe how far they were qualified to prosecute the formidable war into which they were about to plunge. A people living chiefly by the chase, and therefore, of necessity, thinly and widely scattered; divided into numerous tribes, held together by no strong principle of cohesion, and with no central government to combine their strength, could act with little efficiency against such an
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Chapter IX. 1763. THE COUNCIL AT THE RIVER ECORCES.
Chapter IX. 1763. THE COUNCIL AT THE RIVER ECORCES.
T o begin the war was reserved by Pontiac as his own peculiar privilege. With the first opening of spring his preparations were complete. His light-footed messengers, with their wampum belts and gifts of tobacco, visited many a lonely hunting camp in the gloom of the northern woods, and called chiefs and warriors to attend the general meeting. The appointed spot was on the banks of the little River Ecorces, not far from Detroit. Thither went Pontiac himself, with his squaws and his children. Ban
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Chapter X. 1763. DETROIT.
Chapter X. 1763. DETROIT.
T o the credulity of mankind each great calamity has its dire prognostics. Signs and portents in the heavens, the vision of an Indian bow, and the figure of a scalp imprinted on the disk of the moon, warned the New England Puritans of impending war. The apparitions passed away, and Philip of Mount Hope burst from the forest with his Narragansett warriors. In October, 1762, thick clouds of inky blackness gathered above the fort and settlement of Detroit. The river darkened beneath the awful shado
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Chapter XI. 1763. TREACHERY OF PONTIAC.
Chapter XI. 1763. TREACHERY OF PONTIAC.
T he night passed without alarm. The sun rose upon fresh fields and newly budding woods, and scarcely had the morning mists dissolved, when the garrison could see a fleet of birch canoes crossing the river from the eastern shore, within range of cannon shot above the fort. Only two or three warriors appeared in each, but all moved slowly, and seemed deeply laden. In truth, they were full of savages, lying flat on their faces, that their numbers might not excite the suspicion of the English. [181
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Chapter XII. 1763. PONTIAC AT THE SIEGE OF DETROIT.
Chapter XII. 1763. PONTIAC AT THE SIEGE OF DETROIT.
O n the morning after the detention of the officers, Pontiac crossed over, with several of his chiefs, to the Wyandot village. A part of this tribe, influenced by Father Pothier, their Jesuit priest, had refused to take up arms against the English; but, being now threatened with destruction if they should longer remain neutral, they were forced to join the rest. They stipulated, however, that they should be allowed time to hear mass, before dancing the war-dance. [197] To this condition Pontiac
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Chapter XIII. 1763. ROUT OF CUYLER’S DETACHMENT.—FATE OF THE FOREST GARRISONS.
Chapter XIII. 1763. ROUT OF CUYLER’S DETACHMENT.—FATE OF THE FOREST GARRISONS.
W hile perils were thickening around the garrison of Detroit, the British commander-in-chief at New York remained ignorant of its danger. Indeed, an unwonted quiet had prevailed, of late, along the borders and about the neighboring forts. With the opening of spring, a strong detachment had been sent up the lakes, with a supply of provisions and ammunition for the use of Detroit and the other western posts. The boats of this convoy were now pursuing their course along the northern shore of Lake E
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Chapter XIV. 1763. THE INDIANS CONTINUE TO BLOCKADE DETROIT.
Chapter XIV. 1763. THE INDIANS CONTINUE TO BLOCKADE DETROIT.
W e return once more to Detroit and its beleaguered garrison. On the nineteenth of June, a rumor reached them that one of the vessels had been seen near Turkey Island, some miles below the fort, but that, the wind failing her, she had dropped down with the current, to wait a more favorable opportunity. It may be remembered that this vessel had, several weeks before, gone down Lake Erie to hasten the advance of Cuyler’s expected detachment. Passing these troops on her way, she had held her course
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Chapter XV. 1763. THE FIGHT OF BLOODY BRIDGE.
Chapter XV. 1763. THE FIGHT OF BLOODY BRIDGE.
F rom the time when peace was concluded with the Wyandots and Pottawattamies until the end of July, little worthy of notice took place at Detroit. The fort was still watched closely by the Ottawas and Ojibwas, who almost daily assailed it with petty attacks. In the mean time, unknown to the garrison, a strong re-enforcement was coming to their aid. Captain Dalzell had left Niagara with twenty-two barges, bearing two hundred and eighty men, with several small cannon, and a fresh supply of provisi
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Chapter XVI. 1763. MICHILLIMACKINAC.
Chapter XVI. 1763. MICHILLIMACKINAC.
I n the spring of the year 1763, before the war broke out, several English traders went up to Michillimackinac, some adopting the old route of the Ottawa, and others that of Detroit and the lakes. We will follow one of the latter on his adventurous progress. Passing the fort and settlement of Detroit, he soon enters Lake St. Clair, which seems like a broad basin filled to overflowing, while, along its far distant verge, a faint line of forest separates the water from the sky. He crosses the lake
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Chapter XVII. 1763. THE MASSACRE.
Chapter XVII. 1763. THE MASSACRE.
T he following morning was warm and sultry. It was the fourth of June, the birthday of King George. The discipline of the garrison was relaxed, and some license allowed to the soldiers. [260] Encamped in the woods, not far off, were a large number of Ojibwas, lately arrived; while several bands of the Sac Indians, from the River Wisconsin, had also erected their lodges in the vicinity. Early in the morning, many Ojibwas came to the fort, inviting officers and soldiers to come out and see a grand
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Chapter XVIII. 1763. FRONTIER FORTS AND SETTLEMENTS.
Chapter XVIII. 1763. FRONTIER FORTS AND SETTLEMENTS.
W e have followed the war to its farthest confines, and watched it in its remotest operations; not because there is any thing especially worthy to be chronicled in the capture of a backwoods fort, and the slaughter of a few soldiers, but because these acts exhibit some of the characteristic traits of the actors. It was along the line of the British frontier that the war raged with its most destructive violence. To destroy the garrisons, and then turn upon the settlements, had been the original p
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Chapter XIX. 1763. THE WAR ON THE BORDERS.
Chapter XIX. 1763. THE WAR ON THE BORDERS.
A long the Western frontiers of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, terror reigned supreme. The Indian scalping-parties were ranging everywhere, laying waste the settlements, destroying the harvests, and butchering men, women, and children, with ruthless fury. Many hundreds of wretched fugitives flocked for refuge to Carlisle and the other towns of the border, bringing tales of inconceivable horror. Strong parties of armed men, who went out to reconnoitre the country, found every habitation re
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Chapter XX. 1763. THE BATTLE OF BUSHY RUN.
Chapter XX. 1763. THE BATTLE OF BUSHY RUN.
T he miserable multitude were soon threatened with famine, and gathered in crowds around the tents of Bouquet, begging relief, which he had not the heart to refuse. After a delay of eighteen days, the chief obstacles were overcome. Wagons and draught animals had, little by little, been collected, and provisions gathered among the settlements to the eastward. At length all was ready, and Bouquet broke up his camp, and began his march. The force under his command did not exceed five hundred men, o
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Chapter XXI. 1763. THE IROQUOIS.—AMBUSCADE OF THE DEVIL’S HOLE.
Chapter XXI. 1763. THE IROQUOIS.—AMBUSCADE OF THE DEVIL’S HOLE.
W hile Bouquet was fighting the battle of Bushy Run, and Dalzell making his fatal sortie against the camp of Pontiac, Sir William Johnson was engaged in the more pacific yet more important task of securing the friendship and alliance of the Six Nations. After several preliminary conferences, he sent runners throughout the whole confederacy to invite deputies of the several tribes to meet him in council at Johnson Hall. The request was not declined. From the banks of the Mohawk; from the Oneida,
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Chapter XXII. 1763. DESOLATION OF THE FRONTIERS.
Chapter XXII. 1763. DESOLATION OF THE FRONTIERS.
T he advancing frontiers of American civilization have always nurtured a class of men of striking and peculiar character. The best examples of this character have, perhaps, been found among the settlers of Western Virginia, and the hardy progeny who have sprung from that generous stock. The Virginian frontiersman was, as occasion called, a farmer, a hunter, and a warrior, by turns. The well-beloved rifle was seldom out of his hand; and he never deigned to lay aside the fringed frock, moccasons,
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Chapter XXIII. 1763-1764. THE INDIANS RAISE THE SIEGE OF DETROIT.
Chapter XXIII. 1763-1764. THE INDIANS RAISE THE SIEGE OF DETROIT.
I return to the long-forgotten garrison of Detroit, which was left still beleaguered by an increasing multitude of savages, and disheartened by the defeat of Captain Dalzell’s detachment. The schooner, so boldly defended by her crew against a force of more than twenty times their number, brought to the fort a much-needed supply of provisions. It was not, however, adequate to the wants of the garrison; and the whole were put upon the shortest possible allowance. It was now the end of September. T
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Chapter XXIV. 1763. THE PAXTON MEN.
Chapter XXIV. 1763. THE PAXTON MEN.
A long the thinly settled borders, two thousand persons had been killed, or carried off, and nearly an equal number of families driven from their homes. [351] The frontier people of Pennsylvania, goaded to desperation by long-continued suffering, were divided between rage against the Indians, and resentment against the Quakers, who had yielded them cold sympathy and inefficient aid. The horror and fear, grief and fury, with which these men looked upon the mangled remains of friends and relatives
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Chapter XXV. 1764. THE RIOTERS MARCH ON PHILADELPHIA.
Chapter XXV. 1764. THE RIOTERS MARCH ON PHILADELPHIA.
T he Conestoga murders did not take place until some weeks after the removal of the Moravian converts to Philadelphia; and the rioters, as they rode, flushed with success, out of Lancaster, after the achievement of their exploit, were heard to boast that they would soon visit the city and finish their work, by killing the Indians whom it had taken under its protection. It was soon but too apparent that this design was seriously entertained by the people of the frontier. They had tasted blood, an
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Chapter XXVI. 1764. BRADSTREET’S ARMY ON THE LAKES.
Chapter XXVI. 1764. BRADSTREET’S ARMY ON THE LAKES.
T he campaign of 1763, a year of disaster to the English colonies, was throughout of a defensive nature, and no important blow had been struck against the enemy. With the opening of the following spring, preparations were made to renew the war on a more decisive plan. Before the commencement of hostilities, Sir William Johnson and his deputy, George Croghan, severally addressed to the lords of trade memorials, setting forth the character, temper, and resources of the Indian tribes, and suggestin
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Chapter XXVII. 1764. BOUQUET FORCES THE DELAWARES AND SHAWANOES TO SUE FOR PEACE.
Chapter XXVII. 1764. BOUQUET FORCES THE DELAWARES AND SHAWANOES TO SUE FOR PEACE.
T he work of ravage had begun afresh upon the borders. The Indians had taken the precaution to remove all their settlements to the western side of the River Muskingum, trusting that the impervious forests, with their unnumbered streams, would prove a sufficient barrier against invasion. Having thus, as they thought, placed their women and children in safety, they had flung themselves upon the settlements with all the rage and ferocity of the previous season. So fierce and active were the war-par
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Chapter XXVIII. 1764. THE ILLINOIS.
Chapter XXVIII. 1764. THE ILLINOIS.
W e turn to a region of which, as yet, we have caught but transient glimpses; a region which to our forefathers seemed remote and strange, as to us the mountain strongholds of the Apaches, or the wastes of farthest Oregon. The country of the Illinois was chiefly embraced within the boundaries of the state which now retains the name. Thitherward, from the east, the west, and the north, three mighty rivers rolled their tributary waters; while countless smaller streams—small only in comparison—trav
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Chapter XXIX. 1763-1765. PONTIAC RALLIES THE WESTERN TRIBES.
Chapter XXIX. 1763-1765. PONTIAC RALLIES THE WESTERN TRIBES.
W hen, by the treaty of Paris, in 1763, France ceded to England her territories east of the Mississippi, the Illinois was of course included in the cession. Scarcely were the articles signed, when France, as if eager to rob herself, at one stroke, of all her western domain, threw away upon Spain the vast and indefinite regions beyond the Mississippi, destined at a later day to return to her hands, and finally to swell the growing empire of the United States. This transfer to Spain was for some t
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Chapter XXX. 1765. RUIN OF THE INDIAN CAUSE.
Chapter XXX. 1765. RUIN OF THE INDIAN CAUSE.
T he repulse of Loftus, and rumors of the fierce temper of the Indians who guarded the Mississippi, convinced the commander-in-chief that to reach the Illinois by the southern route was an enterprise of no easy accomplishment. Yet, at the same time, he felt the strong necessity of a speedy military occupation of the country; since, while the fleur de lis floated over a single garrison in the ceded territory, it would be impossible to disabuse the Indians of the phantom hope of French assistance,
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Chapter XXXI. 1766-1769. DEATH OF PONTIAC.
Chapter XXXI. 1766-1769. DEATH OF PONTIAC.
T he Winter passed quietly away. Already the Indians began to feel the blessings of returning peace in the partial reopening of the fur-trade; and the famine and nakedness, the misery and death, which through the previous season had been rife in their encampments, were exchanged for comparative comfort and abundance. With many precautions, and in meagre allowances, the traders had been permitted to throw their goods into the Indian markets; and the starving hunters were no longer left, as many o
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Appendix A.
Appendix A.
Extract from a Letter—Sir W. Johnson to the Board of Trade, November 13, 1763:— My Lords: In obedience to your Lordships’ commands of the 5th of August last, I am now to lay before you the claims of the Nations mentioned in the State of the Confederacies. The Five Nations have in the last century subdued the Shawanese, Delawares, Twighties, and Western Indians, so far as Lakes Michigan and Superior, received them into an alliance, allowed them the possession of the lands they occupied, and have
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Appendix B.
Appendix B.
Extract from a Letter—Sir W. Johnson to the Board of Trade, November 13, 1763. (Chap. VII. Vol. I. p. 131 .) ... The French, in order to reconcile them [the Indians] to their encroachments, loaded them with favors, and employed the most intelligent Agents of good influence, as well as artful Jesuits among the several Western and other Nations, who, by degrees, prevailed on them to admit of Forts, under the Notion of Trading houses, in their Country; and knowing that these posts could never be ma
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Appendix C. DETROIT AND MICHILLIMACKINAC.
Appendix C. DETROIT AND MICHILLIMACKINAC.
The authorities consulted respecting the siege of Detroit consist of numerous manuscript letters of officers in the fort, including the official correspondence of the commanding officer; of several journals and fragments of journals; of extracts from contemporary newspapers; and of traditions and recollections received from Indians or aged Canadians of Detroit. This curious diary was preserved in a Canadian family at Detroit, and afterwards deposited with the Historical Society of Michigan. It i
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Appendix D. THE WAR ON THE BORDERS.
Appendix D. THE WAR ON THE BORDERS.
The despatches written by Colonel Bouquet, immediately after the two battles near Bushy Run, contain so full and clear an account of those engagements, that the collateral authorities consulted have served rather to decorate and enliven the narrative than to add to it any important facts. The first of these letters was written by Bouquet under the apprehension that he should not survive the expected conflict of the next day. Both were forwarded to the commander-in-chief by the same express, with
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Appendix E. THE PAXTON RIOTS.
Appendix E. THE PAXTON RIOTS.
Abraham Newcomer, a Mennonist, by trade a Gunsmith, upon his affirmation, declared that several times, within these few years, Bill Soc and Indian John, two of the Conestogue Indians, threatened to scalp him for refusing to mend their tomahawks, and swore they would as soon scalp him as they would a dog. A few days before Bill Soc was killed, he brought a tomahawk to be steeled. Bill said, “If you will not, I’ll have it mended to your sorrow,” from which expression I apprehended danger. Mrs. Tho
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Appendix F. CAMPAIGN OF 1764.
Appendix F. CAMPAIGN OF 1764.
Letter—General Gage to Lord Halifax, December 13, 1764. (Chap. XXVII.) The Perfidy of the Shawanese and Delawares, and their having broken the ties, which even the Savage Nations hold sacred amongst each other, required vigorous measures to reduce them. We had experienced their treachery so often, that I determined to make no peace with them, but in the Heart of their Country, and upon such terms as should make it as secure as it was possible. This conduct has produced all the good effects which
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NOTE.
NOTE.
Of the accompanying maps, the first two were constructed for the illustration of this work. The others are fac-similes from the surveys of the engineer Thomas Hutchins. The original of the larger of these fac-similes is prefixed to the Account of Bouquet’s Expedition . That of the smaller will be found in Hutchins’s Topographical Description of Virginia , etc. Both of these works are rare....
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