Chapter XLII: Act I: Scene I.--An Indian Trading House (7)

[Footnote 356: For an account of the Conestoga Indians, see _Penn. Hist. Coll._ 390. It is extremely probable, as shown by Mr. Shea, that they were the remnant of the formidable people called Andastes, who spoke a dialect of the Iroquois, but were deadly enemies of the Iroquois proper, or Five Nations, by whom they were nearly destroyed about the year 1672.]

[Footnote 357: On one occasion, a body of Indians approached Paxton on Sunday, and sent forward one of their number, whom the English supposed to be a friend, to reconnoitre. The spy reported that every man in the church, including the preacher, had a rifle at his side; upon which the enemy withdrew, and satisfied themselves with burning a few houses in the neighborhood. The papers of Mr. Elder were submitted to the writer's examination by his son, an aged and esteemed citizen of Harrisburg.]

[Footnote 358: The above account of the massacre is chiefly drawn from the narrative of Matthew Smith himself. This singular paper was published by Mr. Redmond Conyngham, of Lancaster, in the _Lancaster Intelligencer_ for 1843. Mr. Conyngham states that he procured it from the son of Smith, for whose information it had been written. The account is partially confirmed by incidental allusions, in a letter written by another of the Paxton men, and also published by Mr. Conyngham. This gentleman employed himself with most unwearied diligence in collecting a voluminous mass of documents, comprising, perhaps, every thing that could contribute to extenuate the conduct of the Paxton men; and to these papers, as published from time to time in the above-mentioned newspaper, reference will often be made.]

[Footnote 359: _Haz. Pa. Reg._ IX. 114.]

[Footnote 360: Papers published by Mr. Conyngham in the _Lancaster Intelligencer_.]

[Footnote 361: This anecdote was told to the writer by the son of Mr. Elder, and is also related by Mr. Conyngham.]

[Footnote 362: _Deposition of Felix Donolly_, keeper of Lancaster jail. _Declaration of Lazarus Stewart_, published by Mr. Conyngham. Rupp, _Hist. of York and Lancaster Counties_, 358. Heckewelder, _Narrative of Moravian Missions_, 79. See Appendix, E.

Soon after the massacre, Franklin published an account of it at Philadelphia, which, being intended to strengthen the hands of government by exciting a popular sentiment against the rioters, is more rhetorical than accurate. The following is his account of the consummation of the act:--

"When the poor wretches saw they had no protection nigh, nor could possibly escape, they divided into their little families, the children clinging to the parents; they fell on their knees, protested their innocence, declared their love to the English, and that, in their whole lives, they had never done them injury; and in this posture they all received the hatchet!"

This is a pure embellishment of the fancy. The only persons present were the jailer and the rioters themselves, who unite in testifying that the Indians died with the stoicism which their race usually exhibit under such circumstances; and indeed, so sudden was the act, that there was no time for enacting the scene described by Franklin.]

[Footnote 363: Extract from a MS. Letter--_Edward Shippen to Governor Penn_:--

"Lancaster, 27th Dec., 1763, P. M.

"Honoured Sir:--

"I am to acquaint your Honour that between two and three of the Clock this afternoon, upwards of a hundred armed men from the Westward rode very fast into Town, turned their Horses into Mr. Slough's (an Innkeeper's) yard, and proceeded with the greatest precipitation to the Work-House, stove open the door and killed all the Indians, and then took to their Horses and rode off: all their business was done, & they were returning to their Horses before I could get halfway down to the Work-House. The Sheriff and Coroner however, and several others, got down as soon as the rioters, but could not prevail with them to stop their hands. Some people say they heard them declare they would proceed to the Province Island, & destroy the Indians there."]

[Footnote 364: Extract from a MS. Letter--_John Hay, the sheriff, to Governor Penn_:--

"They in a body left the town without offering any insults to the Inhabitants, & without putting it in the power of any one to take or molest any of them without danger of life to the person attempting it; of which both myself and the Coroner, by our opposition, were in great danger."]

[Footnote 365: Extract from a Letter--_Rev. Mr. Elder to Colonel Burd_:--

"Paxton, 1764.

"Lazarus Stewart is still threatened by the Philadelphia party; he and his friends talk of leaving--if they do, the province will lose some of their truest friends, and that by the faults of others, not their own; for if any cruelty was practised on the Indians at Conestogue or at Lancaster, it was not by his, or their hands. There is a great reason to believe that much injustice has been done to all concerned. In the contrariness of accounts, we must infer that much rests for support on the imagination or interest of the witness. The characters of Stewart and his friends were well established. Ruffians nor brutal they were not; humane, liberal and moral, nay, religious. It is evidently not the wish of the party to give Stewart a fair hearing. All he desires, is to be put on trial, at Lancaster, near the scenes of the horrible butcheries, committed by the Indians at Tulpehocken, &c., when he can have the testimony of the Scouts or Rangers, men whose services can never be sufficiently rewarded."]

[Footnote 366: Papers published by Mr. Conyngham.

Extract from the _Declaration of Lazarus Stewart_:--

"What I have done was done for the security of hundreds of settlers on the frontiers. The blood of a thousand of my fellow-creatures called for vengeance. As a Ranger, I sought the post of danger, and now you ask my life. Let me be tried where prejudice has not prejudged my case. Let my brave Rangers, who have stemmed the blast nobly, and never flinched; let them have an equitable trial; they were my friends in the hour of danger--to desert them now were cowardice! What remains is to leave our cause with our God, and our guns."]

[Footnote 367: Loskiel, _Hist. Moravian Missions_, Part II. 211.]

[Footnote 368: MS. Letter--_Bernard Grube to Governor Hamilton_, Oct. 13.]

[Footnote 369: _Votes of Assembly_, V. 284.]

[Footnote 370: Loskiel, _Hist. Moravian Missions_, Part II. 214. Heckewelder, _Narrative of Missions_, 75.]

[Footnote 371: Loskiel, Part II. 216.]

[Footnote 372: _Remonstrance_ of the Frontier People to the Governor and Assembly. See _Votes of Assembly_, V. 313.

The "Declaration," which accompanied the "Remonstrance," contains the following passage: "To protect and maintain these Indians at the public expense, while our suffering brethren on the frontiers are almost destitute of the necessaries of life, and are neglected by the public, is sufficient to make us mad with rage, and tempt us to do what nothing but the most violent necessity can vindicate."

See Appendix, E.]

[Footnote 373: MS _Elder Papers_

The following verses are extracted from a poem, published at Philadelphia, by a partisan of the Paxton men, entitled,

"THE CLOVEN FOOT DISCOVERED

"Go on, good Christians, never spare
To give your Indians Clothes to wear,
Send 'em good Beef, and Pork, and Bread,
Guns, Powder, Flints, and Store of Lead,
To Shoot your Neighbours through the Head,
Devoutly then, make Affirmation,
You're Friends to George and British Nation,
Encourage ev'ry friendly Savage,
To murder, burn, destroy, and ravage,
Fathers and Mothers here maintain,
Whose Sons add Numbers to the slain,
Of Scotch and Irish let them kill
As many Thousands as they will,
That you may lord it o'er the Land,
And have the whole and sole command."]

[Footnote 374: This incident occurred during the French war, and is thus described by a Quaker eye-witness: "Some of the dead bodies were brought to Philadelphia in a wagon, in the time of the General Meeting of Friends there in December, with intent to animate the people to unite in preparations for war on the Indians. They were carried along the streets--many people following--cursing the Indians, and also the Quakers, because they would not join in war for their destruction. The sight of the dead bodies, and the outcry of the people, were very afflicting and shocking"--Watson, _Annals of Phil_ 449 (Phil 1830).]

[Footnote 375: See Gordon, _Hist. Penn._ Chaps. XII.-XVIII.]

[Footnote 376: Loskiel, Part II. 218.]

[Footnote 377: MS. Letter--_Penn to Gage_, Dec. 31.]

[Footnote 378: _Votes of Assembly_, V. 293.]

[Footnote 379: Extract from a MS. Letter--_Governor Penn to Governor Colden_:--

"Philadelphia, 5th January, 1764.

"Satisfied of the advantages arising from this measure, I have sent them thro' Jersey and your Government to Sir W. Johnson, & desire you will favour them with your protection and countenance, & give them the proper passes for their journey to Sir William's Seat.

"I have recommended it, in the most pressing terms, to the Assembly, to form a Bill that shall enable me to apprehend these seditious and barbarous Murderers, & to quell the like insurrections for the future."]

[Footnote 380: Loskiel, Part II. 220. Heckewelder, _Narrative_, 81.]

[Footnote 381: Extract from a MS. Letter--_Thomas Apty to Governor Penn_:--

"Sir:--

"Agreeable to your Honour's orders, I passed on through the Province of New Jersey, in order to take the Indians under my care into New York; but no sooner was I ready to move from Amboy with the Indians under my care, than I was greatly surpriz'd & embarrass'd with express orders from the Governor of New York sent to Amboy, strictly forbidding the bringing of these poor Indians into his Province, & charging all his ferrymen not to let them pass."]

[Footnote 382: _Letters to Governor Penn from General Gage, Governor Franklin of New Jersey, and Governor Colden of New York._ See _Votes of Assembly_, V. 300-302. The plan was afterwards revived, at the height of the alarm caused by the march of the rioters on Philadelphia; and Penn wrote to Johnson, on the seventh of February, begging an asylum for the Indians. Johnson acquiesced, and wrote to Lieutenant-Governor Colden in favor of the measure, which, however, was never carried into effect. Johnson's letters express much sympathy with the sufferers.]

[Footnote 383: For indications of the state of feeling among the Presbyterians, see the numerous partisan pamphlets of the day. See also Appendix, E.]

[Footnote 384: Gordon, _Hist. Penn._ 406. _Penn. Gaz._ No. 1833.]

[Footnote 385: _Haz. Pa. Reg._ XII. 10.]

[Footnote 386: Loskiel, Part II. 223.]

[Footnote 387: _Historical Account of the Late Disturbances_, 4.]

[Footnote 388: _Haz. Pa. Reg._ XII. 11. _Memoirs of a Life passed chiefly in Pennsylvania_, 39. Heckewelder, _Narrative_, 85. Loskiel, Part II., 223. Sparks, _Writings of Franklin_, VII. 293.

The best remaining account of these riots will be found under the first authority cited above. It consists of a long letter, written in a very animated strain, by a Quaker to his friend, containing a detailed account of what passed in the city from the first alarm of the rioters to the conclusion of the affair. The writer, though a Quaker, is free from the prejudices of his sect, nor does he hesitate to notice the inconsistency of his brethren appearing in arms. See Appendix, E.

The scene before the barracks, and the narrow escape of the German butchers, was made the subject of several poems and farces, written by members of the Presbyterian faction, to turn their opponents into ridicule; for which, indeed, the subject offered tempting facilities.]

[Footnote 389: _Haz. Pa. Reg._ XII. 11.]

[Footnote 390: _Haz. Pa. Reg._ XII. 12.]

[Footnote 391: This statement is made in "The Quaker Unmasked," and other Presbyterian pamphlets of the day; and the Quakers, in their elaborate replies to these publications, do not attempt to deny the fact.]

[Footnote 392: Sparks, _Writings of Franklin_, VII. 293.]

[Footnote 393: Barton, _Memoirs of Rittenhouse_, 148. Rupp, _Hist. York and Lancaster Counties_, 362.]

[Footnote 394: David Rittenhouse, in one of his letters, speaks with great horror of the enormities committed by the Paxton Boys, and enumerates various particulars of their conduct. See Barton, _Mem. of Rittenhouse_, 148.]

[Footnote 395: "Whether the Paxton men were 'more sinned against than sinning,' was a question which was agitated with so much ardor and acrimony, that even the schoolboys became warmly engaged in the contest. For my own part, though of the religious sect which had been long warring with the Quakers, I was entirely on the side of humanity and public duty, (or in this do I beg the question?) and perfectly recollect my indignation at the sentiments of one of the ushers who was on the opposite side. His name was Davis, and he was really a kind, good-natured man; yet from the dominion of his religious or political prejudices, he had been led to apologize for, if not to approve of an outrage, which was a disgrace to a civilized people. He had been among the riflemen on their coming into the city, and, talking with them upon the subject of the Lancaster massacre, and particularly of the killing of Will Sock, the most distinguished of the victims, related with an air of approbation, this rodomontade of the real or pretended murderer. 'I,' said he, 'am the man who killed Will Sock--this is the arm that stabbed him to the heart, and I glory in it.'"--_Memoirs of a Life chiefly passed in Pennsylvania_, 40.]

[Footnote 396: "Persons who were intimate now scarcely speak; or, if they happen to meet and converse, presently get to quarrelling. In short, harmony and love seem to be banished from amongst us."

The above is an extract from the letter so often referred to. A fragment of the "Paxtoniad," one of the poems of the day, is given in the Appendix. Few of the party pamphlets are worth quoting, but the titles of some of them will give an idea of their character: The Quaker Unmasked--A Looking-Glass for Presbyterians--A Battle of Squirt--Plain Truth--Plain Truth found to be Plain Falsehood--The Author of Plain Truth Stripped Stark Naked--Clothes for a Stark Naked Author--The Squabble, a Pastoral Eclogue--etc., etc.

The pamphlet called Plain Truth drew down the especial indignation of the Quakers, and the following extract from one of their replies to it may serve as a fair specimen of the temper of the combatants: "But how came you to give your piece the Title of Plain Truth; if you had called it downright Lies, it would have agreed better with the Contents; the Title therefore is a deception, and the contents manifestly false: in short, I have carefully examined it, and find in it no less than 17 Positive Lies, and 10 false Insinuations contained in 15 pages, Monstrous, and from what has been said must conclude that when you wrote it, Truth was banished entirely from you, and that you wrote it with a truly Pious Lying P----n Spirit, which appears in almost every Line!"

The peaceful society of Friends found among its ranks more than one such champion as the ingenious writer of the above. Two collections of these pamphlets have been examined, one preserved in the City Library of Philadelphia, and the other in that of the New York Historical Society.]

[Footnote 397: See Appendix, E.]

[Footnote 398: Loskiel, Part II. 231.]

[Footnote 399: MS. _Johnson Papers_.]

[Footnote 400: "The three companies of Royal Americans were reduced when I met them at Lancaster to 55 men, having lost 38 by desertion in my short absence. I look upon Sir Jeffrey Amherst's Orders forbidding me to continue to discharge as usual the men whose time of service was expired, and keeping us for seven years in the Woods,--as the occasion of this unprecedented desertion. The encouragement given everywhere in this Country to deserters, screened almost by every person, must in time ruin the Army, unless the Laws against Harbourers are better enforced by the American (_provincial_) government."--_Bouquet to Gage_, 20 June, 1764.]

[Footnote 401: In the correspondence of General Wolfe, recently published in _Tait's Magazine_, this distinguished officer speaks in high terms of Bradstreet's military character. His remarks, however, have reference solely to the capture of Fort Frontenac; and he seems to have derived his impressions from the public prints, as he had no personal knowledge of Bradstreet. The view expressed above is derived from the letters of Bradstreet himself, from the correspondence of General Gage and Sir William Johnson, and from a MS. paper containing numerous details of his conduct during the campaign of 1764, and drawn up by the officers who served under him.

This paper is in the possession of Mrs. W. L. Stone.]

[Footnote 402: Henry, _Travels and Adventures_, 171.

The method of invoking the spirits, described above, is a favorite species of imposture among the medicine men of most Algonquin tribes, and had been observed and described a century and a half before the period of this history. Champlain, the founder of Canada, witnessed one of these ceremonies; and the Jesuit Le Jeune gives an account of a sorcerer, who, having invoked a spirit in this manner, treacherously killed him with a hatchet; the mysterious visitant having assumed a visible and tangible form, which exposed him to the incidents of mortality. During these invocations, the lodge or tabernacle was always observed to shake violently to and fro, in a manner so remarkable as exceedingly to perplex the observers. The variety of discordant sounds, uttered by the medicine man, need not surprise us more than those accurate imitations of the cries of various animals, to which Indian hunters are accustomed to train their strong and flexible voices.]

[Footnote 403: MS. _Johnson Papers_.

The following extract from Henry's _Travels_ will exhibit the feelings with which the Indians came to the conference at Niagara, besides illustrating a curious feature of their superstitions. Many tribes, including some widely differing in language and habits, regard the rattlesnake with superstitious veneration; looking upon him either as a manitou, or spirit, or as a creature endowed with mystic powers and attributes, giving him an influence over the fortunes of mankind. Henry accompanied his Indian companions to Niagara; and, on the way, he chanced to discover one of these snakes near their encampment:--

"The reptile was coiled, and its head raised considerably above its body. Had I advanced another step before my discovery, I must have trodden upon it.

"I no sooner saw the snake, than I hastened to the canoe, in order to procure my gun; but the Indians, observing what I was doing, inquired the occasion, and, being informed, begged me to desist. At the same time, they followed me to the spot, with their pipes and tobacco-pouches in their hands. On returning, I found the snake still coiled.

"The Indians, on their part, surrounded it, all addressing it by turns, and calling it their _grandfather_, but yet keeping at some distance. During this part of the ceremony, they filled their pipes; and now each blew the smoke toward the snake, who, as it appeared to me, really received it with pleasure. In a word, after remaining coiled, and receiving incense, for the space of half an hour, it stretched itself along the ground, in visible good humor. Its length was between four and five feet. Having remained outstretched for some time, at last it moved slowly away, the Indians following it, and still addressing it by the title of grandfather, beseeching it to take care of their families during their absence, and to be pleased to open the heart of Sir William Johnson, so that he might _show them charity_, and fill their canoe with rum.

"One of the chiefs added a petition, that the snake would take no notice of the insult which had been offered him by the Englishman, who would even have put him to death, but for the interference of the Indians, to whom it was hoped he would impute no part of the offence. They further requested, that he would remain, and not return among the English; that is, go eastward.

"After the rattlesnake was gone, I learned that this was the first time that an individual of the species had been seen so far to the northward and westward of the River Des Francais; a circumstance, moreover, from which my companions were disposed to infer, that this _manito_ had come, or been sent, on purpose to meet them; that his errand had been no other than to stop them on their way; and that consequently it would be most advisable to return to the point of departure. I was so fortunate, however, as to prevail with them to embark; and at six o'clock in the evening we again encamped.

"Early the next morning we proceeded. We had a serene sky and very little wind, and the Indians therefore determined on steering across the lake, to an island which just appeared in the horizon; saving, by this course, a distance of thirty miles, which would be lost in keeping the shore. At nine o'clock A. M. we had a light breeze, to enjoy the benefit of which we hoisted sail. Soon after, the wind increased, and the Indians, beginning to be alarmed, frequently called on the rattlesnake to come to their assistance. By degrees the waves grew high; and at eleven o'clock it blew a hurricane, and we expected every moment to be swallowed up. From prayers, the Indians proceeded now to sacrifices, both alike offered to the god-rattlesnake, or _manito-kinibic_. One of the chiefs took a dog, and after tying its fore legs together, threw it overboard, at the same time calling on the snake to preserve us from being drowned, and desiring him to satisfy his hunger with the carcass of the dog. The snake was unpropitious, and the wind increased. Another chief sacrificed another dog, with the addition of some tobacco. In the prayer which accompanied these gifts, he besought the snake, as before, not to avenge upon the Indians the insult which he had received from myself, in the conception of a design to put him to death. He assured the snake that I was absolutely an Englishman, and of kin neither to him nor to them.

"At the conclusion of this speech, an Indian, who sat near me, observed, that if we were drowned it would be for my fault alone, and that I ought myself to be sacrificed, to appease the angry manito; nor was I without apprehensions, that, in case of extremity, this would be my fate; but, happily for me, the storm at length abated, and we reached the island safely."--Henry, _Travels_, 175.]

[Footnote 404: _Articles of Peace concluded with the Senecas, at Fort Niagara_, July 18, 1764, MS.]

[Footnote 405: MS. _Johnson Papers._ MS. _Minutes of Conference with the chiefs and warriors of the Ottawas and Menomonies at Fort Niagara_, July 20, 1764. The extracts given above are copied verbatim from the original record.]

[Footnote 406: Henry, _Travels_, 183.]

[Footnote 407: Every article in a treaty must be confirmed by a belt of wampum; otherwise it is void. Mante, the historian of the French war, asserts that they brought four belts. But this is contradicted in contemporary letters, including several of General Gage and Sir William Johnson. Mante accompanied Bradstreet's expedition with the rank of major; and he is a zealous advocate of his commander, whom he seeks to defend, at the expense both of Colonel Bouquet and General Gage.]

[Footnote 408: _Preliminary Treaty between Colonel Bradstreet and the Deputies of the Delawares and Shawanoes, concluded at L'Ance aux Feuilles, on Lake Erie_, August 12, 1764, MS.]

[Footnote 409: MS. Letter--_Gage to Bradstreet_, Sept. 2:--

Bradstreet's instructions directed him to _offer peace_ to such tribes as should make their submission. "_To offer peace_," writes Gage, "I think can never be construed a power to _conclude and dictate the articles of peace_, and you certainly know that no such power could with propriety be lodged in any person but in Sir William Johnson, his majesty's sole agent and superintendent for Indian affairs."]

[Footnote 410: Extract from a MS. Letter--_Gage to Bradstreet_, Sept. 2:--

"I again repeat that I annul and disavow the peace you have made."

The following extracts will express the opinions of Gage with respect to this affair.

MS. Letter--_Gage to Bradstreet_, Oct. 15:--

"They have negotiated with you on Lake Erie, and cut our throats upon the frontiers. With your letters of peace I received others, giving accounts of murders, and these acts continue to this time. Had you only consulted Colonel Bouquet, before you agreed upon any thing with them (a deference he was certainly entitled to, instead of an order to stop his march), you would have been acquainted with the treachery of those people, and not have suffered yourself to be thus deceived, and you would have saved both Colonel Bouquet and myself from the dilemma you brought us into. You concluded a peace with people who were daily murdering us."

MS. Letter--_Gage to Johnson_, Sept. 4:--

"You will have received my letter of the 2d inst., enclosing you the unaccountable treaty betwixt Colonel Bradstreet and the Shawanese, Delawares, &c. On consideration of the treaty, it does not appear to me that the ten Indians therein mentioned were sent on an errand of peace. If they had, would they not have been at Niagara? or would the insolent and audacious message have been sent there in the lieu of offers of peace? Would not they have been better provided with belts on such an occasion? They give only one string of wampum. You will know this better, but it appears strange to me. They certainly came to watch the motions of the troops."]

[Footnote 411: MS. Letter--_Bouquet to Gage_, Sept. 3.]

[Footnote 412: MS. _Minutes of Conference between Colonel Bradstreet and the Indians of Detroit_, Sept. 7, 1764. See, also, Mante, 517.]

[Footnote 413: MS. Letter--_Johnson to the Board of Trade_, Oct. 30.]

[Footnote 414: MS. _Remarks on the Conduct of Colonel Bradstreet_--found among the _Johnson Papers_.

See, also, an extract of a letter from Sandusky, published in several newspapers of the day.]

[Footnote 415: MS. _Report of Captain Howard_.]

[Footnote 416: "About the end of next month," said the deputies to the Miamis, "we shall send you the war-hatchet." "Doubtless," remarks Morris, "their design was to amuse General Bradstreet with fair language, to cut off his army at Sandusky when least expected, and then to send the hatchet to the nations."]

[Footnote 417: MS. Letter--_Morris to Bradstreet_, 18 Sept. 1764.

The journal sent by Morris to Bradstreet is in the State Paper Office of London. This journal, and the record of an examination of Morris's Indian and Canadian attendants, made in Bradstreet's presence at Sandusky, were the authorities on which the account in the first edition of this work was based. Morris afterwards rewrote his journal, with many additions. Returning to England after the war, he lost his property by speculations, and resolved, for the sake of his children, to solicit a pension, on the score of his embassy to the Illinois. With this view it was that the journal was rewritten; but failing to find a suitable person to lay it before the King, he resolved to print it, together with several original poems and a translation of the fourth and fourteenth satires of Juvenal. The book appeared in 1791, under the title of _Miscellanies in Prose and Verse_. It is very scarce. I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. S. G. Drake for the opportunity of examining it.

The two journals and the evidence before Bradstreet's court of inquiry agree in essentials, but differ in some details. In this edition, I have followed chiefly the printed journal, borrowing some additional facts from the evidence taken before Bradstreet.]

[Footnote 418: "8th. His going away, leaving at Sandusky Two Jersey Soldiers, who were sent out by his Orders to Catch Fish for his Table & Five Principal Inds. who were Hunting, notwithstanding several spoke to him abt. it & begged to allow a Boat to stay an hour or two for them; his Answer was, they might stay there & be damned, not a Boat should stay one Minute for them."--_Remarks on the Conduct_, etc., MS.

Another article of these charges is as follows: "His harsh treatment at Setting off to the Inds. and their officers & leaving some of them behind at every encampment from his flighty and unsettled disposition, telling them sometimes he intended encamping, on which some of the briskest Inds. went to kill some Game, on their return found the Army moved on, so were obliged to march along shore without any necessarys, and with difficulty got to Detroit half starved. At other times on being asked by the Ind^{n} officers (when the Boats were crowded) how they and y^{e} Inds. should get along, His answer always verry ill natured, such as swim and be damned, or let them stay and be damned, &c.; all which was understood by many & gave great uneasiness."]

[Footnote 419: Mante, 535.]

[Footnote 420: MS. Letter--_Johnson to the Board of Trade_, December 26.]

[Footnote 421: The provincial officers, to whom the command of the Indian allies was assigned, drew up a paper containing complaints against Bradstreet, and particulars of his misconduct during the expedition. This curious document, from which a few extracts have been given, was found among the private papers of Sir William Johnson.

A curious discovery, in probable connection with Bradstreet's expedition, has lately been made public. At McMahon's Beach, on Lake Erie, eight or ten miles west of Cleveland, a considerable number of bayonets, bullets, musket-barrels, and fragments of boats, have from time to time been washed by storms from the sands, or dug up on the adjacent shore, as well as an English silver-hilted sword, several silver spoons, and a few old French and English coins. A mound full of bones and skulls, apparently of Europeans hastily buried, has also been found at the same place. The probability is strong that these are the remains of Bradstreet's disaster. See a paper by Dr. J. P. Kirtland, in Whittlesey's _History of Cleveland_, 105.]

[Footnote 422: The following is an extract from the proclamation:--

"I do hereby declare and promise, that there shall be paid out of the moneys lately granted for his Majesty's use, to all and every person and persons not in the pay of this province, the following several and respective premiums and bounties for the prisoners and scalps of the enemy Indians that shall be taken or killed within the bounds of this province, as limited by the royal charter, or in pursuit from within the said bounds; that is to say, for every male Indian enemy above ten years old, who shall be taken prisoner, and delivered at any forts garrisoned by the troops in the pay of this province, or at any of the county towns, to the keeper of the common jails there, the sum of one hundred and fifty Spanish dollars, or pieces of eight. For every female Indian enemy, taken prisoner and brought in as aforesaid, and for every male Indian enemy of ten years old or under, taken prisoner and delivered as aforesaid, the sum of one hundred and thirty pieces of eight. For the scalp of every male Indian enemy above the age of ten years, produced as evidence of their being killed, the sum of one hundred and thirty-four pieces of eight. And for the scalp of every female Indian enemy above the age of ten years, produced as evidence of their being killed, the sum of fifty pieces of eight."

The action of such measures has recently been illustrated in the instance of New Mexico before its conquest by the Americans. The inhabitants of that country, too timorous to defend themselves against the Apaches and other tribes, who descended upon them in frequent forays from the neighboring mountains, took into pay a band of foreigners, chiefly American trappers, for whom the Apache lances had no such terrors, and, to stimulate their exertions, proclaimed a bounty on scalps. The success of the measure was judged admirable, until it was found that the unscrupulous confederates were in the habit of shooting down any Indian, whether friend or enemy, who came within range of their rifles, and that the government had been paying rewards for the scalps of its own allies and dependants.]

[Footnote 423: Gordon, _Hist. Penn._ 625. Robison, _Narrative_.

Extract from a MS. Letter--_Sir W. Johnson to Governor Penn_:--

"Burnetsfield, June 18th, 1764.

"David Owens was a Corporal in Capt. McClean's Compy., and lay once in Garrison at my House. He deserted several times, as I am informed, & went to live among the Delaware & Shawanese, with whose language he was acquainted. His Father having been long a trader amongst them.

"The circumstances relating to his leaving the Indians have been told me by several Indians. That he went out a hunting with his Indian Wife and several of her relations, most of whom, with his Wife, he killed and scalped as they slept. As he was always much attached to Indians, I fancy he began to fear he was unsafe amongst them, & killed them rather to make his peace with the English, than from any dislike either to them or their principles."]

[Footnote 424: MS. Letter--_Bouquet to Amherst_, 15 Sept. 1763.]

[Footnote 425: "If the present situation of the poor families who have abandoned their settlements, and the danger that the whole province is threatened with, can have no effect in opening the hearts of your Assembly to exert themselves _like men_, I am sure no arguments I could urge will be regarded."--_Amherst to Governor Hamilton_, 7 July, 1763.

"The situation of this country is deplorable, and the infatuation of their government in taking the most dilatory and ineffectual measures for their protection, highly blamable. They have not paid the least regard to the plan I proposed to them on my arrival here, and will lose this and York counties if the savages push their attacks."--_Bouquet to Amherst_, 13 July, 1763.]

[Footnote 426: MS. Letter--_Robertson to Amherst_, 19 July, 1763.]

[Footnote 427: "They have at my recommendation agreed to send to Great Britain for 50 Couples of Blood Hounds to be employed with Rangers on horse back against Indian scalping-parties, which will I hope deter more effectually the Savages from that sort of war than our troops can possibly do."--_Bouquet to Amherst_, 7 June, 1764.]

[Footnote 428: MS. Letter--_Bouquet to Amherst_, 27 Aug. 1763.]

[Footnote 429: MS. Letter--_Bouquet to Amherst_, 24 Oct. 1763. In this letter, Bouquet enlarges, after a fashion which must have been singularly unpalatable to his commander, on the danger of employing regulars alone in forest warfare: "Without a certain number of woodsmen, I cannot think it advisable to employ regulars in the Woods against Savages, as they cannot procure any intelligence and are open to continual surprises, nor can they pursue to any distance their enemy when they have routed them; and should they have the misfortune to be defeated, the whole would be destroyed if above one day's march from a Fort. That is my opinion in wh. I hope to be deceived."]

[Footnote 430: MS. Letter--_Bouquet to Gage_, 10 Aug. 1764.]

[Footnote 431: MS. Letter--_Bouquet to Gage_, 27 Aug. 1764. He wrote to Governor Penn, as follows:--

"Fort Loudon, 27 Aug. 1764.

"Sir:

"I have the honor to transmit to you a letter from Colonel Bradstreet, who acquaints me that he has granted peace to all the Indians living between Lake Erie and the Ohio; but as no satisfaction is insisted on, I hope the General will not confirm it, and that I shall not be a witness to a transaction which would fix an indelible stain upon the Nation.

"I therefore take no notice of that pretended peace, & proceed forthwith on the expedition, fully determined to treat as enemies any Delawares or Shawanese I shall find in my way, till I receive contrary orders from the General."]

[Footnote 432: MS. Letter--_Bouquet to Bradstreet_, 5 Sept. 1764.]

[Footnote 433: See p. 402, _note_.]

[Footnote 434: Captain Grant, who had commanded during the spring at Fort Pitt, had sent bad accounts of the disposition of the neighboring Indians; but added, "At this Post we defy all the Savages in the Woods. I wish they would dare appear before us.... Repairing Batteaux, ploughing, gardening, making Fences, and fetching home fire Wood goes on constantly every day, from sun rise to the setting of the same."--_Grant to Bouquet_, 2 April, 1764. A small boy, captured with his mother the summer before, escaped to the fort about this time, and reported that the Indians meant to plant their corn and provide for their families, after which they would come to the fort and burn it. The youthful informant also declared that none of them had more than a pound of powder left. Soon after, a man named Hicks appeared, professing to have escaped from the Indians, though he was strongly suspected of being a renegade and a spy, and was therefore cross-questioned severely. He confirmed what the boy had said as to the want of ammunition among the Indians, and added that they had sent for a supply to the French at the Illinois, but that the reception they received from the commandant had not satisfied them. General Gage sent the following not very judicial instructions with regard to Hicks: "He is a great villain. I am glad he is secured. I must desire you will have him tried by a General Court-Martial for a _Spy_. Let the proceedings of the Court prove him a _Spy_ as strong as they can, and if he does turn out a _spy_, he must be hanged."--_Gage to Bouquet_, 14 May, 1764. The court, however, could find no proof.]

[Footnote 435: _Account of Bouquet's Expedition_, 5.]

[Footnote 436: This speech is taken from the official journals of Colonel Bouquet, a copy of which is preserved in the archives of Pennsylvania, at Harrisburg, engrossed, if the writer's memory does not fail him, in one of the volumes of the _Provincial Records_. The published narrative, which has often been cited, is chiefly founded upon the authority of these documents; and the writer has used his materials with great skill and faithfulness, though occasionally it has been found advisable to have recourse to the original journals, to supply some omission or obscurity in the printed compilation.]

[Footnote 437: The sachem is the civil chief, who directs the counsels of the tribe, and governs in time of peace. His office, on certain conditions, is hereditary; while the war-chief, or military leader, acquires his authority solely by personal merit, and seldom transmits it to his offspring. Sometimes the civil and military functions are discharged by the same person, as in the instance of Pontiac himself.

The speech of Bouquet, as given above, is taken, with some omission and condensation, from the journals mentioned in the preceding note.]

[Footnote 438: The following is from a letter of Bouquet dated _Camp near Tuscarawas, 96 miles west of Fort Pitt_, 21st Oct. 1764: "They came accordingly on the 15^{th} and met me here, to where I had moved the camp. Time does not permit me to send you all the messages which have passed since, and the conferences I have had with them, as we are going to march. I shall for the present inform you that they have behaved with the utmost submission, and have agreed to deliver into my hands all their prisoners, who appear to be very numerous, on the 1^{st} of November; and, as I will not leave any thing undone, they have not only consented that I should march to their towns, but have given me four of their men to conduct the Army. This is the only point hitherto settled with them. Their excessive fear having nearly made them run away once more, that circumstance and the Treaty of Colonel Bradstreet, of which they produce the original, added to the total want of government among them, render the execution of my orders very intricate."]

[Footnote 439: An Indian council, on solemn occasions, is always opened with preliminary forms, sufficiently wearisome and tedious, but made indispensable by immemorial custom; for this people are as much bound by their conventional usages as the most artificial children of civilization. The forms are varied to some extent, according to the imagination and taste of the speaker; but in all essential respects they are closely similar, throughout the tribes of Algonquin and Iroquois lineage. They run somewhat as follows, each sentence being pronounced with great solemnity, and confirmed by the delivery of a wampum belt: Brothers, with this belt I open your ears that you may hear--I remove grief and sorrow from your hearts--I draw from your feet the thorns which have pierced them as you journeyed thither--I clean the seats of the council-house, that you may sit at ease--I wash your head and body, that your spirits may be refreshed--I condole with you on the loss of the friends who have died since we last met--I wipe out any blood which may have been spilt between us. This ceremony, which, by the delivery of so many belts of wampum, entailed no small expense, was never used except on the most important occasions; and at the councils with Colonel Bouquet the angry warriors seem wholly to have dispensed with it.

An Indian orator is provided with a stock of metaphors, which he always makes use of for the expression of certain ideas. Thus, to make war is to raise the hatchet; to make peace is to take hold of the chain of friendship; to deliberate is to kindle the council-fire; to cover the bones of the dead is to make reparation and gain forgiveness for the act of killing them. A state of war and disaster is typified by a black cloud; a state of peace, by bright sunshine, or by an open path between the two nations.

The orator seldom speaks without careful premeditation of what he is about to say; and his memory is refreshed by the belts of wampum, which he delivers after every clause in his harangue, as a pledge of the sincerity and truth of his words. These belts are carefully preserved by the bearers, as a substitute for written records; a use for which they are the better adapted, as they are often worked with hieroglyphics expressing the meaning they are designed to preserve. Thus, at a treaty of peace, the principal belt often bears the figures of an Indian and a white man holding a chain between them.

For the nature and uses of wampum, see note, _ante_, p. 141, _note_.

Though a good memory is an essential qualification of an Indian orator, it would be unjust not to observe that striking outbursts of spontaneous eloquence have sometimes proceeded from their lips.]

[Footnote 440: The Shawanoe speaker, in expressing his intention of disarming his enemy by laying aside his own designs of war, makes use of an unusual metaphor. To _bury the hatchet_ is the figure in common use on such occasions, but he adopts a form of speech which he regards as more significant and emphatic,--that of throwing it up to the Great Spirit. Unwilling to confess that he yields through fear of the enemy, he professes to wish for peace merely for the sake of his women and children.

At the great council at Lancaster, in 1762, a chief of the Oneidas, anxious to express, in the strongest terms, the firmness of the peace which had been concluded, had recourse to the following singular figure: "In the country of the Oneidas there is a great pine-tree, so huge and old that half its branches are dead with time. I tear it up by the roots, and, looking down into the hole, I see a dark stream of water, flowing with a strong current, deep under ground. Into this stream I fling the hatchet, and the current sweeps it away, no man knows whither. Then I plant the tree again where it stood before, and thus this war will be ended for ever."]

[Footnote 441: A party of the Virginia volunteers had been allowed by Bouquet to go to the remoter Shawanoe towns, in the hope of rescuing captive relatives. They returned to Fort Pitt at midwinter, bringing nine prisoners, all children or old women. The whole party was frost-bitten, and had endured the extremity of suffering on the way. They must have perished but for a Shawanoe chief, named Benewisica, to whose care Bouquet had confided them, and who remained with them both going and returning, hunting for them to keep them from famishing.--_Capt. Murray to Bouquet_, 31 Jan. 1765.

Besides the authorities before mentioned in relation to these transactions, the correspondence of Bouquet with the commander-in-chief, throughout the expedition, together with letters from some of the officers who accompanied him, have been examined. For General Gage's summary of the results of the campaign, see Appendix, F.]

[Footnote 442: _Penn. Hist. Coll._ 267. _Haz. Pa. Reg._ IV. 390. M'Culloch, _Narrative_. M'Culloch was one of the prisoners surrendered to Bouquet. His narrative first appeared in a pamphlet form, and has since been republished in the _Incidents of Border Warfare_, and other similar collections. The autobiography of Mary Jemison, a woman captured by the Senecas during the French war, and twice married among them, contains an instance of attachment to Indian life similar to those mentioned above. After the conclusion of hostilities, learning that she was to be given up to the whites in accordance with a treaty, she escaped into the woods with her half-breed children, and remained hidden, in great dismay and agitation, until the search was over. She lived to an advanced age, but never lost her attachment to the Indian life.]

[Footnote 443: _Ordinances of the Borough of Carlisle, Appendix._ _Penn. Hist. Coll._ 267.]

[Footnote 444: The author of _The Expedition against the Ohio Indians_ speaks of the Indians "shedding torrents of tears." This is either a flourish of rhetoric, or is meant to apply solely to the squaws. A warrior, who, under the circumstances, should have displayed such emotion, would have been disgraced for ever.]

[Footnote 445: The outcries of the squaws, on such occasions, would put to shame an Irish death-howl. The writer was once attached to a large band of Indians, who, being on the march, arrived, a little after nightfall, at a spot where, not long before, a party of their young men had been killed by the enemy. The women instantly raised a most astounding clamor, some two hundred voices joining in a discord as wild and dismal as the shrieking of the damned in the _Inferno_; while some of the chief mourners gashed their bodies and limbs with knives, uttering meanwhile most piteous lamentations. A few days later, returning to the same encampment after darkness had closed in, a strange and startling effect was produced by the prolonged wailings of several women, who were pacing the neighboring hills, lamenting the death of a child, killed by the bite of a rattlesnake.]

[Footnote 446: This and what precedes is meant to apply only to tribes east of the Mississippi. Some of the western and south-western tribes treat prisoners merely as slaves, and habitually violate female captives.]

[Footnote 447: The captives among the Shawanoes of the Scioto had most of them been recently taken; and only a small part had gone through the ceremony of adoption. Hence it was that the warriors, in their desperation, formed the design of putting them to death, fearing that, in the attack which they meditated, the captives would naturally take part with their countrymen.]

[Footnote 448: _Account of Bouquet's Expedition_, 29.]

[Footnote 449: Colden, after describing the Indian wars of 1699, 1700, concludes in the following words:--

"I shall finish this Part by observing that notwithstanding the French Commissioners took all the Pains possible to carry Home the French that were Prisoners with the Five Nations, and they had full Liberty from the Indians, few of them could be persuaded to return. It may be thought that this was occasioned from the Hardships they had endured in their own Country, under a tyrannical Government and a barren Soil. But this certainly was not the Reason, for the English had as much Difficulty to persuade the People that had been taken Prisoners by the French Indians to leave the Indian Manner of living, though no People enjoy more Liberty, and live in greater Plenty than the common Inhabitants of New York do. No Arguments, no Intreaties, nor Tears of their Friends and Relations, could persuade many of them to leave their new Indian Friends and Acquaintance. Several of them that were by the Caressings of their Relations persuaded to come Home, in a little Time grew tired of our Manner of living, and ran away to the Indians, and ended their Days with them. On the other Hand, Indian Children have been carefully educated among the English, clothed and taught; yet, I think, there is not one Instance that any of these, after they had Liberty to go among their own People, and were come to Age, would remain with the English, but returned to their own Nations, and became as fond of the Indian Manner of Life as those that knew nothing of a civilized Manner of living. What I now tell of Christian Prisoners among Indians relates not only to what happened at the Conclusion of this War, but has been found true on many other Occasions."--Colden, 203.]

[Footnote 450: See Appendix, F.]

[Footnote 451: MS. Letter--_Bouquet to Gage_, 4 March, 1765.]

[Footnote 452: _Ibid._, 17 April, 1765.]

[Footnote 453: MS. _Johnson Papers_.]

[Footnote 454: The superstitious veneration which the Indians entertain for the rattlesnake has been before alluded to. The Cherokees christened him by a name which, being interpreted, signifies _the bright old inhabitant_, a title of affectionate admiration of which his less partial acquaintance would hardly judge him worthy.

"Between the heads of the northern branch of the Lower Cheerake River, and the heads of that of Tuckaschchee, winding round in a long course by the late Fort Loudon, and afterwards into the Mississippi, there is, both in the nature and circumstances, a great phenomenon. Between two high mountains, nearly covered with old mossy rocks, lofty cedars and pines, in the valleys of which the beams of the sun reflect a powerful heat, there are, as the natives affirm, some bright old inhabitants, or rattlesnakes, of a more enormous size than is mentioned in history. They are so large and unwieldy, that they take a circle almost as wide as their length, to crawl round in their shortest orbit; but bountiful nature compensates the heavy motion of their bodies; for, as they say, no living creature moves within the reach of their sight, but they can draw it to them; which is agreeable to what we observe through the whole system of animated beings. Nature endues them with proper capacities to sustain life: as they cannot support themselves by their speed or cunning, to spring from an ambuscade, it is needful they should have the bewitching craft of their eyes and forked tongues."--Adair, 237.]

[Footnote 455: For an account of Jesuit labors in the Illinois, see the letters of Father Marest, in _Lett. Edif._ IV.]

[Footnote 456: The principal authorities for the above account of the Illinois colony are Hutchins, _Topographical Description_, 37. Volney, _View of the United States_, 370. Pitman, _Present State of the European Settlements on the Mississippi_, _passim_. Law, _Address before the Historical Society of Vincennes_, 14. Brown, _Hist. Illinois_, 208. _Journal of Captain Harry Gordon_, in Appendix to Pownall's _Topographical Description_. Nicollet, _Report on the Hydrographical Basin of the Mississippi_, 75.]

[Footnote 457: Lieutenant Alexander Fraser visited the Illinois in 1765, as we shall see hereafter. He met extreme ill-treatment, and naturally takes a prejudiced view of the people. The following is from his MS. account of the country:--

"The Illinois Indians are about 650 able to bear arms. Nothing can equal their passion for drunkenness, but that of the French inhabitants, who are for the greatest part drunk every day, while they can get drink to buy in the Colony. They import more of this Article from New Orleans than they do of any other, and they never fail to meet a speedy and good market for it. They have a great many Negroes, who are obliged to labour very hard to support their Masters in their extravagant debaucheries; any one who has had any dealings with them must plainly see that they are for the most part transported Convicts, or people who have fled for some crimes; those who have not done it themselves are the offspring of such as those I just mentioned, inheriting their Forefathers' vices. They are cruel and treacherous to each other, and consequently so to Strangers; they are dishonest in every kind of business and lay themselves out to overreach Strangers, which they often do by a low cunning, peculiar to themselves; and their artful flatteries, with extravagant Entertainments (in which they affect the greatest hospitality) generally favor their schemes."

Of the traders, he says, "They are in general most unconscious (_unconscionable_) Rascals, whose interest it was to debauch from us such Indians as they found well disposed towards us, and to foment and increace the animosity of such as they found otherwise. To this we should alone impute our late war with the Indians."