The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada Part 19

[Footnote 185: Pontiac MS.]

[Footnote 186: MS. Letter--Gladwyn to Amherst, May 14. Pontiac MS., &c.]

[Footnote 187: St. Aubin's Account, MS.]

[Footnote 188: Parent's Account, MS. Meloche's Account, MS.]

[Footnote 189: Gouin's Account, MS.]

[Footnote 190: Penn. Gaz. Nos. 1807, 1808.

Extract from an anonymous letter--Detroit, July 9, 1763.

"You have long ago heard of our pleasant Situation, but the Storm is blown over. Was it not very agreeable to hear every Day, of their cutting, carving, boiling and eating our Companions? To see every Day dead Bodies floating down the River, mangled and disfigured? But Britons, you know, never shrink; we always appeared gay, to spite the Rascals. They boiled and eat Sir Robert Davers; and we are informed by Mr. Pauly, who escaped the other Day from one of the Stations surprised at the breaking out of the War, and commanded by himself, that he had seen an Indian have the Skin of Captain Robertson's Arm for a Tobacco-Pouch!"]

[Footnote 191: Pontiac MS.]

[Footnote 192: Pontiac MS. Penn. Gaz. No. 1808. MS. Letter--Gladwyn to Amherst, May 14, etc.]

[Footnote 193: Gouin's Account, MS.]

[Footnote 194: When a party returned with prisoners, the whole population of the village turned out to receive them, armed with sticks, clubs, or even deadlier weapons. The captive was ordered to run to a given point, usually some conspicuous lodge, or a post driven into the ground, while his tormentors, ranging themselves in two rows, inflicted on him a merciless flagellation, which only ceased when he had reached the goal. Among the Iroquois, prisoners were led through the whole confederacy, undergoing this martyrdom at every village, and seldom escaping without the loss of a hand, a finger, or an eye. Sometimes the sufferer was made to dance and sing, for the better entertainment of the crowd.

The story of General Stark is well known. Being captured, in his youth, by the Indians, and told to run the gauntlet, he instantly knocked down the nearest warrior, s.n.a.t.c.hed a club from his hands, and wielded it with such good will that no one dared approach him, and he reached the goal scot free, while his more timorous companion was nearly beaten to death.]

[Footnote 195: Meloche's Account, MS. Penn. Gaz. No. 1808. In a letter of James MacDonald, Detroit, July 12, the circ.u.mstances of the detention of the officers are related somewhat differently. Singularly enough, this letter of MacDonald is identical with a report of the events of the siege sent by Major Robert Rogers to Sir William Johnson, on the eighth of August. Rogers, who was not an eye-witness, appears to have borrowed the whole of his brother officer's letter without acknowledgment.]

[Footnote 196: Extract from a MS. Letter--Sir J. Amherst to Major Gladwyn.

"New York, 22nd June, 1763.

"The Precautions you took when the Perfidious Villains came to Pay you a Visit, were Indeed very wisely Concerted; And I Approve Entirely of the Steps you have since taken for the Defence of the Place, which, I hope, will have Enabled You to keep the Savages at Bay untill the Reinforcement, which Major Wilkins Writes me he had sent you, Arrives with you.

"I most sincerely Grieve for the Unfortunate Fate of Sir Robert Davers, Lieut. Robertson, and the Rest of the Poor People, who have fallen into the Hands of the Merciless Villains. I Trust you did not Know of the Murder of those Gentlemen, when Pontiac came with a Pipe of Peace, for if you had, you certainly would have put him, and Every Indian in your Power, to Death. Such Retaliation is the only Way of Treating such Miscreants.

"I cannot but Approve of your having Permitted Captain Campbell and Lieut. MacDougal to go to the Indians, as you had no other Method to Procure Provisions, by which means you may have been Enabled to Preserve the Garrison; for no Other Inducement should have prevailed on you to Allow those Gentlemen to Entrust themselves with the Savages. I am Nevertheless not without my Fears for them, and were it not that you have two Indians in your Hands, in Lieu of those Gentlemen, I should give them over for Lost.

"I shall Add no more at present; Capt. Dalzell will Inform you of the steps taken for Reinforcing you: and you may be a.s.sured--the utmost Expedition will be used for Collecting such a Force as may be Sufficient for bringing Ample Vengeance on the Treacherous and b.l.o.o.d.y Villains who have so Perfidiously Attacked their Benefactors." MacDonald, and after him, Rogers, says that, after the detention of the two officers, Pontiac summoned the fort to surrender, threatening, in case of refusal, to put all within to the torture. The anonymous author of the Diary of the Siege adds that he sent word to Gladwyn that he kept the officers out of kindness, since, if they returned to the fort, he should be obliged to boil them with the rest of the garrison, the kettle being already on the fire.]

[Footnote 197: Pontiac MS.]

[Footnote 198: MS. Letter--James McDonald to ----, Detroit, July 12.]

[Footnote 199: Penn. Gaz. No. 1808.]

[Footnote 200: MS. Letter from an officer at Detroit--no signature--July 31.

Extract from a letter dated Detroit, July 6.

"We have been besieged here two Months, by Six Hundred Indians. We have been upon the Watch Night and Day, from the Commanding Officer to the lowest soldier, from the 8th of May, and have not had our Cloaths off, nor slept all Night since it began; and shall continue so till we have a Reinforcement up. We then hope soon to give a good account of the Savages. Their Camp lies about a Mile and a half from the Fort; and that's the nearest they choose to come now. For the first two or three Days we were attacked by three or four Hundred of them, but we gave them so warm a Reception that now they don't care for coming to see us, tho' they now and then get behind a House or Garden, and fire at us about three or four Hundred yards' distance. The Day before Yesterday, we killed a Chief and three others, and wounded some more; yesterday went up with our Sloop, and battered their Cabins in such a Manner that they are glad to keep farther off."]

[Footnote 201: Pontiac MS.]

[Footnote 202: Penn. Gaz. No. 1808.]

[Footnote 203: Extract from a MS. Letter--Major Gladwyn to Sir J. Amherst.

"Detroit, July 8th, 1763.

"Since the Commencement of this Extraordinary Affair, I have been Informed, that many of the Inhabitants of this Place, seconded by some French Traders from Montreal, have made the Indians Believe that a French Army & Fleet were in the River St. Lawrence, and that Another Army would come from the Illinois; And that when I Published the cessation of Arms, they said it was a mere Invention of Mine, purposely Calculated to Keep the Indians Quiet, as We were Affraid of them; but they were not such Fools as to Believe me; Which, with a thousand other Lies, calculated to Stir up Mischief, have Induced the Indians to take up Arms; And I dare say it will Appear ere long, that One Half of the Settlement merit a Gibbet, and the Other Half ought to be Decimated; Nevertheless, there is some Honest Men among them, to whom I am Infinitely Obliged; I mean, Sir, Monsieur Navarre, the two Babys, & my Interpreters, St. Martin & La Bute."]

[Footnote 204: The annals of these remote and gloomy regions are involved in such obscurity, that it is hard to discover the precise character of the events to which Pontiac here refers. The only allusion to them, which the writer has met with, is the following, inscribed on a tattered sc.r.a.p of soiled paper, found among the M'Dougal ma.n.u.scripts:-- "Five miles below the mouth of Wolf River is the Great Death Ground. This took its name from the circ.u.mstance, that some years before the Old French War, a great battle was fought between the French troops, a.s.sisted by the Menomonies and Ottaways on the one side, and the Sac and Fox Indians on the other. The Sacs and Foxes were nearly all cut off; and this proved the cause of their eventual expulsion from that country."

The M'Dougal ma.n.u.scripts, above referred to, belonged to a son of the Lieutenant M'Dougal who was the fellow-prisoner of Major Campbell. On the death of the younger M'Dougal, the papers, which were very voluminous, and contained various notes concerning the Indian war, and the captivity of his father, came into the possession of a family at the town of St. Clair, in Michigan, who permitted such of them as related to the subjects in question to be copied by the writer.]

[Footnote 205: Peltier's Account, MS.]

[Footnote 206: Gouin's Account, MS.]

[Footnote 207: Tradition related by M. Baby. The following is from the Diary of the Siege: "Mr. St. Martin said ... that one Sibbold that came here last winter with his Wife from the Illinois had told at Mr. Cuellierry's (Quilleriez) that they might expect a French Army in this Spring, and that Report took rise from him. That the Day Capt. Campbell & Lt. McDougal was detained by the Indians, Mr. Cuellierry accepted of their Offer of being made Commandant, if this Place was taken, to which he spoke to Mr. Cuellierry about and ask'd him if he knew what he was doing, to which Mr. Cuellierry told him, I am almost distracted, they are like so many Dogs about me, to which Mr. St. Martin made him no Answer."]

[Footnote 208: Rogers, Account of North America, 244. The anonymous Diary of the Siege says that they bore the figure of a "c.o.o.n."]

[Footnote 209: MS. Letter--Gage to Lord Halifax, April 16, 1764.

Extract from a MS. Letter--William Smith, Jr., to ----.

"New York, 22d Nov. 1763.

"'Tis an old saying that the Devil is easier raised than laid. Sir Jeffrey has found it so, with these Indian Demons. They have cut his little Army to Pieces, & almost if not entirely obstructed the Communication to the Detroite, where the Enemy are grown very numerous; and from whence I fancy you'll soon hear, if any survive to relate them, very tragical Accounts. The Besiegers are led on by an enterprising Fellow called Pondiac. He is a Genius, for he possesses great Bravery, Art, & Oratory, & has had the Address to get himself not only at the Head of his Conquerors, but elected Generalissimo of all the confederate Forces now acting against us--Perhaps he may deserve to be called the Mithridates of the West."]

[Footnote 210: Rogers, North America, 240.]

[Footnote 211: Gouin's Account, MS.]

[Footnote 212: Rogers, North America, 244.]

[Footnote 213: Tradition related by M. Francois Baby.]

[Footnote 214: Tradition related by M. Francois Baby, of Windsor, U. C., the son of Pontiac's friend, who lives opposite Detroit, upon nearly the same site formerly occupied by his father's house. Though Pontiac at this time a.s.sumed the att.i.tude of a protector of the Canadians, he had previously, according to the anonymous Diary of the Siege, bullied them exceedingly, compelling them to plough land for him, and do other work. Once he forced them to carry him in a sedan chair from house to house, to look for provisions.]

[Footnote 215: Penn. Gaz. No. 1807. MS. Letter--Wilkins to Amherst, June 18.

This incident may have suggested the story told by Mrs. Grant, in her Memoirs of an American Lady. A young British officer, of n.o.ble birth, had been living for some time among the Indians, and having encountered many strange adventures, he was now returning in a canoe with a party of his late a.s.sociates,--none of them, it appears, were aware that hostilities existed,--and approached the schooner just before the attack commenced, expecting a friendly reception. Sir Robert D----, the young officer, was in Indian costume, and, wishing to surprise his friends, he made no answer when hailed from the vessel, whereupon he was instantly fired at and killed.--The story is without confirmation, in any contemporary doc.u.ment, and, indeed, is impossible in itself. Sir Robert Davers was killed, as before mentioned, near Lake St. Clair; but neither in his character, nor in the mode of his death, did he at all resemble the romantic adventurer whose fate is commemorated by Mrs. Grant.]

[Footnote 216: Pontiac MS.]

[Footnote 217: Pontiac MS.]

[Footnote 218: Another witness, Gouin, affirms that the Indian freed himself from the dying grasp of the soldier, and swam ash.o.r.e.]

[Footnote 219: Penn. Gaz. No. 1807. St. Aubin's Account, MS. Peltier's Account, MS.]

[Footnote 220: "Being abandoned by my men, I was Forced to Retreat in the best manner I could. I was left with 6 men on the Beech, Endeavoring to get off a Boat, which not being able to Effect, was Obliged to Run up to my Neck, in the Lake, to get to a Boat that had pushed off, without my Knowledge.--When I was in the Lake I saw Five Boats manned, and the Indians having manned two Boats, pursued and Brought back Three of the Five, keeping a continual Fire from off the Sh.o.r.e, and from the two Boats that followed us, about a Mile on the Lake; the Wind springing up fair, I and the other Remaining Boat Hoisted sail and escaped."--Cuyler's Report, MS.]

[Footnote 221: Cuyler's Report, MS.

Extract from a MS. Letter--Major Wilkins to Sir J. Amherst.

"Niagara, 6th June, 1763.

"Just as I was sending off my Letter of Yesterday, Lieutenant Cuyler, of the Queen's Rangers, Arrived from his Intended Voyage to the Detroit. He has been very Unfortunate, Having been Defeated by Indians within 30 miles of the Detroit River; I observed that he was Wounded and Weak, and Desired him to take the Surgeon's a.s.sistance and some Rest, and Recollect the Particulars of the Affair, and let me have them in Writing, as perhaps I should find it Necessary to Transmit them to Your Excellency, which I have now Done.

"It is probable Your Excellency will have heard of what has Happened by way of Fort Pitt, as Ensign Christie, Commanding at Presqu' Isle, writes me he has sent an Express to Acquaint the Commanding Officer at that Place, of Sanduskie's being Destroyed, and of Lieut. Cuyler's Defeat.

"Some Indians of the Six Nations are now with me. They seem very Civil; The Interpreter has just told them I was writing to Your Excellency for Rum, and they are very glad."]

[Footnote 222: "The Indians, fearing that the other barges might escape as the first had done, changed their plan of going to the camp. They landed their prisoners, tied them, and conducted them by land to the Ottawas village, and then crossed them to Pondiac's camp, where they were all butchered. As soon as the canoes reached the sh.o.r.e, the barbarians landed their prisoners, one after the other, on the beach. They made them strip themselves, and then sent arrows into different parts of their bodies. These unfortunate men wished sometimes to throw themselves on the ground to avoid the arrows; but they were beaten with sticks and forced to stand up until they fell dead; after which those who had not fired fell upon their bodies, cut them in pieces, cooked, and ate them. On others they exercised different modes of torment by cutting their flesh with flints, and piercing them with lances. They would then cut their feet and hands off, and leave them weltering in their blood till they were dead. Others were fastened to stakes, and children employed in burning them with a slow fire. No kind of torment was left untried by these Indians. Some of the bodies were left on sh.o.r.e; others were thrown into the river. Even the women a.s.sisted their husbands in torturing their victims. They slitted them with their knives, and mangled them in various ways. There were, however, a few whose lives were saved, being adopted to serve as slaves."--Pontiac MS.

"The remaining barges proceeded up the river, and crossed to the house of Mr. Meloche, where Pontiac and his Ottawas were encamped. The barges were landed, and, the women having arranged themselves in two rows, with clubs and sticks, the prisoners were taken out, one by one, and told to run the gauntlet to Pontiac's lodge. Of sixty-six persons who were brought to the sh.o.r.e, sixty-four ran the gauntlet, and were all killed. One of the remaining two, who had had his thigh broken in the firing from the sh.o.r.e, and who was tied to his seat and compelled to row, had become by this time so much exhausted that he could not help himself. He was thrown out of the boat and killed with clubs. The other, when directed to run for the lodge, suddenly fell upon his knees in the water, and having dipped his hand in the water, he made the sign of the cross on his forehead and breast, and darted out in the stream. An expert swimmer from the Indians followed him, and, having overtaken him, seized him by the hair, and crying out, 'You seem to love water; you shall have enough of it,' he stabbed the poor fellow, who sunk to rise no more."--Gouin's Account, MS.]

[Footnote 223: Pontiac MS.]

[Footnote 224: MS. Official Doc.u.ment--Report of the Loss of the Posts in the Indian Country, enclosed in a letter from Major Gladwyn to Sir Jeffrey Amherst, July 8, 1763.]

[Footnote 225: Pontiac MS.]

[Footnote 226: Loss of the Posts in the Indian Country, MS. Compare Diary of the Siege, 25.

The following is from a curious letter of one Richard Winston, a trader at St. Joseph's, to his fellow-traders at Detroit, dated 19 June, 1763:-- "Gentlemen, I address myself to you all, not knowing who is alive or who is dead. I have only to inform you that by the blessing of G.o.d and the help of M. Louison Chevalie, I escaped being killed when the unfortunate garrison was ma.s.sacred, Mr. Hambough and me being hid in the house of the said Chevalie for 4 days and nights. Mr. Hambough is brought by the Savages to the Illinois, likewise Mr. Chim. Unfortunate me remains here Captive with the Savages. I must say that I met with no bad usage; however, I would that I was (with) some Christian or other. I am quite naked, & Mr. Castacrow, who is indebted to Mr. Cole, would not give me one inch to save me from death."]

[Footnote 227: Pontiac MS.]

[Footnote 228: "Ouatanon, June 1st, 1763.

"Sir: "I have heard of your situation, which gives me great Pain; indeed, we are not in much better, for this morning the Indians sent for me, to speak to me, and Immediately bound me, when I got to their Cabbin, and I soon found some of my Soldiers in the same Condition: They told me Detroit, Miamis, and all them Posts were cut off, and that it was a Folly to make any Resistance, therefore desired me to make the few Soldiers, that were in the Fort, surrender, otherwise they would put us all to Death, in case one man was killed. They were to have fell on us and killed us all, last night, but Mr. Maisongville and Lorain gave them wampum not to kill us, & when they told the Interpreter that we were all to be killed, & he knowing the condition of the Fort, beg'd of them to make us prisoners. They have put us into French houses, & both Indians and French use us very well: All these Nations say they are very sorry, but that they were obliged to do it by the Other Nations. The Belt did not Arrive here 'till last night about Eight o'Clock. Mr. Lorain can inform you of all. Just now Received the News of St. Joseph's being taken, Eleven men killed and three taken Prisoners with the Officer: I have nothing more to say, but that I sincerely wish you a speedy succour, and that we may be able to Revenge ourselves on those that Deserve it.

"I Remain, with my Sincerest wishes for your safety, "Your most humble servant, EDW^{D} JENKINS.

"N. B. We expect to set off in a day or two for the Illinois."

This expectation was not fulfilled, and Jenkins remained at Ouatanon. A letter from him is before me, written from thence to Gladwyn on the 29th July, in which he complains that the Canadians were secretly advising the Indians to murder all the English in the West.]

[Footnote 229: Loss of the Posts, MS. Compare Diary of the Siege, 22, 26.

It appears by a deposition taken at Detroit on the 11th June, that G.o.defroy, mentioned above, left Detroit with four other Canadians three or four days after the siege began. Their professed object was to bring a French officer from the Illinois to induce Pontiac to abandon his hostile designs. At the mouth of the Maumee they met John Welsh, an English trader, with two canoes, bound for Detroit. They seized him, and divided his furs among themselves and a party of Indians who were with them. They then proceeded to Fort Miami, and aided the Indians to capture it. Welsh was afterwards carried to Detroit, where the Ottawas murdered him.]

[Footnote 230: Evidence of Benjamin Gray, soldier in the 1st Battalion of the 60th Regiment, before a Court of Inquiry held at Fort Pitt, 12th Sept. 1763. Evidence of David Smart, soldier in the 60th Regiment, before a Court of Inquiry held at Fort Pitt, 24th Dec., 1763, to take evidence relative to the loss of Presqu' Isle which did not appear when the last court sat.]

[Footnote 231: Loss of the Posts, MS. Pontiac MS. Report of Ensign Christie, MS. Testimony of Edward Smyth, MS. This last evidence was taken by order of Colonel Bouquet, commanding the battalion of the Royal American Regiment to which Christie belonged. Christie's surrender had been thought censurable both by General Amherst and by Bouquet. According to Christie's statements, it was unavoidable; but according to those of Smyth, and also of the two soldiers, Gray and Smart, the situation, though extremely critical, seems not to have been desperate. Smyth's testimony bears date 30 March, 1765, nearly two years after the event. Some allowance is therefore to be made for lapses of memory. He places the beginning of the attack on the twenty-first of June, instead of the fifteenth,--an evident mistake. The Diary of the Siege of Detroit says that Christie did not make his escape, but was brought in and surrendered by six Huron chiefs on the ninth of July. In a letter of Bouquet dated June 18th, 1760, is enclosed a small plan of Presqu' Isle.]

[Footnote 232: Pontiac MS.]

[Footnote 233: MS. Letter--Gladwyn to Amherst, July 8.]

[Footnote 234: Pontiac MS.]

[Footnote 235: This name is always applied, among the Canadians of the North-west, to the conductor of a trading party, the commander in a trading fort, or, indeed, to any person in a position of authority.

Extract from a Letter--Detroit, July 9, 1763 (Penn. Gaz. No. 1808).

"Judge of the Conduct of the Canadians here, by the Behaviour of these few Sacres Bougres, I have mentioned; I can a.s.sure you, with much Certainty, that there are but very few in the Settlement who are not engaged with the Indians in their d.a.m.n'd Design; in short, Monsieur is at the Bottom of it; we have not only convincing Proofs and Circ.u.mstances, but undeniable Proofs of it. There are four or five sensible, honest Frenchmen in the Place, who have been of a great deal of Service to us, in bringing us Intelligence and Provisions, even at the Risque of their own Lives; I hope they will be rewarded for their good Services; I hope also to see the others exalted on High, to reap the Fruits of their Labours, as soon as our Army arrives; the Discoveries we have made of their horrid villianies, are almost incredible. But to return to the Terms of Capitulation: Pondiac proposes that we should immediately give up the Garrison, lay down our Arms, as the French, their Fathers, were obliged to do, leave the Cannon, Magazines, Merchants' Goods, and the two Vessels, and be escorted in Battoes, by the Indians, to Niagara. The Major returned Answer, that the General had not sent him there to deliver up the Fort to Indians, or anybody else; and that he would defend it whilst he had a single man to fight alongside of him. Upon this, Hostilities recommenced, since which Time, being two months, the whole Garrison, Officers, Soldiers, Merchants, and Servants, have been upon the Ramparts every Night, not one having slept in a House, except the Sick and Wounded in the Hospital.

"Our Fort is extremely large, considering our Numbers, the Stockade being above 1000 Paces in Circ.u.mference; judge what a Figure we make on the Works."

The writer of the above letter is much too sweeping and indiscriminate in his denunciation of the French.]

[Footnote 236: Croghan, Journal. See Butler, Hist. Kentucky, 463.]

[Footnote 237: Pontiac MS.]

[Footnote 238: Gouin's Account, MS. St. Aubin's Account, MS. Diary of the Siege.

James MacDonald writes from Detroit on the 12th of July. "Half an hour afterward the savages carried (the body of) the man they had lost before Capt. Campbell, stripped him naked, and directly murthered him in a cruel manner, which indeed gives me pain beyond expression, and I am sure cannot miss but to affect sensibly all his acquaintances. Although he is now out of the question, I must own I never had, nor never shall have, a Friend or Acquaintance that I valued more than he. My present comfort is, that if Charity, benevolence, innocence, and integrity are a sufficient dispensation for all mankind, that ent.i.tles him to happiness in the world to come."]

[Footnote 239: Penn. Gaz. No. 1808.]

[Footnote 240: Pontiac MS.]

[Footnote 241: Whatever may have been the case with the Pottawattamies, there were indications from the first that the Wyandots were lukewarm or even reluctant in taking part with Pontiac. As early as May 22, some of them complained that he had forced them into the war. Diary of the Siege. Johnson MSS.]

[Footnote 242: Extract from a MS. Letter--Sir J. Amherst to Sir W. Johnson.

"New York, 16th June, 1763.

"Sir: "I am to thank you for your Letter of the 6th Instant, which I have this moment Received, with some Advices from Niagara, concerning the Motions of the Indians that Way, they having attacked a Detachment under the Command of Lieut. Cuyler of Hopkins's Rangers, who were on their Route towards the Detroit, and Obliged him to Return to Niagara, with (I am sorry to say) too few of his Men.

"Upon this Intelligence, I have thought it Necessary to Dispatch Captain Dalyell, my Aid de Camp, with Orders to Carry with him all such Reinforcements as can possibly be collected (having, at the same time, a due Attention to the Safety of the Princ.i.p.al Forts), to Niagara, and to proceed to the Detroit, if Necessary, and Judged Proper."]

[Footnote 243: Penn. Gaz. No. 1811.]

[Footnote 244: Pontiac MS.]

[Footnote 245: MS. Letter--Major Rogers to ----, Aug. 5.]

[Footnote 246: Pontiac MS.]

[Footnote 247: Extract from a MS. Letter--Major Gladwyn to Sir J. Amherst.