The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada Part 22

[Footnote 381: Extract from a MS. Letter--Thomas Apty to Governor Penn:-- "Sir:-- "Agreeable to your Honour's orders, I pa.s.sed 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 & embarra.s.s'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 pa.s.s."]

[Footnote 382: Letters to Governor Penn from General Gage, Governor Franklin of New Jersey, and Governor Colden of New York. See Votes of a.s.sembly, 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed 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 ma.s.sacre, 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 pa.s.sed 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 t.i.tles of some of them will give an idea of their character: The Quaker Unmasked--A Looking-Gla.s.s 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 t.i.tle of Plain Truth; if you had called it downright Lies, it would have agreed better with the Contents; the t.i.tle 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 a.s.sumed 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 ill.u.s.trating a curious feature of their superst.i.tions. Many tribes, including some widely differing in language and habits, regard the rattlesnake with superst.i.tious 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 s.p.a.ce 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 t.i.tle 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 pet.i.tion, 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 circ.u.mstance, 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 sh.o.r.e. 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 a.s.sistance. 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 G.o.d-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 carca.s.s 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 a.s.sured 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, a.s.serts 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 ent.i.tled 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 emba.s.sy 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 t.i.tle 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 Princ.i.p.al 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 d.a.m.ned, 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 sh.o.r.e 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 d.a.m.ned, or let them stay and be d.a.m.ned, &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 a.s.signed, drew up a paper containing complaints against Bradstreet, and particulars of his misconduct during the expedition. This curious doc.u.ment, 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 sh.o.r.e, 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 ill.u.s.trated 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 circ.u.mstances 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 a.s.sembly 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 doc.u.ments; 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 pa.s.sed 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 circ.u.mstance 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 p.r.o.nounced 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 subst.i.tute 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 princ.i.p.al 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 circ.u.mstances, should have displayed such emotion, would have been disgraced for ever.]