Cuyahoga County, Ohio - Chapter 3: The Eries and Their Destruction, 1870

Chapter 3: The Eries and Their Destruction

The Eries little known to the French - Power of the Iroquois - Destruction of the Kahquahs - Iroquois Tradition Regarding the Overthrow of the Eries - The Latter hear of the League of the Five Nations - An Athletic Contest with the Senecas - Bloody Work - An Attempted Surprise - A Great Battle - Defeat of the Eries - Probability of the Story Considered - Another Account - Butchery of the Erie Ambassadors - Burning of an Onondaga Chieftain - - Wrath of the Confederates - The Next Spring they Set Out - App) oaching the Stronghold - Description of the Warriors - The Assault - The Victory - Vengeance - Return of the Iroquois,

Durina the first quarter of a century after the existence of the Hives became known to the French, very little occurred which has become matter of history or even of tradition. The Gallic explorers with undaunted footsteps made their way to the shores of Lakes Huron and Ontario, but Lake Hrie was almost an unknown sea to them. Between its waters and the French settlements in Canada were the homes of the fierce, untamable Jroqguois, against whom Champlain, the founder of Canada, had needlessly waged war, and who had become the most implacable enemies of the French colonists. These celebrated confederates, already the terror of surrounding tribes, were rapidly rising to still wider dominion, partly on account of the strength derived from their wellplanned union, and partly on account of the facility with which they could obtain fire-arms and ammunition from the Duteh on the Hudson river, who were very glad to have so good a guard located between them and the adventurous Frenchmen of Canada. Equipped with these terrible weapons, and strong in their five-fold alliance, the Jroquois wreaked terrible vengeance not only on the countrymen of Champlain, but on their numerous foes of their own race, little foresecing that the destruction of their Indian rivals would only leave themselves the less able to resist the advance of the Europeans.

There was occasional warfare between the [roquots and the Hries, but the Kahquahs, or Neuter Nation, whose seats were on both sides of the Niagara river and extended a short distance up the south side of Lake Erie, lay partly between the rivals, and were then at peace with* both; so the enemies were constrained to bridle their hatred when they met on Aahquah ground, or, as some accounts say, only when in the immediate vicinity of the Aahquah villages. The Kahquahs maintained a similar neutrality between the Iroquois and the Hurons of Canada, and hence the French designation of "La Nation Neutre." They were not Quakers, by any means, however, and often waged war against distant tribes.

But the time was rapidly approaching when their neutrality would no longer serve to shield them from the aggressive spirit of the Jroquotis. In the autumn of 1650, the Hive Nations, haying already destroyed the Hurons, burst like a thunderbolt upon the unfortunate Kahquahs, defeated them in battle, burned a large number of their villages and slaughtered the inhabitants. The next spring they renewed the assault, and utterly destroyed the Aahquahs as a nation, slaying all except a few whom they adopted into their own tribes, and a few more who fled for safety to the Indians of the Far West, among whom they soon lost their separate identity.

Naught now interposed between the H7ries and their arrogant foes, the Hive Nations. Hxperience showed that they might soon expect an assault made with all the strength of the confederacy, and no doubt they prepared for its coming. 'The story of the final struggle is only to be derived from the vague and boastful traditions of the /roqwois, for of the Hries none are left to tell the tale of their people's ruin. One account, which has been widely quoted, was published in the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser in 1845, and is said to have been vouched for by ''Governor Blacksnake," a celebrated Seneca chief then nearly a hundred years old, and by other aged warriors of the Five Nations.

It represents that "'when the Hries heard of the confederation between the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas," they imagined it must be for some mischicvous purpose. To discover its meaning they invited the Zroquots to send a hundred of their most athletic young men, to play a game of ball with a like number selected by the Hries, for a heavy wager. The invitation was declined. Next year it was repeated, but again declined. A third time the challenge was sent, and this time it was accepted.

A hundred men, the flower of the Jroquois youth, The two parties met near the site of Buffalo. A large amount of wampum-belts, buffalo robes, beaded moccasins, etc., was deposited on each side as a wager, and then the game was played. The Jroguois were successful. The Hries then challenged the victors to a foot-race between ten of the fastest runners. The challenge was accepted, and the Jroquois were again victorious. By this time the Hries were extremely angry, and their chief proposed a wrestling match between ten of the best men on cach side; it being understood that the victor in cach case should tomahawk his adversary and tear off his scalp as a trophy. The Jroqguois accepted the proposition, determined, however, as they say, not to enforce the bloody penalty provided they were the conquerors. In the first match a Seneca threw his antagonist, but declined to slay him. The infuriated chief of the Hries immediately drove his own tomahawk into the brains of his prostrate champion. A second and a third Hrie met the same fate. The chief of the Zroquois, seeing the terrible excitement which prevailed among the /rves, put a stop to this remarkable '' sport," and quickly led his men. back to their own homes.

This inglorious contest inercased the jealousy of the Fries. They determined to attack the Senecas, who resided on Sencea lake, in the present State of New York, hoping to destroy them ere the other confederates could interfere. A Seneca woman, married among the Lies, fled and informed her countrymen of the intended assault. Allthe warriors of the Five Nations rallicd to mect it. The two armics met on the cast side of the Genesee river.. After a long and bloody combat, elaborately described by Blacksnake and his friends, after the ries had seven times been driven across a small stream which ran across the battle field, and had every time regained their ground, they were forced back for the cighth time, and a corps of a thousand young Jroquois warriors, which had been held in reserve, was let loose upon the rear of their exhausted focs. This decided the day, and the #ries were almost. entirely annihilated by the vigorous young warriors. The /roguois army followed their defeated enemies to their homes, destroyed their villages, and slew all but afew wretched men and women, who fled in terror to the tribes farther west.

Such is the substance of the story as preserved by Jroquois tradition, but it is altogether too good a story for the Five Nations. It shows them meek under provocation, successful in every athletic contest, and acting entirely on the defensive in the war which resulted in the destruction of their foes. The statement in the beginning that the movements of the Fries were caused by their hearing of the formation of the Jroquois league, shows the dubious character of the whole story, for that league had been in existence at least half a century when the Zyries were destroyed, and probably much longer. The confederacy had again and again demonstrated its power, and it would be absurd to suppose that their near neighbors and bitter enemies, ,the Eries, did not know all about it. Some portions of the tradition may be true, but it is so partial to the Iroquois that no dependence can be placed upon it. Almost the only certain thing in the whole story is that there was a war between the Jroqguois and the Eries, and that the latter were defeated and destroyed.

The most reliable account of the last great contest between the Jroguois and the Hries is that given by Parkman in his '' Jesuits of North America." This is also derived principally from Indian tradition, but the statements of the red men have been carefully sifted by that experienced historian, and have been compared with contemporary accounts of French missionaries. Moreover, it is quite in consonance with the nature of the /rogwois and the known results of the case. It appears from this account that in and the Senecas, the nearest and most powerful of the Troquois tribes, and the former nation sent thirty ambassadors to the Seneca country to confirm it. While they were there a quarrel arose in which a Seneca warrior was killed by one of the Hries. The countrymen of the deceased, regardless of the sacred office of the ambassadors (according to civilized ideas), immediately fell upon them and slew the whole thirty.

When the Zries heard of this butchery, of course the war was at once renewed. One of the parties sent to harass the Sroquots captured an Onondaga chief, and returned with him in triumph to their own country. Indian custom required that he should be burned at the stake to appease the shades of their slaughtered brethren. Some of the older and wiser sachems objected. Such an act would make the whole confederacy perfectly implacable, although previous to that time the quarrel had been principally with the Senecas. The Five Nations, partly armed with European weapons, had shown their immense power by scattering the great Huron nation to the four winds and by utterly destroying the Aahquahs, and it would be madness to invoke the unappeasable wrath of the terrible confederacy. On the other hand the young warriors were furious for revenge, and besides it was almost a positive law among them that the blood shed by their foes should be repaid with torture whenever an opportunity offered. -

There was, however, one way of escape. It was an immemorial custom that a prisoner's life might be saved at the request of a near relative of a slain warrior, who adopted him in place of the deceased.- It was determined to give the Onondaga to the sister of one of the slaughtcred ambassadorz. She was then absent, but it was not doubted that she would accept the prisoner in place of her brother, since by that means alone could the stern requirements of Indian law be reconciled with the safety of her people. She soon returned, and was earnestly solicited to acquiesce in the arrangement. But no; she would have no such brother as that.

"Let him be burned," she said; and the party of vengeance was thus reinforced by all who held in especial reverence the ancient customs of the tribe. The unfortunate Onondaga was doomed to the stake, and submitted to his terrible fate with the usual stoicism of an Indian warrior. But, as they were about to light the funeral pile, he declared that they were burning the whole Zrie nation, and many a prudent

When the news reached the Iroquois, the whole confederacy was in a fury of rage. Mohawks, Oneidus and Cauyugas were as eager for revenge as the Senecas; and the Onondagas, whose chief had suffered the last punishment of savage hate, were even more so. 'The approach of winter prevented an immediate movement against the Hries, but in the spring of 1654 nearly all the Zroquois warriors were summoned to the field. An army was fitted out which Le Moine, a Jesuit missionary then among the Onondagas, estimated at eighteen hundred men - an immense number when compared with an ordinary Indian war party.

The Lries, sensible of their danger, had retreated to the western part of their territory - probably to the vicinity of Cleyeland - and had there fortified themselves with palisades, strengthened by an abattis of forked trees. The Zroyuots estimated the number of the #rie warriors at two thousand, but this was probably one of the usual exaggerations of an enemy. 'The Senecas, by far the most powerful of the Five Nations, could only muster a thousand warriors, and there is no reason to suppose the Hries were stronger. Probably they were weaker.

After u long march through the forest, the Lroquois approached the stronghold of their enemics. A few curried muskets or arquebuses, and armunition, either purchased from the Dutch or captured from the French. 'Iwo wore French costumes, doubtless stripped from the bedies of slain enemies. At length the long column of the confederates arrived in front of the fortress of the Aries, and spiead themselves out inline. Otherarmies have been larger and better disciplined, but few have made'a more terrifying appearance than that which now stood awaiting the signal for the onslaught.

The war costume of an Indian in the olden time consisted of a smull breech-clout of deerskin, and a crest of as many bright colored feathers as he could obtain. His face and naked body were painted with pigments of red, yellow and black, arranged in the most fantastic and hideous designs that the artist could invent. A thousand or more savages, thus arrayed and decorated, and known to be filled with the most furious hatred, must have presented an appalling appearance to any but the hardiest foes. Nearly every man carried the bow, the arrows and the war club which had been the weapons of his fathers, but x few, as has been said, were provided with fire-arms, and many had substituted iron hatchets and knives for the stone tomahawks and flint scalpers of their ancestors. The war-chiefs, of whom there was a large proportionate number, took their positions a few yards ahead of the line, each one in front of his own band.

When all was ready the two Jroquois, before mentioned as being dressed in French costume, advanced close to the walls and demanded the surrender of the Erics. One of them, who had been baptized by the

The heralds retired, the head chiefs gave the signal, and with terrific yells the Jroquots advanced to the attack. They were met with flights of poisoned arrows, and were compelled to fall back. 'They then brought forward the canoes in which they had made the trip up the lake, and each crew bore its own bark aboye their heads so as to protect them from the arrows of the Hries. Thus shielded, they again moved forward. The poisoned missiles rattled on the frail bark vessels, but only occasionally hit the exposed part of some careless warrior.

At length the assaulting line reached the front of the palisade. This lofty barrier might well appear an insurmountable obstacle to men unprovided with ladders, but the /roquois placed their canoes against the wooden walls, and, in spite of the resistance of the Hries, specdily climbed over into the fort. Then began a scene of frightful butchery. Probably largely outuumbered by their confederatcd foes - perhaps hardly equal to them in warlike prowess - the Eries gave way on all sides. The Jroqguots rushed forward, Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas and Mohawks all cager to be the first in the race for vengeance. The forest resounded with the fearful yells of the victims, as in swift succession they struck down their foes with war-club or tomahawk, tore off their scalps, and waved the reeking trophics above their heads in demoniac triumph.

As was generally the ease when one savage nation was completely successful over another, the conquered people was almost completely annihilated. Men, women and children were slaughtered with equal ruthlessness, and all their villages were burned to the ground. Some escaped to join the tribes of the Far West. Some, especially children, were reserved for adoption by the conquerors, in accordance with widespread Indian custom. Many of the warriors, too, were taken alive, but these were generally devoted to the most terrible fate which savage malignity could invent.

When night came on, the victors prepared for a grand illumination. The captured warriors were bound, naked, one by one, to the trees of the forest. Piles of light fuel were heaped around them and then the toreh was applicd. A Cayuga told Mr. Parkman that, according to the tradition in his tribe, a thousund ries were thus enveloped in flames at once. As the Indians couldn't count over ten, and as there were probably not ovr a thousand Hrie warriors in much allowance. But even if there were a hundred thus subjected to torture, they must have formed the most soul-curdling sight that can well be imagined. Those who admire the romance of Indian life might have enjoyed their fill of it could they have stood in the forest on the shore of Lake Erie, two hundred and twenty-five years ago, and have seen the darkness lighted up by fire after fire, extending in every direction, in the midst of each of which a naked warrior writhed in the agonies of death, his voice, however, rising in the death-song, defiant and contemptuous toward his foes, who danced and howled around him in all the ecstasy of diabolical glee.

The Jroqguois remained in the country of the Hries for two months, nursing their own wounded, and hunting out, and capturing or slaying, any of that unfortunate people who might still be lingering near the homes of their ancestors. Then the conquerors re-entered their canoes, proceeded down the lake and made their way to their own homes, where they were doubtless received with universal admiration as heroes who had deserved well of their country.

Disputed Dominion

Iroquois Power - Its Boundary on the Cuyahoga - Ownership of the Western Part of the County - French Skill - La Salle's Supposed Visit - His Great Exploration - The First Vessel on Lake Erie - Tonti and Hennepin - Brilliant Prospects for the French - Fate of the Griffin - Subsequent career of La Salle - Pretensions of the French and English - The Jealous Iroquois - Ohio a Part of Louisiana - Building of Fort Niagara - An Extensive Trust Deed - Lake Erie called '' Oswego " - Meaning of the Word - The War of 1744 - The Ohio Company - De Bienville's Expedition - New French Posts - The First European Establishment in Cuyahoga county - W ashington in the Field - The First American Conzress - Franklin's Proposition - Beginning of the Great War - Western Indians aid the French - Defeat of Braddock - French Fortunes wane - Loss of Niagara and Quebec - Surrender of Canada-- End of French Power in the Lake Region.

From that time forward northwestern Ohio became a part of the domain of the all-conquering Jroquois. They fixed their western boundary at the Cuyahoga river, and there were none to dispute it with them. They continued, however, to reside in central New York, using this region only as a hunting ground. That remarkable confederacy was then at the hight of its power. From the Atlantic to the Mississippi, from Hudson's bay to the Gulf of Mexico, no nation nor league of their own race was able to withstand them, and the fecble colonies of Europeans alternately courted their friendship or shrank from their enmiby.

Though claiming no farther west than the Cuyahoga, their war parties made frequent excursions far beyond that boundary, coasting up Lake Erie in their canoes, passing by those who propitiated their friendship, but executing vengeance on those who awakened their wrath, even to the distant shores of the Mississippi and the far northern waters of Lake Superior.

That part of Cuyahoga county west of the river which bears its name was not permanently occupied by any tribe, but appears to have been claimed by another confederacy, much less powerful than the /roguvis, which had its principal seat in Michigan, und was composed of the Olftawas, Chippewas and the Pottawattamies. The Shawnees, who resided in the southwest, in the present State of Indiana, also frequently hunted along the shore of Lake Erie. In fact, the boundaries of Indian possessions were seldom defined with the accuracy of farm-lines in a deed, and were constantly varying according to the power or caprice of their owners.

Notwithstanding the old grudge of the Iroquois against them, the French, whose skill in managing savages was unequaled by that of any other European nation, succeeded in the intervals of active warfure in insinuating themselves among those fierce warriors, and securing a foothold for their fur-traders and even for their missionaries. It is highly probable that some of those classes, intent on the interests of commerce or religion, made their way to the south shore of Lake Erie soon after, if not before, the destruction of the unfortunate people who resided there; for the Jesuit map of 1660 proves that the members of that order had at least traced the chain of waters from Lake Erie to Lake Superior.

Very little is known, however, of the locality under consideration. According to a biography of the celebrated La Salle, by an anonymous author, yet bearing many evidences of credibility, that remarkable adventurer came into the country south of Lake Erie in 1669, discovered the Ohio and descended it to the rapids where Louisville now stands, where he was abandoned by his men and compelled to return alone. What La Salle was doing at this period is not positively known, and such an exploit would be in perfect harmony not only with his dauntless courage and boundless love of adventure but with his uniform lack of tact in managing his subordinates.

A map attributed to La Salle, issued in 1672, calls the great body of water which bounds Cuyahoga county on the north, ' Lake Tejocharonting, commonly ealled Lake Erie."

But it was not until 1679 that Lake Erie was fully explored by European eyes and its waters plowed by a vessel built by European hands. The leader in this important enterprise was the brilliant adventurer already named, Robert Cayelier de la Salle. This gentleman, « Frenchman of good family, then thirty-five years old, was the boldest and most successful of all the gallant men who attempted to explore the interior of North America. Some adventurers had made short excursions inland from the coast, others had trodden the shores of the St. Lawrence, others still had traced the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and discovered the mouth of its principal river; it was given to La Salle to glide from the northeast to the southwest over three thousand unknown miles of land and water, to unravel the great enigma of the Mississippi, and to span the whole eastern portion of the continent with the bow of triumphant discovery.

Having left his native Rouen at the age of twentytwo, La Salle had for thirteen years been leading a life of varied adventure in America, and had in 1678 received a commission from Louis the Fourteenth to discover the western part of New France. In the winter and spring of 1678 and 1679 he built a vessel of sixty tons on the Niagara river, above the falls, to which he gave the name of the "Griffin." After long waiting, to perfect his preparations, La Salle sailed up Lake Erie from the head of the Niagura on the seventh day of August, 1678.

It is not certain on which side of Lake Erie the "Griffin" sailed, nor whether it crossed the watery portion of Cuyahoga county; the presumption, however, is that 1t went on the north side, which was not only the shortest but was least likely to be infested by the hostile Zroguois. Nevertheless, the opening of the great inland sea, on which the county borders, to the knowledge and the commerce of Europe is an event of such importance to all who live on its shores as to merit more than a passing notice.

La Salle occupied four days in making the voyage from the site of Buffalo to the head of the lake, where he entered into the straits which lead to Lake Huron. There were thirty-four men on board the ' Griffin," all Frenchmen with two or three exceptions. La Salle himself is represented as a handsome, blue-eyed cavalier, with smooth cheeks and abundant ringlets, apparently better fitted to grace the salons of Paris than to dare the dangers of the American wilderness, yet in reality standing in the foremost rank of all those who opened the new world to the knowledge of the old.

The second in command was Henry de Tonti, an Italian by birth, son of the inventor of the '"T'ontine" plan of insurance, who had served valiantly as a sold'er in the Sicilian wars, who had been exiled from his native land by revolution, and who showed, throughout his career under La Salle, the most unwavering contempt of danger and the most devoted loyalty to his chief.

Another distinguished voyager on the ''Griffin" was the celebrated Father Hennepin, a Franciscan friar of Flemish birth, but French by education and lan- 'guage, who wasat once the priest and the historian of the expedition. '' With sandaled feet, a coarse, gray capote, and peaked hood, the cord of St. Francis about his waist, and a rosary and crucifix hanging at his side, the father set forth on his memorable journey."* Ife was attended by two coadjutors, and they carried with them a light portable altar, which could be strapped on the back like a knapsack or set up in the wilderness at a moment's notice. Father Hennepin was destined, in the course of the wide wanderings on which he was then entering, to display the most unswerving courage, and the most devoted zeal in the conversion of the savages to Christianity, but was also to acquire the less enviable reputation of being one of the most mendacious of the many untrustworthy European travelers in America.

before the favoring breezes, all doubtless believed that they were opening the new lake to the commerce of France, and that its fertile shores would in time be occupied by the subjects of Louis le Grand or his successors. 'To allappearances the French had obtained the complete dominion of all the waters of the St. Lawrence, and the career of La Salle was to extend still farther the sway of their magnificent monarch. The most vivid and prophetic imagination could not haye pictured the shores of the great lakes passing from the dominion of France to that of England, (whose king, Charles the Second, was then the mere vassal of Louis the Fourteenth), and again, after a brief interval, becoming a part of an independent country, whose power was to rival that of either of the great nations which had preceded it in the path of empire.

La Salle named the waters over which he was passing the '' Lac de Conti," in honor of one of his patrons, the Prince de Conti, but Father Hennepin called it Erie, mentioning at the same time that the Indians termed it '' Krie Tejocharonting."

The "Griffin," though the pioncer of all the immense commerce of Lake Erie, was itself the sport of disastrous fate. It went to Green Bay, where La Salle, Tonti and Hennepin left it; started on its return with a cargo of furs, and was never heard of more. Whether it sank with all on board amid the stormtossed waters of Lake Michigan or Huron, or was driven upon the shore of Lake Erie and its crew murdered by the revengeful Zroqgwois, has been a subject of frequent but unavailing investigation. Numerous relics of shipwreck have been found near the mouth of Rocky river, in Cuyahoga county, and it is possible, not probable, that some of them came from the long lost "Griffin." With greater probability it has. been deemed that the scene of the '* Griffin's" shipwreck was discovered, new the beginuing of this century, by the settlers in the southwest part of Erie county, New York; for there were cannon found there with French mottoes upon them, which certainly gives color to the theory that that was the theater of the " Griffin's" disaster. There are, however, other ways of accounting for those relics, and it is quite likely, as before stated, that the pioneer vessel of the upper lakes sank amid their turbulent waters with all of its unfortunate crew,

After the ''Griffin" had sailed, La Salle, with the majority of his companions, went into the Illinois country. There they built two trading posts, but as, after long waiting, the ''Griffin" did not return, the indomitable chief, with three comrades, performed the extraordinary feat of returning on foot to the the game they procured with their muskets. It has generally been supposed that La Salle and his companions went on the southern side of Lake Erie across the territory of Cuyahoga county, but there are good reasons for believing that they crossed the Detroit river and skirted the northern shore of the lake,

La Salle afterwards returned to the Illinois region, and in 1682, with a handful of men, descended the Mississippi to the sea, thus achieving the greatest feat of discovery ever accomplished in the interior of America, and adding the vast. territory of Louisiana to the dominions of France. While endeavoring, however, to colonize these newly discovered lands, he met with continual disasters, and was at length murdered by some of his own followers, in what is now the State of Texas.

For a long period afterwards there is very little to relate regarding the county of Cuyahoga. The French waged long wars with the English under King Williane and Queen Anne, and the Jroquois were generally in alliance with the latter people. Nevertheless the French, whose powers of insinuation among savages were unrivaled, obtained considerable influence among the Senecas, and were enabled to make many profitable voyages after furs upon Lake Erie. Fort Ponchartrain was built on the site of Detroit in 1701. By the peace of Utrecht, concluded ut the end of '' Queen Anne's War" in 1713, the Five Nations (or the Six Nations, as they became about that time by the admission of the Zwscaroras into the confederacy), were acknowledged to be subjects of the crown of Great Britain, but no definite boundaries were assigned them. From that time forth the English claimed to own as far west as the Cuyahoga, on the ground that the Six Nations had long been the proprietors to that point, while the French, by right of discovery and possession, claimed both shores of the great lakes, together with the whole valley of the Mississippi.

As for the Zroguots, they repudiated the pretensions of the English as seorufully as they did those of the French, and asserted their own ownership by virtue of their conquest of the Kahquahs and Fries. In fact they were becoming, perhaps, more jealous of the Engfish than of the French, since the former were continually obtaining large tracts of Indian lands for the purpose of colonization, while the latter only wanted posts for their fur-traders and stations for their missionaries. French traders from Canada scoured the whole West in search of furs, as did also the Dutch and English of New York.

At the period in question the French considered Ohio as a part of Louisiana. 'hat provinee was divided into four parts, each in charge of a military commandant; all being subject to the council-gencral of Louisiana. One of these subdivisions nominally included all the territory northwest of the Ohio. In fact, however, the would-be rulers exercised very little authority outside the walls of their rude fortresses.

In 1725, the Freneh obtained permission of the Iroquois chiefs to build a "' stone house" at the mouth of the Niagara, on the east side, where the Marquis de Denonville had previously planted a French post, which had been speedily abandoned. The ''stone house" was at once begun, and finished the next year; assuming, by the time it was completed, the proportions of a strong frontier fortress. This was a very important proceeding, as it gave the French, to a great extent, the command of the whole upper lake region. There was a great deal of intriguing among the /roquots chiefs on the part of both the French and the English, and it is sometimes difficult to learn which was in the ascendency ; though, as a general rule, the English influence was predominant. The French were most successful with the Senecas and one or two other western tribes of the confederacy, while the Mohawks and Oncidas, who lived on the English frontier, were usually faithful to their interest. 'he ancient bond of the '' Iledonosaunee," or People of the Long Ifouse, as the Jroquois called themselves, was evidently weakening under the stress of foreign intrigue.

But the French did not have it all their own way even with the western tribes. The same year that Fort Niagara was completed seven of the principal sachems of the Senecas, Cayugas and Onondagas made a deed of trust to the King of Great Britain and his suecessors, of their lands, extending in a belt sixty miles wide from the foot of Lake Ontario, all alung that lake, the Niagara river and the " Lake Oswego," [Erie] to the 'creek called Canahogue," which was the original form of Cuyahoga. 'The deed also included the ' beaver hunting-grounds " of those nations, the boundaries of which were not described, but which are supposed to have been on the Canadian peninsula. 'The king was to hold the lands forever, but solely in trust for the tribes above named; the object being evidently to give the English an excuse for withstanding the pretensions of the French to the same territory.

It is doubtful whether the seven chiefs had any authority to deed away the lands of their people, even ''in trust," and it is probable that they represented only the English faction, while it was the French faction which had given that nation authority to build Fort Niagara. The officers of King Louis and King George now maintained the conflicting claims of their respective masters to the country east of the Cuyahoga with more pertinacity than ever before.

It-will have been observed that in the above decd Lake Erie is called '' Oswego," that being the same name which about the same time was applied to the locality on Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Onondaga, now Oswego. Ona map in Colden's History of the Five Nations Lake Erie is called ''Okswego," and this appellation is also used in Washington's journal, in 1753, and on Pownal's map, as 'late as 1777. This name, like most Indian names, has received many different explanations. The most plausible, considering that the expression was used in regard to two such widely separated localities, is that of 'boundless view," or, as the Indians express it, '' look everywhere - see nothing." Such an appellation would be applicable to almost any point along the lakes, or to either of the lakes itself. The lake on which Cuyahoga county borders was, however, more often called by its old name of '' Erie," and this finally superseded all others.

Notwithstanding the intrigues of the French and English, that part of Cuyahoga county east of the river continued in peaceable possession of the Six Nations, who used it only as ahunting ground, while the western part was occupied for the same purpose by the Ottawas, Chippewas and Pottawattamics. The only white men seen within its bounds were occasional French fur-traders, or, less often, an extremely daring English one, and perchance, now and then, a darkgowned Jesuit, abandoning ease and risking life to spread the faith of his church among the savages of the Far West: =

In the war between France and England, begun in 1744, and concluded by the treaty of Aix la Chapelle in 1748, the Siz Nations generally maintained their neutrality, and the contest had no effect this far west. hi the last named year, however, an association called the Ohio Company was organized under the authority of the government of Virginia, for the purpose of settling the lands which that colony claimed west of the Alleganies. It numbered fourteen members, all were Lawrence and Augustine, elder brothers of George Washington. The Virginia authorities gave it a grant of halfa million acres west of the Alleganics, but without any definite location of boundaries; if the owners could maintain themselves on the Ohio or the shores of Lake Erie, they were welcome to do an armed truce, so far as America was concerned, and the intrigues of both French and English for the extension of their frontiers were more active than ever. In 1749, the Count de la Gulissoniere, the governorgeneral of Canada, ordered Monsieur Celeron de Bienville to sct forth from Detroit with three hundred as far as the Alleganies, and to take formal possession of the country in the name of the king of France. De Bienville obeyed his instructions, and at each important locality he buried a leaden plate, engraved with the arms of France, and also made one of those curious records, called a "' proces verbal," which consisted of a solemn written declaration of the officer, duly attested before a notary public, to the effect that he did then and there take possession of the surrounding country, in the name and for the benefit of the king of France.

As the mouth of the Cuyahoga had long been recognized as one of the principal places in the West, especially as being the boundary.between the Sia Nations and their western rivals, it is highly probable that Celeron de Bienville buried one of his plates and drew upone of his ''proces verbal" at that point, but there is no direct evidence to that effect. The

In.1752, the Marquis de Duquesne de Menneville was appointed governor-gencral of Canada, and proceeded to carry out the aggressive policy of his predecessor. The Indians of all the tribes became scriously alarmed, and jn a council held below Pittsburg, that year, they inquired where the Indian lands were, since the French claimed all on the west side of the Ohio and.the English on the cast. 'The next year the French began to carry out their long planned scheme of connecting Lake Erie and the Ohio river by a chain of posts, which should at once mark the boundary of the French possessions and defend them from invasion. Posts were accordingly established at Presqu' Isle, (Krie), Le Boeuf (French Creck) and Venango, all in the present State of Pennsylvania. If the movement was successful and the English acquiesced in it, Cuyahoga county, with all the rest of the West, was to become French territory.

The English and their colonies took the alarm; a small garrison was ordered to the forks of the Ohio, and young Major George Washington was sent by the governor of Virginia to remonstrate with the commandant at LeBoeuf and demand his withdrawa!. The latter preceeding was entirely futile, as was doubtless expected, and the next spring the French went down with a heavy force, drove away the little garrison at the forks of the Ohio, and built a fort there which they called Fort Duquesne. Thus the chain of posts was complete, and for the first time Cuyahoga county was fully inclosed within the French lines. 'lhe same year another fort was built on the Sandusky. About the same period, perhaps a little earlier, a French post of some kind was established on the Cuyahoga. It is shown on Lewis Evans' map, of 1755, as a '* French house," tive or six miles up the river on the west side. The language would indicate a trading-house, but it was probably sulticiently fortified to resist a sudden attack of hostile Indians. This was the first European establishment within the limits of Cuyahoga county.

By this time all the colonies were much excited, and a mecting of their representatives - the first American congress - was held at Albany to devise some meuns of united action against the common enemy. Benjamin Franklin, a delegate from Pennsylvania, proposed a plan of union among the colonies, which, however, was not adopted. I[mmediately afterwards Franklin, in his paper at Philadelphia, proposed a plan for defending the frontiers. 'lwo joint-stock companies were to be formed, each shareholder in which was to receive a certain number of acres of land from the government; one of the companies being bound to plant a colony on the Niagara frontier, and the other to establish one north of the Ohio. For the protection of the latter he proposed a temporary fort on French creeek, aud another at the mouth of the "' Tioga" [Cuyahoga] on the south side of Lake Erie, '' where a post should be formed and a town erected for the trade of the lake." This was, so far as known, the first suggestion ever made looking to the building of a town on the site of Cleveland.

But Franklin's plan necessitated that the government should first drive the French away from the head-waters of the Ohio and the south shore of Lake Erie, and this was a very difficult thing to do. When it should be accomplished the problem of defending the frontiers would have been substantially solved, whether the proposed colonies were established or not.

In that year (1754) Washington, by attacking a French party which was spying around his camp, struck the first overt blow in the most important war which had yet been waged in America. 'The French rallied their nifmerous friends among the western Indians, and these came gliding down the lake in canoes, resplendent in war-paint and feathers, ready to aid their great father, the king of France. Some went to Presqu' Isle (Erie), and thence to the posts in the interior, but some went up the Cuyahoga to the 'French house," thence to the portage, and so on direct to Fort Duquesne. ;

In 1755, a crowd of these western savages defeated the disciplined army of Braddock, and the valley of the Ohio and the shores of Lake Erie appeared to be more firmly fixed than ever in the power of the French. Their grasp was loosened in 1758, when Fort Duquesne was surrendered to General Forbes, but was by no means entirely relinquished. The next year, at the same time that Wolfe was seeking glory and a grave under the walls of Quebec, General Prideaux and Sir William Johnson, with a considerable force of English, Provincials and Jroqguois, came to besiege Fort Niagara, justly considered the key of the whole upper-lake region. Again the western Indians were called on, and again they hastened down the lake to the assistance of their French brethren.

D'Aubrey, the commander at Venango, gathered all he could of both white and red, and hastened to the relief of Niagara. He was utterly defeated and captured, however, close to the walls of that post, and the fort itself was immediately surrendered to the English. When this news came westward, followed quickly by the intelligence of the fall of Quebec, the few remaining Frenchmen along the lakes sadly foreboded the speedy transfer of this broad domain to the power of the hated English. In September of the next year (1760), the Marquis de Vandreuil, governor-general of Canada, surrendered that province to the English, including all the forts of the western country. 'This ended the long contest for dominion over the territory of northern Ohio, for no one could doubt that, with the French once subdued, the English would be the virtual lords of the whole country, although they might permit the various tribes of Indians to assert a nominal ownership.