Carroll County, Indiana - Chapter 13: Nichola.s Con.spira(, 1882

'' pHE origin of this conspiracy should, perhaps, date back to a --- period more than one hundred and fifty years anterior to the date of its ultimate consummation. A short time subsequent to the first permanent French settlements in Canada and the inauguration of the systematic trade with the Indians for accumulation of ful's as a source of pecuniary profit, English traders came and established a competition in that department, the French having enjoyed a monopoly. To make their competitian available, it was necessary to secure the confidence of those classes of Indians especially engaged in the procurement of such furs as commanded the best prices in foreign markets. The French having first opened avenues through which the Indians could make the traffic profitable, and, by methods peculiar to the French people, secm-ed their entire confidence, it was extremely diificult to divert the trade from those original channels. Failing to succeed in their attempts to overcome the inclination of the Indians to confide in and trade with the French, feelings of jealousy on the part of the English traders were naturally engendered, and, in the course of time, became productive in results.

The department of trade in fiU's most lucrative was that in beaver, from always commanding the readiest sales. From location and adaptation, some tribes procured the best qualities in larger quantities and more certainly than others; hence they were envied by the less successful, and their favor courted by competing traders. Of these, the Ouataous(Ottawas) were prominent, and at the same time were most unyielding in their adherence to the French, thus constituting an almost impassable barrier to the advances of the English traders. With these conditions precedent, jealousy on the part of other tribes, perhaps in alliance with the English, on one hand, and the disposition on the part of the English to secure their trade by whatever means, holding at tlie simie time a controlling influence over powerful and ambitious trilies on the other, the process most likely to suggest itself was to induce an exertion of that insinuating influence in pandering to the jealousies of circumjacent ti-ibes with i)retexts for war. Such means were speedily utilized by the English, and the Ottawas were met with manifestations uf ill feeling from former friends, who had been

Next to the Ottawas, the Hiu-ons were the best fiu'-gatherers, and occupied an enviable position in their sphere, supplying a large proportion of the material necestary to successful trade, and, with them, were eai'ly in the interests of the French traders, and were allies also of the Ottawas. Thfey were, however, subject to the influences of the Iroquois, whose kindi-ed they were. That influence was exerted so as eventually to divert the trade into English channels, to the detriment of the French interests. This left the Ottawas the exclusive large traders in beaver adhering to the French, notwithstanding the successful manipulation process adopted by the English agents. Meanwhile, the elements of discord had their effect on the family relations of the neighboring tribes, involving also the relations of the French and English subordinate governments. Feuds were engendered among the tribes, and promoted by the interference of their allies res2)ectively. In the course of time, petty wars became frequent, and were sources of annoyance, especially to the French, and the Hurons, from being warm fiuends of the French came to be secret, often open, enemies, thi-ough the agency of designing co-operators. Hence the sequel.

The immediate pretext for the consjiiracy of Nicholas, the Huron chief, while it was the outgrowth of the conditions before cited, was assumed to be the consequence of the circulation of English belts, by Ii'oquois, among the neighboring tribes, as a means to that end, and Nicholas - sometimes known as Sandosket, from the location of his principal village on the Bay of Sandusky - a Hiu'on chief of some notoriety, who, fi-om some disaffection, with a few followers, had left Detroit a few years previously and settled on the south of Lake Erie, became the self-constituted agent of the movement, and settled at the point named, where he had better opportunities for gratifying his ambitious designs.

About the time of the contemplated attack upon Detroit, live Frenchmen, who were on their retm'n from the post at White River, were murdered by some Hm'ons, from Detroit, belonging to the band of the war chief Nicholas, and had stolen all the furs in the possession of the murdered men. This occmTed on the 23d of June, 1747. Being wholly unaware of the presence of Englishmen among the Hm'ons. they were unsuspicious of danger, and had counted upon the hospitality and friendship of the Indians. It was quickly observable, however, that their presence was unsatisfactory to these emissaries of the English, who, instead of tendering to these travelers the hospitalities due to the citizens of a kindred nation, eneoiu-aged the village chief to seize them and appropriate their effects. " This was accomplished on the afternoon of the day of their arrival." Nicholas assumed to be greatly irritated at the audacity of these Frenchmen, as he termed it, in coming to his towns without his permission, and. as a penalty for their temerity, he condemned them to death, the tomahawk executing in cold blood this imperial mandate.

At this time, also, all the Indians of the neighborhood, except the Illinois, had entered into the design of this Nicholas party to destroy all the French at Detroit, on one of the holidays of Pentecost, and afterward to go to the fort and subject it to the fire and the sworJ, which, as we have seen, failed, because of the plot having been discovered. The discovery, however, does not appear to have been the result of Nicholas' misdirection and management, but of the too great anxiety of some of the young men to be first in carrying out the designs of the leader- -striking too soon.

The purpose of the chief becoming known to the commandant of the fort at Detroit, all the settlers in the vicinity were directed by him to retire within the fort, and thus, being in a place of comparative security, be better prepared for any new treachery.

Meanwhile, as soon as the Sandusky murders came to the knowledge of the Canadian Governor, M. de Longueuil. commandant at Detroit, was instructed to require Nicholas to surrender the murderers of the live Frenchmen, that they might be made to expiate for the crime. Messengers were accordingly sent, and demand made, but the demand was disregarded, the chief manifesting a spirit of defiance. The result of this condition of affairs was ])reparation for the prompt punishment of the perpetrators and their defiant abettors. While steps were being taken by the military authorities at Detroit to provide for the maintenance of law and order, the protection of the people and preservation of the interests of trade, the wily chief was not inattentive to what was going on, but was equally active in jireparing to execute his own plans, to which reference has been incidentally made.

It was the purpose of the chief that *" a party of Deb'oit Hurons were to sleep in the fort and houses at Detroit, as they had often done before, and each were to kill the people where he lodged. * * * A band of Pottawatomies was commissioned to destroy the French Mission and villages on Bois Blanc Island; the Miamis to seize the French traders in their country, the Iroquois to destroy the French village at the jimction of the Miami and St. Joseph's; the Poxes to destroy the village at Green Bay; the Sioux, Sacs and Sarastans to reduce Michilimackinack ; while the other tribes were to destroy the French trading-posts in their respective countries, seize the traders and put them to death. This great conspiracy, so skillfully planned and arranged, would have been attended with a frightful loss of life and the utter annihilation of French power, but for its accidental yet timely discovery."

The discovery was in this wise: A murder had been committed prematurely, and some of the conspirators, being fearful of the consequences, held a meeting to consider what was best to be done, in a room provided for the purpose. During the progress of this coimcil. while the details of the conspiracy were being discussed, one of the squaws had occasion to go into the garret in search of corn. While there, she overheard the plans, and, in great haste, went to a Jesuit priest and made a statement of the matter, which was at once communicated to M. de Longueuil, the commandant at thei fort, who took the precautionary steps necessary to insure safety. Soon an additional military force was sent by the Canadian Governor, which had the efl'ect to so interfere with his plans that Nicholas abandoned the project of consummating the destruction of the French power.

In his management of diplomatic intercourses with other Indian ti-ibes, to secure their alliance, Nicholas was greatly assisted by the English, who. it appeared, had been fiu-nishing supplies of ammunition and inilitary stores at Sandusky, and had otherwise given their influence for f lu-thering his designs. As a partial retiu-n for the interest taken by the English in their operations against the French and their Indian allies, Nicholas, on his part, offered them all the facilities in his power for the establishment of posts all along Lake Erie as far as the Miamis River, as a means of seciiring and maintaining their trading advantages. The active co-operation of the English with the movements of Nicholas was further shown by assurances to the effect that the Senecas had given a belt to La Demoiselle, chief of a portion of the Miamis. allies of the English, to procm-e the assassination of

Sieur Douville, French commandant at the Miamis post, and of M. de Longueiiil, at Detroit, having oifered a reward to whoever should carry their heads to the English Governor.

In addition to poisoning the minds of the Miamis. and of the other tribes manifesting a moderate degree of friendship for the French, he was on the alert to cut ofl' means of communication between the Indians and the authorities at Detroit, Montreal and Quebec, intercepting messengers and diverting from their legitimate channels these sources of information, that, in the meantime, he could better execute his own plans, while the French authorities might, in their fancied secui-ity, for the time being, be unguarded. This was especially true as to the Miamis, who, from the request of the Canadian Governor, had sent a deputation to Montreal. This deputation was met on the way by some of Nicholas' emissaries, and induced, upon a misrepresentation of the facts, to return. The statement of Ensign Chevalier de Peyrade, commandant at Post Ouyatenon, gives the details. While he was on his way down to Montreal, with the nations from the Ouabache, passing down the Miamis Eiver, he learned of the treachery of the Hurons, that this intelligence, conjoined to other circiunstances, obliged those nations to retm'n to their village, where they were pretty quiet when he left them to return to Detroit.

Early in July. 1747, information from the Kiver St. Joseph's disclosed the situation in that quarter, from which disclosures it appeared that the English had been endeavoring to debauch the nations belonging to that post, as well as in the others, by the unfavorable impressions they were tiying to insinuate among them through the agency of the Ii'oqiTois, who were continually employing pretexts to bring about the destruction of the French at that and the adjacent posts. As a result, the Miamis and Ouyatenons especially were in disorder, the former having allowed themselves to be gained over by the belts of Nicholas, who had represented to them that Detroit trade had been razed by the lake tribes: hence, that they could no longer defer killing the French who remained among them. With this state of feeling among the Miamis. they were ready for the commission of any excess that might suggest itself.

No better pretext l)eiug required, they tirst seized eight Frenchmen, who were in the fort at the Miami village, about the last of August, 1747. These they did not injure, but, shortly after, impelled forward by the continued interposition of the emissaries of the English, the French fort at Ke-ki-ong-a, with the property belonging to the French inhabitants, was seized by the disaffected Miamis and their confederates. The property was appropriated by the marauders, and a portion of the buildings adjacent, together with the fort, were partially destroyed by fire, in the latter part of September following. Before theconsiimmation of this last act, however, information had been conveyed to the commandant at Detroit of the situation of aftairs, who immediately sent four French deputies with messages to the Miamis, to dissuade them from the wrong course they were ignorantly ))ursuing, and induce them to go to Deti'oit, where they might be accurately informed concerning what had been represented to them. But when the deputies arrived, the blow had been struck and the ])ro])orty destroyed. Notwithstanding the jiosition of things as ascertained by these dejiuties, many of the Miamis were prevailed upon to go to Detroit as requested. But in the meantime, Nich olas had adopted means to offset the effort of the French com mandant to rectify the impressions before given out that Detroi' had been destroyed; he sent other belts to the Miamis, coulirma tory of the tirst, which had the effect to again disconcert the jiacific measures proposed, and cause the Miamis to retm-n to their village and send only two deputies to Detroit. These two deputies were immediaately sent back by M. de Longueuil, with messages calculated to disabuse the nation of the evil speeches of Nicholas.

When Nicholas found that no pennanent advantage had been gained by his sti-ategic movements; that all his plans were eventually circumvented,' and that, with the additional force received at the Detroit post, his destruction was inevitable, he manifested a disposition to disband, and, while the Miami deputy was at Detroit, he, with Orontoni and Anioton, chiefs of the Huron traitors, went there to sue for peace and surrender the belts which had been the cause of their treason. Their sincerity, however, was doubted, and the actions of Nicholas were deemed equivocal and not free from suspicion that other motives than those manifested by him had induced the display. -

Having made this bold exhibition of his intentions, steps were taken to enforce obedience to his promises by war in case of his refusal, and Mikinac, a trusty Outaouas chief, with a sufiieient number of faithful allies, was delegated to carry these pm-poses of the French commandant into execution.

Early in the month of February, 1748, the French commandant at Detroit, with a view to maintain the advantages already required, and deprive the enemy of the liberty of seizing a post of considerable importance, sent Ensign Dubuisson to the Miamis at Kekionga, with instructions " to form only a small establishment there to winter in. He has been supplied with thirty Frenchmen to maintain himself there, and is accompanied by thirty others, destined for the Ouyatenon ti-ade. with orders to the latter to return to join Sieur Dubuisson in the spring, so as to return together to Detroit. It is also fui'ther shown by the foregoing instructions that Sieur Dubuisson was so sent with a sufficient escort to keep possession of the fort, which had been partially burnt, but not to undertake anything."*

" The same month," says Mr. Knapp, " Lajoncaire, Governor of Canada, ordered M. de Longueuil to give Nicholas notice that no English traders would be allowed among his people, or in the Western country; and if they were found, they should receive notice to quit forthwith. Agi-eeable to these instructions, a French officer was sent to Sandusky, who notified Nicholas of the wishes of the Governor of Canada. Finding several English at the towns, the officer commanded them to leave the country, which they promised to do.

"Finding himself deserted by nearly all of his allies, his power for mischief gone, and the activity and determination of the French to suffer encroachments fi-om the English no longer, Nicholas finally resolved to abandon his towns on Sandusky Bay and seek a hom(> farther West. On the 7th of April, 1748, he destroyed the villages and fort, and on the following day, at the head of Hit wariiors and their families, left for \Miite River, in Indiana."t

It has been stated that h,' s,il,sr,|U(.ntlN moved to th.' Illinois country, locating on the Ohio, neai- the Indiana line, and that he died there. This statement is jirobably incorrect, as it is i)retty well settled that he remained on WTiite River, and died near the forks of that stream, not far from the Wabash, in the fall of 1748, at the age of about fifty-eight years.

bear through the ingenuity of this chief, second, perhaps, only to that of Poutiae's. which occm-red a few years later. The result, too, is probably as much owing to the unyielding conduct of M. de Longueuil toward most of the tribes who had been engaged, as to the ill luck that continued to pursue the chief manipulator of the scheme. That the Miamis at Kekionga were deeply eoncerned in the plot, and perfoi-med the part assigned them by the destruction of the fort and the appropriation of the property, cannot now be doubted: but whether those acts were committed fi-om motives of innate treachery, or were the consequences of too great credulity in yielding to the influences of flattering gifts fi-om the hands of designing agents, is a question of more difiicult solution.