Paint Township (part 3 of 14)

These mounds were seldom or never used for religious purposes by the Algonquins or Iroquois, but Penicault states that when he visited the Natchez Indians, in 1704, " the houses of the Suns are built on mounds, and are distinguished from each other by their size. The mound upon which the house of the Great Chief, or Sun, is built is Jarger than the rest, and its sides are steej)er. The temple in the village of the Great Sun is about thirty feet high and forty-eight in circumference, with the walls eight feet thick and covered with a matting of canoes, in which they keep up a perpetual fire."

De Soto found the houses of the chiefs built on mounds of different heights, according to their rank, and their villages fortified with palisades, or walls of earth, with gateways to go in and out.

When Gravier, in 1700, visited the Yazoos, he noticed that their temple was raised on a mound of earth. He also, in speaking of the Ohio, states that " it is called by the Illinois and Oumiamis the river of the Ahansea, because the Akansea formerly dwelt on it. The Akansea or Arkansas Indians possessed many traits and customs in common with the Natchez, having temples, pottery, etc. "A still more important fact is noticed by Du Pratz, who was intimately acquainted with the Great Slid. He says: "The temple is about thirty feet square, and stands on an artificial mound about eight feet high, by the side of a small river. The mound slopes insensibly from the main front, which is northward, but on the other side it is somewhat steeper."

According to their own traditions, the l^atchez " were at one time the most powerful nation in all North America, and were looked upon by the other nations as their superiors, and were, on that account, respected by them. Their territory extended from the River IherviUe^ in Louisiana, to the Wahash.^^ They had over five hundred suns, and, consequently, nearly that many villages. Their decline and retreat to the south was owing not to the superiority in arms of the less civilized surrounding tribes, but was due to the pride of their own chiefs, who, to lend an imposing magnificence to their funeral rites, adopted the impolitic custom of having hundreds of their followers strangled at their pyre. Many of the mounds, scattered up and down the valleys of the Wabash, Ohio and Mississippi, while being the only, may be the time-defying monuments of the departed power and grandem' of these two tribes.

The Indian manner of making a fire is thus related by Hennepin : " Their way of making a fire, which is new and unknown to us, is thus : They take a triangular piece of cedar wood of a foot and a half in length, wherein they bore some holes half through ; then they take a switch, or another small piece of hard wood, and with both their hands rub the strongest upon the weakest in the hole, which is made in the cedar, and while they are thus rubbing they let fall a sort of dust or powder, which turns into fire. This white dust they roll up in a pellet of herbs, dried in autumn, and rubbing them all together, and then blowing upon the dust that is in the pellets, the fire kindles in a moment."

The food of the Indians consisted of all the varieties of game, fishes and wild fruits in the vicinity ; and they cultivated Indian corn, melons and squashes. From corn they made a preparation called sagamite. They pulverized the corn, mixed it with water, and added a small proportion of ground gourds or beans.

The clothing of the northern Indians consisted only of the skins of wild animals, roughly prepared for that purpose. Their southern brethren were far in advance of them in this respect. " Many of the women wore cloaks of the bark of the mulberry tree, or of the feathers of swans, turkeys or Indian ducks. The bark they take from young mulberry slioots that rise from the roots of trees that have been cut down. After it is dried in the sun they beat it to make all the woody parts fall off, and they give the threads that remain a second beating, after which they bleach them by exposing them to the dew. When they are well whitened they spin them about the coarseness of pack-tliread, and weave them in the following manner: They plant two stakes in the ground about a yard and a half asunder, and having stretched a cord from the one to the other, they fasten their threads of bark double to this cord, and then interweave them in a curious manner into a cloak of about a yard square, with a wrought border round the edges."

The Indians had three varieties of canoes, elm-bark, birch-bark and pirogues. " Canoes of elm-bark were not used for long voyages, as they were very frail. When the Indians wish to make a canoe of elm-bark they select the trunk of a tree which is very smooth, at the time when the sap remains. They cut it around, above and below, about ten, twelve or fifteen feet apart, according to the number of people which it is to carry. After having taken off the whole in one piece, they shave off the roughest of the bark, which they make the inside of the canoe. They make end ties of the thickness of a finger, and of suflicient length for the canoe, using young oak or any other flexible and strong wood, and fasten the two larger folds of the bark between these strips, spreading them apart with wooden bows, which are fastened in about two feet apart. They sew np the two ends of the bark with strips drawn from the inner bark of the elm, giving attention to raise up a little the two extremities, which they call pinces, making a swell in the middle and a curve on the sides, to resist the wind. If there are any chinks, they sew them together with tliongs and cover them with chewing-gum, which they crowd by heating it with a coal of fire. The bark is fastened to the wooden bows by wooden thongs. They add a mast, made of a piece of wood and cross-piece to serve as a yard, and their blankets serve them as sails. These canoes will carry from three to nine persons and all their equipage. They sit upon their heels, without moving, as do also their children, when they are in, from fear of losing their balance, when the whole machine would upset. But this very seldom happened, unless struck by a flaw of wind. They use these vessels particnlarly in their war parties.

" The canoes made of birch bark were much more solid and more artistically constructed. The frames of these canoes are made of strips of cedar wood, which is very flexible, and which they render as thin as a side of a sword-scabbard, and three or four inches wide.

They all touch one another, and come np to a point between the two end strips. This frame is covered with the bark of the birch tree, sewed together like skins, secured between the end strips and tied along the ribs with the inner bark of the roots of the cedar, as we twist willows around the hoops of a cask. All these seams ai-e covered with gum, as is done with canoes of elm bark. They then put in cross-bars to hold it and to serve as seats, and a long pole, which they lay on from fore to aft in rough weather to prevent it from being broken by the shocks occasioned by pitching. They have with them three, six, twelve and even twenty -four places, which are designated as so many seats. The French are almost the only people who use these canoes for their long voyages. They will carry as much as three thousand pounds." These were vessels in which the fur trade of the entire northwest has been carried on for so many years. They were very light, four men being able to carry the largest of them over portages. At night they were unloaded, drawn upon the shore, turned over, and served the savages or traders as huts. They could endure gales of wind that would play havoc with vessels of European manufacture. In calm water the canoe men, in a sitting posture, used paddles ; in stemming currents, rising from their seats, they substituted poles for paddles, and in shooting rapids, they rested on their knees.

Pirogues were the trunks of trees hollowed out and pointed at the extremities. A fire was started on the trunk, out of which the pirogue was to be constructed. The fire was kept within the desired limits by the dripping of water upon the edges of the trunk. As a part became charred, it was dug out with stone hatchets, and the fire rekindled. This kind of canoes was especially adapted for the navigation of the Mississippi and Missouri ; the current of these streams carrying down trees, which formed snags, rendered their navigation by bark canoes exceedingly hazardous. It was probably owing to this reason, as well as because there were no birch trees in their country, that the Illinois and Miamis were not, as the Jesuits remarked, " canoe nations ; " they used the awkward, heavy pirogue instead.

Each nation was divided into villages. The Indian village, when unfortified, had its cabins scattered along the banks of a river or the shores of a lake, and often extended for three or four miles. Each cabin held the head of the family, the children, grandchildren, and often the brothers and sisters, so that a single cabin not unfrequently contained as many as sixty persons. Some of their cabins were in the form of elongated squares, of which the sides were not more than five or six feet high. They were made of bark, and the roof was prepared from the same material, having an opening in the top for the passage of smoke. At both ends of the cabin there were entrances. The fire was bnilt under the hole in the roof, and there were as many fires as there were families.

The beds were upon planks on the floor of the cabin, or upon simple hides, which they called appichimoii^ placed along the partitions. They slept upon these skins, wrapped in their blankets, which, during the day, served them for clothing. Each one had his particular place. The man and wife crouched together, her back being against his body, their blankets passed around their heads and feet, so that they looked like a plate of ducks. These bark cabins were used by the Iroquois, and indeed, by many Indian tribes who lived exclusively in the forests.

The prairie Indians, who were unable to procure bark, generally made mats out of platted reeds or flags, and placed these mats around three or four poles tied together at the ends. They were, in form, round, and terminated in a cone. These mats were sewed together with so much skill that, when new, the rain could not penetrate them. This variety of cabins possessed the great advantage that, when they moved their place of residence, the mats of reeds were rolled up and carried along by tlie squaws.

" The nastiness of these cabins alone, and that infection which was a necessary consequence of it, would have been to any one but an Indian a severe punishment. Having no windows, they were full of smoke, and in cold weather they were crowded with dogs. The Indians never changed their garments until they fell off by their very rottenness. Being never washed, they were fairly alive with vermin. In summer the savages bathed every day, but immediately afterward rubbed themselves with oil and grease of a very rank smell. " In winter they remained unwashed, and it was impossible to enter their cabins without being poisoned with the stench."

All their food was very ill-seasoned and insipid, " and there prevailed in all their repasts an uncleanliness which passed all conception. There were very few animals which did not feed cleaner." They never washed their wooden or bark dishes, nor their porringers and spoons. In this connection William Biggs states : " They plucked off a few of the largest feathers, then threw the duck - featliers, entrails and all - into the soup kettle, and cooked it in that manner."

The Indians were cannibals, though human flesh was only eaten at war feasts. It was ofte.i the case that after a prisoner had been tortured his body was thrown into " the war-kettle," and his remains greedily devoured. This fact is uniformly asserted by the early French writers. Members of Major Long's party made especial inquiries at Fort Wayne concerning this subject, and were entirely convinced. They met persons who had attended the feasts, and saw Indians who acknowledged that they had participated in them, Joseph Barron saw the Pottawatomies with hands and limbs, both of white men and Cherokees, which they were about to devour. Among some tribes cannibalism was universal, but it appears that among the Pottawatomies and Miamis it was restricted to a fraternity whose privilege and duty it was on all occasions to eat out of the enemy's flesh ; - at least one individual must be eaten. The flesh was sometimes dried and taken to the villages.

The Indians had some peculiar funeral customs. Joutel thus records some of his observations : " They pay a respect to their dead, as appears by their special care of burying them, and even of putting into lofty cofiins the bodies of such as are considerable among them, as their chiefs and othei'S, which is also practiced among the Accanceas, but they differ in this respect, that the Accanceas weep and make their complaints for some days, whereas the Shawnees and other people of the Illinois nation do just the contrary, for when any of them die they wrap them up in skins and then put them into cofiins made of the bark of trees, then sing and dance about them for twentyfour hours. Those dancers take care to tie calabashes, or gourds, about their bodies, with some Indian corn in them, to rattle and make a noise, and some of them have a drum, made of a great earthen pot, on which they extend a wild goat's skin, and beat thereon with one stick, like our tabors. During that rejoicing they threw their presents on the coffin, as bracelets, pendants or pieces of earthenware. When the ceremony was over they buried the body, with a part of the presents, making choice of such as may be most proper for it. They also bury with it some store of Indian wheat, with a pot to boil it in, for fear the dead person should be hungry on his long journey, and they repeat the ceremony at the year's end. A good number of presents still remaining, they divide them into several lots and play at a game called the stick to give them to the winner."

Indian Superstitions

This was covered with bark, and at about two feet nearer the surface, logs were laid across, and these again covered with bark, so that the earth might by no means fall upon the corpse. If the deceased, before his death, had so expressed his wish, a tree was hollowed out and the corpse deposited within. After the body had become entirely decomposed, the bones were often collected and buried in the earth. Many of these wooden sepulchres were discovered by the early settlers in Iroquois county, Illinois. Doubtless they were the remains of the Pottawatoraies, who at that time resided there.

After a death they took care to visit every place near their cabins, ftriking incessantly with rods and raising the most hideous cries, in order to drive the souls to a distance, and to keep them from lurking about their cabins.

The Indians believed that every animal contained a Manitou or God, and that these spirits could exert over them a beneficial or prejudicial influence. The rattlesnake was especially venerated by them. Henry relates an instance of this veneration. He saw a snake, and procured his gun, with the intention of dispatching it. The Indians begged him to desist, and, "with their pipes and tobacco pouches in their hands, approached the snake. They surrounded it, all addressing it by turns and calling it their grandfather, but yet kept at some distance. During this part of the ceremony, they filled their pipes, and each blew the smoke toward the snake, which, as it appeared to me, really received it with pleasure. In a word, after remaining coiled and receiving incense for the space of half an hour, it stretched itself along the ground in visible good humor. The Indians followed it, and, still addressing it by the title of grandfather, beseeched it to take care of their families during their absence, and also to open the hearts of the English, that they might fill their (the Indians') canoes with rum. This reverence of the Indians for the rattlesnake will account for the vast number of these reptiles met with by early settlers in localities favorable for their increase and security. The clefts in the rocky cliffs below Niagara Falls were so infested with rattlesnakes that the Indians removed their village to a place of greater security.

The Indians had several games, some of which have been already noticed. McCoy mentions a singular occurrence of this nature : "A Miami Indian had been stabbed with a knife, who lingered, and of whose recovery there was no doubt. On the 12th of May a part}' resolved to decide bj a game of moccasin whether the man should live or die. In this game the party seat themselves upon the earth opposite to each other, while one holds a moccasin on the ground with one hand, and holds in the other a small ball ; the ball he affects to conceal in the moccasin, and does either insert it or not, as he shall choose, and then leaves the opposite party to guess where the ball is. In order to deceive his antagonist, he incessantly utters a kind of a sing-song, which is repeated, about tlirice in a minute, and moving his hands in unison with the notes, brings one of them, at every repetition, to the mouth of the moccasin, as though he had that moment inserted the ball. One j)arty played for the wounded man's recovery and the other for his death. Two games were played, in both of which the side for recovery was triumphant, and so they concluded the man* would not die of his wounds."

The Indians had a most excellent knowledge of the topography of their country, and they drew the most exact maps of the countries they were acquainted with. They set down the true north according to tlie polar star ; the ports, harbors, rivers, creeks, and coasts of the lakes ; roads, mountains, woods, marshes and meadows. They counted the distances by journeys and half journeys, allowing to every journey five leagues. These maps were drawn upon birch bark. "Previous to General Brock's crossing over to Detroit, he asked Tecumseh what sort of a country he should have to pass through in case of his proceeding farther. Tecumseh took a roll of elm bark, and extending it on the ground, by means of four stones, drew forth his scalping knife, and, with the point, etched upon the bark a plan of the country, its hills, woods, rivers, morasses, a plan which, if not as neat, was fully as accurate as if it had been made by a professional map-maker.

In marriage, they had no ceremony worth mentioning, the man and the woman agreeing that for so many bucks, beaver hides, or, in short, any valuables, she should be his wife. Of all the passions, the Indians were least influenced by love. Some authors claim that it had no existence, excepting, of course, mere lust, which is possessed by all animals. " By women, beauty was commonly no motive to marriage, the only inducement being the reward which she received. It. was said that the women were purchased by the night, week, month or winter, so that they depended on fornication for a living ; nor was it thought either a crime or shame, none being esteemed as prostitutes but such as were licentious without a reward." Polygamy was common, but was seldom practiced except by the chiefs. On the smallest offense husband and w^ife parted, she taking the domestic utensils and the children of her sex. Children formed the only bond of affection between the two sexes ; and of them, to the credit of the Indian be it said, they were very fond. They never chastised them, the only punishment being to dash, by the hand, water into the face of the refractory child, Joutel noticed this method of correction among the Illinois, and nearly a hundred years later Jones mentions the same custom as existing among the Shawnees.

The Algonquin tribes, diifering in this respect from the southern Indians, had no especial religion. They believed in good and bad spirits, and thought it was only necessary to appease the wicked spirits, for the good ones "were all right anyway." These bad spirits were thought to occupy the bodies of animals, fishes and reptiles, to dwell in high mountains, gloomy caverns, dangerous whirlpools, and all large bodies of water. This will account for the offerings of tobacco and other valuables which they made when passing such places, No ideas of morals or metaphysics ever entered the head of the Indians; they believed what was told them upon those subjects, without having more than a vague impression of their meaning. Some of the Canadian Indians, in all sincerity, compared the Holy Trinity to a piece of pork. There they found the lean meat, the fat and the rind, three distinct parts that form the same piece." Their ideas of heaven was a place full of sensual enjoyments, and free from physical pains. Indeed, it is doubtful if, before their mythology was changed by the partial adoption of some of the doctrines of Christianity, they had any idea of spiritual reward or punishment.

Wampum, prior to and many years subsequent to the advent of the Europeans, was the circulating medium among the North American Indians, It is made out of a marine shell, or peri^vinkle, some of which are white, others violet, verging toward black. They are perforated in the direction of the greater diameter, and are worked into two forms, strings and belts. The strings consist of cylinders strung without any order, one after another, on to a thread. The belts are wide sashes, in which the white and purple beads are arranged in rows and tied by little leathern strings, making a very pretty tissue. Wampum belts are used in state affairs, and their length, width and color are in proportion to the importance of the affair being negotiated. They are wrought, sometimes, into figures of considerable beauty,' the Indians, not only as money, jewelry or ornaments, but as annals and for registers to perpetuate treaties and compacts between individuals and nations. Tliey are the inviolable and sacred pledges which guarantee messages, promises and treaties. As writing is not in use among them, they make a local memoir by means of these belts, each of which signifies a particular affair or a circumstance relating to it. The village chiefs are the custodians, and communicate the affairs they perpetuate to the young people, who thus learn the history, treaties and engagements of their nation. Belts are classified as message, road, peace or war belts. White signifies peace, as black does war. The color therefore at once indicates the intention of the person or tribe who sends or accepts a belt. So general was the importance of the belt, that the French and English, and the Americans, even down as late as the treaty of Greenville, in lY95,u8ed it in treating with the Indians

Chapter Ix The War Foe The Fur Trade

Formerly the great Northwest aboimded in game and water-fowh The small lakes and lesser water conrses were full of beaver, otter and muskrats. * In the forests were found the marten, the raccoon, and other fur-bearing animals. The plains, partially submerged, and the rivers, whose cm'rent had a sluggish flow, the shallow lakes, producing annual crops of wild rice, of nature's own sowing, teemed with wild geese, duck and other aquatic fowl bursting in their very fatness.

The shy deer and the loi'dly elk, crowned with outspreading horns, grazed upon the plain and in the open woods, while the solitary moose browsed upon the buds in the thick copsewood that gave him food and a hiding place as well. The fleet-footed antelope nibbled at the tender grasses on the prairies, or bounded away over the ridges to hide in the valleys beyond, from the approach of the stealthy wolf or wily Indian. The belts of timber along the water courses afforded lodgment for the bear, and were the trellises that supported the tangled wild grapevines, the fruit of which, to this animal, was an article of food. The bear had for his neighbor the panther, the wild cat and the lynx, whose carnivorous appetites were appeased in the destruction of other animals.

Immense herds of buffalo roamed over the extensive area bounded on the east by the Alleghanies and on the north by the lakes, embracing the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and the southern half of Michigan. Their trails checkered the prairies of Indiana and Illinois in every direction, the marks of which, deep worn in the turf, remained for many years after the disappearance of the animals that made them. Their numbers when the country was flrst known to Europeans were immense, and beyond computation. In their migrations southward in the fall, and on their return from the blue grass regions of Kentucky in the spring, the Ohio Kiver was obstructed for miles during the time occupied by the vast herds in crossing it. Indeed, the French called the buffalo the " Illinois ox," on account of their numbers found in " the country of the Illinois," using that expression in its wider sense, as explained on a preceding page. So great importance was attached to the supposed commercial value of the buffalo for its wool that when Mons. Iberville, in 1698, was engaged to undertake the colonization of Louisiana, the king instructed him to look after the buffalo wool as one of the most important of his duties ; and Father Charlevoix, while traveling through " The Illinois," observed that he was surprised that the buffalo had been so long neglected. Among the favorite haunts of the buffalo were the marshes of the Upper Kankakee, the low lands about the lakes of northern Indiana, where the oozy soil furnished early as well as late pasturage, the briny earth upon the Au Glaize, and the Salt Licks upon tlie Wabash and Illinois rivers were tempting places of resort. From the summit of the high hill at Ouiatanon, overlooking the Wea plains to the east and the Grand Prairie to the west, as far as the eye could reach in either direction, the plains were seen covered with groups, grazing together, or, in long files, stretching away in the distance, their dark forms, contrasting with the green sward upon which they fed or strolled, and inspiring the enthusiasm of the Frenchman, who gave the description quoted on page 104. Still later, when passing through the prairies of Illinois, on his way from Yincennes to Ouiatanon - more a prisoner than an ambassador - George* Croghan makes the following entry in his daily journal : " 18th and 19th of June, 1765. - We traveled through a prodigious large meadow, called the Pyankeshaws' hunting ground. Here is no wood to be seen, and the country appears like an ocean. The ground is exceedingly rich and partially overgrown with wild hemp. The land is well watered and full of Buffalo, deer, bears, and all kinds of wild game. 20th and 21st. - We passed through some very large meadows, part of which belonged to the Pyankeshaws on the Yermilion Piver. The country and soil were much the same as that we traveled over these three days past. Wild hemp grows here in abundance. The game is very plenty. At any time in a half hour we could kill as much as we wanted."

Gen. Clark, in the postscript of his letter dated N^ovember, 1779, narrating his campaign in the Illinois country, says, concerning the prairies between Kaskaskia and Yincennes, that "there are large meadows ext^.nding beyond the reach of the eye, variegated with groves of trees appearing like islands in the sea, covered with buffalos and other game. In many places, with a good glass, you may see all that are upon their feet in a half million acres." It is not known at what time the buffalo was last seen east of the Mississippi. The Indians had a tradition that the cold winter of 17 - , called by them "the great cold,^^ on account of its severity, destroyed them. " The snow was so deep, and lay upon the ground for such a length of time, that the buffalo become poor and too weak to resist the inclemency of the weather ; " great numbers of them perished, singly and in groups, and their bones, either as isolated skeletons or in bleaching piles, remained and were found over the country for many years afterwards.

Before the coming of the Europeans the Indians hunted the game for the purpose of sujDplying themselves with the jpecessary food and clothing. The scattered tribes (whose numbers early writers greatly exaggerated) were few when comj)ared with the area of the country they occupied, and the wild animals were so abundant that enough to supply their wants could be captured near at hand with such rude weapons as their ingenuity fashioned out of wood and stone. With the Europeans came a change. The fur of many of the animals possessed a commercial value in the marts of Europe, where they were bought and used as ornaments and dress by the aristocracy, whose wealth and taste fashioned them into garments of extraordinary richness. Canada was originally settled with a view to the fur trade, and this trade was, to her people, of the first importance - the chief motor of her growth and prosperity. The Indians were supplied with guns, knives and hatchets by the Europeans, in place of their former inferior weapons. Thus encouraged and equipped, and accompanied by the coureurs des hois, the remotest regions were penetrated, and the fur trade extended to the most distant tribes. Stimulated with a desire for blankets, cotton goods and trinkets, the Indians now began a war upon the wild animals in earnest ; and their wanton destruction for their skins and furs alone from that period forward was so enormous that within the next two or three generations the improvident Indians in many localities could scarcely find enough game for their own subsistence.

The co'ureiiTs des hois were a class that had much to do with the development of trade and with giving a knowledge of the geography of the country. They became extremely useful to the merchants engaged in the fur trade, and were often a source of great annoyance to the colonial authorities. Three or four of these people, having obtained goods upon credit, would join their stock, put their property into a birch canoe, which they worked themselves, and accompany the Indians in their excursions or go directly into the country where they knew they were to hunt. These voyages were extended twelve or fifteen months (sometimes longer) before the traders would return laden with rich cargoes of fur, and often followed by great numbers of the natives. During the short time required to settle their accounts with the merchants and procure credit for a new stock the traders would contrive to squander their gains before they returned to their favorite mode of life among the savages, their labor being rewarded by indulging themselves in one month's dissipation for fifteen of exposure and hardship. " We may not be able to explain the cause, but experience proves that it requires much less time for a civilize^ people to degenerate into the ways of savage life than is required for the savage to rise into a state of civilization. The indifference about amassing pro]3erty, and the pleasure of living free from all restraint, soon introduced a licentiousness among the cou7'eurs des hois that did not escape the eye of the missionaries, who complained, with good reason, that they were a disgrace to the Christian religion.

" The food of the coureurs des hois when on their long expeditions was Indian corn, prepared for use by boiling it in strong lye to remove the hull, after which it was mashed and dried. In this state it is soft and friable like rice. The allowance for each man on the voyage was one quart per day ; and a bushel, with two pounds of prepared fat, is reckoned a month's subsistence. No other allowance is made of any kind, not even of salt, and bread is never thought of ; nevertheless the men are healthy on this diet, and capable of performing great labor. This mode of victualing was essential to the trade, which was extended to great distances, and in canoes so small as not to admit of the use of any other food. If the men were supplied with bread and pork, the canoes would not carry six months' rations, while the ordinary duration of the voyage was not less than fourteen, No other men would be reconciled to such fare except the Canadians, and this fact enabled their employers to secure a monopoly of the fur trade."

" The old voyageurs derisively called new hands at the business mangeurs de lard (pork eaters), as, on leaving Montreal, and while en route to Mackinaw, their rations were pork, hard bread and pea soup, while the old voyageurs in the Indian country ate corn soup and such other food as could be conveniently procm'ed."

The Coueeues Des Bois

" The coureurs des hois were men of easy virtue. They would eat, riot, drink and play as long as their furs held out," says La Ilontan, " and when these were gone they would sell their embroidery, their laces and their clothes. The proceeds of these exhausted, they were forced to go upon new voyages for subsistence."

They did not scruple to intermarry with the Indians, among whom they spent the greater part of their lives. They made excellent soldiers, and in bush fighting and border warfare they were more than a match for the British regulars. " Their merits were hardihood and skill in woodcraft ; their chief faults were insubordination and lawlessness."

Such were the characteristics of the French traders or coureurs des hois. They penetrated the remotest parts, voyaged upon all of our western rivers, and traveled many of the insignificant streams- tliat afforded hardly water enough to float a canoe. Their influence over the Indians (to whose mode of life they readily adapted themselves) was almost supreme. They were efiicient in the service of their king, and materially assisted in staying the downfall of French rule in America.

There is no data from which to ascertain the value of the fur trade, as there were no regular accounts kept. The value of the trade to the French, in 1703, was estimated at two millions of livres, and this could have been from only a partial return, as a large per cent of the trade was carried on clandestinely through Albany and New York, of which the French authorities in Canada could have no knowledge. With the loss of Canada and the West to France, and owing to the dislike of the Indians toward the English, and the want of experience by the latter, the fur trade, controlled at Montreal, fell into decay, and the Hudson Bay Company secured the advantages of its downfall. During the winter of 1783-4 some merchants of Canada united their trade under the name of the " Northwest Company " ; they did not get successfully to work until 178T. During that year the venture did not exceed forty thousand pounds, but by exertion and the enterprise of the proprietors it was brought, in eleven years, to more than triple that amount (equal to six hundred thousand dollars), yielding proportionate 23rofit8, and surpassing anything then known in America.

The fur trade was conducted by the English, and subsequently by the Americans, substantially upon the system originally established by the French, with this distinction, that the monopoly was controlled by French officers and favorites, to whom the trade for particular districts was assigned, while the English and Americans controlled it through

Goods for Indian trade were guns, ammunition, steel for striking fire, gun-flints, and other suj^plies to repair fire-arms ; knives, hatchets, kettles, beads, men's shirts, blue and red cloths for blankets and petticoats; Vermillion, red, yellow, gi-e^n and blue ribbons, generally of English manufacture ; needles, thread and awls ; looking-glasses, children's toys, woolen blankets, razors for shaving the head, paints of all colors, tobacco, and, more than all, spirituous liquors. For these articles the Indians gave in exchange the skins of deer, bear, otter, squirrel, marten, lynx, fox, wolf, buffalo, moose, and particularly the beaver, the highest prized of them all. Such was the value attached to the skins and fur of the last that it became the standard of value. All other values were measured by the beaver, the same as we now use gold, in adjusting commercial transactions. All differences in exchanges of property or in payment for labor were first reduced in value to the beaver skin. Money was rarely received or paid at any of the trading-posts, the only circulating medium were furs and peltries. In this exchange a pound of beaver skin was reckoned at thirty sous^ at otter skin at six livres, and marten skins at thirty sous each. This was only about half of the real value of the furs, and it was therefore always agreed to pay either in furs at their equivalent cash value at the fort or double the amount reckoned at "current fur value.

When the French controlled the fur trade, the posts in the interior of the country were assigned to officers who were in favor at headquarters. As they had no money, the merchants of Quebec and* Montreal supplied them on credit with the necessary goods, which were to be paid for in peltries at a price agreed upon, thus being required to earn profits for themselves and the merchant. These oflicers were often employed to negotiate for the king with the tribes near their trading posts and give them goods as presents, the price for the latter being paid by the intendant upon the approval of the governor. This occasioned many hypothecated accounts, which were turned to the profit of the commandants, particularly in time of war. The commandants as well as private traders were obliged to take out a license from the governor at a cost of four or five hundred livres, in order to carry their goods to the posts, and to charge some effects to the king's account. The most distant posts in the northwest west were prized the greatest, because of the abundance and low price of peltries and the high price of goods at those remote establishments.

The Fue Trade

Another kind of trade was carried on by the coureurs des hois, who, sharing the license with the officer at the post, with their canoes laden with goods, went to the villages of the Indians, and followed them on their hunting expeditions, to return after a season's trading with their canoes well loaded. If the coureurs des hois were in a condition to purchase their goods at first hands a quick fortune was assured them, although to obtain it they had to lead a most dangerous and fatiguing life. Some of these traders Vould return to France after a few years' venture with wealth amounting to two million five hundred thousand livres.

The French were not permitted to exclusively enjoy the enormous profits of the fur trade. We have seen, in treating of the Miami Indians, that at an early day the English and the American colonists were determined to share it, and had become sharp competitors. We have seen (page 112) that to extend their trade the English had set their allies, the Iroquois, uj)on the Illinois. So formidable were the inroads made by the English upon the fur trade of the French, by means of the conquests to which they had incited the Iroquois to gain over other tribes that were friendly to the French, that the latter became " of the opinion that if the Iroquois were allowed to proceed they would not only subdue the Illinois, but become masters of all the Ottawa tribes, and divert the trade to the English, so that it was absolutely necessary that the French should either make the Iroquois their friends or destroy them. You perceive, my Lord, that the subject which we have discussed [referring to the efforts of the English of New York and Albany to gain the beaver trade] is to determine who will be master of the heoAier trade of the south and southwest."

In the struggle to determine who should be masters of the fur trade, the French cared as little - perhaps less - for their Indian allies than the British and Americans did for theirs. The blood that was shed in the English and French colonies north of the Ohio Kiver, for a period of over three-quarters of a century prior to 1763, might well be said to have been spilled in a war for the fur trade.

In the strife between the rivals - the French endeavoring to hold their former possessions, and the English to extend theirs - the strait of Detroit was an object of c6ncern to both. Its strategical position was such that it would give the party possessing it a decided advantage. M. Du Lute, or L'Hut, under orders from Gov. De Nonville, left Mackinaw with some fifty odd coureurs de hois in 1688, sailed down Lake Huron and threw up a small stockade fort on the west bank of the lake, where it discharges into the Eiver St. Clair. The following year Capt. McGregory - Major Patrick Magregore, as his name is spelled in the commission he had in his pocket over the signature of Governor Dongan - with sixty Englishmen and some Indians, with their merchandise loaded in thirty-two canoes, went up Lake Erie on a trading expedition among the Indians at Detroit and Mackinaw. They were encountered by a body of troops under Tonti, La Forest and other officers, who, with coureur de hois and Indians from the upper country, were on their way to join the French forces of Canada in a campaign against the Iroquois villages in New York. The prisoners were sent to Quebec, and the plunder distributed among the captors. Du Lute's stockade was called Fort St. Joseph. In 1688 the fort was placed in command of Baron La Hontan.

Fort St. Joseph served the purposes for which it was constructed, and a few years later, in 1701, Mons. Cadillac established Fort Pontchartrain on the present site of the city of Detroit, for no other purpose than to check the English in the prosecution of the fur trade in that country.

The French interests were soon threatened from another direction. Traders from Pennsylvania found their way westward over the mountains, where they engaged in traffic with the Indians in the valleys of eastern Ohio, and they soon established commercial relations with the Wabash tribes. It appears from a previous chapter that the Miamis were trading at Albany in 1708. To avert this danger the French were compelled at last to erect military posts at Fort Wayne, on the Maumee (called Fort Miamis), at Ouiatanon and Vincennes, upon the Wabash. Prior to 1750 Sieur de Ligneris was commanding at Fort Ouiatanon, and St. Ange was in charge at Yincennes.

As soon as the English settlements reached the eastern slope of the Alleghanies, their traders passed over the ridge, and they found it exceedingly profitable to trade with the western Indians. They could sell the same quality of goods for a third or a half of what the French usually charged, and still make a handsome profit. This new and rich field was soon overrun by eager adventurers. In the meantime a number of gentlemen, mostly from Yirginia, procured an act of parliament constituting " The Ohio Company," and granting them six hundred thousand acres of land on or near the Ohio River. The objects of this company were to till the soil and to open up a trade with the Indians west of the Alleghanies and south of the Ohio.

The French, being well aware that the English could offer their goods to the Indians at greatly reduced rates, feared that they would lose the entire Indian trade. At first they protested " against this invasion of the rights of His Most Christian Majesty " to the governor of the English colonies. This did not produce the desired effect. Their demands were met with equivocations and delays. At last the French determined on summary measui-es. An order was issued to the commandants of the various posts on Lake Erie, the Ohio and the Wabash, to seize all English traders found west of the Alleghanies. In pursuance of this order, in 1751, four English traders were captured on the Vermilion of the Wabash and sent to Canada. Other traders, dealing with the Indians in other localities, were captured and taken to Presque Isle, and from thence to Canada.

The contest between the rival colonies still went on, increasing in the extent of its line of operations and intensifying in the animosity of the feeling with which it was conducted. We quote from a memoir prepared early in 1752, by M. de Longueuil, commandant at Detroit, showing the state of affairs at a previous date in the Wabash country. It appears, from the letters of the commandants at the several posts named, from which the memoir is compiled, that the Indian tribes upon the Maumee and Wabash, through the successful efforts of the English, had become very much disaffected toward their old friends and masters. M. de Ligneris, commandant at the Ouyatanons, says the memoir, believes that great reliance is not to be j)laced on the Maskoutins, and that their remaining neutral is all that is to be expected from them and the Kickapoos. He even adds that " we are not to reckon on the nations which appear in our interest ; no Wea chief has appeared at this post for a long time. M. de Yilliers, commandant at the Miamis - Ft. Wayne - has been disappointed in his expectation of bringing the Miamis back from the White Eiver - part of whom had been to see him - the small-pox having put the whole of them to rout. Coldfoot and his son have died of it, as well as a large portion of our most trusty Indians. Le Gris, chief of the Tepicons^ and his mother, are likewise dead'; they are a loss because they were well disposed toward the French."

The memoir continues : " The nations of the River St. Joseph, who were to join those of Detroit, have said they would be ready to perform their promise as soon as Ononontio would have sent* the necessary number of Frenchmen. The commandant of this post writes, on the 15th of January, that all the nations appear to take sides against us; that he would not be responsible for the good dispositions these Indians seem to entertain, inasmuch as the Miamis are tlieir near relatives. On the one hand, Mr. de Joncaire repeats that the Indians of the beautiful river are all English, for whom alone they "work ; that all are resolved to sustain each other ; and that not a part}^ of Indians go to the beautiful river but leave some [of their numbers] there to increase the rebel forces. On the other hand, " Mr. de St. Ange, commandant of the post of Yincennes, writes to M. des Ligneris [at Ouiatanon] to use all means to protect himself from the storm which is ready to burst on the French, that he is busy securing himself against the fury of our enemies."

" The Pianguichias, who are at war with the Chaouanons, according to the report rendered by Mr. St. Clin, have declared entirely against us. They killed on Christmas fine Frenchmen at the Yermilion. Mr. des Ligneris, who was aware of this attack, sent off a detachment to secure the effects of the Frenchmen from being plundered; but when this detachment arrived at the Yermilion, the Piankashaws had decamped. The bodies of the Frenchmen were found on the ice.

"M. des Ligneris was assured that the Piankashaws had committed this act because four men of their nation had been killed by the French at the Illinois, and four others had been taken and put in irons. It is said that these eight men were going to fight the Cliickasaws, and had, without distrusting anything, entered the quarters of the French, who killed them. It is also rej^orted that the Frenchmen had recourse to this extreme measure because a Frenchman and two slaves had been killed a few days before by another party of Piankashaws, and that the Indians in question had no knowledge of that circumstance. The capture of four English traders by M. de Celeron's order last year has not prevented other Englishmen going to trade at the Yermilion River, where the Rev. Father la Richardie wintered."

The memoir continues : " On the 19th of the October the Piankashaws had killed two more Frenchmen, who were constructing pirogues lower down than the Post of Yincennes. Two days afterward the Piankashaws killed two slaves in sight of Fort Yincennes. The murder of these nine Frenchmen and these two slaves is but too certain. A squaw, the widow of one of the Frenchmen who had been killed at the Yermilion, has reported that the Pianguichias, Illinois

Messrs. de Yilliers and de l^oyelle attacked the Foxes about twenty years ago, and when they had built a fort to secure their families, they were to make a o-eneral attack on all the French.

" The Miamis of Eock River have scalped two soldiers belonging to Mr. Yilliers' fort. This blow was struck last fall. Finally, the English have paid the Miamis for the scalps of the two soldier^ belonging to Mr. de Yilliers' garrison. To add to the misfortunes, M. des Ligneris has learned that the commandant of the Illinois at Fort Charters would not permit Sieurs Delisle and Fonblanche, who had contracted with the king to supply the Miamis Ouyatonons, and even Detroit with provisions from the Illinois, to purchase any provisions for the subsistence of the garrisons of those posts, on the ground that an increased arrival of troops and families would consume the stock at the Illinois. Famine is not the sole scourge we experience ; the small-pox commits ravages ; it begins to reach Detroit. It were desirable that it should break out and spread generally throughout the localities inhabited by our rebels. It would be fully as good as an army."

The Piankashaws, now completely estranged from the French, withdrew, almost in a body, from the Wabash, and retired to the Big Miami, whither a number of Miamis and other Indians had, some years previous, established a village, to be nearer the English traders. The village was called Pickawillany ^ or Pichtown. To the English and Iroquois it was known as the Tawixtwi Town, or Miamitown. It was located at the mouth of what has since been called Loramie's creek. The stream derived this name from the fact that a Frenchman of that name, subsequent to the events here narrated, had a trading-house at this place. The town was visited in 1751 by Christopher Gist, who gives the following description of it : " The Twightee town is situated on the northwest side of the Big Min e ami River, about one hundred and fifty miles from its mouth. It consists of four hundred families, and is daily increasing. It is accounted one of the strongest Indian towns in this part of the continent. The Twightees are a very numerous people, consisting of many different tribes under the same form of government. Each tribe has a particular chief, or king, one of which is chosen indifferently out of any tribe to rule the whole nation, and is vested with greater autliority than any of the others. They have but lately traded with the English. They formerly lived on the farther side of the Wabash, and were in the French interests, who supplied them with some few trifles at a most exorbitant price. They have now revolted from them and left their former habitations for the sake of trading with the English, and notwithstanding all the artifices the French have used, they have not been able to recall them." George Croghan and Mr. Montour, agents in the English interests, were in the towTi at the time of Gist's visit, doing what thej conld to intensify the animosity of the inhabitants against the French. Speeches were made and presents exchanged to cement the friendship with the English, While these conferences were going on, a deputation of Indians in the French interests arrived, with soft words and valuable presents, marching into the village under French colors. The deputation was admitted to the council-house, that they might make the object of their visit known. The Piankashaw chief, or king, " Old Britton," as he was called, on account of his attachment for the English, had both the British and French flags hoisted from the council-house. Tlie old chief refused the brandy, tobacco and other presents sent to him from the French king. In reply to the speeches of the French ambassadors he said that the road to the French had been made foul and bloody by them ; that he had cleared a road to our brothers, the English, and that the French had made that bad. The French flag was taken down, and the emissaries of that people, with their presents, returned to the French post from whence they came.

Wlien negotiations failed to win the Miamis back to French authority, force was resorted to. On the 21st of June, 1752, a party of two hundred and forty French and Indians appeared before Pick, awillany, surprised the Indians in their corn-fields, approaching so suddenly that the white men who were in their houses had great difficulty in reaching the fort. They killed one Englishman and fourteen Miamis, captured the stockade fort, killed the old Piankashaw king, and put his body in a kettle, boiled it and ate it up in retaliation for his people having killed the French traders on the Yermilion Piver and at Yincennes. " Thus," says the eloquent historian, George Bancroft, " on the alluvial lands of western Ohio began the contest that was to scatter death broadcast through the world."

Chapter The War For The Empire. Its Loss To The French

The English not only disputed the right of the French to the fnr trade, but denied their title to the valley of the Mississippi, which lay west of their American colonies on the Atlantic coast. The grants from the British crown conveyed to the chartered proprietors all of the country lying between certain parallels of latitude, according to the location of the several grants, and extending westward to the South Sea, as the Pacific was then called. Seeing the weakness of such a claim to vast tracts of country, upon which no Englishman had ever set his foot, they obtained deeds of cession from the Iroquois Indians - the dominant tribe east of the Mississippi - who claimed all of the county between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi by conquest from the several Algonquin tribes, who occupied it. On the 13th of July, 1701, the sachems of the Five Nations conveyed to "William III, King of Great Britain, " their beaver hunting grounds northwest and west of Albany," including a broad strip on the south side of Lake Erie, all of the present states of Michigan, Ohio' and Indiana, and Illinois as far west as the Illinois River, claiming " that their ancestors did, more than fourscore years before, totally conquer subdue and drive the former occupants out of that country, and had' peaceable and quiet possession of the same, to hunt beavers in, it being the only chief place for hunting in that part of the world," etc. The Iroquois, for themselves and heirs, granted the English crown " the whole soil, the lakes, the rivers, and all things pertaining to said tract of land, with power to erect forts and castles there," only reserving to the grantors and " their descendants forever the right of hunting upon the same," in which privilege the grantee "was expected to protect them." The grant of the Iroquois was confirmed to the British crown by deeds of renewal in 1726 and 1744. The reader will have observed, from what has been said in the preceding chapters upon the Illinois and Miamis and Pottawatomies relative to the pretended conquests of the Iroquois, how little merit there was in the claim they set up to the territory in question. Their war parties only raided upon the country - they never occupied it ; their war parties, after doing as much mischief as they could, returned to their own country as rapidly as they came. Still their several deeds to the English crown were a " color of title" on which the latter laid great stress, and paraded at every treaty with other powers, where questions involving the right to this territory were a subject of discussion.

The war for the fur trade expanded into a struggle for empire that convulsed both continents of America and Europe. The limit assigned this work forbids a notice of the principal occurrences in the progress of the French-Colonial War, as most of the military movements in that contest were outside of the territory we are considering. There were, however, two campaigns conducted by troops recruited in the northwest, and these engagements will be' noticed. We believe they have not heretofore been compiled as fully as their importance would seem to demand.

In 1758 Gen. Forbes, with about six thousand troops, advanced against Fort Do Quesne. In mid-September the British troops had only reached Loyabhannon, where they raised a fort. " Intelligence had been received that Fort Du Quesne was defended by but eight hundred men, of whom three hundred were Indians," and Major Grant, commanding eight hundred Higlilanders and a company of Virginians, was sent toward the French fort. On the third day's march Grant had arrived within two miles of Fort Du Quesne. Leaving his baggage there, he took position on a hill, a quarter of a mile from the fort, and encamped.

Grant, who was not aware that the garrison had been reinforced by the arrival of Mons. Aubry, commandant at Fort Chartes, with four hundred men from the Illinois country, determined on an ambuscade. At break of day, Major Lewis was sent, with four hundred men, to lie in ambush a mile and a half from the main body, on the path on which they left their baggage, imagining the French would send a force to attack the baggage guard and seize it. Four hundred men were posted along tlie hill facing the fort to cover the retreat of Mac Donald's company, which marched with drums beating toward the fort, in order to draw a party out of it, as Major Grant had reason to believe there were, including Indians, only two hundred men within it.

M. de Ligneris, commandant at Fort Du Quesne, at once assembled seven or eight hundred men, and gave the commnnd to M. Aubry. The French sallied out of the fort, and tlie Indians, who had crossed the river to keep out of the way of the British, returned and made a flank movement. Aubry, by a. rapid movement, attacked tlie different divisions of the English, and completely routed and dispersed them. The force under Major Lewis was compelled to give away. Being flanked, a number were driven into the river, most of whom were drowned. The English lost two hundred and seventy killed, fortytwo wounded, and several prisoners ; among the latter was Grant.

On the 22d of September M. Aubry left Fort Du Quesne, with a force of six hundred French and Indians, intending to reconnoitre the position of the English at Loyal-hannon.

" He found a little camp in front of some intrenchments which would cover a body of two thousand men. The advance guard of the French detachment having been discovered, the English sent a captain and fifty men to reconnoitre, who fell in with the detachment and were entirely defeated. In following the fugitives the French fell upon this camp, and surprised and dispersed it.

" The fugitives scarcely gained the principal intrenchment, which M. Aubry held in blockade two days. He killed two hundred horses and cattle." The French returned to Fort Du Quesne mounted. " The English lost in the engagement one Injndred and fifty men, killed, wounded and missing. The French loss was two killed and seven wounded."

The Louisiana detachment, which took the principal part in both of these battles, was recruited from the French posts in " The Illinois," and consisted of soldiers taken from the garrison in that territory, and the couretirs des hois, traders and settlers in their respective neighborhoods. It was the first battalion ever raised within the limits of the present states of Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. After the action of Loyal-hannon, "the Louisiana detachment, as well as those from Detroit, returned home."

Soon after their departure, and on the 24th of November, the French abandoned Fort Du Quesne. Pouchot says : " It came to pass that by blundering at Fort Du Quesne the French were obliged to abandon it for want of provisions." This may have been the true reason for the abandonment, but doubtless the near approach of a large English army, commanded by Gen. Forbes, had no small influence in accelerating their movements. The fort was a mere stockade, of small dimensions, and not suited to resist the attacks of artillery.

Having burnt the stockade and storehouses, the garrison separated. One hundred retired to Presque Isle, by land. Two hundred, by way of the Alleghany, went to Yenango. The remaining hundred des- cended tlie Ohio. About forty miles above its confluence witli the Mississippi, and on a beautiful eminence on the north bank of the river, they erected a fort and named it Fort Massac, in honor of the commander, M. Massac, who superintended its construction. This Avas the last fort erected by the French on the Ohio, and it was occupied by a garrison of French troops until the evacuation of the country under the stipulations of the treaty of Paris. Such was the origin of Fort Massac, divested of the romance which fable has thrown around its name.

On the day following the evacuation the English took peaceaj^le possession of the smoking ruins of Fort Du Quesne. They erected a temporary fortification, named it Fort Pitt, in honor of the great English statesman of that name, and leaving two hundred men as a garrison, retired over the mountains.

On the 5th of December, 1758, Thomas Pownall, governor of Massachusetts Bay Province, addressed a memorial to the British Ministry, suggesting that there should be an entire change in the method of carr3^ing on the war. Pownall stated that the French were superior in battles fought in the wilderness ; that Canada never could be conquered by land campaigns ; that the proper way to succeed in the reduction of Canada would be to make an attack on Quebec by sea, and thus, by cutting off supplies from the home government, Canada would be starved out.

Pitt, if he did not act on the recommendations of Governor Pownall, at least had similar views, and the next year (1759), in accordance with this plan. General Wolfe made a successful assault on Quebec, and from that time, the supplies and reinforcements from the home government being cut off, the cause of the French in Canada became almost hopeless.

During this year the French made every effort to stir up the Indians north of the Ohio to take the tomahawk and scalping-knife in hand, and make one more attempt to preserve the northwest for the joint occupancy of the Gallic and American races. Emissaries were sent to Lake Erie, Detroit, Mackinaw, Ouiatanon, Yincennes, Kaskaskia and Fort Chartes, loaded with presents and ammunition, for the purpose of collecting all those stragglers who had not enterprise enough to go voluntarily to the seat of war. Canada was hard pressed for soldiers ; the English navy cut off most of the reinforcements from France, while the English, on the contrary, were constantly receiving troops from the mother country.

Change Of Wae Plan 111

hundred men from the " Illinois country " to follow him eastward. Taking with him two hundred thousand pounds of flour, he embarked his heterogeneous force in bateaux and ca,noes. The route by way of the Ohio was closed ; the English were in possession of its headwaters. He went down the Mississippi, thence up the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash. Having ascended the latter stream to the Miami villages, near the present site of Fort Wayne, his followers made the portage, passed down the Maumee, and entered Lake Erie, »

During the whole course of their journey they were being constantly reinforced by bands of different tribes of Indians, and by Canadian militia as they passed the several posts, until the army wag augmented to sixteen hundred men, of whom there were six hundred French and one thousand Indians. An eye-witness, in speaking of the appearance of the force, said : " When they passed the little rapid at the outlet of Lake Ei-ie (at Buffalo) the flotilla appeared like a floating island, as the river was covered with their bateaux and canoes."

Aubry was compelled to leave his flour and provisions at the Miami portage. He afterward requested M. de Port-neuf, commandant at Presque Isle, to take charge of the portage, and to send it constantly in his bateaux.

Before Aubry reached Presque Isle he was joined by other bodies of Indians and Canadians from the region of the upper lakes. They were under the command of French traders and commandants of interior posts. At Fort Machault he was joined by M. de Lignery ; the latter had assembled the Ohio Indians at Presque Isle. It was the original intention of Aubry to recapture Fort Du Quesne from the English. On the 12th of July a grand council was held at Fort Machault, in which the commandant thanked the Indians for their attendance, threw down the war belt, and told them he would set out the next day for Fort Du Quesne. Soon after messengers arrived with a packet of letters for the ofticers. After reading them Aubry told the Indians : " Children, I have received bad news ; the English are gone against Niagara. We must give over thoughts of going down the river to Fort Du Quesne till we have cleared that place of the enemy. If it should be taken, our road to you is stopped, and you must become poor." Orders were immediately given to proceed with the artillery, provisions, etc., up French Creek, and the Indians prepared to follow."

stated that he was besieged by a much superior force of English and Indians, who were under the command of General Predeaux and Sir William Johnson, Aubry answered these letters on the next day, and said he thought they might fight the enemy successfully, and compel them to raise the siege. The Indians who brought these messages to Pouchot informed him that they, on the part of the Indians with Aubry and Lignery, had offered the Iroquois and other Indian allies of the English five war belts if they would retire. These promised that they would not mingle in the quarrel. "We will here recall the fact that Pouchot, by his letter of the 10th, had notified Lignery and Aubry that the enemy might be four or five thousand strong without the Indians, and if they could put themselves in condition to attack so large a force, he should pass Chenondac to come to Niagara by the other side of the river, where he would be in condition to drive the English, who were only two hundred strong on that side, and could not easily be reinforced. This done, they could easily come to him, because after the defeat of this body they could send bateaux to bring them to the fort."

M. Pouchot now recalled his previous request, and informed Aubry that the enemy were in three positions, in one of which there were three thousand nine hundred Indians. He added, could Aubry succeed in driving the enemy from any of these positions, he had no doubt they would be forced to raise the siege.

Aubry's route was up French Creek to its head waters, thence making the portage to Presque Isle and sailing along the shores of Lake Erie until he reached Niagara. Arriving at the foot of Lake Erie he left one hundred and fifty men in charge of his canoes, and with the remainder advanced toward Niagara. Sir William Johnsoti was informed, on the evening of the 23d, of this advance of the French, and ordered his light infantry and pickets to take post on the left, on the road between Niagara Falls and the fort ; and these, after reinforcing them with grenadiers and parts of the 46th and 44th regiments, were so arranged as to effectually support the guard left in the trenches. Most of his men were concealed either in the trenches or by trees.

On the tnorning of the 24th the French made their appearance. They were marching along a path about eight feet wide, and " were in readiness to fight in close order and without ranks or files." On their right were thirty Indians, who formed a front on the enemy's left. The Indians of the English army advanced to speak to those of the French. Seeing the Iroquois in the latter's company, the French

Indians refused to advance, under pretext that they were at peace with the first named. Though thus abandoned by their chief force, Aubry and Lignery still proceeded on their way, thinking that a few savages they saw were isolated men, till they reached a narrow pathway, when they discovered great numbers beyond. The English Indians then gave the war whoop and the action commenced. The English regulars attacked the French in front, while the Indians poured in on their flank. Thus surprised by an ambuscade, and deserted by their savage allies, the French proved easy victims to the prowess of far superior numbers. Tliey were assailed in front and rear by two thousand men. The rear of the column, unable to resist, gave way, and left the head exposed to the enemy's fire, which crushed it entirely. An Indian massacre followed, and the pursuit of the victors continued until they were compelled to desist by sheer fatigue. Almost all the French ofiicers were killed, wounded or taken prisoners. Among the latter was Aubry. Those who escaped joined M. Rocheblave, and with his detachment retreated to Detroit and other western lake posts.

This defeat on the shores of Lake Erie was very severe on the struggling western settlements. Most of all the able bodied men had gone to Aubry, many never to return. In 1Y60 M. de MacCarty, commandant at Fort Chartes, in a letter to Marquis Vaudreuil, stated that " the garrison was weaker than ever before, the check at Niagara having cost him the elite of his men."

It is apparent, from the desertion of Aubry by his savage allies, that they perceived tliat the English were certain to conquer in the end. They felt no particular desire to prop a falling cause, and thus deserted Mons. Aubry at the crisis when their assistance was most needed. Thus was defeated the greatest French-Indian force ever collected in the northwest.

After the surrender of Niagara and Fort Du Quesne, the Indian allies of France retired to the deep recesses of the western forests, and the English frontiers suffered no more from their depredations. Settlements were gradually formed on the western side of the Alleghanies, and they remained secure from Indian invasions.

In the meantime many Canadians, becoming satisfied that the con quest of Canada was only a mere question of time, determined, before that event took place, to remove to the French settlements on tlie lower. Mississippi. '" Many of them accordingly departed from Canada

After the surrender of Quebec, in 1759, Montreal became the headquarters of the Freneli in Canada, and in the spring of 1760 Mons. Levi, the French commander-in-chief, besieged Quebec. The arrival of an English fleet compelled him to relinquish his designs. Amherst and Johnson formed a junction, and advanced against Montreal. The French governor of Canada, Marquis Yaudreuil, believing that further resistance was impossible, surrendered all Canada to the English. This included the western posts of Detroit, Mackinaw, Fort Miami, Ouiatanon, Yincennes, Fort St. Joseph, etc.

After this war ceased to be waged in America, though the treaty of Paris was not concluded until February, 1763, the most essential parts of which are contained in the following extracts :

" In order to establish peace on solid and durable foundations, and to remove forever all subjects of dispute with regard to the limits of the British and French territories on the continent of America, it is agreed that for the future the confines between the dominions of his Britannic Majesty and those of His Most Christian Majesty in that part of the world, shall be fixed irrevocably by a line drawn along the middle of the River Mississippi from its source to the Eiver Iberville, and from thence by a line drawn along the middle of this river and the Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to the sea ; and for this purpose the most Christian King cedes, in full right, and guarantees to his Britannic Majesty, the river and port of Mobile, and everything which he possesses, or ought to possess, on the left side of the Mississippi, with the exception of the town of JSTew Orleans and of the island on which it is situated; it being well understood that the navigation of the Mississippi shall be equally free, as well to the subjects of Great Britain as to those of France, in its whole length and l^readth, from its source to the sea."

Thus Gallic rule came to an end in North America. Its downfall M'as the result of natural causes, and was owing largely to the difference between the Frenchmen and the Englishmen. The former, as a rule, gave no attention to agriculture, but found occupation in hunting and trading with the Indians, acquiring nomadic habits that unfitted them for the cultivation of the soil ; their families dwelt in villages separated by wide stretches of wilderness. While the able men were hunting and trading, the old men, women and children produced scanty crops sown in " common fields," or inclosures of a piece of ground which were portioned off among the families of a village. The Englishman, on the other hand, loved to own land, and pushed his improvements from the coast line up through all the valleys extending westward. Reaching the summit of the Alleghanies, the tide of emigration flowed into the valleys beyond. Every cabin was a fort, every advancing farm a new line of intrenehment. The distinguishing characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon is consistency and firmness in his designs, and, more than all, his love for a home. In the trials and hardships necessarily connected with the opening ujj of the wilderness these traits come prominently into play. The result was, that the English colonies prospered in a degree hitherto unknown in the annals of the world's progress. And by way of contrast, how little did the French have to show in the way of lasting improvements in the northwest after it had been in their possession for nearly a century !

However, the very traits that disqualified the Gaul as a successful colonist gave him a pre-eminent advantage over the Anglo-Saxon in the influence he exerted upon the Indian. He did not want their lands ; he fi'aternized with them, adopted their ways, and flattered and pleased them. The Anglo-Saxon wanted their lands. From the start he was clamorous for deeds and cessions of territory, and at once began crowding the Indian out of the country. " The Iroquois told Sir William Johnson that they believed soon they should not be able to hunt a bear into a hole in a tree but some Englishman would claim a right to the property of it, as being found in his tree."

The happiness which the Indians enjoyed from their intercourse with the French was their perpetual theme ; it was their golden age. '" Those who are old enough to remember it speak of it with rapture, and teach their children to venerate it, as the ancients did the reign of Saturn. ' You call us your children,' said an aged chief to General Harrison, ' why do you not make us happy, as our fathers the French did? They never took from us our lands, which, indeed, were in common between us. They planted where they pleased, and cut wood where they pleased, and so did we ; but now, if a poor Indian attempts to take a little bark from a tree to cover him from the rain, up comes a white man and threatens to shoot him, claiming the tree as his own.' ".

After the Indians had submitted to English rule the west enjoyed a period of quiet. When the American colonists, long complaining against the oppressive acts of the mother country, broke out into open revolt, and the war of the revolution fairly began, the English, from the westward posts of Detroit, Vincennes and Kaskaskia, incited the Indians against the frontier settlements, and from these depots supplied their war parties with guns and ammunition. The depredations of the Indians in Kentucky were so severe that in the fall of 1T77 George Rogers Clark conceived, and next year executed, an expedition against the French settlements of Kaskaskia and Yincennes, which not only relieved Kentucky from the incursions of the savages, but at the same time resulted in consequences which are without parallel in the annals of the Northwest.

The account here given of Clark's campaign in "the Illinois" is taken from a manuscript memoir composed by Clark himself, at the joint request of Presidents Jefferson and Madison, We prefer giving the account in Gen. Clark's own words, as far as practicable.

The memoir of Gen. Clark proceeds : " On the (24th) of June, 1778, we left our little island, and run about a mile up the river in order to gain the main channel, and shot the falls at the very moment of the sun being in a great eclipse, which caused various conjectures among the superstitious. As I knew that spies were kept on the river below the towns of the Illinois, I had resolved to march part of the way by land, and of course left the whole of our baggage, except as much as would equip us in the Indian mode. The whole of our force, after leaving such as was judged not competent to [endure] the expected fatigue, consisted only of four companies, commanded by Captains John Montgomery, Joseph Bowman, Leonard Helms and William Harrod. My force being so small to what I expected, owing to the various circumstances already mentioned, I found it necessary to alter my plans of operation.

tliose western settlements had great influence among the Indians in general, and were more beloved by them than any other Europeans ; that their commercial intercourse was universal throughout the western and northwestern countries, and that the governing interest on the lakes was mostly in the hands of the English, who were not much beloved by them. These, and many other ideas similar thereto, caused me to resolve, if possible, to strengthen myself by such train of conduct as might probably attach the French inhabitants to our interest, and give us influence in the country we were aiming for. These were the principles that influenced my future conduct, and, fortunately, I had just received a letter from Colonel Campbell, dated Pittsburgh, informing me of the contents of the treaties between France and America. As I intended to leave the Ohio at Fort Massac, three leagues below the Tennessee, I landed on a small island in the mouth of that river, in order to prepare for the march. In a few hours after, one John Duff and a party of hunters coming down the river were brought to by our boats. They were men forme^'ly from the states, and assured us of their happiness in the adventure. . . . They had been but lately from Kaskaskia, and were able to give us all the intelligence we wished. They said that Governor Abbot had lately left Port Yincennes, and gone to Detroit on business of importance ; that Mr. Eochblave commanded at Kaskaskia, etc. ; that the militia was kept in good order, and spies on the Mississippi, and that all hunters, both Indians and others, were ordered to keep a good look-out for the rebels ^ that the fort was kept in good order as an asylum, etc., but they believed the whole to proceed more from the fondness for parade than the expectation of a visit ; that if they received timely notice of us, they would collect and give us a warm reception, as they were taught to harbor a most horrid idea of the rebels, especially the Virginians ; but that if we could surprise the place, which they were in ho^Dcs we might, they made no doubt of our being able to do as we pleased ; that they hoped to be received as partakers in the enterprise, and wished us to put full confidence in them, and they would assist the guides in conducting the party. This was agreed to, and they proved valuable men.

" The acquisition to us was great, as I had no intelligence from those posts since the spies I sent twelve months past. But no part of their information pleased me more than that of the inhabitants viewing us as more savage than their neighbors, the Indians. 1 was determined to improve upon this if I was fortunate enough to get them into ray possession, as I conceived the greater the shock I could give them at first the more sensibly would they feel my lenity, and become more valuable friends. This I conceived to be agreeable to human nature, as I had observed it in many instances. Having everything prepared, we moved down to a little gully a small distance above Massac, in which we concealed our boats, and set out a northwest course. The weather was favorable. In some parts water was scarce, as well as game. Of course we suffered drought and hunger, but not to excess. On the third day John Saunders, our principal guide, appeared confused, and we soon discovered that he was totally lost, without there was some other cause for his present conduct.

"I asked him various questions, and from his answers I could scarcely determine whkt to think of him - whether or not that he was lost, or that he wished to deceive us. . . . The cry of the whole detachment was that he was a traitor. He begged that he might be suffered to go some distance into a plain that was in full view, to try to make some discovery whether or not he was right. I told him he might go, but that I was suspicious of him, from his conduct ; that from the first day of his being employed he always said he knew the way well ; that there was now a different appearance ; that I saw the nature of the country was such that a person once acquainted with it could not in a short time forget it ; that a few men should go with him to prevent his escape, and that if he did not discover and take us into the hunter's road that led from the east into Kaskaskia, which he had frequently described, I would have him immediately put to death, which I was determined to have done. But after a search of an hour or two he came to a place that he knew perfectly, and we discovered that the poor fellow had been, as they call it, bewildered.

" On the fourth of July, in the evening, we got within a few miles of the town, where we lay until near dark, keeping spies ahead, after which we commenced our march, and took possession of a house wherein a large family lived, on the bank of the Kaskaskia River, about three-quarters of a mile above the town. Here we were informed that the people a few days before were under arms, but had concluded that the cause of the alarra was without foundation, and that at that time there was a great number of men in town, but that the Indians had generally left it, and at present all was quiet. We soon procured a sufiiciency of vessels, the more in ease to convey us across the river.

" "With one of the divisions I marched to the fort, and ordered the other two into different quarters of the town. If I met with no resistance, at a certain signal a general shout was to be given and certain parts were to be immediately possessed, and men of each detachment who could speak the French language, were to run through every street and proclaim what had happened, and inform the inhabitants that every person that appeared in the streets would be shot down. This disjjosition had its desired effect. In a very little time we had complete possession, and every avenue was guarded to prevent any escape to give the alarm to the other villages in case of opposition. Various orders had been issued not worth mentioning. I don't suppose greater silence ever reigned among the inhabitants of a place than did at this at present ; not a person to be seen, not a word to be heard by them, for some time, but, designedly, the greatest noise kept up by our troops through every quarter of the town, and patrols continually the whole night around it, as intercepting any information was a capital object, and in about two hours the whole of the inhabitants were disarmed, and informed that if one was taken attempting to make his escape he should be immediately put to death."

When Col. Clark, by the use of various bloodless means, had raised the terror of the French inhabitants to a painful height, he surprised them and won their confidence and friendship, by performing, unexpectedly, several acts of justice and generosity. On the morning of the 5th of July a few of the principal men were arrested and put in irons. Soon afterward M. Gibault, the priest of the village, accompanied by five or six aged citizens, waited on Col. Clark, and said that the inhabitants expected to be separated, perhaps never to meet again, and they begged to be permitted to assemble in their church, and there to take leave of each other. Col. Clark mildly told the priest that he had nothing to say against his religion ; that it was a matter which Americans left for every man to settle with his God ; that the people might assemble in their church, if they would, but that they must not venture out of town.

Nearly the whole French population assembled at the church. The houses were deserted by all who could leave them, and Col. Clark gave orders to prevent any soldiers from entering the vacant buildings. After the close of the meeting at the church a deputation, consisting of M. Guibault and several other persons, waited on Col. Clark, and said " that their present situation was the fate of war, and that they could submit to the loss of their property, but they solicited that they might not be separated from their wives and children, and that some clothes and provisions might be allowed for their suj^port." Clark feigned surprise at this request, and abruptly exclaimed, " Do you mistake us for savages ? I am almost certain you do from your language ! Do you think that Americans intend to strip women and children, or take the bread out of their mouths ? My countrymen," said Clark, " disdain to make war upon heljDless innocence. It was to prevent the horrors of Indian butchery upon our own wives and children that we have taken arms and penetrated into this remote stronghold of British and Indian barbarity, and not the despicable prospect of plunder; that now the king of France had united his powerful arms with those of America, the war would not, in all probability, continue long, but the inhabitants of Kaskaskia were at liberty to take which side they pleased, without the least danger to either their property or families. Nor would their religion be any source of disagreement, as all religions were regarded with equal respect in the eye of the American law, and that any insult offered to it would be immediately punished."

"And now," Clark continues, "to prove my sincerity, you will please inform your fellow-citizens that they are quite at liberty to conduct themselves as usual, without the least apprehension. I am now convinced, from what I have learned since my arrival among you, that you have been misinformed and prejudiced against us by British officers, and your friends who are in confinement shall immediately be released." In a few minutes after the delivery of this speech the gloom that rested on the minds of the inhabitants of Kaskaskia had passed away. The news of the treaty of alliance between France and the United States, and the influence of the magnanimous conduct of Clark, induced the French villagers to take the oath of allegiance to the state of Yirginia. Their arms were restored to them, and a volunteer company of French militia joined a detachment mider Capt. Bowman, when that officer was dispatched to take possession of Cahokia. The inhabitants of this small village, on hearing what had taken place at Kaskaskia, readily took the oath of allegiance to Yirginia.