An Account of Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha Part 8

The Shawanese, Miamis and Kickapoos were addicted to horse-stealing, and while hostilities were continued, they reaped from this source, their greatest harvests.

Captain Brant on account of sickness was unable to be present, and it may be noticed that from this time on, his efforts to form a North-western Indian Confederacy, were very sensibly remitted. He no doubt found there were so many conflicting interests and national jealousies in the way, as to render the project comparatively hopeless. But more than all, he had depended upon the following of the entire body, composed of the Six Nations, and when he saw them coming largely under the influence of the United States, he could realize that the strength and permanence of his contemplated position, were so seriously affected, as to render its attainment extremely doubtful. The addition of the entire Iroquois family, to the proposed confederation, would have brought into it an element of intellectual superiority, and their long established polity of acting in concert, would have been of essential service among forces that were wild and chaotic. And we are not surprised that the diversion effected among them, should have changed somewhat the views of the distinguished Thayendanegea.

No decisive action was reached at this council, but an agreement was made to suspend hostilities during the winter, provided the United States would withdraw their troops from the west side of the Ohio; and another council was appointed to meet at the Miami Rapids during the following spring.

The Iroquois delegation forwarded to our government a report of the service they had rendered, the action taken by the council, and the agreement to meet in the spring, and requested that agents might be sent, "who were men of honesty, not land-jobbers, but men who love and desire peace. We also desire that they may be accompanied by some Friend, or Quaker, to attend the council."

On the 19th of February, 1793, General Benjamin Lincoln, Beverly Randolph and Colonel Pickering were commissioned by the president to attend the great Indian council at Miami Rapids, in the ensuing spring.

Meanwhile the Indians, dissatisfied with the views of the president, as transmitted by the Six Nations, held another council at Au Glaize in February, and framed a very explicit address to the Six Nations, affirming they would listen to no proposition from the United States, that did not concede the Ohio river, as the boundary line between them, and the Indian country. They desired the United States to be fully apprised of this, before sending their delegation; and they notified the Six Nations of a private council at Miami Rapids, before meeting the American commissioners, to adjust their opinions, so as to speak but one language at the council; they further declared their intention not to meet the commissioners at all, until a.s.sured they had authority to conclude a treaty on this basis.

In this determination they were encouraged, and sustained by the British Indian Department of Canada. President Was.h.i.+ngton, in a letter to Mr. Jay, our minister in London, writing in 1794, very clearly sets forth the work thus accomplished.--He says:--"There does not remain a doubt, in the mind of any well informed person in this country, not shut against conviction, that all the difficulties we encounter with the Indians, their hostilities, the murder of helpless women and children, along our frontiers, result from the conduct of agents of Great Britain in this country. In vain is it then for its administration in Britain to disavow having given orders which will warrant such conduct, whilst their agents go unpunished; while we have a thousand corroborating circ.u.mstances, and indeed as many evidences, some of which cannot be brought forward, to prove that they are seducing from our alliances, and endeavoring to remove over the line, tribes that have hitherto been kept in peace and friends.h.i.+p at great expense, and who have no causes of complaint, except pretended ones of their creating; whilst they keep in a state of irritation the tribes that are hostile to us, and are instigating those who know little of us or we of them, to unite in the war against us; and whilst it is an undeniable fact, that they are furnis.h.i.+ng the _whole with arms, ammunition, clothing, and even provisions to carry on the war_, I might go farther, and if they are not much belied, add, _men in disguise_."

[Footnote: Marshall's Was.h.i.+ngton.]

The commissioners of the United States appointed to confer with the Indian tribes at the West, proceeded on their way, arriving at Niagara the latter part of May, 1793. Here they were very kindly entertained by Governor Simcoe until the council was ready to receive them.

While here they were visited by a large deputation from the council at Miami Rapids, who desired an explicit answer to the inquiry whether they were authorized to run and establish a new boundary? Which they answered in the affirmative, at the same time reminding the Indians that in almost all disputes there were wrongs on both sides, and that, at the approaching council, both parties must expect to make some concessions.

This reply was well received and sanguine hopes were entertained of a favorable termination of their mission.

The Indians returned again to their council at Miami, and the commissioners supposing they would now be prepared to receive them, proceeded on their voyage westward. Arriving at the mouth of Detroit river they were obliged to land, being forbidden by the British authorities to proceed any farther toward the place of meeting.

They were met here by another Indian deputation, bringing a paper with a written statement of their determination, to make the Ohio the boundary line between the Indian country and the United States, and requiring the latter, if sincere in their desires for peace, to remove their settlements to the south side of that river. To this the commissioners were desired to give an explicit written answer.

They replied, referring to the understanding from their conference at Niagara, that some concessions were to be made on both sides, and giving a brief history of the treaties by which a t.i.tle had been acquired to land north of the Ohio, on the faith of which, settlements had been formed which could not be removed; hence they answered explicitly.--"_The Ohio river cannot be designated as the boundary line._"

They expressed the hope that negotiations might proceed on the basis of these treaties, closing with some concessions, and liberal offers for some lands still held by the Indians.

The debate at this council, it is said, ran high. Thayendanegea, and others of the Six Nations were strenuous in their advocacy of peace. The offer of the commissioners to establish a boundary line that would include the settlements already made north of the Ohio, they regarded as reasonable, and that farther concessions ought not to be required. Quite a number of tribes were influenced to adopt this view, which at one time it was thought would prevail. But there were certain ruling spirits present determined to make no concession, and the council broke up without allowing the commissioners, or any other white person, not in sympathy with Britain, to be present.

Previous to the holding of this council, the army had been re-organized under the command of General Anthony Wayne, an officer of untiring energy and vigilance; a larger number of soldiers had been called into the field, and as they were placed under a severe discipline, to inure them to the dangers and hards.h.i.+ps of the campaign, it was undertaken with flattering prospects of success.

Pittsburgh had been made the place of rendezvous; but fearing the influence of an encampment near a town, and wis.h.i.+ng to inspire in his soldiers a feeling of self reliance, General Wayne, on the 27th of November, 1792, marched his army to a point twenty-two miles distant on the Ohio, which he called Legionville, fortifying it and taking up his quarters there for the winter.

On the 30th of April, 1793, as spring had opened, he broke up his garrison at Legionville, and led his army down the river, to Fort Was.h.i.+ngton, its site being that of the present beautiful and flouris.h.i.+ng city of Cincinnati.

Here he remained while the negotiations were going on with the Indians at the West. As soon as they were ended and the result known, he took a more advanced position, marching in October in the direction pursued by, General St. Clair, to a point on the south-west branch of the Miami, six miles beyond Fort Jefferson, and eighty from Fort Was.h.i.+ngton, which he fortified and called Greenville.

On the 23d of December, a detachment of the army commanded by Major Burbeck took possession of the ground where the army of General St. Clair, two years before on the 4th of the preceding November, had sustained a terrible defeat. Here they gathered up sadly and sacredly the bones that marked this as a place of human slaughter, put in order the field-pieces that were still upon the ground, served them with a round of three times three, over the remains of their fallen comrades, and erected a fortress, appropriately naming it Fort Recovery.

The army at different points had skirmishes with the enemy that were not serious, but they served to create confidence and inspire courage in the minds of the soldiers.

It was not until the 20th of August, 1794, that General Wayne had a regular engagement with the Indians. Yet like a true gladiator he had been preparing for the struggle, and his wariness, which had gained for him the t.i.tle of "_Black Snake_" may be gathered from the speech of Little Turtle, chief of the Miamis, and one of the most active and brave warriors of his time. He counselled his countrymen to think favorably of the proposals of peace offered by General Wayne before giving them battle; saying,--"We have beaten the enemy twice under separate commanders. We cannot expect the same good fortune always to attend us. The Americans are now led by a chief who never sleeps. The night and the day are alike to him; and during all the time he has been marching on our villages, notwithstanding the watchfulness of our young men, we have never been able to surprise him.

There is something that whispers to me,--_it would be prudent to listen to his offers of peace_."

But this counsel was rejected by the Indians, who determined to give battle to the Americans the next day. They fought in the vicinity of a British fort, which Governor Simcoe of Canada had caused to be erected at the foot of the rapids of the Miami emptying into the lakes, far within the acknowledged territory of the United States.

The ground occupied by the Indians was well chosen, being a thick wood, where were old fallen trees that marked the track of some ancient hurricane, where the use of cavalry would be impracticable, a place suited to afford them shelter and well adapted to their peculiar mode of warfare.

But the order of General Wayne to advance with trailed arms, and rouse the Indians from their covert at the point of the bayonet, and when up deliver a close and well directed fire on their backs, followed by a brisk charge, so as not to give them time to load again; was executed so promptly, and with so much effect that the Indians were driven in one hour more than two miles, and soon dispersed in terror and dismay, leaving the ground in full and quiet possession of the victorious army.

This battle, which terminated within reach of the British guns, decided the fate of the campaign. The Indians after this were dispirited and unable to make a general rally. The distrust awakened by the coolness of their supposed friends, the gates of whose fort remained unopened while they were fleeing thither for a covert, served not less than the victory to dishearten them, and incline their thoughts toward peace.

The few days spent by the army on the battle ground after its victory, were occupied in destroying the property of the Indians in that vicinity, including also the extensive possessions of Colonel McKee, an officer of the British Indian Department, whose influence had been exerted in promoting these hostilities, whose effects were now being experienced. The fort itself was poised in the General's mind, as was also the torch of the gunner, who was only restrained by his commanding officer from firing upon Wayne, who, as he thought came too near, in making his observations on one of His Majesty's forts. Prudence prevailed. The fighting was confined to a war of words in a spirited correspondence between General Wayne, and the officer in command of the fort.

General Wayne after laying waste their princ.i.p.al towns in this region, continued in the Indian country during the following year, bringing his campaign to a close by a treaty with the North-western tribes, which was entirely agreeable to the wishes of the United States.

CHAPTER X.

Canandaigua at an early day--Facts in the early settlement of Bloomfield-- Indian Council--Its object--Indian parade--Indian dress--Opening of Council--Speeches--Liberal offers of the government--Mr. Savary's Journal --Treaty concluded--Account of Red Jacket by Thomas Morris.

Canandaigua at an early day was the objective point for all who were seeking what was called the Genesee country. It was at the head of navigation. Parties coming from the east could transport their goods by water from Long Island Sound to Canandaigua, with the exception of one or two carrying places, where they were taken by land.

We can hardly realize that at that time there was here a widely extended forest, in all its loneliness and grandeur. Its first trees were cut down in the fall of 1788, soon after Mr. Phelps had concluded his treaty of purchase with the Indians. By means of them a log store-house was constructed, near the outlet of the lake. The family of a Mr. Joseph Smith took possession of it in the spring of 1789. Judge J. H. Jones, who in the fall of 1788, was one of a party to open a road between Geneva and Canandaigua, witnessed, on revisiting the latter place in 1789, a great change.

"When we left," he says, "in the fall of '88, there was not a solitary person there;--when I returned fourteen months afterwards, the place was full of people; residents, surveyors, explorers, adventurers; houses were going up; it was a thriving, busy place." During the following year quite a nucleus for a town had gathered here. In 1794, Mrs. Sanborne, an enterprising landlady, whose eye kindled with the recollection of those days, served up in a tea saucer the first currants produced in the Genesee country. [Footnote: Conversation of the author with Mrs. Sanborne.]

Canandaigua at that time and for many years after was head-quarters for all who were making their way into what at that time was called the Indian country, and from the respectability and enterprise of its early inhabitants, it became attractive as a place of residence.

But though considerable improvements had been made here, the entire region was new, romantic and wild. Such was its condition at the time of the great Indian council that convened here in the autumn of 1794. Indians and deer, and wolves, and bear were very abundant and were mingled with the early a.s.sociations of those who contributed to make this an abode of elevation and refinement. The cow-boy, often startled while on his way by the appearance of a bear, went timidly forth on his evening errand, inspired with courage by the thought that he might, for his protection, shoulder a gun. Bear incidents, narrow escapes from fighting with bears, and bear stories of every description, entered largely into the staple of their conversation, and many an evening's hour was thus beguiled away, around the huge and brightly blazing fire of the early pioneer.

"Did you hear," said a Mrs. Chapman to a Mrs. Parks, how neighbor Codding came near being killed yesterday?

"Mercy! no. How did it happen?

"Mr. Codding was in the woods splitting rails, and just as he was turning around to take up his axe to cut a sliver, don't you believe he saw a great bear sitting up on his hind legs, and holding out both fore paws ready to grab him."

"Mercy on us! What did he do?

"What did he do? He took up his axe, and instead of cutting the sliver, cut into the old bear's head. But the axe glanced and only cut into the flesh, without killing the bear, and he ran away with the axe sticking fast in the wound.

"Awful! Awful! How thick the bears are getting to be! Husband says they have killed off most all of our hogs.

"Your hogs! Just think once, there was a great bear came the other night and got hold of a hog in Asahel Sprague's hog-pen, and would have killed him, if Mr. Sprague hadn't shot the old fellow.

"Yes, and last summer when Mr. Sperry was gone off to training, there was a bear came in the day time and tackled one of their hogs right in their own door yard; but Mrs. Sperry and the children screamed so awfully, and gave him such a tremendous clubbing, he was glad to put off into the woods again.

"Ha! Ha! She was about up to Jim Parker, who broke a bear's back with a hand-spike in driving him out of his corn field, just as he was climbing over the fence." [Footnote: Facts which transpired in the early history of Bloomfield. See Turner's History.]

Wolves were equally if not more numerous, destroying in some instances entire flocks of sheep, so that there was not a farmer in the region who did not suffer more or less from their depredations.

It was something of an off-set to these annoyances that deer were very abundant, and furnished the inhabitants with an ample supply of their delicious meat. The Indians while a.s.sembled here during the council, often killed more than a hundred of them in a single day.

The object of convening this council was to settle difficulties of long standing, and quiet the minds of the Iroquois, who were much disturbed by the warlike spirit prevailing at this time among the Indians at the West.

The influences from this source were of such a nature as to render many among these friendly tribes exceedingly bold. In some instances on entering the houses of settlers they would manifest a very haughty temper, and rudely demand a supply of their wants as though they were still proprietors and lords of the soil, and the settlers only their servants or tenants.

The settlers themselves began to feel unpleasantly about their position.