"When we came to the little lake at the mouth of Sandusky, we called at a Wyandot town that was then there, called Sunyendeand, [he speaks as if it was a first visit, whereas we have devoted a large space to his former sojourn there.] Here we diverted ourselves several days by catching rock fish in a small creek, the name of which is also Sunyendeand, which signifies rock fish. They fished in the night with lights, and struck the fish with gigs or spears. The rock fish there, when they begin first to run up the creek to spawn, are exceedingly fat, sufficiently so to fry themselves. The first night we scarcely caught fish enough for present use for all that was in the town. 66 "The next morning I met with a prisoner at this place by the name of Thompson, who had been taken from Virginia. He told me if the Indians would only omit disturbing the fish for one night, he could catch more fish than the whole town could make use of. I told Mr. Thompson that if he knew he could do this, that I would use my influence with the Indians to let the fish alone for one night. I applied to the chiefs, who agreed to my proposal, and said they were anxious to see what the Great Knife (as they called the Virginian) could do. Mr. Thompson, with the assistance of some other prisoners, set to work, and made a hoop net of elm bark; they then cut down a tree across the creek, and stuck in stakes at the lower side of it to prevent the fish from passing up, leaving only a gap at one side of the creek; here he sat with his net, and when he felt the fish touch the net he drew it up, and frequently would haul out two or three rock fish that would weigh about five or six pounds each. He continued at this until he had hauled out about a wagon load, and then left the gap open, in order to let them pass for they could not go far on account of the shallow water. up, Before day Mr. Thompson shut it up, to prevent them from passing down, in order to let the Indians have some diversion in killing them in daylight. "When the news of the fish came to town, the Indians all collected and with surprise beheld the large heap of fish, and applauded the ingenuity of the Virginian. When they saw the number of them that were confined in the water above the tree, the young Indians ran back to the town, and in a short time returned with their spears, gigs, bows and arrows, &c., and were the chief part of that day engaged in killing rock fish, insomuch that we had more than we could use or preserve. As we had no salt or any way to keep them, they lay upon the banks, and after some time great numbers of turkey-buzzards and eagles collected together and devoured them." But enough of our Ohio Crusoe. His remaining adventures, before his restoration to his friends in 1760, consisted of a trip to Detroit, another hunt up Sandusky and down Scioto, and a journey to Caughnewaga, "a very ancient Indian town about nine miles above Montreal," besides an imprisonment of four months in Montreal. This picture of northern Ohio, a century since, has the merit of novelty at least. That it is authentic, there can be no doubt, for in several historians of authority occur frequent and respectful reference to the narrative from whose pages we have drawn so copiously. The geography of the last foregoing paragraphs, is less difficult of explanation than in the first portion of the chap ter. The falls of Sandusky are doubtless the same as the rapids mentioned in the treaty of Greenville, near the site of Fremont, and the Sandusky plains, which were burnt over by the ring hunt, are in Marion, Wyandot and Crawford counties. CHAPTER VIII. THE SURRENDER OF THE WESTERN POSTS TO ENGLAND. THE fall of Fort Du Quesne, in 1758, terminated French dominion upon the Ohio, but the narrative of Forbes' expedition against that important stockade is incomplete, if the adventures of Charles Frederic Post, the Moravian envoy of Pennsylvania to the Ohio tribes, were entirely omitted. The Moravian annals first mention Post as laboring at Shekomeko, in 1743, near the present site of Poughkeepsie, in Eastern New York.1 He married a baptized Indian woman, was imprisoned in 1745, on an unfounded charge of instigating the New York tribes to join the French, suggested by efforts to learn their dialects; resumed his missionary labors among the Connecticut Indians, and finally sojourned in Pennsylvania, when his influence with the Delaware chiefs was at length recognized by the colonial authorities as their most efficient mediation with the Western tribes. He was accordingly induced to make two expeditions into the heart of the enemy's country in the summer and autumn of 1758, and by his conferences with the representatives of eight nations, withheld them from an attack upon Forbes' expedition, and finally concluded a peace. His route ascended the Susquehanna, crossed to the Alleghany, opposite French creek, and thence to a town on the Big Beaver creek, called "Kushkushkee," containing ninety houses and two hundred Delaware warriors. The decisive conference was held, however, opposite Fort Du 1) History of Moravian Missions, Part ii, p. 37. Quesne, whither the savages assured Post "they would carry him in their bosom, and he need fear nothing"-a pledge which was honorably redeemed. On the 24th of August, the Moravian, with his Indian protectors, reached the point opposite the fort, where followed a series of speeches, explanations and agreements. At this interview, though resulting in favor of an union with England, the Indians still complained bitterly of the disposition which the whites showed in claiming and seizing their lands. Why did you not fight your battles at home, or on the sea, instead of coming into our country to fight them?" they asked again and again, and were mournful when they thought of the future. "Your heart is good," they said to Post, "you speak sincerely; but we know there is always a great number who wish to get rich; they never have enough; look! we do not want to be rich, and take away what others have." "The white people think 66 we have no brains in our head; that they are big, and we a little handful; but remember, when you hunt for a rattlesnake you cannot find it, and perhaps it will bite you before you see it." The humble Moravian played no unimportant part in restoring to His British Majesty the key of western America -Fort Du Quesne,-and certainly warded an Indian attack upon Forbes' army.2 It is probable that French garrisons remained at Sandusky, and the forts on French creek, for a while after the occupation of Fort Du Quesne by the English; but as the contest in Canada approached its crisis, the troops were gradually withdrawn. We have already given the 8th of September, 1760, as 2) Perkins' Writings, vol. ii, pp. 216-17; see also Post's Journals in Craig's Olden Time, vol. 1, pp. 98, 145 the date of the surrender of Canada to the English by the French Governor, Vaudrueil. Maj. Robert Rogers, a native of New Hampshire and an associate of Putnam and Stark, was ordered to take possession of the Western forts. He left Montreal on the 13th of September, with two hundred rangers, who were "half hunters, half woodsmen, trained in a discipline of their own, and armed, like Indians, with hatchet, gun and knife." Rogers is described as follows: "their commander was a man tall and vigorous in person and rough in feature. He was versed in all the arts of woodcraft, sagacious, prompt and resolute, yet so cautious withal that he sometimes incurred the unjust charge of cowardice. His mind, naturally active, was by no means uncultivated, and his books and unpublished letters bear witness that his style as a writer was not contemptible. But his vain, restless, grasping spirit, and more doubtful honesty, proved the ruin of an enviable reputation. Six years after his Western expedition, he was tried by a court martial for a meditated act of treason, the surrender of Fort Michillimacinac into the hands of the Spaniards, who were at that time masters of Upper Louisiana. Not long after, if we may trust his own account, he passed over to the Barbary States, entered the service of the Dey of Algiers, and fought two battles under his banners. At the opening of the war of independence, he returned to his native country, where he made professions of patriotism, but was strongly suspected by many, including Washington himself, of acting the part of a spy. In fact, he soon openly espoused the British cause, and received a colonel's commission from the crown. His services, however, proved of little consequence. In 1778, he was proscribed and banished, under the act of New Hampshire, and the remainder of his |