CHAP. 1761. While the savages of the north west were cherishing these hostile feelings, the Delaware and Ohio Indians were again viewing with suspicion the movements of the Ohio company, who, having, in 1760, sent to England for such instructions to the Virginia government as would enable them to successfully prosecute their undertaking, were now preparing to colonize their original grant. Along the borders, also, of Virginia and Pennsylvania, the settlers who had fled to the cities at the beginning of the war, were gradually reoccupying their old farms; while to add to all these grievances, General Monckton had, in the summer of the same year, by a treaty at Pittsburg, prevailed upon the Indians to allow the building of military posts in their wild lands-each stockade having land enough around it for a garrison garden.1 But while these gradual encroachments were going on in the west, the wrath of the Confederates was kindled at the rumored settlement of Wyoming by the Connecticut settlers. They were also the more irritated, as they had always justly considered the Wyoming lands as their own property, the right to which they had never relinquished. ' "I am sorry to acquaint you," wrote Governor Hamilton to Sir William Johnson, "that the Wyoming settlement still goes on, the very place appointed by the Six Nations for the residue of the Delawares and other tribes, who were obliged to remove from the inward forts of the province on account of the great increase of our people, which spoil their hunting; and I have been, and still am, so much afraid North American Review, July 1839.-At a council held in August of this year, at Philadelphia, a sachem of the Six Nations said: "We, your brethren of the Seven Nations, are penned up like boys. There are forts all around us, and therefore we are apprehensive that death is coming upon us." "Nothing is more certain than that the lands do yet belong to these nations; [the Six Nations] having never, that I have heard of, been fairly and openly purchased from them. Nor can the people of any other province have a right to purchase lands in the very heart of Pennsylvania -all such purchases being declared null and void by an ancient and standing law of this government.-Manuscript letter; Governor Hamilton to Johnson, 12th May, 1761. CHAP. VII. that this manner of proceeding will occasion a fresh rup- CH ture with the Indians, that I have written to General Amherst upon it, and prayed his interposition; in addition 1761. to which, I now also beg the favor of yours in such a manner as you shall judge most proper; and unless by these means a stop can be put to this enterprise, I despair of its being done at all." Despite of all efforts, however, the Connecticut company were sufficiently influential to settle the valley; and although the rupture with the Six Nations, which the governor of Pennsylvania so much feared, did not occur during the life time of the Baronet, yet it was only deferred; and from the massacre of Wyoming, in 1778, until the close of the revolutionary struggle, revenge upon Wyoming seemed a cherished luxury to the infuriated savage, who regarded that settlement as an object of inextinguishable rancor-of unappeasable hate. In addition to all this, the Mohawks had also their own peculiar wrongs to settle with those land speculators from Albany and Schenectady, whose frauds they yet remembered with an intensity only increased by long meditation upon the subject. Yet with all these causes of irritation rankling in their breasts, and with the example before them of the Cherokees, who were now waging a bloody war along the frontiers of Georgia and the Carolinas, the Six Nations, ever under the persuasive influence of the Baronet, remained, with the exception of a few Senecas, faithful to their ancient alliance. Sufficient apprehension, however, was excited to show the necessity of at once conciliating the tribes of the north west. In June, Captain Campbell, who had been left in charge of Detroit, the preceding autumn, was startled by intelligence that the Senecas had not only sent belts of wampum to the nations from Nova Scotia to the Illinois, inviting them to take up the hatchet against the English, but that two of their chiefs were even then holding a private council with the Wyandots, to induce them to massacre the neighboring garrison at Detroit. But this 1 Manuscript letter; Gov. Hamilton to Johnson, 12th May, 1761. V. CHAP. was not all. Farther investigation revealed that the Senecas, Shawanese and Delawares, having assembled at a 1759. certain rendezvous, were to fall simultaneously upon Niagara and Fort Pitt, the garrisons of which were also to be tomahawked and scalped. Immediately upon the receipt of this information, Captain Campbell sent expresses to General Amherst and the officers commanding at the different frontier posts, putting them on their guard; and thus this partially matured plot was for the present broken up1 Such was the condition of Indian relations, when in the early summer of this year, Sir William Johnson, whose jurisdiction extended over all the tribes of the northern colonies, determined, at the request of General Amherst, to visit Detroit. His main object in this was twofold:first to conclude a solid and lasting treaty with the western tribes the neglect of which had been a source of so much dissatisfaction; and secondly, to regulate the fur trade, and settle the prices of clothes and provisions at those posts, which, until recently, had been occupied by the French. Since the close of hostilities, the conduct of many of the traders, as has been intimated, had been shameful in the extreme; and it was with a view of correcting this source of annoyance, that the entire supervision of all trade along the northern tier of forts, was now given to the Baronet; so that, hereafter, no trader could pursue his traffic unless he had a license granted him by the latter, or by his deputy, George Croghan. But Sir William Johnson had other motives in this journey. Among the Baronet's papers, I find the following memoranda of several matters to be attended to upon his arrival at Detroit:3 1 Manuscript letter; Captain Campbell to major Walters, commanding at Niagara "17th June, 1761-two o'clock in the morning." 2 Although the death of George II. in October 1760, dissolved Sir William Johnson's commission as superintendent, &c., yet a new one was granted him by George III, "during the king's pleasure," in March of this year. The insertion of the sememoranda in the text is not deemed irrelevant, VII. "1st. To learn from M. La Bute and St. German the CHAP. names of several nations of Indians in this country, their number of men, places of residence, their connections, disposition and wars. "2d. How many posts the French had in the Indian country, the number of men in each, how maintained, from whom they received their orders, how often relieved, how liked by the Indians, on what footing trade was carried on with the Indians in all those parts—and how far the bounds of Canada extend, and that of Mississippi. "3d. Whether the French had any shipping on the Lakes Huron, Michigan and Superior; whether and which of them is reckoned the best navigation, how late and early they can be used in the season. "4th. Which post or place was always looked upon as the best for trade; what prices the French generally paid for beaver, furs, &c. "5th. What posts and settlements from Mississippi to the Illinois country, and what number of inhabitants, soldiers and slaves." The journey was now, even more perilous than when undertaken by Major Rogers, the previous autumn; but the mutterings of those distant tribes could no longer be passed unheeded; while no one could so well pour oil upon the troubled waters, as the Baronet, whose intimate knowledge of the Indian character and widely extended influence would, it was hoped, shield him from danger. Previous to his leaving home, the Baronet acquainted both the Mohawk castles with the object of his intended journey, requesting them to behave as courteously as possible to their white neighbors during his absence. The Indians appeared to be pleased with his object in going, but at the same time confessed to him their solicitude for his personal safety. They also seemed gratified at his going to show, as they do, the great extent of country over which was Sir William Johnson's jurisdiction, and the minuteness of detail, as well as the method, which was so characteristic of him. 1761. CHAP. thus throwing them upon their good behavior; and since VII he was determined to go, they promised to follow strictly 1761. his advice, and use all their influence to prevent their young men from committing any irregularities either with the soldiers or the inhabitants. They, however, begged that he would forbid their white brethren pressing and teasing them for their lands, "which, they said," were now so clipped about at every side, that they could scarce. live by hunting on what was now left." In reply, they were assured that no land could now be taken from them until it had been fairly purchased-his majesty having given it particularly in charge to his governors, to see that no land was taken up without their consent, and payment being made them for it." "They expressed much satisfaction at this," adds Sir William in his private diary, “and so we parted." Everything being at length in readiness, and the large quantities of goods, sent by General Amherst for the use of the Indians at Detroit, having arrived, Sir William, upon the fifth of July, set out from Fort Johnson. He was accompanied by his son, John Johnson, and by his nephew-subsequently his son in law-Lieutenant Guy Johnson, who was to act as his private secretary. Captain Andrew Montour, and a few Mohawks and Oneidas, also went with the party to act as a sort of body guard. The water being very low-owing to the severe drouth which had continued for some weeks previous, and which, indeed, lasted the entire summer-great difficulty was experienced with the heavily laden bateaux in passing down Wood creek. While the party were thus delayed at Fort Stanwix, they were overtaken by Colonel Eyre, with a letter to the Baronet from General Amherst, enclosing the communication from Captan Campbell in relation to the designs of the Senecas, to which allusion has already been made. Resolved to 1 The private manuscript diary to which allusion is here made, was kept by Sir William Johnson during his journey to and from Detroit, and is given at length in appendix No. iv. of this volume. |