CHAPTER XX. 1774. XX. 1774. Sir William Johnson was too observing and sagacious a CHAP. man not to note the signs of the times. He saw the gathering tempest, and it is believed to have given him great uneasiness. His sympathies, according to the testimony of those who knew him, were undoubtedly with the people. He was from the body of the people himself, having been the architect of his own fortunes; and those who were acquainted with him,' represent the struggle in his bosom to have been great, between those sympathies and his own strong principles of liberty on the one hand, and his duty to his sovereign on the other-a sovereign whom he had served long and faithfully, and who in turn had loaded him with princely benefactions. And yet, there can be no doubt-judging from the passages which have been quoted in the course of this work, and also from the numerous expressions running through the entire correspondence of his later life-that had he lived until it was necessary to have taken a decided stand, he would have boldly espoused the cause of the colonies. Most unfortunate was it, however, that, just at this conjuncture, while all sagacious men saw by the shadows what events were coming, and all good men were solicitous for the preservation of the character and augmentation of the physical strength of the country, a small band of bad ones adopted a course well fitted to awaken the jealousy 1A portion of my father's early life was spent in the valley of the Mohawk; during which period he conversed with several persons of character who had known Sir William intimately-all of whom reiterated the statement made in the text. The statement therefore does not rest on mere tradition. XX. CHAP. of the whole Indian race, and exasperate a portion of them to the highest pitch of anger and revenge. It was evident 1774. that the colonies were about to measure swords with one of the strongest powers in Christendom, and to strike for freedom. True wisdom, therefore, required that the clouds. of Indians darkening more than a thousand miles of our border, and in the north forming an intermediate power between our own settlements and the country of the anticipated foe, should be at least conciliated into neutrality, if not courted into an alliance. But a contrary course was taken by some of the frontier-men of Virginia, awakened by a succession of outrages, unprovoked and more cruel than savages, as such, could have committed. The well informed reader will at once anticipate that reference is now had to the hostilities upon the north-western frontier of Virginia, commonly known as CRESAP'S WAR, and one striking event of which has rendered every American ear familiar with the name of LOGAN, the celebrated Mingo chief.1 Among the many families that the wars and conquests of the Six Nations had been the cause of transplanting over the countries subjected to their arms, was the family of Logan, the son of Shikellimus, a distinguished Cayuga sachem, who had removed from the particular location of his own tribe, to Shamokin or Canestoga, within the borders of Pennsylvania, where he executed the duties of principal chief of those of the Six Nations residing on the Susquehanna. He was a man of consequence and humanity, and one of the earliest to encourage the introduction of Christianity by Count Zinzendorf. He was a great friend of the celebrated James Logan, who accompanied William Penn on his last voyage to America, and who subsequently became distinguished in the colony for his learning and benevolence. Hence the name of the famous son of Shikellimus. 1 Mingo, Menque, Maquas, and Iroquois, are all only different names applied to the Six Nations. XX. Logan had removed from his father's lodge at Shamokin CHAP. to the Shawanese country on the Ohio, where he had become a chief. He was a friend of the white men, and 1774. one of the noblest of his race, not only by right of birth, but in consideration of his own character. During the Indian wars connected with the contest with France, he took no part, save in the character of a peace-maker. The circumstances which transformed this good and just man from a sincere friend into a bitter foe, were as follows: In the spring of this year a party of land agents, under the lead of Captain Michael Cresap, were engaged in locating and opening farms in the valley of the Ohio, near the present towns of Pittsburg and Wheeling. Hearing that the Indians in the vicinity were bent on hostilities, Cresap and his party determined, on the twenty-sixth of April, to make war upon them without investigation, and irrespective, as a matter of course, of the guilt or innocence of those whom they should attack. On the same day, falling in with two Indians on the Ohio river, Cresap and his men killed them. Espying, moreover, upon the following day, some canoes of Indians passing down the river, chase was given; and having driven them on shore near Grave creek, the land agents came suddenly upon them and fired into the group. A skirmish ensued; but the Indians were soon forced to retire with the loss of one man, leaving their canoes in possession of Cresap and his party. Not satisfied with this achievement, the party were for marching at once against the settlement of Logan, situated thirty miles up the river near the mouth of Yellow creek. They had proceeded, however, but five miles, when Cresap, having reflected upon the gross outrage about to be perpetrated on an inoffensive clan, refused to go farther, and to his honor be it said, finally prevailed upon his companions to abandon the undertaking. 1 1 See Brantz Mayer's address on Logan and Captain Cresap, delivered before the Maryland Historical Society in 1851. This address, which is characterized throughout by elaborate and patient research, will well repay its perusal. CHAP. 1774. - was Others, however, were troubled with no such scruples. On the east bank of the Ohio, opposite Logan's encampment, was a white settlement, among the leading men of which was one named Daniel Greathouse. The Indians of the opposite camp, having heard of the atrocities committed by Cresap and his party, determined to avenge their death, of which resolution Greathouse admonished by a friendly squaw, who advised him to escape, while he was reconnoitering for the purpose of ascertaining their numbers. He had crossed the river with thirty-two men under his command, and secreted them for the purpose of falling upon the Indians; but finding that they were too strong for him, he changed his plan of operations, recrossed the river, and with a show of friendship, invited them over to an entertainment. Without suspicion of treachery the Indians accepted the invitation, and while engaged in drinking — some of them to a state of intoxication - they were set upon and butchered in cold blood. Here fell two of the family of Logan a brother and sister. The Indians who had remained at their encampment on the other side of the river, hearing the noise of the treacherous attack, ran to their canoes to rescue their friends. This movement had been anticipated; and sharp-shooters, stationed in ambuscade, shot numbers of them in their canoes, and compelled the others to return. These dastardly transactions were soon followed by another outrage, which, though of less magnitude, was not less atrocious in its spirit, while it was even more harrowing to the feelings of the Indians. The event referred to was the murder, by a white man, of an aged and inoffensive Delaware chief named the Bald Eagle. He had for years consorted more with the white people than with his own, visiting those most frequently who entertained him best. At the time of his murder he had been on a visit to the fort at the north of the Kanawha, and was killed while alone paddling his canoe. The man who committed the |