EXTENDING THE FRONTIER Before the Revolutionary war, steps were taken to extend the settlement to the west, partly from the impulse to expand, to grow, and partly from a desire to extend the frontier as a measure of protection. This ambition was the leading, moving thought among the great minds of Virginia, and it was sons of Virginia who blazed the way into the trackless wilderness, and took possession of Kentucky, "the dark and bloody ground," where the battles were fought and the minds cultured which made apparent the advisability of the purchase of Louisiana, and contributed so much to its development. As Washington, then a young surveyor and lowly citizen, extended the lines of survey, he was watched by the red men, who dogged his footsteps and scalped his unfortunate assistants who happened to fall into their hands, and often it became necessary to drop the tripod and compass, and take up the rifle and the knife. That which occurred in his case was true in the life of almost all of the frontier surveyors, and the frontier farmer carried the rifle, as well as the hoe, into the field where the work was done. When the little band of Virginians passed down the Ohio River on their way to the unknown land, muffled oars guided the Indian canoe behind them, and stealthily treading feet followed their footprints on the land. When they sent their representatives back to Virginia, it was the eloquence, the force and the patriotism of Patrick Henry-and the loving sympathy of his wife, Dorothea, “a gift of God" indeed,-which gave to the settlers 500 pounds of powder, to Kentucky a name as a county in Virginia, and the support necessary to the life of that colony. Startling and fruitful of results were the incidents in the years of warfare which followed. We find in them the chain of forts, the campaign of "Mad" Anthony Wayne, the battle of Tippecanoe and the war with Mexico. The horrors of Indian war were again visited on the frontier settlers in the Minnesota massacre of 1862, which brought the trail of blood home to Dakota doors, the story of which will be told with considerable detail in this volume, for it is important that the youth of this fair land should know something of what it has cost to establish liberty, to extend the settlements, and to develop the resources of this country, until now there is no frontier. "But the Prairie's passed, or passing, with the passing of the years, -J. W. Foley, "Sunset On the Prairies." CHAPTER I-Continued. OUTLINES OF AMERICAN HISTORY THE FIRST TRADING POSTS-BORDER WARS-FRENCH POSTS-THE ALGONQUINS AND THE IROQUOIS OR SIX NATIONS-INDIAN ALIGNMENT IN THE BORDER WARSTHE TUSCARORAS-A PATHETIC APPEAL-THE CHEROKEES-THE CREEKS, ETC. -ATTEMPTS TO ENSLAVE THE INDIANS—THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS-BUFFALO AND BEAVER. THE FIRST TRADING POSTS "When the cool wind blows, from the shining snows On the long, bald range's crest, I am drunk with song, and the gold days long, Life is not fair, but I do not care, If only I get my fill Of wind and storm, and the mellow warm Of the sun, on the sage-brush hill!" -M. E. Hamilton, "The Pagan.” In 1608, Samuel Champlain established Indian trade in North America as a business by the construction of a line of trading posts, with headquarters at Quebec. This was the beginning of the fur trade, which, extending along the lakes and to the great Northwest, led to the formation of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670; to the struggle between the rival trading establishments; to the alignment of the Indians in favor of the French or English, and to the strife along the border. THE BORDER WARS The English captured Quebec in 1629, but it was restored to France by the peace of St. Germain en Laye in 1642. In 1654, Port Royal, now known as Annapolis, N. S., was captured by the English, but was restored by treaty. Compte de Buade Frontenac was appointed governor general of the French possessions in North America in 1672, and under his administration, as early as 1680, the French had built military posts at Niagara, Michilimackinac (Mackinaw), and in the Illinois country. Frontenac inaugurated a vigorous war against the Hudson's Bay Company trading posts, and on the English settlements along the frontier. Sir William Phips (or Phipps), governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (1692-1694), in 1690 in an expedition by land and sea from Boston again captured Port Royal, but failed in his attempts to capture Quebec. During Queen Anne's war, 1705 to 1713, Port Royal having been restored to France, was again captured by Col. John Nicholson, in 1710, and renamed Ann-apolis in honor of Queen Anne. The next year the campaign against Quebec under General John (“Jack”) Hill, with 2,000 veterans under Colonel Nicholson, supported by a fleet com manded by Sir Howard Walker, failed through disaster to the fleet from a storm on the St. Lawrence River. Queen Anne's war closed in 1713, by the Treaty of Utrecht, and was followed by a few years of peace, between the French and English, the French gradually extending their dominion to the valley of the Mississippi River, forming a chain of forts around the English whose settlements were menaced at every point beyond the Alleghany Mountains. FRENCH FORTS ON THE BORDER As stated in Francis Parkman's "Half a Century of Conflict," "Niagara held the passage from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, Detroit closed the entrance to Lake Huron, and Michilimackinac guarded the point where Lake Huron is joined by lakes Michigan and Superior, while the fort called La Baye, at the head of Green Bay, stopped the way to the Mississippi by Marquette's old route of the Fox River and the Wisconsin. Another route to the Mississippi was controlled by a post on the Maurice, to watch the carrying-place between that river and the Wabash, and by another on the Wabash where Vincennes now stands. La Salle's route by way of the Kankakee and the Illinois was barred by a fort on the St. Joseph, and even if, in spite of these obstructions the enemy should reach the Mississippi by any of the northern routes, the cannon at Fort Chartres would prevent him from descending it." INDIAN ALIGNMENT IN BORDER WARS-THE SIX NATIONS The Iroquois, known as the "Five Nations" until joined by the Tuscaroras of North Carolina in 1713, were composed of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas, the Tuscaroras making the sixth of the allied nations. THE ALGONQUINS The chief tribes of this family group were the Hurons or Wyandottes, Ottawas, Crees, Chippewas, Urees, Miamis, Menominees, Chippisings, Pottawatamies, Sacs, Foxes, Kickapoos, the Powhatan tribes in Virginia, the Mohegans, Pequots, and other tribes of New England, the several tribes being free to exercise their own preference-the Shawnee, Blackfeet and Cheyennes, and various other lesser tribes. The Algonquin tribes were bounded on the north by the Esquimaux, on the west by the Dakotas or Sioux, on the south by the Cherokees, the Natchez and Mobilian tribes. THE HURONS The Hurons were a people of strong militancy; they were first encountered on the St. Lawrence River in the vicinity of Quebec. In their association with friendly Indians they claimed and were usually conceded the right to light the campfire at all general gatherings. Their confederacy was known in their language as the Sendat, and finally came to be called Wyandots (Wendat). In the treaty of January 21, 1785, they are recognized as Wyandots. This treaty was also with the Delawares, Chippewas, and Ottawas. It was by the use of firearms obtained from the Dutch that the Iroquois were able to drive the Hurons from the St. Lawrence, when they |