Page images
PDF
EPUB

volunteered in the expedition, with the faint hope of recovering her, and, after long suspense, had recognized her among a troop of prisoners, bearing in her arms a child born during her captivity. The joy of their meeting was marred by the absence of an older child who had been captured with her mother, but soon taken from her. At length, however, the child was brought to the camp in the arms of a warrior, and the mother, recognizing it, sprang forward and snatched it in frantic delight.

When the army reached Carlisle on its return, hundreds flocked hither to see, if among the prisoners, they might not find some lost relative. Among these was an old woman, whose daughter had been carried off nine years before. In the crowd of female captives, she discovered one in whose countenance she decerned the altered lineaments of her daughter; but the girl, having almost lost her command of the English language, and forgetting the looks of her mother, took no notice of her. At this the old lady wept bitterly, saying that "the daughter whom she had so often sung to sleep on her knee, had forgotten her in her old age." Bouquet, hearing her complaint, said: "Sing the song that you used to sing to her when a child." The anxious old lady obeyed, and as her trembling voice ran over the air, the tears rushed to the eyes of her daughter, for she now recognized and remembered her mother's voice.

Having finished its work, Bouquet's army returned to Fort Pitt, and from thence to the settlements, where the prisoners were distributed to their homes. Bouquet had fully accomplished the mission for which he had penetrated the forest, and now he received the praise of every good citizen in the provinces. At the next session of the Pennsylvania Assembly, it lost no time in voting the country's thanks to Col. Bouquet. The Assembly of Virginia passed a similar vote, and both houses concurred in recommending Bouquet to the King for promotion. But the news of his success having reached the throne before the intelligence of this just recognition, the King, without provincial advice, had promoted him to the rank of Brigadier,

and the command of the Southern Department. Bouquet died three years after.

One condition of the treaty which this gallant officer had made with the Indians was that all the tribes were to send deputies to Sir William Johnson, with whom they were to conclude a permanent treaty. Having given hostages for the fulfillment of this engagement, they were up to their promise and the nations were fully represented. In the treaty which they now made with Sir William Johnson, it was stipulated that they should all join the English army in its march into Illinois, for the purpose of aiding the British in getting possession of the forts in that country.

CHAPTER XIX.

[ocr errors]

GROGHAN'S EXPEDITION MURDER OF INDIANS - EXPEDITION AGAINST THE INDIANS-BATTLE OF POINT PLEASANT - DUNMORE RETIRES FROM THE WEST-FORT ERECTED AT BOONSBOROUGH CONSPIRACY TO UNITE THE INDIANS.

-

AFTER the peace which was concluded between the Indians and Sir William Johnson in 1764, Col. George Groghan, a commissioner under the latter, was sent to explore the country adjacent to the Ohio river and to conciliate the Indians in that quarter. Accompanied by the deputies of the Senecas, Shawanoes and Delawares, he left Fort Pitt on the fifteenth of May, 1765, and in two bateaux proceeded down the Ohio river. On the fifth of June he reached the mouth of the Wabash, and from this point he dispatched two Indian runners with letters to Lord Frazer, a British officer commanding at a post in Illinois, and to M. St. Auge, the French commandant at Fort Charters. On the eighth of the same month his party was attacked by eighty Indian warriors. They killed two white men and three Indians, wounded Col. Groghan and made him and all the white men prisoners, and plundered them of all the valuables in their possession. After a perilous route, in which Groghan visited many Indian villages, he made his way to Niagara, reaching that fort in October. So matters stood in the West in 1765. All beyond the Alleghanies, with the exception of a few forts, was a wilderness, until the Wabash was reached, where dwelt a few French, with some fellow countrymen not far from them, upon the Illinois and Kaskaskia. The Indians, a few years since, undisputed owners of the prairies and broad vales, now held them by sufferance, having been twice conquered by the arms of England. They, of course, felt both hatred and fear; and, while they despaired of

holding their lands and looked forward to unknown evils, the deepest and most abiding spirit of revenge was roused within them. They had seen the British coming to take their hunting grounds upon the strength of a treaty they knew not of. They had been forced to admit British troops into their country; and, though now nominally protected from settlers, the promised protection would be but an incentive to passion, in case it was not in good faith extended to them.

And it was not in good faith extended to them by either individuals or governments. During the year that succeeded the treaty of German Flats, settlers crossed the mountains and took possession of lands in western Virginia and along the Monongahela. The Indians, having received no pay for these lands, murmured, and once more a border war was feared. Gen. Gage, commander of the king's forces, issued orders for the removal of the settlers, but they defied his power and remained where they were. But not only did the frontier men thus pass the line urged on, but Sir William Johnson himself was even then meditating a step which would have produced, had it been taken, a general Indian war. This was the formation of an independent colony south of the Ohio river. It was the intention to purchase the lands from the Six Nations and then to procure from the king a grant of as much territory as the company would require. Other schemes were also on foot for a similar purpose, which resulted in a good deal of rivalry and speculation. Franklin, however, was in favor of making large settlements in the West, and as the system of managing the Indians by superintendents was then in bad odor, it was thought changes should be made in this respect.

The discussion of the boundary line between the Indians and the settlements now began to receive attention. Sir William Johnson was authorized to treat with the savages on this subject, and, accordingly, he summoned them to meet him in council at Fort Stanwix. The council was held in the following October and was attended by representatives from New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania, by Sir William Johnson and his deputies, by the agents of those traders who had suffered in the war of 1763, and by deputies from all the Six Nations,

the Delawares and the Shawanoes. The first question that came up was that of the boundary line which was to determine the Indian lands of the West from that time forward, and this line the Indians claimed, upon the first of November, should begin on the Ohio, at the mouth of the Cherokee river; thence up the Ohio and Alleghany to Kittaning; thence across to the Susquehanna, etc., whereby the whole country south of the Alleghany was ceded to the British. A deed for part of this land was made in November to William Trent. The tract thus conveyed lay between the Kanawha and Monongahela, and was called Indiana. Two days afterwards a deed for the remaining western lands was made to the king and the price agreed upon paid down.

Other grants were also made and now the white man could quiet his conscience when driving the native from his forest home, and feel confident that an army would assist him, if necessary. The work of settlement now began to revive, and in a few years scattering colonies had been planted along the Ohio and in Kentucky, as well as in Indiana. The savages now became jealous at seeing their best hunting grounds invaded, and notwithstanding the treaty at Fort Stanwix, they were not disposed to give up the territory without a struggle. Widespread dissatisfaction prevailed among the Shawanoes and Mingoes. This was fostered by the French traders, who still came among them, and now a series of events followed well calculated to renew the hostility of the Indians. Everywhere emigration flowed in and the best grounds of the savages were occupied. In addition to the murder of several single Indians by the frontier men, in 1772, five families of the natives on Little Kanawha were killed in revenge for the death of a white family on Gauley river, although no evidence existed to prove who committed the last named outrage. It would now seem that the settlers were foremost in raising a quarrel.

In April news was received that the Shawanoes could no longer be trusted, and when Capt. Michael Gresap, who was now at Wheeling speculating in lands, heard that three Cherokees had attacked a canoe in which were three white men, killing one of them, he went out with a party, and attacked

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »