1777. Escape of Major McColloch. 173 them the door of the American citadel. The match was applied; bursting into a thousand pieces the cannon of Girty tore, maimed, and killed his copper-colored kinsfolk, but hurt none else.* During that night many of the assailants withdrew disheartened. On the morning of the 28th, fifteen men came from Cross creek to the aid of Fort Henry, and forty-one from Short creek. Of these all entered the fort except Major McColloch, the leader of the Short creek volunteers. He was separated from his men, and at the mercy of the natives, and here again we prefer to use the words of Mr. McKiernan. From the very commencement of the war, his reputation as an Indian hunter was as great, if not greater, than that of any white man on the north-western border. He had participated in so many rencounters that almost every warrior possessed a knowledge of his person. Among the Indians his name was a word of terror; they cherished against him feelings of the most phrensied hatred, and there was not a Mingo or Wyandot chief before Fort Henry who would not have given the lives of twenty of his warriors to secure to himself the living body of Major McColloch. When, therefore, the man whom they had long marked out as the first object of their vengeance, appeared in their midst, they made almost superhuman efforts to acquire possession of his person. The fleetness of McColloch's well-trained steed was scarcely greater than that of his enemies, who, with flying strides, moved on in pursuit. At length the hunter reached the top of the hill, and, turning to the left, darted along the ridge with the intention of making the best of his way to Short Creek. A ride of a few hundred yards in that direction brought him suddenly in contact with a party of Indians who were returning to their camp from a marauding excursion to Mason's Bottom, on the eastern side of the hill. This party being too formidable in numbers to encounter single-handed, the major turned his horse about and rode over his own trace, in the hope of discovering some other avenue to escape. A few paces only of his countermarch had been made, when he found himself confronted by his original pursuers, who had, by this time, gained the top of the ridge, and a third party was discovered pressing up the hill directly on his right. He was now completely hemmed in on three sides, and the fourth was almost a perpendicular precipice of one hundred and fifty feet descent, with Wheeling Creek at its base. The imminence of his danger allowed him but little time to reflect upon his situation. In an instant he decided upon *This incident, and the heroic act of Elizabeth Zane, are placed by Withers in the siege of Fort Henry in 1782 (Border Warfare, 263. 264.) We follow the writer in the Pioneer, who is represented as an accurate man; Withers was not always so. 174 Kentuckians choose Burgesses. 1777. his course. Supporting his rifle in his left hand and carefully adjusting his reins with the other, he urged his horse to the brink of the bluff, and then made the leap which decided his fate. In the next moment the noble steed, still bearing his intrepid rider in safety, was at the foot of the precipice. McColloch immediately dashed across the creek, and was soon beyond the reach of the Indians.* Finding all attempts to take the fort fruitless, the Indians killed all the stock, including more than three hundred cattle, burned houses and fences, and destroyed every article of furniture. Of the forty-two men who had been in the fort, twenty-five were killed, all outside of the walls; of the savages probably one hundred perished.† But notwithstanding the dangers and difficulties which surrounded them during 1777, the pioneers of the West held steadily to their purposes, and those of Kentucky being now a component part of the citizens of Virginia, proceeded to exercise their civil privileges, and in April elected John Todd and Richard Gallaway, burgesses to represent them in the Assembly of the parent State. Early in the following September the first court was held in Harrodsburg; and Col. Bowman, who, as we have mentioned, had arrived from the settlements in August, was placed at the head of a regular military organization which had been commenced the March previous. Thus, within herself, feeble as she was, Kentucky was organizing; and her chief spirit, he that had represented her beyond the mountains the year before, was meditating another trip to Williamsburg, for the purpose of urging a bolder and more decided measure than any yet proposed. He understood the whole game of the British. He saw that it was through their possession of Detroit, Vincennes, Kaskaskia and the other western postswhich gave them easy and constant access to the Indian tribes of the north-west-that the British hoped to effect such an union of the wild men as would annihilate the frontier fortresses. He knew that the Delawares were divided in feeling, and the Shawanese but imperfectly united in favor of England, ever since the murder of Cornstalk. He was convinced that could the British in the north-west be defeated and expelled, the natives might be easily awed or bribed into neutrality; and by spies sent for the * American Pioneer, vol. ii. p. 312. + See Withers' Border Warfare, 160. American Pioneer, ii. 302-314-339. The usual date of the attack is September 1. Mr. McKiernan gives good authority for his dates, which we follow. 1777. Clark proposes to conquer Illinois. 175 purpose, and who were absent from April 20 to June 22d, he had satisfied himself that an enterprise against the Illinois settlements might easily succeed. Having made up his mind, on the 1st of October, he left Harrodsburg for the East, and reached the capital of Virginia November the 5th. Opening his mind to no one, he watched with care the state of feeling among those in power, waiting the proper moment to present his scheme. Fortunately, while he was upon his road, on the 17th of October, Burgoyne had surrendered, and hope was again predominant in the American councils. When therefore the western soldier, upon the 10th of December, broke the subject of his proposed expedition against the forts on the far distant Mississippi, to Patrick Henry, who was still governor, he met with a favorable hearing, and though doubts and fears arose by degrees, yet so well digested were his plans, that he was able to meet each objection, and remove every seeming impossibility. Already the necessity of securing the western posts had been presented to the consideration of Congress; as early as April 29, 1776, the committee on Indian affairs were instructed to report upon the possibility of taking Detroit ;* and again, upon the 20th of November, 1777, a report was made to that body, in which this necessity was urged, and also the need that existed, of taking some measure to prevent the spirit of disaffection from spreading among the frontier inhabitants.† Three commissioners also were chosen to go to Fort Pitt, for the purpose of inquiring into the causes of the frontier difficulties, and doing what could be done to secure all the whites to the American cause, to cultivate the friendship of the Shawanese and Delawares, and to concert with General Hand some measures for pushing the war westward, so as to obtain possession of Detroit and other posts. General Washington was also requested to send Colonel William Crawford, an old pioneer, to take the active command in the West; and he accordingly left head quarters upon the 25th. All this, as we shall see by and by, ended in nothing, but it proved the correctness of Clark's views, and aided, we may suppose in convincing those who ruled in the Ancient Dominion that their glory and interest, as well as the safety of the whole frontier country, were deeply involved in the success of the bold plan of the founder of Kentucky. And here, before proceeding to narrate the steps taken by Clark * Secret Journals, i. 43. + Old Journals, vol. ii. p. 340. 176 Condition of Illinois. 1762 to 1777. to reduce the Illinois and other British posts of the north-west, it will be proper to bring up the scant and simple annals of that portion of our country from 1750, when Vivier wrote respecting them, to the period at which we have now arrived. The settlements along the Mississippi, from 1750 to 1762, experienced few changes with which we are acquainted.* On the 3d of the month of November of the year last named, the preliminary articles of peace between Great Britain, France, Spain and Portugal, which resulted in the peace of Paris, of February 10th, 1763, were signed at Fontainbleau; on that day also, by a secret act of cession the French king gave to Spain all of Louisiana (west of the Mississippi,†) together with New Orleans and the island on which it is situated. The command of this territory, however, was not given over by the officers of France until directed to do so by an order dated April 21, 1764. The regions east of the Mississippi, including all the various towns of the north-west, were by the same peace-making given over to England; but they do not appear to have been taken possession of by that power until 1765, when Captain Stirling, in the name of the majesty of England, established himself at Fort Chartres, bearing with him the proclamation of General Gage, dated December 30, 1764, which promised freedom of religious worship to the western Catholics, a right to leave the country with their effects if they wished, or to remain with the privileges of Englishmen. During some years, differences occurred between the British rulers and French inhabitants, and many of the latter crossed the river into the dominions of Spain; so that when Captain Pittman visited "the Illinois," in 1770, Kaskaskia contained only sixty-five resident families, and Cahokia only forty-five dwellings. Still at that time one man furnished the king's stores from his crop, 86,000 lbs. of flour. § Soon after this we find General Gage issuing his proclamation of April, 1772, against interlopers on the Wabash, at St. Vincent and elsewhere, which led to a protest on * Some account of the Illinois in 1756 may be found in the travels of Bossu, translated by J. R. Forster, London, 1771. 2 vols. This was intended, but not stated. See order to Mons. D'Abbadie, Land Laws 976. Land Laws, 948.-Brown's Illinois, 212. Pittman's present state of English Settlements on the Mississippi. (London, 1770) p. 43. Pittman, p. 43. On p. 55 this writer says a man in Illinois could have been fed and lodged the year round for two months' work; the one in seed-time, the other in harvest. In 1769, Hutchins (Geographical Description, 43) says the Illinois produced 110 Hhds. of wine. 1762-1777. Condition of Illinois. 177 pro the part of the old inhabitants in the following September, this test the General replied to by requiring the name of every person at St. Vincents, with all the details of each one's claim. These claims at the time of the Revolution passed, as did those from the posts further west, into the hands of the United States' Government, and were by them equitably adjusted, although it was by no means an easy matter to do so, as the claims finally existing had arisen in various ways; some from grants by the old French commandants, others from those by the British officers, who succeeded in the government of Illinois, others by purchase from the Indians, and others again under promises made by the old confederation. Many of these claims were supported by scarce any proof, most of the old records having been destroyed; and others were upheld only by perjury, which seems to have been easily procured when needed. Among the cases which appear most embarrassing were those of the Illinois and Wabash Co's, who, in July, 1773, and October, 1775, had bought of the Indians three immense and most valuable tracts of land in what are now the States of Illinois and Indiana, upon the Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio and Wabash rivers. The purchases were made by William Murray, for himself and others, at open councils held at Kaskaskia and St. Vincent, in the presence of the British officers, and which lasted for several weeks. From these meetings ardent spirits. were entirely excluded, and the savages, in return for their deeds, received goods to the value of fifty thousand dollars. The British government, however, under the pressure of the time, did not confirm the proceedings, although Lord Dunmore was one of the leaders of the Wabash Company-and when, after the Revolution, the purchasers presented their claim to the United States, which they did several times, it was not granted, Congress taking the ground that the purchase from the natives was in contempt of the Proclamation of 1763, and could not be recognized. Upon the same ground the vast tract in the north-west, which Jonathan Carver, the old traveller, alledged a title to, as having been purchased of the Sioux, was considered as in no degree his, even though he had been able to show a fair title, (independent of the proclamation,) which, as it happened, he was not able to do. There are many voluminous reports in relation to these matters in the American State papers, which may be found by turning to the Index of Land Laws, 948–949. For Gage's Proclamation, see American State Papers, xvii. 209. |