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1742.

John Howard taken by the French.

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far as we have read; for, though Hutchins, who was geographer to the United States when the western lands were first surveyed, refers to Wood, and also to one Captain Bolt, who crossed the Alleghanies in 1670, his remarks are very vague, and he gives us no one to look to, as knowing the circumstances. Of the Boston expedition we know still less; the story is repeated from Coxe by various pamphlet writers of those days, when Law's scheme had waked up England to a very decided interest in the West; but all examinations of contemporary writers, and the town records, have as yet failed to lend a single fact in support of this part of the Doctor's tale. While, therefore, there is no doubt that the English, at an early day, had visited the South West, and even had stations on the Tennessee and among the Chickasaws, (see Charlevoix's map,) we cannot, on the other hand, regard the statements made by Coxe as authenticated. Then we have it also from tradition, that in 1742, John Howard crossed the mountains from Virginia, sailed in a canoe made of a buffalo skin down the Ohio, and was taken by the French on the Mississippi; and this tradition is confirmed by a note, contained in a London edition of Du Pratz, printed in 1774, in which the same facts as to Howard are substantially given as being taken from the official report of the Governor of Virginia, at the time of his expedition. But this expedition by Howard, could give England no claim to the West, for he made no settlement, and the whole Ohio valley had doubtless long before been explored by the French † if not the English traders. It is, however, worthy of remembrance, as the earliest visit by an Englishman to the West, which can be considered as distinctly authenticated. Soon after that time, traders undoubtedly began to flock thither from Pennsylvania and Virginia. In 1748, Conrad Weiser, an interpreter, was sent from Philadelphia with presents to the Indians at Logstown, an Indian town upon the Ohio, between Pittsburgh and the Big Beaver creek, and we find the residence of English traders in that neighborhood referred to as of some standing, even then.‡

* Kercheval's Valley of Virginia. p. 67.

+ Trees have been found in Ohio bearing marks of the axe, which, if we may judge by the rings, were made as far back as 1660.-Whittlesey's Discourse 1840, p. 8.

Butler's History of Kentucky, vol. i. second edition, (Introduction xx.) gives the adventures of one Salling in the West, as early as 1730, but his authority is a late work, (Chronicles of Border Warfare,) and the account is merely traditional, we presume; Salling is named in the note to Du Pratz, as having been with Howard in 1742. There are various vague accounts of English in the West, before Howard's voyage. Keating,

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Lord Howard held a treaty with the Six Nations. 1684. But the great ground whereon the English claimed dominion. beyond the Alleghanies, was that the Six Nations* owned the Ohio valley, and had placed it, with their other lands, under the protection of England. As early as 1684, Lord Howard, Governor of Virginia, held a treaty with the Six Nations, at Albany, when, at the request of Colonel Dungan, the Governor of New York, they placed themselves under the protection of the mother country. This was again done in 1701; and, upon the 14th of September, 1726, a formal deed was drawn up, and signed by the chiefs, by which their lands were conveyed to England, in trust, "to be protected and defended by his Majesty, to and for the use of the grantors and their heirs." If, then, the Six Nations had a good claim to the western country, there could be little doubt that England was justified in defending that country against the French, as France, by the treaty of Utrecht, had agreed not to invade the lands of Britain's Indian allies. But this claim of the New York savages has been disputed. Among others General William H. Harrison has attempted to disprove it, and show, that the Miami confederacy of Illinois and Ohio could not have been conquered by the Iroquois. We shall not enter into the controversy; but will only say, that to us the evidence is very strong, that, before 1680, the Six Nations had overrun the western lands, and were dreaded from Lakes Erie and Michigan to the Ohio, in Long's Expedition, speaks of a Colonel Wood, who had been there, beside the one mentioned by Coxe. In a work called “The Contest in America between England and France. By an Impartial Hand. London 1757," we find it stated, that the Indians at Albany, in 1754, acknowledged that the English had been on the Ohio for thirty years. And in a memorial by the British ministry, in 1755, they speak of the West as having been cultivated by England for "above twenty years." (Sparks' Franklin, vol. iv. p. 330.) Clearer proof still is found in the fact that the Government of Pennsylvania recalled its traders from the Ohio as early as 1732, in consequence of apprehending trouble with the French and Indians. (Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, iii. 476.

When we first hear of the great northern confederacy, there were five tribes in it; namely, Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. Afterwards the Tuscaroras were conquered and taken into the confederacy, and it became the Six Nations. Still later, the Nanticokes, and Tuteloes, came into the union, which was, however, still called the Six Nations, though sometimes the Eight United Nations. This confederacy was by the French called the "Iroquois," by the Dutch "Maquas," by the other Indians "Mengive," and, thence, by the English, Mingoes." These varied names have produced countless errors, and endless confusion. By many writers we are told of the Iroquois or Mohawks; and the Mingoes of the Ohio are almost always spoken of as a tribe. We have used the terms "Six Nations," and "Iroquois," and now and then "Mingoes," always meaning the whole confederacy.

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+ Plain Facts, &c. Philadelphia, 1781. pp. 22, 23.

This may be found at length in Pownall's Administration of the Colonies, fourth edition, London, 1768, p. 269.

I See Harrison's Historical Address, 1837.

1744.

Western Lands claimed by the British.

47

and west to the Mississippi. In 1673, Allouez and Dablon found the Miamis upon Lake Michigan, fearing a visit from the Iroquois,* and from this time forward we hear of them in that far land from all writers, genuine and spurious, as may be easily gathered from what we have said already of Tonti and his wars. We cannot doubt, therefore, that they did overrun the lands claimed by them, and even planted colonies in what is now Ohio; but that they had any claim, which a Christian nation should have recognized, to most of the territory in question, we cannot for a moment think, as for half a century at least it had been under the rule of other tribes, and, when the differences between France and England began, was, with the exception of the lands just above the head of the Ohio, the place of residence and the hunting-ground of other tribes.‡

But some of the western lands were also claimed by the British, as having been actually purchased. This purchase was said to have been made at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1744, when a treaty was held between the colonists and the Six Nations relative to some alleged settlements that had been made upon the Indian lands in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland; and to this treaty, of which we have a very good and graphic account, written by Witham Marshe, who went as secretary with the commissioners for Maryland, we now turn, dwelling upon it somewhat, as a specimen of the mode in which the Indians were treated with. The Maryland, commissioners reached Lancaster upon the 21st of June, before either the governor of Pennsylvania, the Virginia commissioners, or the Indians, had arrived; though all but the natives came that evening.

. The next forenoon wore wearily away, and all were glad to sit down, at one o'clock, to a dinner in the court-house, which the Virginians gave their friends, and from which not many were drawn, even by the coming of the Indians, who came, to the

* George Croghan, the Indian agent, took an oath that the Iroquois claimed no farther on the north side of the Ohio than the Great Miami or Stony river; (called also Rocky river, Great Mineami; and Assereniet. Hutchin's Geographical Descriptions, 25. The purport of this oath has been misunderstood, it says nothing of what the Iroquois transferred to England in 1768. See Butler's Kentucky,-5. 6.— Hall's Statistics of the West, Preface, viii. Butler's Chronology, 9.-The oath is given American State Papers, xvii, 110.

+ See Charlevoix, La Hontan, Hennepin, Tonti, &c.

"In 1744, when the Lancaster treaty was held with the Six Nations, some of their number were making war upon the Catawbas."-Marsh's Journal, Massachusetts Historical Collections, vol. vii. pp. 190, 191.

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Treaty of Lancaster.

1744. number of two hundred and fifty-two, with squaws and little children on horseback, and with their fire-arms, and bows, and arrows, and tomahawks, and, as they passed the coust-house, invited the white men with a song to renew their former treaties. On the outskirts of the town, vacant lots had been chosen for the savages to build their wigwams upon, and thither they marched on with Conrad Weiser, their friend and interpreter, while the Virginians "drank the loyal healths," and finished their entertainment. After dinner they went out to look at their dark allies, who had few shirts among them, and those black from wear, and who were very ragged and shabby; at all which the well-clad and high-fed colonists bit their lips, but feared to laugh. That afternoon the chiefs and commissioners met at the court-house, "shaked hands," smoked a pipe, and drank "a good quantity of wine and punch." The next day, being Saturday, the English went "to the Dunkers' nunnery," and the Indians drank, and danced, and shrieked. Monday, the speaking began, to the satisfaction of all parties, and ended merrily with dancing, and music, and a great supper. On Tuesday and Wednesday, also, speeches were made, varied by dances, in which appeared some very disagreeable women, who "danced wilder time than any Indians." On Thursday the goods were opened, wherewith the Maryland people wished to buy the Indian claim to the lands on which settlements had been made. These goods were narrowly scanned by the red men, but at last taken for £220 Pennsylvania money, after which they drank punch. Friday, the Six Nations agreed to the grant desired by the Marylanders, and punch was drunk again; and, on Saturday, a dinner was given to the chiefs, "at which," says Marshe, "they fed lustily, drank heartily, and were very greasy before they finished." At this dinner, the Indians bestowed on the governor of Maryland the name of Tocaryhogon, meaning

Living in the honorable place." After this came much drinking, and when that had gone forward some time, the Indians were called on to sign the deed which had been drawn up, and the English again "put about the glass, pretty briskly." Next, the commissioners from Virginia, supported by a due quantity of wine and bumbo,† held their conference with the Indians, and received from them "a deed releasing their claim to a large quantity of

For some idea of Weiser, see Proud's History of Pennsylvania, vol. ii., p. 316, where a long letter by him is given. Day's Historical Collections of Pennsylvania, 134. + Rum and water.

1748.

Ohio Company proposed.

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land lying in that colony;" the Indians being persuaded to “recognise the king's right to all lands that are, or by his majesty's appointment shall be, within the colony of Virginia." For this they received £200 in gold, and a like sum in goods, with a promise that, as settlements increased, more should be paid, which promise was signed and sealed. We need make no comment upon this deed, nor speculate upon the probable amount of bumbo which produced it. The commissioners from Virginia, at this treaty of Lancaster, were Colonel Thomas Lee and Colonel William Beverly.*

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On the 5th of July, every thing having been settled satisfactorily, the commissioners left "the filthy town" of Lancaster, and took their homeward way, having suffered much from the vermin and the water, though when they used the latter would be a curious enquiry.

Such was the treaty of Lancaster, upon which, as a corner-stone, the claim of the colonists to the west, by purchase, rested; and upon this, and the grant from the Six Nations, Great Britain relied in all subsequent steps.

As settlements extended, and the Indians murmured, the promise of further pay was called to mind, and Weiser was sent across the Alleghanies to Logstown, in 1748,† with presents, to keep the Indians in good humor; and also to sound them, probably, as to their feeling with regard to large settlements in the west, which some Virginians, with Colonel Thomas Lee, the Lancaster commissioner, at their head, were then contemplating. The object of these proposed settlements was not the cultivation of the soil, but the monopoly of the Indian trade which, with all its profits, had till that time been in the hands of unprincipled men, half civilized, half savage, who, through the Iroquois, had from the earliest period penetrated to the lakes of Canada and com

• Plain Facts, being an Examination, &c., and a Vindication of the Grant from the Six United Nations of Indians to the Proprietors of Indiana vs. the Decision of the Legislature of Virginia. Pp. 29-39. Philadelphia: R. Aitken. 1781. Sparks' Washington, vol. ii. p. 480. Marshe's Journal. The whole proceedings may be found in Colden's History of the Iroquois, given with proper formal solemnity.

Plain Facts, pp. 40, 119, 120.

Sparks' Washington, vol. ii. p. 478. Scarce any thing was known of the old Ohio Company, until Mr. Sparks' inquiries led to the note referred to; and even now so little is known, that we cannot but hope some Historical Society will prevail on Charles Fenton Mercer, formerly of Virginia, who holds the papers of that Company, to allow their publication. No full history of the West can be written, until the facts relative to the great land companies are better known.

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