1790-95. Gamelin's Journal. 331 his house for supper; and, before the other chiefs, told me that, after another deliberation, they thought necessary that I should go myself to Detroit, for to see the commandant, who would get all his children assembled for to hear my speech. I told them I would not answer them in the night that I was not ashamed to speak before the sun. The 29th April I got them all assembled. I told them that I was not to go to Detroit: that the speeches were directed to the nations of the river Wabash and the Miami; and that, for to prove the sincerity of the speech, and the heart of Governor St. Clair, I have willingly given a copy of the speeches, to be shown to the commandant of Detroit: and, according to a letter wrote by the commandant of Detroit to the Miamies, Shawanese, and Delawares, mentioning to you to be peaceable with the Americans, I would go to him very willingly, if it was in my directions, being sensible of his sentiments. I told them I had nothing to say to the commandant; neither him to me. You must immediately resolve, if you intend to take me to Detroit, or else I am to go back as soon as possible. Blue Jacket got up and told me, "My friend, we are well pleased with what you say. Our intention is not to force you to go to Detroit: it is only a proposal, thinking it for the best. Our answer is the same as the Miamies. We will send, in thirty nights, a full and positive answer, by a young man of each nation, by writing to Post Vincennes." In the evening, Blue Jacket, chief of the Shawanese, having taken me to supper with him, told me, in a private manner, that the Shawanee nation was in doubt of the sincerity of the Big Knives, so called, having been already deceived by them. That they had first destroyed their lands, put out their fire, and sent away their young men, being a hunting, without a mouthful of meat: also, had taken away their women; wherefore, many of them would, with great deal of pain, forget these affronts. Moreover, that some other nations were apprehending that offers of peace would, may be, tend to take away, by degrees, their lands; and would serve them as they did before: a certain proof that they intend to encroach on our lands, is their new settlement on the Ohio. If they don't keep this side [of the Ohio] clear, it will never be a proper reconcilement with the nations Shawanese, Iroquois, Wyandots, and, perhaps many others. Le Gris, chief of the Miamies, asked me, in a private discourse, what chief had made a treaty with the Americans at Muskingum, [Fort Harmar.] I answered him that their names were mentioned in the treaty. He told me he had heard of it some time ago; but they are not chiefs, neither delegates, who made that treaty: they are only young men, who without authority and instructions from their chiefs, have concluded that treaty, which will not be approved. They went to the treaty clandestinely, and they intend to make mention of it in the next council to be held.* * American State Papers, v. p. 93. 332 Agency of Britain. 1790-95. On the 8th of May, Gamelin returned to Fort Knox, and on the 11th merchants from the Upper Wabash arrived, bringing news that parties from the north had joined the Wabash savages; that the whole together had already gone to war upon the Americans; and that three days after Gamelin left the Miamis, an American captive had been burned in their village:* all which things so plainly foretold trouble on the frontier, that St. Clair, as we have stated, hastened to Fort Washington to concert with General Harmar a campaign into the country of the hostile tribes. Before we proceed with the history of Harmar's campaign, however, it seems proper to give in one view all that we know relative to the agency of the British in keeping up Indian hostility after the peace of 1783. Most of the tribes, as our readers have seen, adhered to England during the Revolutionary struggle. When the war ceased, however, England made no provision for them, and transferred the Northwest to the United States, without any stipulation as to the rights of the natives. The United States, regarding the lands of the hostile tribes as conquered and forfeited, proceeded to give peace to the savages, and to grant them portions of their own lands. This produced discontent, and led to the formation of the confederacy headed by Brant. To assist the purposes of this union, it was very desirable that the British should still hold the posts along the lakes, and supply the red men with all needful things. The forts they claimed a right to hold, because the Americans disregarded the treaty of 1783; the trade with the Indians, even though the latter might be at war with the United States, they regarded as perfectly fair and just. Having thus a sort of legal right to the position they occupied, the British did, undoubtedly and purposely, aid and abet the Indians hostile to the United States. In 1785, after the formation of his confederacy, Brant went to England, and his arrival was thus announced in the London prints: This extraordinary personage is said to have presided at the late grand Congress of confederate chiefs of the Indian nations in America, and to be by them appointed to the conduct and chief command in the war which they now meditate against the United States of America. He took his departure for England immediately as that assembly broke up; * American State Papers, v. 87 + Heckewelder's Narrative, 379. Stone's Life of Brant, ii. 247. 248. 1790-95. Brant's Movements. 333 and it is conjectured that his embassy to the British Court is of great importance. This country owes much to the services of Colonel Brant during the late war in America. He was educated at Philadelphia; is a very shrewd, intelligent person, possesses great courage and abilities as a warrior, and is inviolably attached to the British nation.* On the 4th of January, 1786, he visited Lord Sidney, the Colonial Secretary, and after plainly and boldly stating the trouble of the Indians at the forgetfulness of Britain-the encroachments of the Americans-and their fear of serious consequences, i. e. war, he closed with these words: This we shall avoid to the utmost of our power, as dearly as we love our lands. But should it, contrary to our wishes, happen, we desire to know whether we are to be considered as His Majesty's faithful allies, and have that support and countenance such as old and true friends expect.† The English minister returned a perfectly non-committal answer; and when the Mohawk chieftain, upon his return, met the confederated natives in November, 1786, he could give them no distinct assurances of aid from England. But while all definite promises were avoided, men situated as John Johnson, the Indian superintendent, did not hesitate to write to him— Do not suffer an idea to hold a place in your mind, that it will be for your interests to sit still and see the Americans attempt the posts. It is for your sakes chiefly, if not entirely, that we hold them. If you become indifferent about them, they may perhaps be given up; what security would you then have? You would be left at the mercy of a people whose blood calls aloud for revenge; whereas, by supporting them, you encourage us to hold them, and encourage the new settlements, already considerable, and every day increasing by numbers coming in, who find they cant live in the States. Many thousands are preparing to come in. This increase of his majesty's subjects will serve as a protection for you, should the subjects of the States, by endeavoring to make farther encroachments on you, disturb your quiet.‡ This letter was written in March, 1787; and two months afterwards, Major Matthews, who had been in the suite of the Governor of Canada, Lord Dorchester, after being appointed to com Stone, ii. 249. + Ibid, 254. +Ibid, ii. 268. 334 British Views. 1790-95. mand at Detroit, speaks still more explicitly, and in the Governor's name also, "His Lordship was sorry to learn," he says That while the Indians were soliciciting his assistance in their preparations for war, some of the Six Nations had sent deputies to Albany to treat with the Americans, who, it is said, have made a treaty with them, granting permission to make roads for the purpose of coming to Niagara; but that, notwithstanding these things, the Indians should have their presents, as they are marks of the King's approbation of their former conduct. In future his lordship wishes them to act as is best for their interest; he cannot begin a war with the Americans, because some of their people encroach and make depredations upon parts of the Indian country; but they must see it is his lordship's intention to defend the posts; and that while these are preserved, the Indians must find great security therefrom, and consequently the Americans greater difficulty in taking possession of their lands; but should they once become masters of the posts, they will surround the Indians, and accomplish their purpose with little trouble. From a consideration of all which, it therefore remains with the Indians to decide what is most for their own interest, and to let his lordship know their determination, that he may take his measures accordingly; but, whatever their resolution is, it should be taken as by one and the same people, by which means they will be respected and become strong; but if they divide, and act one part against the other, they will become weak, and help to destroy each other. This is the substance of what his lordship desired me to tell you, and I request you will give his sentiments that mature consideration which their justice, generosity, and desire to promote the welfare and happiness of the Indians, must appear to all the world to merit. In your letter to me, you seem apprehensive that the English are not very anxious about the defence of the posts. You will soon be satisfied that they have nothing more at heart, provided that it continues to be the wish of the Indians, and that they remain firm in doing their part of the business, by preventing the Americans from coming into their country, and consequently from marching to the posts. On the other hand, if the Indians think it more for their interest that the Americans should have possession of the posts, and be established in their country, they ought to declare it, that the English need no longer be put to the vast and unnecessary expense and inconvenience of keeping posts, the chief object of which is to protect their Indian allies, and the loyalists who have suffered with them. It is well known that no encroachments ever have or ever will be made by the English upon the lands or property of the Indians in consequence of possessing the posts, how far that will be the case if ever the Americans get into them, may very easily be imagined, 1790-95. British Agents urge Indians to War. 335 from their hostile perseverance, even without that advantage, in driving the Indians off their lands and taking possession of them.* These assurances on the part of the British, and the delay of Congress in replying to the address of the confederated nations, dated December, 1786, led to the general council of 1788; but the divisions in that body, added to the uncertain support of the English government, at length caused Brant for a time to give up his interest in the efforts of the western natives, among whom the Miamies thenceforth took the lead; although, as our extracts from Gamelin's journal show, a true spirit of union did not, even in 1790, prevail among the various tribes. At that time, however, the British influence over the Miamis and their fellows, was in no degree lessened, as is plain from the entire reference of their affairs, when Gamelin went to them, to the commandant at Detroit. Nor can we wonder at the hold possessed over the red men by the English, when such wretches as McKee, Elliott and Girty,‡ were the go-betweens, the channels of intercourse. "You invite us," said one of the war-chiefs to Gamelin, "to stop our young "It is impossible to do it, being constantly encouraged by the British." men. We confess, said another, that we accepted the axe, but it is by the reproach we continually receive from the English and other nations, * See Stone ii. 271. + See also Stone ii. 290, note. Some of the Delawares and Miamies so far quarrelled that the former left for the Mississippi. Girty we have already spoken of.-Alexander McKee, (sometimes written McKay and McGee) was an Indian agent before the Revolution. Major Rogers, in 1760, sent a Mr. McGee from Detroit to the Shawanese town on the Ohio, to receive the French stationed there, (Journal, 229): this may have been McKee.-In 1773, the Rev. D. Jones found Alexander McKee living about three miles from Paint Creek, Ohio, among the Shawanese. (See his journal in Cist's Cincinnati Miscellany, i. 262.) On the 29th of February, 1776, Colonel Butler, the refugee hero of Wyoming and Indian Agent for England, wrote to McKee, then residing as Indian agent at Fort Pitt, to come to Niagara ; in consequence of which the committee of Western Augusta obliged him to bind himself to have nothing to do with the Indians on account of Great Britain; and this parole Congress accepted. (American Archives, fourth series. v. 818. 820. 1692.-Old Journals, ii. 67.) In 1778, however, he left Pittsburgh, with Simon Girty, Matthew Elliott and others, to join the British. (Heckewelder's Narrative, 170.) He became a colonel, and was a leader among the northwest Indians from that time till his death. He had stores at the falls of the Maumee. (See American State Papers, v. 243. 351. Some of his letters were taken at Proctor's defeat in 1813. (See Armstrong's Notices, i. appendix No. 2, 188.-Brown's History of War of 1812, ii. appendix.) Matthew Elliott had been a trader; in 1776 he was taken by the British and joined them, for which he received a captain's commission. In 1790-95 he lived at the mouth of Detroit river, and carried on trade and farming. (See Heckwelder's Narrative, 147, 170.) |