1752. French begin their Forts. 53 of the Ohio and east of the Kanawha, which was that on which the Ohio Company proposed to make their first settlement. He spent the winter in that labor. In 1751 also, General Andrew Lewis, commenced some surveys in the Greenbriar country, on behalf of the company already mentioned, to which one hundred thousand acres of land had been granted in that region;* but his proceedings, as well as Gist's, were soon interrupted. Meanwhile no treaty of a definite character had yet been held with the western Indians; and, as the influence both of the French and of the independent English traders, was against the company, it was thought necessary to do something, and the Virginia government was desired to invite the chiefs to a conference at Logstown, which was done. All this time the French had not been idle. They not only stirred up the savages, but took measures to fortify certain points on the upper waters of the Ohio, from which all lower posts might be easily attacked, and, beginning at Persqu'Ile, or Erie, on the lake, prepared a line of communication with the Alleghany. This was done by opening a wagon-road from Erie to a little lake lying at the head of French Creek, where a second fort was built, about fifteen miles from that at Erie. When this second fort was fortified we do not clearly learn; but some time in 1752, we believe.† But lest, while these little castles were quietly rising amid the forest, the British also might strengthen themselves too securely to be dislodged, a party of soldiers was sent to keep the Ohio clear; and this party, early in 1752, having heard of the tradinghouse upon the Miami, and, very likely, of the visit to it by Gist, came to the Twigtwees and demanded the traders, as unauthorized intruders upon French lands. The Twigtwees, however, were neither cowards nor traitors, and refused to deliver up their friends. The French, assisted by the Ottawas and Chippewas, then attacked the trading-house, which was probably a Stuart's Memoir of Indian War. Border Warfare, 48. + Washington's Journal, of 1753.—Mante, in his History of the War, says, early in 1753, but there was a post at Erie when the traders were taken, before June, 1752. Sparks' Franklin, vol. iv. p. 71.-vol. iii. p. 230. Plain Facts, p. 42.-Contest in North America, &c. p. 36.-Western Monthly Magazine, 1833.-This fort was always referred to in the early treaties of the United States with the Indians; see Land Laws and treaties, post-Several other captures beside this are referred to by Franklin and others. The attack on Logstown, spoken of by Smollett and Russell, was doubtless this attack on the Miami post. Smollett; George II. chap. ix. See also Burk's Virginia, vol. iii. p. 170. 54 Post on Miami destroyed. 1752. block-house, and after a severe battle, in which fourteen of the natives were killed,* and others wounded, took and destroyed it, carrying the traders away to Canada as prisoners, or, as one account says, burning some of them alive. This fort, or tradinghouse, was called by the English writers Pickawillany.† Such was the fate of the first British settlement in the Ohio valley, of which we have any record. It was destroyed early in 1752, as we know by the fact, that its destruction was referred to by the Indians at the Logstown treaty in June. What traders they were who were taken, we do not know with certainty. Some have thought them agents of the Ohio Company; but Gist's proceedings about the Kenhawa do not favor the idea, neither do the subsequent steps of the company; and in the "History of Pennsylvania," ascribed to Franklin, we find a gift of condolence made by that Province to the Twigtwees for those slain in defence of the traders among them, in 1752, which leads us to believe that they were independent merchants from that colony.‡ Blood had now been shed, and both parties became more deeply interested in the progress of events in the west. The English, on their part, determined to purchase from the Indians a title to the lands they wished to occupy, by fair means or foul; and, in the spring of 1752, Messrs. Fry,|| Lomax, and Patton, were sent from Virginia to hold a conference with the natives at Logstown, to learn what they objected to in the treaty of Lancaster, of which it was said they complained, and to settle all difficulties.§ On the 9th of June, the commissioners met the red men at Logstown: this was a little village, seventeen miles Among them a king of the Piankeshaws. (Minutes of the Council of Carlisle, 1753.) From those Minutes we learn also that the Ottawas and Chippewas aided the French. + Washington's Journal (London, 1754) has a map on which the name is printed "Pikkawalinna."-A memorial of the king's ministers, in 1755, refers to it as "Pickawillanes, in the centre of the territory between the Ohio and the Wabash." (Sparks' Franklin, vol. iv. p. 330.) The name is probably some variation of Piqua or Pickaway in 1773: written by Rev. David Jones " Pickaweke." (Cist's Cincinnati Miscellany, i. 265.) The Twigtwees met the Pennsylvanians at Lancaster, in July, 1748, and made a treaty with them. (Dillon's Indiana, i. 63.) Croghan also (Butler's Kentucky, 471,) speaks of them as connected with Pennsylvania. The Shawnese, from the west, went to Philadelphia to make treaties, in 1732. (Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, iii. 491.) Afterwards Commander in Chief over Washington, at the commencement of the French war of 1755-63; he died at Will's Creek, (Cumberland) May 31, 1754. (Sparks Washington, ii. 27. note.) § Plain Facts, p. 40.—Sparks' Washington, vol. ii. p. 480. 1752. Treaty of Logstown. 55 and a half below Pittsburgh, upon the north side of the Ohio.* It had long been a trading-point, but had been abandoned by the Indians in 1750.† Here the Lancaster treaty was produced, and the sale of the western lands insisted upon; but the chiefs said, "No; they had not heard of any sale west of the warrior's road,‡ which ran at the foot of the Alleghany ridge." The commissioners then offered goods for a ratification of the Lancaster treaty; spoke of the proposed settlement by the Ohio Company; and used all their persuasions to secure the land wanted. Upon the 11th of June, the Indians replied. They recognised the treaty of Lancaster, and the authority of the Six Nations to make it, but denied that they had any knowledge of the western lands being conveyed to the English by said deed; and declined, upon the whole, having any thing to do with the treaty of 1744. "However," said the savages, "as the French have already struck the Twigtwees, we shall be pleased to have your assistance and protection, and wish you would build a fort at once at the Fork of the Ohio."|| But this permission was not what the Virginians wanted; so they took aside Montour, the interpreter, who was a son of the famous Catherine Montour,§ and a chief among the Six Nations, being three-fourths of Indian blood, and persuaded him, by valid arguments, (of the kind which an Indian most appreciates doubtless,) to use his influence with his fellows. This he did; and, upon the 13th of June, they all united in signing a deed, confirming the Lancaster treaty in its full extent, consenting to a settlement southeast of the Ohio, and guarantying that it should not be disturbed by them.T Croghan, in his Journal says, that Logstown was south of the Ohio. (Butler's Kentucky, App.) The river is itself nearly north and south at the spot in question; but we always call the Canada side the north side, having reference to the general direction of the stream. + Bouquet's Expedition. London, 1766. p. 10-Logstown is given on the map accompanying the volume. Washington (Sparks' ii. 526,) speaks of a warrior's path coming out upon the Ohio about thirty miles above the Great Kenhawa;-Filson and Hutchins (see map) make the one referred to by them terminate below the Scioto.-One may have been a branch used by the Muskingum and Hocking tribes, the other by those of the Scioto Valley. | Plain Facts, p. 42. § For a sketch of this woman, see Massachusetts Historical Collections, First Series, vol. vii p. 189, or Stone's Life of Brant, vol. i. p. 339. She had two sons, Andrew and Henry. The latter was a captain among the Iroquois, the former a common interpreter, apparently. Andrew was taken by the French in 1749. Which of them was at Logstown we are not told; but, from his influence with the Indians, it was probably Henry. Plain Facts, pp. 38-44. The Virginia commissioners were men of high character, but treated with the Indians according to the ideas of their day. 56 Settlers cross the Mountains. 1752. By such means was obtained the first treaty with the Indians in the Ohio valley. All this time the two powers beyond the Atlantic were in a professed state "of profound peace;" and commissioners were at Paris trying to out-manœuvre one another with regard to the disputed lands in America,* though in the West all looked like war. We have seen how the English outwitted the Indians, and secured themselves, as they thought, by their politic conduct. But the French, in this as in all cases, proved that they knew best how to manage the natives; and, though they had to contend with the old hatred felt toward them by the Six Nations, and though they by no means refrained from strong acts, marching through the midst of the Iroquois country, attacking the Twigtwees, and seizing the English traders, nevertheless they did succeed, as the British never did, in attaching the Indians to their cause. As an old chief of the Six Nations said at Easton, in 1758; "The Indians on the Ohio left you because of your own fault. When we heard the French were coming, we asked you for help and arms, but we did not get them. The French came, they treated us kindly, and gained our affections. The Governor of Virginia settled on our lands for his own benefit, and, when we wanted help, forsook us." So stood matters at the close of 1752. The English had secured (as they thought) a title to the Indian lands south-east of the Ohio, and Gist was at work laying out a town and fort there on Shurtees (Chartier's) Creek, about two miles below the Fork. Eleven families also were crossing the mountains to settle at the point where Gist had fixed his own residence, west of Laurel Hill, and not far from the Youghiogany. Goods too had come from England for the Ohio Company, which, however, they could not well, and dared not, carry beyond Will's Creek, the point where Cumberland now stands, whence they were taken by the traders and Indians; and there was even some prospect of a road across the mountains to the Monongahela. On the other hand, the French were gathering cannon and stores upon Lake Erie, and, without treaties or deeds for land, were gaining the good will of even inimical tribes, and preparing, when all was ready, to strike the blow. Some of the savages, it * See Smollett; George II., chapters viii. and ix. † Plain Facts, p. 55.-Pownall's Memoir on Service in North America. Sparks' Washington, vol. ii. pp. 433, 482, and map, p. 38. 1753. Treaties of Winchester and Carlisle. 57 is true, remonstrated. They said they did not understand this dispute between the Europeans, as to which of them the western lands belonged to, for they did not belong to either. But the French bullied when it served their turn, and flattered when it served their turn, and all the while went on with their preparations, which were in an advanced state early in 1753.* In May of that year, the governor of Pennsylvania informed the Assembly of the French movements, a knowledge of which was derived, in part at least, from Montour, who had been present at a conference between the French and Indians relative to the invasion of the West. The assembly thereupon voted six hundred pounds for distribution among the tribes, besides two hundred for the present of condolence to the Twigtwees, already mentioned. This money was not sent, but Conrad Weiser was despatched in August to learn how things stood among the Ohio savages.‡ Virginia was moving also. In June, or earlier, a commissioner was sent westward to meet the French, and ask how they dared invade his Majesty's province. The messenger went to Logstown, but was afraid to go up the Alleghany, as instructed. Trent was also sent off with guns, powder, shot and clothing for the friendly Indians; and then it was, that he learned the fact already stated, as to the claim of the French, and their burial of medals in proof of it. While these measures were taken, another treaty with the wild men of the debatable land was also in contemplation; and in September, 1753, William Fairfax met their deputies at Winchester, Virginia, where he concluded a treaty, with the particulars of which we are unacquainted, but on which, we are told, was an indorsement, stating that such was their feeling, that he had not dared to mention to them either the Lancaster or the Logstown treaty; a most sad comment upon the modes taken to obtain those grants. In the month following, however, a more satisfactory interview took place at Carlisle, between the representatives of the Iroquois, Delawares, Shawanese, Twigtwees and Owendeats, and the commissioners of Pennsylvania, Richard Peters, Isaac Norris, and Benjamin Franklin. At this meeting the attack on the * See in Washington's Journal, the Speech of Half-king to the French commander and his answer. Sparks's Washington, vol. ii. p. 484. + Sparks' Franklin, vol. iii. p. 219. [ Sparks' Washington, vol. ii. p. 230. Sparks' Washington, vol. ii. p. 430. |