The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922; / Clarence M. Burton, editor-in-chief, William Stocking, associate editor, Gordon K. Miller, associated editor. [Vol. 2]

CITY OF DETROIT

951

he would have been informed that the greatest part of the pickets illy supported
(as I am informed under his own inspection) were blown down and floated off
by a sudden rise of the river, which carried them into Lake Erie. The few
remaining pickets were employed to complete the continuation of the line
up to the glacis and some few were employed to inclose waste ground which
left an ugly looking place near the old powder magazine."
De Peyster gave public notice to the owners of lots on the river front of
the village that if they would fill up the space between their lots and the water,
they might have the land so made, and if they did not care to go to the expense and trouble, he would give the land to other persons who would do the
work. For this act also, Governor Hay complained to Haldimand, and in
explanation of it, De Peyster stated that the parcel of land thus given away
"consisted of a small space of a ragged hill which was a public nuisance, being
a receptacle for all manner of filth and a retreat for drunken Indians, who frequently made fires and were very troublesome when dislodged. I therefore
requested the proprietors to enclose the ground back of their several lots,
which some of them did, more to oblige me than from any real advantage to
themselves, leaving a road of communication from the front of the town to
the king's wharf, which was much wanted and which I had not the leisure to
make. When the lines of pickets stood upon the water's edge, Indians used
frequently to fasten their canoes to them and have sometimes passed through
vacancies, as seldom a night passed without some pickets falling down."
Before the lots were filled up in front, the space between the water's edge
and the foot of the hill was used to store wood for the village. After the pickets
were removed and the hill graded down to fill the quagmire, the commandant
directed the wood to be stored "in a spacious, dry place adjoining the east
gate and immediately in front of the sentry and protected by him more than
ever in its former position."
FURTHER NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN DE PEYSTER AND INDIANS
We have seen that the Moravian teachers were at Detroit, and that the
remaining Indians were directed to come here also. The Chippewa Indians
had granted them a tract of land on the Huron (now Clinton) River and thither
they removed, built for themselves a little village, and lived by fishing, hunting, making woodenware, picking berries and making maple sugar. They
took no part in the war. Whatever things they got or produced found a ready
market in Detroit. The steps taken by De Peyster in behalf of the Moravians met with the hearty approval of Haldimand. It also must have had a
great effect on the other Indian tribes. De Peyster was constantly, through
these years of trouble, urging the Indians to be merciful in their warfare; to
kill in battle, but to spare the lives of the prisoners. At nearly every council
held with the Indians we find these injunctions issued by him. His letters
to McKee, Elliott, Caldwell and others all breathe the same principle. The
massacre of the Christian Indians by Williamson and his company was so
horribly inhuman that even the Indians were startled. De Peyster thought
that he would no longer be capable of controlling them. He wrote to McKee
on the 19th of August:
"You are sensible that I have lost no opportunity to request that you
would recommend humanity to the Indians. It has ever been the principle
that I have acted upon and I am convinced that no task is more agreeable to
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