History of Hillsdale county. Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers.

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26

HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

visit our fathers, the French, they always sent us home
joyful; and we hope you, fathers, will have pity on our
women and young men, who are in great want of necessaries, and not let us go to our towns ashamed."
Pontiac was present at another council on the 27th of
the same month, and also made his submission to the English. In the autumn of that year, too, Fort Chartres, the
last French post east of the Mississippi (except in the
vicinity of New Orleans), was delivered up to a detachment
of British soldiers. The humiliation of France was complete, and the West was at peace. Yet there was still a
very bitter feeling existing on the part of the Western
Indians toward the English, and traders of that nation
frequently dealt in the name of their French employees,
on account of the greater friendliness of the savages for
that people.
Before proceeding with the history of the tribe we have
taken under our especial charge, a few words may interest
the reader regarding the great chieftain whose skill and
eloquence, ferocity and valor had shaken the power of
Britain throughout an immense domain, and startled half
a continent from its propriety. In the spring of 1706,
Pontiac met Sir William Johnson at Oswego, and renewed
the compact of peace and friendship already made in the
West. He then returned and fixed his home on the
Maumee. When new disturbances arose between the settlers and Indians, Pontiac was suspected of inflaming the
hostility of the latter. Early in 1769 he went to Illinois,
where there was already much uneasiness, and again the
suspicions of the English were aroused. According to the
account adopted by Parkman, and which is in all probability correct, Pontiac became intoxicated at an Indian
feast at Cahokia, near St. Louis. An English trader, seeing his condition, hired a Kaskaskia Indian to murder him,
and when the chieftain wandered alone into the forest to
cool his heated brain, the assassin stealthily followed and
stabbed him to the heart.
His followers fled northward and told the tale among
the warriors of the lakes, all of whom were eager to avenge
the crime. They might endure the supremacy of the powerful English, but their fierce blood boiled at the thought
that the scurvy Illinois Indians, whom they had always
looked on as their inferiors, should dare to slay their renowned champion. By hundreds, perhaps by thousands,
the northern warriors sprang to arms,-Oftawas, Ojibwas,
and I'ottawattamies, Delawares, Shawnees, and lialmis,and ere the conflict was concluded the Illinois were almost
entirely exterminated. Men, women, and children were
indiscriminately slaughtered, their villages were destroyed
by fire, and only a few puny and frightened bands remained
to tell the story of the great revenge.
Pontiac was essentially a representative Indian, with all
the mingled virtues and vices of his race in the most
marked degree. Brave, ferocious, patriotic, true to his
friends, treacherous toward his foes, enduring the severest
hardships of war with stoic fortitude, but succumbing at
length to the baleful fire-water of the pale-faces, his charac

ter may well be studied on the pages of Parkman, as manifesting in a single individual all the most prominent attributes of the Indians of North America.
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CHAPTER V.
THE POTTAWATTAMIES-(Continued).

A Peaceful Era-The Quebec Act-Michigan called " Iesse"-The
Revolution-Pott owatt(lmies with Burgoyne-Outrage and Desertion-The Ordinance of 1787-The Treaty of 1789-Defeat of Harmar and St. Clair-" Mad Anthony" on the War-Path-The Battle
of the Maumee-Treaty of Greenville-Topenabee, the Head Chief
-A "Ring" Scheme-Organization of Indiana and MichiganDivers Treaties-Tecumseh and the Iuttawcatt omies- Battle of
Tippecanoe-The War of 1812-Defeat of Major Van Iloin-British and Indians Defeated by Colonel Miller-Hull's Surrender-P ',ttaw tttoamies turn out en masse-Battle and Massacre of the RaisinProctor's Defeat at Lower Sandusky-Battle of Lake Erie-Indians
at the Topmast-Battle of the Thames-Submission of the IPottawattfaniice-Concluding Remarks.
DOWN to the opening of the Revolutionary war, the
Pottawattamnies, like the other lake Indians, dwelt in comparative peace with the white men, though occasional murders on either side kept up the general feeling of uneasiness.
The Indians of Michigan occupied a much more independent position than their brethren to the southeast. The
Jroquois claimed sovereignty over the whole northwest
almost to the Mississippi, by virtue of previous conquests;
but while the Delawares and Slh(awnees of Ohio admitted
their supremacy, and never attempted to sell land without
their consent, the fiercer Ottawas, Ojibwas, and Pottawattamies defied their power, and were able to maintain their
own independence.
We may mention, too, in passing that, in 1774, the act
of Parliament known as the Quebec Act established the
boundaries of Canada, so far as to include Michigan, and extend west to the Mississippi, and south to the Ohio. The
district of Michigan was established then, or previously, as
a part of the province of Quebec, but it had no civil government. The commandant of the post of Detroit exercised
almost autocratic power over the white men of the district,
while the vast forests of the interior knew no government
save the vague authority exercised by Ottawa, Ojibwa, and
Pottawattamie chietains. In time, these and their followers
became pretty well reconciled to the English, and very
strongly impressed with the power of the English king.
Four years after the Quebec Act, the Captain-General of
Canada divided that province into districts, giving that of
Michigan the name of " Hesse," in honor of the Hessian
troops then serving King George in America. But the
fortunes of war determined that the people of Michigan
should not be " Hessians."
Meanwhile the oppressions of Britain had roused the
colonies to resistance, and in 1775 the bloody dlrama of
the Revolution opened on the field of Lexington. With
the first news of conflict, the warriors of the West snuffed
blood in the air, and were eager to take part in the strife.
The English authorities were very willing to employ them,
and, having ample means and free communication with the
savages, it was easy to enlist both their avarice and their
passions on the royal side. It was easy to throw the blame
of all the wrongs of which the Indians complained upon
the colonists (who were by no means guiltless), and to
represent that their great and good father across the ocean
was determined to see that justice was done to his red chil