CHAPTER XII.

SUBMISSION AND FATE OF PONTIAC.

IN the spring of 1765, late in April, Sir William Johnson was seated in council at German Flats, far in the interior of New York, and around him gathered the representatives of all the Western tribes. What the armies of 1764 had accomplished on the waters of Muskingum and Sandusky, was then consummated by the negotiations of the sagacious superintendent. At this meeting, two propositions were made; one to fix some boundary line, west of which the Europeans should not go; and the savages named as this line, the Ohio or Alleghany and Susquehannah; but no definite agreement was made, Johnson not being empowered to act. The other proposal was, that the Indians should grant to the traders who had suffered in 1763, a tract of land in compensation for the injuries then done them, and this the Indians agreed to do.

With the returning deputies of Senecas, Shawanese and Delawares, George Croghan, Sir William Johnson's subcommissioner, embarked at Pittsburgh on the 15th of May, 1765, intending to visit the Wabash and Illinois, secure the allegiance of the French who inhabited their valleys, and conclude a treaty with Pontiac and his Ottawa and Miami adherents, whose submission was yet withheld.1 His voyage down the Ohio in two batteaux was not eventful-the Journal affording a panorama of "rich and fertile bottoms;"

1) See Croghan's Journal in Craig's Olden Time, vol. i., p. 403.

hills now withdrawn beyond these bottoms, and anon "pinching close on the river," and "islands mostly lying high out of the water." About a mile below Big Beaver creek, a deserted Delaware town, "built for that nation by the French in 1756," was noticed-some of the stone chimneys yet remaining on the north side of the river. About two miles below where Steubenville stands, still on the north side of the Ohio, and near the mouth of Indian Cross creek, they passed a Seneca village, the chief of which joined the party. This place is usually designated Mingo Town, and although most of the Indians might have been Senecas, yet doubtless many from the other New York tribes were among its inhabitants. Here was afterwards the residence of Logan.

Croghan, on the 19th of May, encamped at the mouth of Little Conhowa River, and "here" he says "buffaloes, bears, turkeys, with all other kind of wild game, are extremely plenty." Five days from Pittsburgh, he came to the "mouth of Hochocen or Bottle River," passing within twenty miles above "five very fine islands; the country being rich and level, with high steep banks to the rivers." From this place, an Indian runner was despatched to the Plains of Scioto, with a letter to the French traders from the Illinois residing there with the Shawanese, requiring them to join him at the mouth of Scioto, that they might take the oath of allegiance to the British crown, be properly licensed to trade, and also accompany Croghan to the French settlements on the Wabash and Illinois.

Thirty miles below Hockhocking, an encampment was made at Big Bend, now within Meigs county. Here was such abundance of buffalo, bears, deer, and all sorts of game, that the party killed whatever was needed "out of the boats;" and still a country fine and level, with high banks, and an

abundance of creeks falling into the Ohio.

They passed "a place called Alum Hill, from the great quantity of that mineral found there by the Indians." Discovering some Cherokees near their encampment on the evening of the 22d, a good guard was kept the first part of the night, but nothing more was seen of them.

At the mouth of Scioto the journalist was enraptured. "The soil on the banks of the Scioto," he writes, "for a vast distance up the country, is prodigious rich, the bottoms very wide, and in the spring of the year, many of them are flooded, so that the river appears to be two or three miles wide. Bears, deer, turkeys, and most sorts of wild game, are very plenty on the banks of the river. On the Ohio, just below the mouth of Scioto, on a high bank, near forty feet, formerly stood the Shawanese town, called the Lower Town, which was all carried away, except three or four houses, by a great flood in the Scioto. I was in the town at the time; though the banks of the Ohio were so high, the water was nine feet on the top, which obliged the whole town to take to their canoes and move with their effects to the hills. The Shawanese afterwards built their town on the opposite side of the river, which, during the French war they abandoned for fear of the Virginians, and removed to the plains on Scioto.

In general, all the lands on the Scioto River, as well as the bottoms on Ohio, are too rich for anything but hemp, flax, or Indian corn."

During the next three days, which were passed in camp at Scioto, the French traders arrived from the Shawanese towns, and on the 28th the party proceeded. The river being wider and deeper, with no islands, they "drove all night." On the 30th, the Great Miami was passed, and about forty miles below, they "arrived at the place where

the elephant's bones are found." Under date of May 31, Croghan writes: "Early in the morning we went to the great Lick, where these bones are only found, about four miles from the river, on the south-east side. In our way we passed through a fine timbered clear wood; we came into a large road which the buffalos have beaten, spacious enough for two wagons to go abreast, and leading straight into the Lick. It appears that there are vast quantities of these bones lying five or six feet under ground, which we discovered in the bank at the edge of the Lick. We found here two tusks above six feet long; we carried one, with some other bones, to our boats, and set off. This day we proceeded down the river about eighty miles, through a country much the same as already described, since we passed the Scioto."

Passing the Falls of the Ohio and the Five Islands, the mouth of the Wabash was reached on the 6th of June, and is thus described: "At the mouth of the Ouabache we found a breast-work erected, supposed to have been done by the Indians. The mouth of this river is about two hundred yards wide, and in its course runs through one of the finest countries in the world, the lands being exceedingly rich and wellwatered; here hemp might be raised in immense quantities. All the bottoms, and almost the whole country abounds with great plenty of the white and red mulberry tree. These trees are to be found in great plenty in all places between the mouth of the Scioto and the Ouabache; the soil of the latter affords this tree in plenty as far as Ouicatanon, and some few on the Miami River. Several large fine islands lie in the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Ouabache, the banks of which are high, and consequently free from inundations; hence we proceeded down the river about six miles to encamp, as I judged some Indians were sent to waylay us, and came to a

place called the Old Shawnese Village, some of that nation having formerly lived there."

Letters were sent on the following day to Lord Frazer, an English officer on the Illinois, and to Monsieur St. Ange, the French commandant at Fort Chartres, and some speeches to the Indians there, informing them of the late peace, and that Croghan was coming to conclude matters with them. All these plans were interrupted, however, on the 8th of June. At day break, the English and their allies were attacked by a party of Indians, consisting of eighty warriors of the Kickapoos and Musquattimes, who killed two of the whites and three Indians, wounding Croghan and all the rest of the party, except two whites and one Indian. The survivors were made prisoners and plundered. In answer to the remonstrance of a Shawanese deputy, who was shot through the thigh, the marauders confessed that their "fathers, the French, had spirited them up, telling them that the Indians were coming with a body of southern Indians to take their country from them and enslave them; that it was this that induced them to commit the outrage."

Seven days' travel, at first through heavy woods, but principally "prodigious rich bottoms," clear woods and "some large meadows, where no trees for several miles together are to be seen, but with buffalos, deer and bears in plenty," brought captives and captors to Port Vincent, (now Vincennes,) which is described as a village of eighty or ninety French families, settled on the east side of the Wabash, and the inhabitants, as "an idle, lazy people, or parcel of renegades from Canada," who secretly exulted at the misfortunes of the English, and fell to bartering trifles for the valuables of which the prisoners had been plundered-ten of Croghan's half johannes, which a savage had appropriated, being extorted