History of the Ojibway Nation/Neill/Chapter 2
II.
OJIBWAYS UNDER BRITISH RULE.
The French garrison at Niagara, under Chevalier Pouchot, on July 25th, 1759, at seven in the morning, surrendered to the English, under Sir William Johnson. The latter in his journal, under date of the 30th of July, writes: "A Chippeway chief[1] came to me with Mr. Francis in order to speak to me." On the 23d of August, he again spoke to a Chippeway chief, Tequakareigh, and with a string and two belts of wampum welcomed him, and shook him by the hand. He then gave him a black belt and recommended hunting and trading as far more profitable than quarrelling with the English, and invited him and all of the tribes in his vicinity to visit Niagara and Oswego, where they would find a large assortment of goods for their use. The chief assured him he would never again strike the English, and took from his neck a large French medal, and received an English one, and a gorget of silver.
In September, 1761, Sir William Johnson was at Detroit, and on the 11th he writes, that he was visited by "about forty of the Chippawas who had just arrived, came to see me, and made a friendly speech, with a string of wampum, assuring me of their firm resolution of abiding with us, and complying with everything proposed by me, and agreed to, by the rest. Gave them pipes, tobacco, and rum; then they departed."
SILVER CROSSES DISTRIBUTED.
On the 17th of the same month he made the following entry in his Journal: "I counted out, and delivered to Mr. Croghan some silver works, viz., one hundred and fifty ear-bobs, two hundred brooches or breast-buckles, and ninety large crosses, all of silver, to send to Ensign Gorrel of the Royal Americans, posted at La Bay [Green Bay] on Lake Michigan, in order to purchase therewith some curious skins and furs for General Amherst and myself."[2]
MACKINAW CAPTURED BY OJIBWAYS.
The occupation of Mackinaw in 1761, by English soldiers, was neither agreeable to the French Canadian traders, nor to the Indians. The conspiracy of Pontiac extended from Lake Erie to Lake Superior, and on the 4th of June, the Ojibways under the leadership of Match-e-ke-wis, a bold young warrior, surprised the fort.[3] Etherington, the officer in command, on the 11th of June wrote to Lt. Gorrel of Royal Americans at Green Bay: "This place was taken by surprise on the fourth instant by the Chippewas at which time Lieut. Jamett, and twenty more were killed, and the rest taken prisoners, but our good friends, the Ottowas, have taken Lieut. Lesley, me, and eleven men off their hands, and have promised to reinstate us again. You will, therefore, on the receipt of this, which I send by a canoe of Ottawas, set out with all your garrison and what English traders you have with you, and come, with the Indians who give you this, who will conduct you safe to me. . . . . Tell the savages that you are obliged to come here, to open the road which the Chippewas have shut up," etc.
At the time Mackinaw was surprised, the siege of Detroit by Pontiac was taking place. Among his men was a band of Saginaw Ojibways. On the 18th of June, eight Ojibways came from Mackinaw, one of whom was Nonchanek or Kinonchanek, the son of the head chief, bringing news of the capture at Mackinaw; he remained but a few days, and after his departure it was rumored that he would soon return with eight hundred warriors. Kinonchanek, however, did not approve of the course of Pontiac, in slaughtering so many.
OJIBWAYS CONFER WITH SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON.
It was now necessary for the English to assert their power in the northwest, and conciliate the tribes. During the spring of 1764, Match-e-ke-wis, the leader of the assault on Mackinaw, came to the house of J.B. Cadot,[4] the Canadian trader at Sault Ste. Marie, in a canoe full of warriors, with evil intent towards Alexander Henry, an English trader, who was at the house on a visit, but while there a messenger, and some other Indians, arrived with a request that they should meet Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, in council at Niagara. A council was called, and the head messenger with a belt of wampum said: "My friends and brothers! I am come with this belt, from our great Father, Sir William Johnson. He desired me to come to you, as his ambassador, and tell you that he is making a great feast, in common with your friends, the Six Nations, who have all made peace with the English. He advises you to seize this opportunity of doing the same, as you cannot otherwise fail of being destroyed; for the English are on their march, with a great army, which will be joined by different nations of Indians. In a word, before the fall of the leaf, they will be at Michillimackinac, and the Six Nations with them."
After a great medicine dance, the sacred men had, as they alleged, a communication from the Great Turtle, one of their mightiest spirits, who said that, "Sir William Johnson would fill their canoes with presents; with blankets, kettles, guns, gunpowder, and shot, and large barrels of rum, such as the stoutest of the Indians would not be able to lift; and that every man would return in safety to his family."
On the 10th of June, 1764, a deputation left Sault Ste. Marie, accompanied by the trader Alexander Henry, and by way of Lake Simcoe and Toronto, reached Niagara and attended the grand council. On the 6th of August, Henry and his Ojibway companions, accompanied General Bradstreet's army on the way to Detroit. At this point Bradstreet, on the 7th of September, made a treaty with the Ojibways and some other tribes. The principal speaker of the Indians was Wasson, an Ojibway chief, who said to Bradstreet, "My brother, last year God forsook us. God has now opened our eyes, and we desire to be heard. It is God's will, our hearts are altered. It was God's will you had such fine weather to come to us. It is God's will also there should be peace, and tranquillity, over the face of the earth, and the waters."
MACKINAW REOCCUPIED BY THE ENGLISH.
After this, Captain Howard with a strong detachment was sent to reoccupy Mackinaw,[5] and English soldiers were once more seen at Green Bay and Sault Ste. Marie.
ROGERS, IN 1766, COMMANDANT AT MACKINAW.
Major Robert Rogers was appointed commandant at Mackinaw, not long after the suppression of the Pontiac conspiracy. The son of an Irishman who had settled in New Hamphshire, bold, cunning, unscrupulous, and uneducated, yet bright and quick, he had entered the provincial service, in 1755, and as captain of a company of scouts, or rangers, had rendered efficient service, in the war against the French, in Canada. In 1760, he left Montreal with troops to take possession of Detroit and other posts, in the name of the King of Great Britain. After the defeat of Pontiac, he applied for the command, at Mackinaw, which was reluctantly granted in 1766, and General Gage wrote to Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, to be careful not to place large sums of money in his hands.
Soon after his arrival, he began to hold secret meetings with the Indians, to obtain therefrom grants of land. He also sent agents to trade with distant tribes, one of whom was Jonathan Carver, who visited the Sioux. In the spring of 1767, Nathaniel Potter, who had been two years at Mackinaw, was sent to trade, and confer with the Ojibways of Lake Superior. Upon his return therefrom, Rogers disclosed to him a plan he had devised to make the region around the lakes a separate province, with himself the Governor, and wished Potter to go to England in the interest of the project. He also said if he could not carry out his plan, he would retire among the French and Spanish on the Mississippi. The scheme was something like that of Aaron Burr at a later period, and Potter considering it treasonable, declined to have any connection with it, and reported the matter to the authorities at Montreal.
On the 11th of September, 1767, Sir William Johnson wrote to General Gage as follows: "Though I wrote to you, a few days ago, by Mr. Croghan, I could not avoid saying something again on the score of the vast expenses incurred, and still incurring at Michillimackinac, chiefly on pretence of making a peace between the Sioux and Cbippeweighs." On August 17th, 1768, he writes to the Earl of Hillsborough: "Major Rogers brings a considerable charge against the Crown for mediating a peace between some tribes of Sioux and some Chippeweighs, which, had it been attended with success, would have been only interesting to a very few French, and others that had goods in that part of the Indian country."
During this year, Rogers was placed under arrest, sent to Montreal, and tried by court martial, on charges of treason, for having proposed to deliver the post of Mackinaw to the Spaniards of Louisiana.[6] OJIBWAY CHIEF AT JOHNSON HALL.
In the year 1768, Waub-o-jeeg visited Sir William Johnson at Johnson Hall, near Johnstown, New York, who alludes to it in a letter in these words: "Since I wrote the chief of the Chippewaes, one of the most powerful nations, to the westward, arrived. As he is a man of much influence, and can bring some thousands into the field, I took particular notice of him, formerly at Niagara; since which he has behaved well, and now came to be informed of my sentiments on the uneasy state of the Indians to the westward. He told me his people would quietly wait his return, before they took any resolutions; confirming all the accounts I have received of the practices of the Spaniards and French."
ALEXANDER HENRY AT CHAGOUAMIGON BAY, A.D. 1765.
After the English reoccupation, Henry formed a partnership for trade and furs with his friend Cadot, and he determined in 1765 to establish a post at Chagouamigon Bay. He found the Ojibways there dressed in deer skins, because in consequence of the French and English war they had not received goods of European manufacture. He built his house within the bay, which by the 15th of December was frozen. On the 20th of April, 1766, the ice broke up, and several canoes arrived with the news that the Ojibways had gone to war. On the 15th of May, a part of the warriors had arrived in forty canoes, who said that four days' travel from that point, four hundred strong, they had met six hundred Sioux, and battled all day, when the latter fell back across the river, and camped for the night, and the next day retreated. At this time Waubojeeg was the chief at Chagouamigon, and the battle may have been that which tradition asserts took place in the valley of the Saint Croix River. Henry writes that the Ojibways lost thirty-five men. Some one told the United States Commissioner McKenney that Shingaba Wossin, of Sault Ste. Marie, was in the great St. Croix fight. At the time McKenney visited the country in 1826, this chief was supposed to be sixty-three years old. If the battle of the spring of 1766, alluded to by Henry, was the great St. Croix conflict, the chief would have been at the time but three years of age.
In June, 1775, Henry left Sault Ste. Marie for the chain of lakes west of Lake Superior, and on the first of August reached the Lake of the Woods, and on the west side found an old French post around which the Ojibways had lived until they were driven off by the Sioux.
PILLAGER BAND OF OJIBWAYS A.D. 1775.
On the 5th of August, 1775, at Rat Portage, some of the Ojibways asked for rum, but Henry refused, because they were of the band of Pilleurs. This is the first mention of the now called Pillagers.
Count Andreani, of Milan, was at Chagouamigon in 1791, and made some scientific observations.
COUNT ANDREANI OF MILAN.
He came with the approbation of the British government, and continued his journey to the Grand Portage, then the depot of the Northwest Company. In his journal, a portion of which is in the Travels of La Rochefoucauld Liancourt, is the following table of the amount of furs at that time annually collected at different points on the shores of Lake Superior:—
| Bay of Guivinau [Keweenaw] | Bundles | 15 |
| La Pointe | Bundles" | 20 |
| Fond du Lac | Bundles" | 20 |
| Near the Grand Portage | Bundles" | 1400 |
| Alampicon [Nepigon] | Bundles" | 24 |
| Pic | Bundles" | 30 |
| Michipicoton | Bundles" | 40 |
Each bundle was valued at forty pounds sterling.
JOHN JOHNSTON'S FIRST VISIT TO LA POINTE.
When John Johnston, an educated young man from the north of Ireland, visited the western extremity of Lake Superior, about the year 1791, he found a Chippeway village on the main land near the site of Bayfield, and for security, as the old French traders had done, pitched his tent upon the island now called La Pointe and Madeline, and opened trade with the Ojibways. Michael Cadotte came in the country about the same time, if not as one of his voyageurs, and settled on the island.
THE CHIEF WAUB-O-JEEG.
In 1798, Waub-o-jeeg (White Fisher), the great Ojibway chief, died at an advanced age. McKenney writes concerning him:[7] "We made our voyage of Lake Superior in 1826. So late as that, the name of Waub-o-jeeg was never spoken but in connection with some tradition exemplifying his great powers as chief and warrior. He was, like Pontiac and Tecumthe, exceedingly jealous of the white man. This jealousy was manifested when the hand of his daughter, O-shaw-ous-go-day-way-gua, was solicited by Mr. Johnston, the accomplished Irish gentleman who resided so many years at the Sault de St. Marie, and who was not better known for his intelligence and polished manners than for his hospitality. He lived long enough to merit and receive the appellation of Patriarch of the Sault. In the course of his travels he arrived at Montreal, when he determined to ascend the great chain of lakes to the headwaters of Lake Superior. On arriving at Michael's Island[8] he heard of Waub-o-jeeg, whose village lay across the strait which divides the island from the main land. He made him a visit. Being well received, he remained some time, formed an attachment to his daughter, and solicited permission to marry her. Waub-o-jeeg replied: 'White Man, I have noticed your behavior; it has been correct; but, White Man, your color is deceitful. Of you, may I expect better things? You say you are going to Montreal; go, and if you return I shall be satisfied of your sincerity, and will give you my daughter.' Mr. Johnston returned, when the chief fulfilled his promise.[9] The amiable, excellent, and accomplished wife of Mr. Schoolcraft, so favorably known as a tourist and mineralogist, and a family of interesting children, are the fruits of this marriage."
J.B. CADOT, HENRY'S PARTNER.
J.B. Cadot (Cado), now written Cadotte, was a plain Canadian voyageur, who had been employed by Repentigny, and in accordance with custom lived with an Ojibway woman. In 1756, he brought her to Mackinaw, and was legally married by the Jesuit Le Franc. The following is a translation from the parish register still preserved at Mackinaw: "I, the undersigned, missionary priest of the Society of Jesus, acting as rector, have received the mutual assent of Jean Baptiste Cadot, and of Anastasia, a neophyte, daughter of Nipissing, according to the rites of the Holy Roman Church, by which marriage has been legitimatized, Marie Renée, their daughter, about two and a half months old, in the presence of the undersigned Witnesses and others, on the 28th of October, 1756, at Michillimakinak."
Beside the signature of the priest, are the names Langlade, Bourassa, R. de Couangé fils, René Lacombe. A daughter, Charlotte, on May 22, 1760, was baptized. Jonathan Carver in his "Travels" writes: "The beginning of October [1767], after having coasted around the north and east borders of Lake Superior, I arrived at Cadot's Fort which adjoins to the Falls of St Marie, and is situated near the southwest comer of it." In another place: "At the upper end of these straits stands a fort that receives its name from them, commanded by Mons. Cadot, a French Canadian, who being proprietor of the soil, is still permitted to keep possession of it." In the year 1767, Cadot was again married to Marie Mouet, supposed by Tasse to have been the mother of Charles Langlade.
During the absence of Cadot, in 1768, Abbé Guilbault, Vicar General of Louisiana, visited Mackinaw, and on the 28th of July baptized his son Joseph Marie, born in October, 1767, J. Baptiste Chaboillez acting as godfather, and Marie Anne Antoine Viger, wife of Sieur Antoine Beauvais, acting as godmother. He had two other sons, J. Baptiste and Michel. Among his fellow traders at Sault Ste. Marie, in 1796, were George Kittson and John Reid. In May, 1796, owing to the infirmities of age, he gave his property to his two sons, Jean Baptiste and Michel, on condition that they would provide for his wants. He lived seven years after this assignment. In the treaty of 1826, at Fond du Lac, Superior, mention is made of Michael Cadotte, Senior, son of Equawaice and his wife Equaysayway; also, of Michael Cadotte, Junior, and his wife Ossinahjeeunoqua.
J.B., the son, had a trading post in 1797 at Fond du Lac, on the St. Louis River, and the next year a post in the Red River Valley, near the 48th parallel of north latitude, and traded in this region for several years. His widow Saugemauqua was living in 1826, and four children, Louison, Sophia, Archangel, Edward, and Polly.
His brother Michel, born A.D. 1765, had an Indian wife Equaysayway, and lived until the 8th of July, 1837. He was buried on Madeline Island (La Pointe), Lake Superior. Truman A. Warren married his daughter Charlotte, and his brother Lyman M. Warren married another daughter, Mary.[10]
OJIBWAYS IN MINNESOTA.
At the time that the French retired, the Chippewa River was the road of war between the Sioux and Ojibways. Toward the sources of this river, at the lakes, once occupied by the refugee Hurons and Ottawas, the Ojibways had advanced from Lake Superior and established villages.
Before the close of the "War of the Revolution," in 1783, the Ojibways were occupying Sandy, Leech, and Red Lake, and Kay, Harris, Default, Perrault, and others had trading posts in northern Minnesota; and there was not left a Sioux village above the Falls of St. Anthony, and east of the Mississippi River.
DAVID THOMPSON, ASTRONOMER AND GEOGRAPHER.
Until the close of the last century the source of the Mississippi was supposed to be farther north than the Lake of the Woods. The Northwest Company of Montreal, desiring a knowledge of the region west of Lake Superior, employed David Thompson, who had been educated in the Blue Coat School, London,[11] as geographer and astronomer. He was instructed to go as far as the Missouri River, and search for anything that would throw light upon the former and present condition of the country. In company with Hugh McGillis he left Grand Portage of Lake Superior on the 9th of August, 1796, equipped with an excellent achromatic telescope, a sextant of ten inches radius and other instruments made by the accurate Dolland. After visiting the various trading posts of the Northwest Company, north of the 49th degree of latitude, he proceeded to the Mandan villages on the Missouri, and returned by way of the Assineboine to the Red River of the North which on the 7th of March, 1798, he reached. On the 14th he ascended the stream to the trading post in charge of Charles Chabouillier, and found it to be one minute and thirty seconds south of the 49th parallel of north latitude, and consequently within the territory of the United States.
The number of Ojibways who traded at this post was ninety-five, and on the basis of one man to a family of seven souls the whole population of the upper Red River Valley was 665, and at the Rainy River post 60 traded, representing a population of 420. On the 27th of March, he arrived at the Northwestern Company's post on the Red River in latitude 47° 54′ 21″ in charge of J. Baptiste Cadotte. From thence by way of Clear Water River he reached a portage to Red Lake River.
THOMPSON AT RED LAKE, MINNESOTA.
Ascending this stream for thirty-two miles, about the 15th of April he reached Red Lake, where he found only the old Ojibway chief She-she-she-pus-kut, and six lodges of Indians. On the 23d, he was at Turtle Lake, and on the 27th, found the most northern sources of the Mississippi River. From Turtle Lake he went to Red Cedar Lake, where there was a post of the Northwest Company, under one of its partners, John Sayer. Here 60 heads of families traded, and 420 was the estimated population of the vicinity. On the 6th of May he arrived at Sandy Lake, where the post was in charge of Mr. Bruské. Twenty heads of families brought their furs here, and about 294 was the whole population. From this point he proceeded to Lake Superior, and near the mouth of the St. Louis River stopped at the trading post in charge of M. Lemoine, and here about 225 was the number of the Ojibway population. While at Sandy Lake, he was informed that on the 19th of February, at a point a half day's journey distant, the Ojibways had lost forty persons in a fight with a party of Sioux, Sauks, and Menomonees.
TRADE IN RED RIVER VALLEY.
After the "Northwest Company" of traders was organized, the Ojibways hunted for beaver west of Lake Superior with a firmer foot. Under the auspices of this company, Peter Grant established the first post on the east side of the Red River of the North, opposite the mouth of the Pembina River, and in 1797–98 another post was established on Pembina River near its mouth, by Charles Chabouillier. Until this period, the horse had never been used, and the voyageurs after this invented the peculiar Red River cart.
Alexander Henry, a nephew of the trader, who had a post in Chagouamigon Bay of Lake Superior, who was a partner of the Northwest Company, on the 18th of August, 1800, arrived at the junction of the Red River of the North and Assineboine rivers, and writes in his journal: "I found about forty Saulteurs [Ojibways] waiting my arrival."
In September, Henry built a trading post in the Red River Valley, within a short distance of Little Park River.
A STRANGE FREAK.
On the 2d of January, 1801, Beardash the son of Sucre, the Ojibway chief, visited him, and he is thus described in his journal: "This person is a curious compound. He is a man in every respect, both as to carriage, dress, and manners. His walk and mode of sitting down; his manners and occupations, and language are those of a woman. All the persuasiveness of his father, who is a great chief among the Saulteaux [Ojibways], cannot induce him to behave like a man. About a month ago, in a drinking match, he got into a quarrel, and had one of his eyes knocked out with a club. He is very fleet, and a few years ago was reckoned the best runner among the Saulteaux. Both his fleetness and courage were fully put to the test on the banks of the Chain [Cheyenne], when Monsieur Reaume attempted to make peace. He accompanied a party of Saulteaux to the Scieux camp. They at first appeared reconciled to each other through the intercession of the white people, but on the return of the Saulteaux, the Scieux pursued them. Both parties were on foot, and the Scieux had the name of being very swift. The Saulteaux very imprudently dispersed themselves in the open plains, and several of them were killed, but the party in which Beardash was, all escaped in the following manner.
AN EXCITING CONFLICT.
"One of them had a bow which he got from the Scieux, but only a few arrows. On their first starting, and finding they were pursued, they ran a considerable distance, until they perceived the Scieux were gaining fast, when Beardash took the bow and arrows from his comrades, and told them to run as fast as possible, and not to mind him, as he apprehended no danger. He then stopped, and turned about, and faced the enemy, and began to let fly his arrows. This checked their course, and they returned the compliment, with interest, but he says it was nothing but long shot, and only a chance arrow could have hurt him. They had nearly lost their strength when they drew near him. His own stock was soon expended, but he lost no time in gathering up those of the enemy, which fell near him. Seeing his friends at some distance ahead, and the Scieux moving to surround him, he turned about, and ran away to join his comrades, the Scieux running after him. Beardash again stopped, faced them, and with his bow and arrows kept them at bay, until his friends got away a considerable distance, when he again ran off to join them. Thus he did continue to manoeuvre, until a spot of strong woods was reached, and the Scieux did no longer follow."
On the 15th of September, 1801, Henry arrived at his post on Pembina River near its junction with the Red River, from his annual trip to the Grand Portage of Lake Superior, and here he found sixty Saulteaux camped, anxiously waiting to taste some new milk, as rum was called, and the next month the chief Le Sucre, and ten other Ojibways from Leech Lake arrived. In January, 1804, Cameron, Cotton, Hesse, and Stitt were trading with the Red Lake Ojibways.
CONFLICT OF SIOUX AND OJIBWAYS A.D. 1805.
On the 3d of July, 1805, the Sioux attacked a band of Ojibways at Tongue River, a few miles from the Pembina trading post. Henry writes in his journal: "Fourteen persons, men, women, and children, were killed or taken prisoners. My beau-père was the first man that fell. He had climbed up a tree to look out if the buffalo were near, about 8 o'clock in the morning. He had no sooner reached the top of the tree when the two Sioux who lay near, discharged their guns, and the balls passed through his body. He had only time to call out to his family, who were in the tent about one hundred paces from him, 'Save yourselves, the Sioux are killing us,' and fell dead.
"The noise brought the Indians out of their tents, and perceiving their danger, ran through the open plains, toward an open island or wood, in Tongue River, about a mile distant. They had not gone more than a fourth of a mile when they saw the main party on horseback, crossing the Tongue River, and in a few moments they began to fire. The four men, by their expert manoeuvres and incessant fire kept them in awe, until they were two hundred paces from the woods, when the enemy perceiving their prey ready to escape, surrounded and rushed upon them. Three of the Saulteaux [Ojibways] fled in a different direction, and one escaped, but the other two were killed.
"He that remained to protect the women and children was a brave fellow, Anguemance, or Little Chief. When the enemy was rushing upon them, he waited very deliberately, when he aimed at one coming full speed and knocked him from his horse. Three young girls and one boy were taken prisoners, and the rest were all murdered and cut up in the most horrible manner. Several women and children had made their escape to the woods. The enemy chased them, but the willows were so thick, they were saved. A boy of about twelve years of age, says, that a Scieux being in pursuit of him, he crossed into a low hidden place, and the horseman leaped over, without perceiving him. One of the little girls tells a pitiful story. She says that her mother having two children who could not walk fast enough, had taken one upon her back, and prevailed upon her sister to carry the other, but when they got near the woods, the enemy rushing upon them and yelling, the young woman was so frightened that she threw down the child and soon overtook the mother, who, observing that the child was missing, and hearing it screaming, kissed the little daughter who tells the story, and said: 'As for me, I will return for your youngest sister, and rescue her or die in the attempt; take courage, and run fast, my daughter!'
"Poor woman! she rescued the child, and was running off, when she was arrested by a blow from a war-club. She fell to the ground, but drew her knife and plunged it into the neck of her murderer; others coming up, she was soon despatched. Thus my belle-mère ended her days. The survivors having reached the fort, my people went out the next day to the field. A horrid spectacle! My beau-père had his head severed from his body even with the shoulders, his right arm cut off, his left foot, also his right leg from the knee stripped of the skin. The bodies of the women and children all lay within a few yards of each other. Anguemance lay near his wife. The enemy had raised his scalp, cut the flesh from the bone, and broke away the skull to make a water dish. Only the trunk remained, with the belly and breast ripped up and thrown over the face. His wife was also cut up and butchered in a shocking manner, and her young children cut up and thrown about in different directions. All the bodies were covered with arrows sticking in them, many old knives, two or three broken guns, and some war-clubs."[12]
TRADER KILLED AT RED LAKE.
In the spring of 1805, a trader named Hughes was killed at Red Lake by an Ojibway. Henry, under date of 28th of May, writes in his journal: "Le Grande Noir arrived from Red Lake, and his son-in-law, who last spring, at Red Lake, killed an American, by the name of Hughes. The deceased standing by the door, and observing the Indian with a gun, caught a tent-pin, and gave him a blow on the head. The Indian only staggered a few paces, and recovering himself fired his gun and killed Hughes."
- ↑ Waub-o-jeeg, or White Fisher, the grandfather of Henry R. Schoolcraft's first wife, who died at Chagouamigon (La Pointe), in 1793, is said to have received at Niagara a silver gorget from Sir William Johnson.
- ↑ Silver ear-bobs and silver crosses were articles of trade, and as common at a frontier post as similar articles in gold, in the modern jewelry store. The wearing of the cross by a savage had as much significance, as when worn by a child of fashion. In the museum of the Minnesota Historical Society is a silver cross presented by W.J. Abernethy of Minneapolis, taken from a mound in Wisconsin.
In the diary of Matthew Clarkson, published in 4th vol. of Schoolcraft's Hist. and Stat. Condition of Indian Tribes, p. 297, is the following entry: "Account of silver truck Capt. Long left with me on the 28th of February, 1767, the day when he went from the Kaskaskias: 174 small crosses, 84 nose crosses, 33 long drop-nose and ear-bobs, 126 small brooches, 38 large brooches, 40 rings, 2 wide wrist-bands, 6 narrow, scalloped wrist-bands, 3 narrow plain, 4 half-moon gorgets, 3 large, 6 full moon, 9 hair-plates, 17 hair-bobs." - ↑ For a notice of Match-e-ke-wis by Dr. L.C. Draper, see Wis. His. Soc. Col., vol. vii. p. 188.
- ↑ Stone's Life of Johnson, vol. ii. p. 218.
- ↑ The post was on the mainland, and it was not until the spring of 1780, that General Haldimand, in command at Quebec, issued an order for the removal of the post to the island.
- ↑ In 1769, Rogers went to England and was imprisoned for debt. Afterwards he entered the service of the Dey of Algiers. In 1775, he was again in England, and in June, left Gravesend in a ship for Baltimore. In September, he was in Philadelphia, where he was arrested by the Committee of Safety, but was released on the 23d of the month, by giving his parol that he would not bear arms against the "American United Colonies." He then went to New York City, and from thence visited his brother near Albany, Col. James Rogers. President Wheelock, of Dartmouth College, received a visit from him on the 13th of November. He told him that he had fought two battles in Algiers; and that he had come back to America to look after some large land grant made to him; that he was now on his way to visit his sister at Moorestown, and his wife at Merrimack River, whom he had not seen since he returned. He left the tavern where he stayed, the next day, without paying his bill of three shillings. On the 14th of December he was at Porter's tavern in Medford, Mass., and wrote a letter to General Washington asking for a pass to go unmolested, and in it used this language: "I love North America, it is my native country, and that of my family, and I intend to spend the evening of my days in it." At this time he was in secret correspondence with Howe, the British General. By order of Washington, General Sullivan called upon him. He told Sullivan that he went from New York City to Stone Arabia, N.Y., where he tarried ten days, that then he went to Kent to visit a brother. After calling upon the President of Dartmouth College, he alleged that he visited his father at Pennicook, and from thence to Newburgh and Portsmouth. General Sullivan reported after examination: "I would advise, lest some blame might be laid upon your Excellency, in future, not to give him any other permit, but let him avail himself of those he has; and should he prove a traitor, let the blame rest upon those who enlarged him." After this, he returned to Philadelphia, and was there at the time of the Declaration of Independence, but his actions were so suspicious that he was ordered to be arrested. He managed to escape, and in a letter from General Howe on Staten Island to Lord George Germaine, dated August 6, 1776, are these words: "Major Rogers having escaped to us from Philadelphia, is empowered to raise a battalion of rangers, which I hope may be useful in the course of the campaign." With the Queen's American Rangers, of which corps he was Lt. Colonel, he destroyed much property in West Chester Co., N.Y., and annoyed the inhabitants.
In his journal under date of October 21, 1770, writes: "Lord Stirling, who was before in this vicinity with his brigade, had formed an enterprise against Major Robert Rogers' corps. The old Indian hunter, in the last French war, who had now engaged in the British service with his corps, lay on the outpost of the British army, near Marroneck. The enterprise was conducted with good address, and if the Americans had known exactly how Rogers' corps lay they would probably have killed, or taken the whole. As it was, thirty-six prisoners, sixty muskets, and some other articles were taken. The Major conformably to his former general conduct, escaped with the rest of the corps." The American troops were under the command of Colonel Haslet of Delaware and chiefly from Maryland and Virginia. Haslet wrote: "The party we fell in with was Colonel Rogers', the late worthless Major. On the first fire, he skulked off in the dark."
The next year Rogers returned to England, and soon died. - ↑ History of Indian Tribes, Philadelphia, 1854, vol. i. pp. 154, 155.
- ↑ On Franquelin's Map, 1688, the island commonly called La Pointe, and on some modern maps Madeline, was marked as St. Michael, and this name was retained until the present century.
- ↑ Mr. John Johnston died Sept. 22, 1828, aged 66, at Sault Ste. Marie, much respected. Soon after, his widow became a communicant in the Presbyterian Church, and in the fall of 1852 completed at her expense a house of worship for this branch of the church, at Sault Ste. Marie.
- ↑ For the facts relative to Cadot, American State Papers, Land Claims, vol. v., Kelton's Annals of Mackinaw, and Tasse's Canadians of the West have been consulted.
- ↑ A notice of Thompson may be found in Neill's History of Minnesota, 5th edition, 1883, p. 866.
- ↑ Other extracts from MS. Journals of Henry, may be found in Neill's History of Minnesota, 5th edition, 1883, pp. 870–890.