The Ohio country between the years 1783 and 1815, including military operations that twice saved to the United States the country west of the Alleghany Mountains after the revolutionary war

Front matter

fytmll Wimmii^ ptatg

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE

SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND

Preface

HTHE early and most trying times in the history ^ of the Old Northwestern Territory, and of its great neighbor, the Southwestern Territory, divided only in a physical sense by the Ohio River, is a subject that should ever be of interest, and of value to everyone, of every land, especially as a study in patriotic endurance.

The story presents people strong in brain and in brawn, descendants of Anglo-Saxon and of Celtic stocks, the ancestors of most of whom had been several generations in America, having originally settled here one himdred and fifty years before; a people who loved their new homes in the forest coimtry as well as the homes of their nativity in the Colonies along the Atlantic shore, now separated from their early habitat by several hundred miles, and by mountains hard to traverse.

This isolated people were often made to feel that they and their new country were forgotten by the legislators and others in authority in the vi Preface

regions whence they came; and dtiring many years their struggles were not alone for subsistence, but for the protection of themselves and their children from prowling Savages, who were seeking their scalps and lives, or to drive them from their adopted country.

In preparing this book the writer has had in mind the general reader who wants a direct account of the subject about which he desires to read, with enough of detail for supplementation, when such detail is obtainable.

Such readers have generally noticed that histories of the United States, even the largest ones, when mentioning this extensive and invaluable region at all, give a very scant account of the dangers which would have attended its loss to the American Union, or of the military operations that twice, at least, saved it to, and maintained it in, the Union.

In writing it is easier, for several reasons, to generalize than to focus one's attention on the detail that shows the animating principle, or want of principle, that influenced the lives, thoughts, acts, and accompUshments of the people. This statement may explain how it is that many write so much and yet impart so little of practical information.

Preface vii

The character of the sufferings of Americans, before the Revolutionary War and for thirty years after, in this trans-Allegheny region particularly, exacts strong language even in its mildest portrayal.

The tragic story here written has, however, a very pleasant conclusion for Americans. At its beginning, naught but dark clouds of selfishness and savagery hung low in the horizon, frequently bursting out into storms that caused great suffering and disaster, and that would have overfatigued and driven from the country, never to return, the survivors, had they possessed less strong and self-reliant characters.

Disagreements among the Eastern Colonies, and later among the States into which these Colonies were transformed, occasionally foreboded evil to the imion of the Ohio Country with the East and, at times, even foreboded disruption of the Union among the States themselves.

However, the War of 1812-1814 came, and ended, as a blessing to both the East and the West, in that it consolidated, and cemented, the States and Territories into a nation with not only valuable experiences, but with heightened and reciprocated regard for one another instilled into the component parts, and with viii Preface

greater forbearance, improved ideals and powers among all.

True civilization receives impetus from the lessons of the past. History should be truthfully and fully written, even though its pages record horrible deeds.

The habitual use of intoxicating beverages was a strong factor in much of the savagery recorded in the following pages, as well as being the cause of the inefficiency of several Americans in authority during this time, of the older military commanders particularly.

By reading, and keeping in mind, an authentic accoxmt of the trials and sufferings of the early settlers in gaining and maintaining liberty from oppression and savagery, people are more likely to appreciate liberty gained in this way, and to remain more intent upon its preservation.

Charles E. Slocum.

Toledo, Ohio.

Contents

PAGB

CHAPTER I Introduction ...... i

The Settling of the British and French in America — Their Inebriation of the Aborigines — Made them Savages Indeed — Habitual Contention for Ascendancy — Success of the British with the Savages, and against the French— Use of Savages against Colonists during Revolutionary War by the British the same as against the French in Previous Years.

Chapter II

British Direct Non-Observance of Treaty OF Paris, and then Sign the Treaty . i8

The First Years Following the Revolutionary War — The First Northwestern Boundary Line — The Aborigines Willing to be Friends of the United States — Causes of their Alliance with the British — The British Continue to Hold Military Posts in Opposition to Treaty — Large Amount of American Property Purloined by the British.

CHAPTER III Development of the West Checked by British Influences. . . . -33

Aborigine Claims to Land Based on Conquest, which Claims the Savages and the British were

Contents

Not Willing to Accede to the United States, their Conqueror — Treaties with Aborigines — Reservations — Cession to United States of Western Claims by States — Civil Organizations — Surveys for Settlements — Ohio Land Companies — Port Finney Built — Continued Control of Aborigines by British — Expeditions against Savage Marauders — Desire in the West for Independence from the United States — Unauthorized Retaliations on Spaniards Allayed.

CHAPTER IV Continued Nefarious Work with the

Activities of the British against the United States — ^Their Main Fort in American Territory Strengthened — Benedict Arnold with them — Organization of the Territory Northwest of the Ohio River — Increase in Population — Other Civil Organizations — More Systematic Efforts to Check British Influence with American Aborigines — Forts Built — Reports of the extensive Savage Work Done by the Aborigines — Cannibalism.

Chapter V

Further Culmination of the Inefficient Management of Affairs ....

Statement of the Conditions by Jurist from Personal Observations — Necessity for Relieving the Long-continued and Severe Sufferings — Kentucky Territory Organized — Other Civil Organizations — General Harmar's Expedition against Hostile Savages at Head of Maumee River — His Army Twice Defeated by them — Their Celebration of Victory at Detroit with

S2

Contents xi their British Allies — Panic along Frontier — ^The Weak, Inefficient American Conduct of Affairs Reviewed.

CHAPTER VI Overwhelming Success of the Enemy . 62

More Troops Gathered for Defence — ^Messenger Sent to the Senecas for Peace Agents — British Opposition — Expedition against Hostile Savages Successful — Army Gathered for Decisive Blow to the Marauding Savages — Commanded by General, and Governor, St. Clair, it Meets Overwhelming Defeat — Women with the Army.

Chapter VII

Further Nefarious Work Culminating . 78 Great Efforts of British Allies — Distress of Frontier Settlements — British Pear Loss of Fur Trade — Advance of Civil Jurisdiction — General Wayne Chosen to Lead Another Army against the Hostiles — Further Treaties with the Aborigines — Secret Efforts to Learn Status of the British — Largest Council of Savages for British Confederation — Kentucky Admitted as a State — Forts Built by Americans — Commissioners Appointed to Attend the Great Council — Their Object Defeated by the British — Specific Charges of Fraud and Force by British Presented to the British Minister.

Chapter VIII

Retributive Justice Marches on against Great Opposition ..... 95 Advance of General Wayne's Army — Opposed by the Enemy — Builds Forts Greenville and xii Contents

Recovery — Cause of British Aggressiveness yet More Apparent — Other Enemies of the United States — Separation of the Ohio Country from the United States again Suggested — British Build Two Additional Forts within United States Territory — Protests of the United States of No Avail — British and their Savage Allies Attack Port Recovery and Are Repulsed — Further Account of Great Britain's Guiding Hand.

CHAPTER IX Wayne's Army Defeats a Hydra op Conspiracies ...... io8

Further Advance of Wayne's Army — A Most Momentous Campaign — Builds Forts Adams and Defiance — The Enemy Flees — Wayne's Last Overture for Peace — The Army Nears the Enemy — Builds Fort Deposit, and Advances to Complete Victory — Buildings and Crops of British and their Allies Destroyed — Wayne's Emphatic Letters to the Commandant of Fort Miami — The Casualties — Army Returns and Strengthens Fort Defiance — The Red Savages — British Strengthen their Forts in United States Territory.

CHAPTER X The Taming OF THE Broken Savage Spirit . 121

Wayne Marches his Army to the Site of the Miami Villages — There Builds Fort Wayne — Receives and Makes Valuable Friends of Deserters from the British — Disaffection of Kentucky Volunteers — They are Sent Home — Savage Scouts Active at Fort Defiance — Wajme's Suggestion of General Council with Aborigines Meets Favor.

Contents xiii

Chapter XI

The Most Important of all Treaties with THE Savages . . . . . -131 Discipline in the Army — Wayne's Diplomacy in Winning the Savages to Peace — His Agents in the Work — Exchange of Prisoners — ^The Treaty of Greenville, August 3, 1795 — Number of Tribes in the Agreement.

CHAPTER XII The West Gains Possession of Part of its Rights ....... 144

Treaty with Spain Favorable to the West — Abandonment of Forts — British again Endeavor to Seduce the Aborigines of the United States — The Jay Treaty Favorable to the West — British Surrender American Forts — Death of General Wayne — ^Wayne County Organized— More French and Spanish Plots — Separation of the West from the East again Suggested — British Threaten Spanish Possessions in the South.

Chapter XIII

Advancement of Civil Government, and Extension of the West . . . .156 Mississippi Territory Organized — General Washington again at the Head of the Federal Army — Spanish Surrender their Forts in United States Territory — First Legislature of Northwestern Territory Convenes — Indiana Territory Organized — Piib lic Land s — Connecticut Cedes her Claims to the United States — Religious Missionaries — Population — Continued British Usurpations — Evidences of the Rising Power of the United States— Treaty with France — xiv Contents

Louisiana Territory Purchased — Development of Communication — Military Posts — Ohio Admitted as a State — ^The Aborigines — Additional Treaties with them — Fort Industry Built — Michigan Territory Organized — ^Aaron Burr's Last Scheme.

CHAPTER XIV Conspiracy of the British, Tecumseh, and THE Prophet ...... 167

Further Treaties with, and Payments to, the Aborigines — ^The British Continue Meddlesome — Reservations — ^United States Settlers by the Lower Maumee River — Land for Highways Treated for — Illinois Territory Organized — Another British-Savage Trouble Gathering — Trading Posts for the Aborigines Established — Reports of Gathering Trouble from United States Military Posts — ^The British Continue to Trade Intoxicating Liquors to American Aborigines in Opposition to Law.

Chapter XV

Results op Further Remissness op the Government . . . . . .180

Regarding Trading Posts or Agencies — Conspiracy of the British and Tecumseh Deepens — Reports from Military Posts — Battle of Tippecanoe — Continued Organization and Depredations by the Allied Enemies of the United States — Missouri Territory Organized — More Cannibalism by the Savages.

CHAPTER XVI Sad Beginning of the War for Independence ig4

Tardy Action of Congress — Declaration of War against Great Britain — ^This War of 181 2 the

Contents xv

PAGB

Real War for Independence — ^The Army of the Northwest the First in the Field — Forts Mc- Arthur, Necessity, Findlay, and Miami Built — Sad Inefficiency of General Hull — He Orders the Abandonment of Fort Dearborn — Massacre and Cannibalism by British Allies — Hull Surrenders Fort at Detroit without Effort for Defence — Brave and Patriotic Work by Captain Brush.

CHAPTER XVII Slow Progress in Preparing to Meet the Enemy ....... 204

Efforts to Repair Hull's Loss — General Harrison Appointed Commander-in-Chief — Siege of Fort Wayne Relieved — General Winchester Appointed to Succeed Harrison without Cause.

Chapter XVIII /

Extreme Sufferings of Kentucky Soldiers 212 General Winchester Assumes Command of the Army — Harrison Directs Clearing of Roads and Building of Forts Barbee, Jennings, and Amanda — Winchester Marches Army from Fort Wayne to Defiance — British Force Checked on their Way to Fort Wa3me — Harrison Reappointed Chief in Conimand of Northwestern Army- Visits Winchester at Defiance and Settles Discord — Plans Fort Winchester, which Was Built at Defiance — Extreme Sufferings of Winchester's Left Wing of the Army — Battle of Mississinewa River.

CHAPTER XIX The Second Great Disaster of the War op

1812 222

Advance of General Winchester's Army from Defiance — Safe Arrival at Presque Isle below xvi Contents

Roche de Bout — There Builds Fort Deposit — Unwise Advance of Army to the Raisin — Defeat and Massacre — Harrison Gathers a New Army and Takes Command — Fort Deposit Abandoned — Fort Winchester again the Frontier Post — Fort Meigs Built — Efforts to Strike the Enemy Unavailing.

Chapter XX

A Third Great Disaster in the First Year OF THE War ...... 233

The Northwestern Army Neglected by the General Government — General Harrison not Distracted by Unwise Advisers — Investment and Siege of Fort Meigs — Reinforcements for the Fort Disobey Orders — They Are Surrounded and Captured — Further Massacre and Cannibalism by British AlUes — The Enemy Raises Siege and Retreats.

CHAPTER XXI Second Great Effort of the Enemy Unavailing ....... 244

The British Gather More Savage Allies — More Preparations by Americans for Advancing upon the Enemy — Celebration of Fourth of July by Soldiers in the Forest— The Enemy Becoming More Active — Fort Seneca Built to Retain Friendship of Aged Aborigines — Second Investment of Fort Meigs by Increased Force — Scheme for its Capture Unavailing — Second Retreat of Enemy from Fort Meigs.

CHAPTER XXII Another Signal Repulse op the Allied

British Surround and Attack Fort Stephenson — They are Brilliantly Repulsed by Captain Croghan — ^They again Retreat to Fort Maiden.

Contents xvii

Chapter XXIII

The Entire Force of the British on Lake Erie Captured . . . . .262

Renewed Efforts for Squadron of Armed Vessels Successful — Oliver H. Perry Builder and Commander — His Difficulties — He Sails for the Enemy — Communicates with Harrison — Meets and Captures All of the British Squadron — Perry's Despatches after the Battle — The Killed and Wounded — Description of Squadrons.

CHAPTER XXIV The Americans Seek the British at Fort Malden ....... 275

Definite Preparations for the Invasion of Canada — Observance of the Day of Fasting and Prayer — A Sham Battle — ^Enthusiastic Enlisting in Kentucky for the Invasion — ^Aged Aborigine Warriors Join the Ranks — The Crossing of Lake Erie — ^Arrival at Fort Maiden — Found Deserted and Fired by the Enemy.

CHAPTER XXV The British Pursued and Captured at the Thames ....... 284

Pursuit of the British through Canada — Detroit Recovered by Americans, who Hasten to Complete Victory at the Thames — Aborigines Desert their Allies and Flock to the Americans — General Cass Appointed Military and Civil Governor ' of Michigan Territory — Name of Detroit's Fort Changed to that of Shelby — Kentucky Troops Return Home by Way of the Raisin.

xviii Contents

CHAPTER XXVI The Ohio Country Free from the Savage Alliance ...... 292

Proctor's Request and Harrison's Reply — Harrison Goes to Reinforce Army of the Centre — Period of Quiet in the Ohio Country — General Harrison Resigns — Renewed Efforts for Defence and Advance — Scarcity of Food and Money — Further Neglect by Eastern Authorities — Expeditions through Canada — Unfortunate Expedition to the North.

CHAPTER XXVII Success of the War for Independence Assured ....... 303

The Treaty of Ghent Closing the War of 1812-14 — Further Confirmation of American Claim of Notorious Methods by the British.

Between the Years 1783 and 1815

Introduction

The Settling of the British and French in America — Their Inebriation of the Aborigines— Made them Savages Indeed — Habitual Contention for Ascendancy — Success of the British with the Savages, and against the French — Use of Savages against Colonists during Revolutionary- War by the British the Same as against the French in Previous Years.

PRENCHMEN, early in the seventeenth cen- •*• tury, were the first Ettropeans to explore the American country about the Great Lakes and the upper Mississippi River. The coiirse of their travel at first, and for many years after, was up the St. Lawrence River to Montreal, thence up the Ottawa River to Mattawa, thence along the out- .let and through the Lakes Talon and Trout, thence by portage to Lake Nipissing, through it and down its outlet the French River into Georgian Bay, and thence southward and westward.

The British 1 ranged along the Atlantic coast south of the St. Lawrence Gulf. They did not abandon their quarrels with the French on leaving England; in fact they added to the old, a new grievance against the French because of the latter' s settlement in the new country which the British claimed by "the right of discovery," though this discovery was only a part of the Atlantic shore line.

During the one hundred and fifty years following the coming of the French, quarrels and wars raged in America and elsewhere between these two peoples. Here the French had the advantage for several generations, owing to their early explorations, their maps, and their early free association with and amiable treatment of the Aborigines. Their first, and principal, association was with the Algonquins and the Huron (Wyandot) tribe, both of whom were often at war with the Iroquois of New York. The latter controlled the country south of the course of the French, and southward from Lake Erie and thence westward even to the

' The term British is here used to designate the combined force of English, Irish, Scotch, and other Europeans who, at difiEerent times, acted with them.

Mississippi River. For a long time this condition had much to do with keeping the French to the northward.

The skins of fur-bearing animals were the principal gain derived by the French, first the coureurs des bois particularly; and they gratified in addition their love of adventure and of free life among the Aborigines, which hfe the roaming French sought later to make free also from the taxes of the Church and the government. Instead of endeavoring to elevate the Aborigines to their degree of civilization, many of them descended to the level of the Aborigines.

As for the Aborigines, the Frenchmen's brandy was to them a revelation. At first merely a pleasing and exhilarating beverage, this soon became a necessity in increasing quantity; a drink which, with them as with countless multitudes before and since, civilized according to their times and associations, was in their more sober moments considered the bane of their lives. It was a drink which held them in abject slavery and was obtained at any cost; for its use had developed in them a thirst for it that outvalued and overbalanced every other consideration. The Frenchmen in trading had also given them knives of steel to replace the clumsy, flint knives of native workmanship; also metal tomahawks, and, later, flint-lock muskets; with which weapons, when elated with the brandy, they felt more than equal to the French themselves. These weapons, with the brandy, made them Savages indeed; the fiercest and most dangerous known to history.

The British, also, became strong competitors of the French; the government for the taxes and the traders for their profits in the fur trade among the Aborigines. At first they dealt with the Algonquins of New England and the Iroquois of New York. Then the Algonquins and the Huron (Wyandot) tribe of the West were invited, by agents, who distributed among them strong drink and gaudy presents, to visit the chief executive in New York. Nothing pleased the Aborigine chiefs more, while resting from war, than to journey hundreds of miles for such a visit, as they were sure of being fed to satiety, and fully loaded with presents for the return; and the new bidder, therefore, was given the preference in their estimation, for there was always a prospect of better terms with him than those received from the former dealer.

The impassive manners and "heavier drinks" of the Englishmen did not, in the estimation of the Aborigines, displace the more affable Frenchmen with their brandy until, by degrees, the British general government showed its power and its attractions, by its armies, by the new products of its looms, and by the larger number and the improved versatility of its traders among the larger tribes. Not until the year 1760 did the British succeed the French government in America.

During all these many generations of intrigue and war between the British and French, the Aborigines and their descendants (all of whom will continue to be here designated Aborigines or Savages, the term ' ' Indian " being an ancient misnomer that should not be perpetuated) were tutored in intrigue and savagery; and they were apt pupils in everything seen among their tutors that was worse than that to which they had been addicted.

For an untold number of generations the Savages had been reared to war with other tribes, and it was inculcated in them that their highest ambition should be to inflict the greatest injury possible upon every individual and tribe they might think worth exploiting for any cause, or for no cause. The intoxicating beverages and modem weapons received from their new tutors made them good allies in the eyes of these tutors. The

British and the French vied with each other in bidding intoxicating beverages, weapons, and other things desired by them, each for the purpose of winning the trade and the warrior support of the Savages against the other.

The French sent missionaries and traders among the Iroquois; but with great effort the British succeeded in retaining most of the trade of these "Six Nations" and their good will. Had the French succeeded in their efforts with this strong confederacy, the final result of their contention with the British would have been delayed, if not altogether different.

In the year 1747, the British succeeded in causing a conspiracy of Chief Nicholas and the Hurons (Wyandots) against the French; but the latter soon regained the friendship of this strong tribe.

Scalps of both British and French, taken by the Savages, were purchased by both respectively; a most inhuman bidding for the lives of each other that reacted disastrously upon both. For a time the Savages could get scalps either way they roamed; and at times neither purchaser could feel sure he was not buying scalps taken from his own countrymen.

The Savages, themselves as low in the scale of humanity as it seemed possible to descend, were often cloyed, wearied to satiety, by the unceasing intrigue and bloodshed between the Europeans, which had been going on in America for fully five generations.

But the British have ever been noted for their persistency as well as for their aggressiveness, and the final victory over the French in America was theirs in the year 1760, in which year the French forts at Detroit and elsewhere were peacefully surrendered to them.

The troubles of the British with the western tribes of Savages, however, did not end with the acquisition of the fort at Detroit, and the fort at the head of the Maumee River; which forts had been the centres of many merry entertainments of the Savages, and had witnessed the equipping of war parties by the French against the British. The Savages had not yet witnessed enough of the power and resources of the British to fully imderstand why they should not continue with the French, or set up war against the British themselves.

Then came the Conspiracy of . Pontiac, with which the British had to deal at a great expense of life and money. Much diplomacy was needed also before they were at all comfortable in the hope of securing the Savages as allies in war, which had been their policy from the first. At different times later, they had a great fear that there would be a federation of all the largest northern and southern tribes against them. As late as February 1 8 , 1 7 7 1 . Sir William Johnson, their greatest Aborigine agent, wrote to the British Secretary of State in part as follows:

"It is really a matter of the most serious nature, for if a verry small part of those people have been capable of reducing us to such straits as we were in a few years since, what may we not expect from such a formidable alliance as we are threatened with, when at the same time it is known that we are not at this time more capable of defiance, if so much, as at the former period. This is in some measure the consequence of their becoming better acquainted with their own strength and united capacity to preserve their importance & check our advances into their country."

With the allaying of this fear, came a new opposition to the British government in America, from the British colonists themselves ; and, as the opposition to the impositions on the colonists increased, the London and local governments felt more and more the desire, and apparent necessity, for greater efforts to ally the Savages firmly to them, and against the colonists. Surely a strong and even savage alliance was being formed to compel subjection of the colonists, and to yet further impoverish those who had already been impoverished beyond a reasonable limit by the mother country in her wars to overcome the French.

At this late day, at least, the British government should have recognized the full worth of the character of the Pilgrims and Puritans; the value of the conscience that drove them into the distant wilderness one htmdred and fifty years before, which conscience, with renewed and renewing love of freedom, had been transmitted to their descendants through the generations, and had been imparted to thousands of Great Britain's hardy, good citizens who, during these many years, had followed their countrymen into this new country. It has been many times shown that the British government had seldom, if ever, taken thought of such sentiment, and proper action regarding it.

Those in authority during this period of time, and later, for forty years at least, were not actuated by humanitarian motives, but by a selfish desire to compel those of the blood of their own countrymen — ^who had been bom and reared in the atmosphere of self-sustaining, if not full, freedom — ^to absolute obedience to force , wholly regardless of the consequences to the colonists. Could any government have been more thoughtless, even lo The Ohio Country

outrageous, in the treatment of its subjects? Could any self-respecting people longer consent to live imder such a government ? These were the questions uppermost in the minds of the colonists.

It is the office of this Introduction to briefly sketch part of the action of the British authorities in further tutoring the Aborigines in savagery, and more firmly allying them to their efforts to conquer the colonists during the Revolutionary War, as somewhat of a preparation and perspective for what follows.

Detroit was the principal western post of the French, and it became such to the British immediately after their conquest of the French.

When the Revolutionary War seemed imminent, the office of Lieutenant-Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs was created for the western country, with headquarters at Detroit. Captain, afterwards Colonel, Henry Hamilton of the 15th Regiment of British troops was appointed to this office. Arriving at Detroit November 9, 1775, he assumed the duties required of him. He proved tactful toward the Savages, cruel and remorseless toward the Colonists.

Previous to this date "war belts " had been sent out from Detroit to the different tribes for their meetings in council; and such "councils" had been

Introduction ii

held, in which rum flowed freely, its insidious effects being supplemented by every incitement calculated to inflame the Savages against the Americans "who were endeavoring to crowd them from their lands, and now had rebelled against the good king, their father, who was distributing so many presents and kindnesses to his Indian children." Early in September, 1776, the new ofificer, Hamilton, wrote to Lord George Germain, his superior in office, that "The Ottawas, Chippewas, Wyandottes and Pottawatomies, with the Senecas would fall on the scattered settlers on the Ohio and its branches . . . whose arrogance, disloyalty and imprudence has justly drawn upon them this deplorable sort of war."

Lord Germain took pleasure in employing agents who would incite the Savages of the wilderness to "fall on the Americans." He had complained of Sir Guy Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester, Governor of Canada, for not making full use of the Savages; and Carleton later acquiesced in this inhuman work. Carleton wrote to Hamilton, October 6, 1776, to "Keep the Indians in readiness to join me in the Spring, or march elsewhere as they may be most wanted."

War parties of Savages, thoroughly equipped, and commanded by British officers, were sent out from Detroit, east, south, and to the southwest, wherever they could find the most defenceless American settlements in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky, to plunder and to kill. Places of refuge were attacked and, if the protectors could be overcome, all the wotinded and feeble were massacred and the others taken captive, perhaps to suffer a more painful death. Governor Hamilton reported to Secretary Germain under date July 27, 1777, that he had sent out fifteen war parties composed of two hundred and eighty-nine Savage warriors with thirty British officers and rangers. He reported to Governor Carleton January 15, 1778, that: "The parties sent from hence have been generally successful, although the Indians have lost men enough to sharpen their resentment; they have brought in 23 prisoners alive, twenty of which they presented to me, and 129 scalps."

Occasionally a war party would number several hundred, but usually they were much smaller, viz.: August 25, 1778, fifteen Miamis were started; September 5th, thirty-one Miamis; September 9th, one Frenchman, five Chippewas, and fifteen Miamis, are the statements of a few of the individual reports. Hamilton reported September i6th that his parties "had taken thirty-four prisoners, seventeen of which they delivered up, and eightyone scalps."

AU scalps were paid for. When the Savages started out on their raids, the Governor, and sometimes the commandant of the post also, encouraged them by singing the war song, by the gift of some weapon, or by passing the weapons of the Savages through their own hands, by this act "taking hold of the same tomahawk" to show full s)Tnpathy in the murderous work. On their return to Detroit the Savages were sometimes welcomed by the firing of the fort's cannon. Hamilton was charged with having stated prices for American scalps, but generally none for prisoners.