Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

the same instant discovered the other standing at a tree, with his gun raised ready to fire at whoever should come for the cows. Hogeland pointed him out to the young man, and observed, "Now take deliberate aim, whilst I take the fellow with the bell." They both fired, and both Indians fell dead.*

Thus ends the author's narrative of the many important occurrences and great events from the commencement of Indian hostilities, in the year 1754, until their final termination in 1766, a period of twelve years.

From the termination of hostilities in 1766, until the commencement of Dunmore's war in 1774, the people of the valley enjoyed uninterrupted peace and tranquillity, and the country settled and increased with great rapidity. Several families of distinction removed from the lower country and settled in the valley. The ancestors of the Washingtons, Willises, Throckmortons, and Whitings, severally settled in the neighborbood of Long marsh and Bull-skin.

The author did not find it convenient to obtain the several treaties made with the Indian tribes during the period from the commencement of Braddock's war until the final termination of hostilities. Nor does he consider it very material, as those treaties were no sooner made than broken. Should this be deemed a material defect, he will endeavor to supply it in another edition. The commencement and termination of Dunmore's war will form the subject of the next chapter.

William Naylor, Esq. gave the author this version of the story.

145

CHAPTER X.

Dunmore's war with the Indians.

In the year 1773, the Indians killed two white men on the Hockhocking river, to wit, John Martin and Guy Meeks, (Indian traders,) and robbed them of about £200 worth of goods. About the 1st of May, 1774, they killed two other men in a canoe on the Ohio, and robbed the canoe of its contents.* There were other similar occurrences, which left no doubt upon the minds of the western people, that the savages had determined to make war upon them; and of course acts of retaliation were resorted to on the part of the whites.

The late Col. Angus M'Donald, near Winchester, and several other individuals, went out in the spring of 1774, to survey the military bounty lands, lying on the Ohio and Kanawha rivers, allowed by the king's proclamation to the officers and soldiers of the army, for their services in a preceding war with the Indians, but were driven off.

Col. M'Donald forthwith waited on Gov. Dunmore in person, and gave him an account of the hostile disposition of the Indians. The governor authorized him to raise a regiment of 400 men, and immediately proceed to punish the enemy. He soon succeeded in raising his little army, and in the month of June marched into the Indian country, destroyed several of their villages, cut off their corn, and returned. He had two or three running fights with the Indians, but there was little blood shed on either side.

This act of war produced a general combination of the various nations north west of the Ohio; and hence arose the necessity of speedily raising a powerful army to save the western people from being entirely cut off, or driven from their habitations.

*Mr. Jacob's Life of Cresap.

Lord Dunmore issued his orders to Col. A. Lewis, of Augusta county, to raise a body of one thousand men, and immediately proceed to the Ohio river, where he (Dunmore) would join him with an equal number, to be raised in the northern counties of Virginia. Dunmore very soon raised the requisite number of men, principally volunteers from the counties of Berkeley, Hampshire, Frederick and Shenandoah.* Capt. Daniel Cresap went to South Carolina, and brought in 120 Catawba Indian warriors at his own expense and responsibility, which he intended employing against the western enemy. He soon after marched at the head of this band of warriors, with the addition of sixteen white volunteers, with the design of breaking up and destroying the Moravian Indian towns on Cheat river. These people professed christianity and neutrality in the war then going on between the red and white people. But they were charged by the white people with secretly aiding and abetting the hostile Indians; hence Cresap's determination to break up their settlements and drive them off. In crossing the Allegany, seven Indians under the guise of friendship, fell in with Cresap's party, and in the most treacherous manner contrived to kill seven of the white volunteers, and then fled. They were instantly pursued by the Catawbas, and two of them taken prisoners and delivered up to Cresap, who, after reproaching them with their base treachery, discharged them, and retreated into the settlement with his Indians and remaining white volunteers. The Catawba Indians soon after left Cresap and returned to their nation. The late generals Daniel Morgan and James Wood were captains in Dunmore's campaign, each of whom had served under M'Donald as captains the preceding spring.ţ

For further particulars of this war, the author will give copious extracts from Mr. Doddridge's "Notes on

* General John Smith.

+ Mr. John Tomlinson related the particulars of these occurrences to the author, and added that he himself was one of Cresap's party, and that he was then a youth of 17 or 18 years of age.

the wars west of the Allegany," and from Mr. Jacob's "Life of Cresap." These two authors have detailed the causes which led to this disastrous and destructive war, and are directly at issue on some of the most important particulars. In this controversy the author of this work will not partake so far as to express an opinion which of these two divines have truth on their side; but he considers it his duty, as an impartial and faithful historian, to give both these reverend gentlemen's accounts, at full length, of the original causes and consequences of this war.

It appears however evident, that the late Capt. Michael Cresap has had injustice done to his character, both by Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Doddridge. Mr. Jefferson, in his "Notes on Virginia," charges Cresap with being "infamous for his many Indian murders, and murdering Logan's family in cold blood.". Mr. Doddridge repeats the charge of the murder of Logan's family, and adds the further charge "that Cresap was the cause of Dunmore's war." How far these charges are refuted by Mr. Jacob an impartial world will determine.

It is to be regretted that Mr. Jacob's vindication of the character of his friend Cresap cannot have a circulation co-extensive with Mr. Jefferson's charges against him. The celebrity of Mr. Jefferson's character, together with the beautiful specimen of Indian oratory in the Logan speech, has probably caused his work to be circulated and read all over the civilized world.

The author will only add that he has obtained permission, from the proprietors of those works, to use them as he deems proper. The Hon. Philip Doddridge, shortly before his death, in a letter to the author, stated that he considered there would be no impropriety in appending any part of his brother's book to this publication; and Mr. Jacob, in the most liberal and unqualified terms, permits him to append the whole or any part of his "Life of Cresap.'

Rev. Mr. Doddridge's account of Dunmore's war. After the conclusion of the Indian wars, by the treaty made with the chiefs by Sir William Johnson at the German flats, in the latter part of 1764, the western settlements enjoyed peace until the spring of 1774.

During this period of time, the settlements increased with great rapidity along the whole extent of the western frontier. Even the shores of the Ohio, on the Virginia side, had a considerable population as early as the year 1774.

Devoutly might humanity wish that the record of the causes which led to the destructive war of 1774, might be blotted from the annals of our country. But it is now too late to efface it; the "black-lettered list" must remain, a dishonorable blot in our national history. Good however may spring out of evil. The injuries inflicted upon the Indians, in early times by our forefathers, may induce their descendants to shew justice and mercy to the diminished posterity of those children of the wilderness, whose ancestors perished, in cold blood, under the tomahawk and scalping knife of the white savages.

In the month of April 1774, a rumor was circulated that the Indians had stolen several horses from some land jobbers on the Ohio and Kanawha rivers. No evidences of the fact having been adduced, led to the conclusion that the report was false. This report, however, induced a pretty general belief that the Indians were about to make war upon the frontier settlements ; but for this apprehension there does not appear to have been the slightest foundation.

In consequence of this apprehension of being attacked by the Indians, the land jobbers ascended the river, and collected at Wheeling. On the 27th of April, it was reported in Wheeling that a canoe, containing two Indians and some traders, was coming down the river, and then not far from the place. On hearing this, the commandant of the station, Capt. Cresap, proposed ta

« ПредишнаНапред »