|
|
Trip to Detroit--American Fur Company; its history and
organization--American Lyceum; its objects--Desire to write books on
Indian subjects by persons not having the information to render them
valuable--Reappearance of cholera--Mission of Mackinack; its history
and condition--Visit of a Russian officer of the Imperial
Guards--Chicago; its prime position for a great entrepot--Area
and destiny of the Mississippi Valley.
1834. About the first of July, I embarked for Detroit, for the
purpose chiefly of meeting the Secretary of War, during his summer
refuge from the busy scenes at Washington. There were some questions
to be decided important to my duties at Mackinack and St. Mary's,
arising from recent changes in the laws or regulations. He wrote to
me on the 21st of July, from the White Sulphur Springs, in Virginia,
that he should probably reach Detroit before the 10th or 12th of
August; but his delay had been protracted so much, that after
reaching the city I felt compelled to return to my agency without
seeing him.
One reason for this step, which operated upon my mind, was the
change in the partnership and management of the affairs of the
American Fur Company, consequent on Mr. John Jacob Astor's
withdrawal from it. This company was founded by this noted and
successful merchant's having purchased, at the close of the war,
about 1815, the trading posts, consisting of buildings, property,
&c., of the British North-West Company, who had been so long the
commercial, and to all practical intents, the political lords of the
regions of the north-west. He organized the concern in shares, under
an act of incorporation of the Legislature of New York, and began
operations by establishing his central point of interior action at
Michilimackinack. This was in 1816. From data submitted at a treaty
at Prairie du Chien by Mr. R. Stuart, the whole capital invested in
the business, was not less than 300,000 dollars. The interior
sub-posts were spread over the entire area of the frontiers up to
the parallel of 59 deg. north latitude, extending to the Missouri.
Together with the posts, indeed, the North-West Company turned over,
in effect, some of its agents and the principal part of its clerks,
interpreters, and boatmen for this area, who were, I believe,
without a single exception, foreigners, chiefly Canadian French,
Scotchmen, Irishmen, and perhaps a few Englishmen.
Congress passed an act the same year (1816) providing that this
trade should be carried on under licenses, by American citizens, who
were permitted, however, to employ this class of foreigners, by
entering into bonds for their proper conduct. This created a class
of duties for the agents, on the line of the Canada frontiers, which
was at all times onerous. To carry on the trade at all, the old and
experienced "servants of the N.W.," as they were called, were
necessary, and it was sometimes essential to take out the license in
the names of American boys, or persons by no means competent, by
their experience in this trade, to conduct the business, which was,
in fact, still in the hands of the old employees.
It was a false theory, from the start, that ardent spirits was one
of the articles necessary to trade. Congress entertained an opinion
of its injuriousness to the character of the Indians, and passed
laws excluding it. This constituted another class of duties of the
agents who were entrusted with their execution, and required them to
"search packages," and to judge of the probabilities of all persons
applying for licenses keeping the laws.
To expect that this mixed body of foreigners would exert any very
favorable political influence on the mass of Indian minds in the
north-west, was indulging a hope not very likely to be fulfilled.
They were employed to glean the Indian lodges of furs, and expected
to make good returns to their employers at Michilimackinack; and, if
they kept the ground of neutrality with respect to governments, it
was considered as exempting them from censure.
The great body of the Indians in the upper lakes, and throughout the
north-west, extending to the sources of the Mississippi, were averse
to the American rule. Many of them had been embodied to fight
against the Americans, who were successively met by ambuscade,
surprise, or otherwise, as at Chicago, at Michilimackinack,
Brownstown, River Raisin, Maumee, Fort Harrison, and other places.
They had been assembled in large bodies, by the delusive
prophesyings of Elksatawa, and by the not less delusive promises of
the agents of the British Indian Department, on the lines, that the
Americans were to be driven back to the line of the Illinois, if not
of the Ohio--an old and very popular idea with the lake Indians from
early days.
The lake Indians had suffered severely from the war, chiefly from
the camp fevers and irregularities. They had finally been
defeated--their great war captain killed, their false prophet driven
from the Wabash into Canada; and, to crown the whole, were
themselves abandoned, one and all, by their allies, at the treaty of
Ghent. Many never returned to the homes of their fathers--entire
villages were depopulated, and their sites overgrown in a few years
with shrubbery. Those who came back from the active campaign of
1814, were sullen and desponding. As an evidence of what they had
suffered, and how completely they had been abandoned by their
allies, the transactions of the first treaty at Springwells, at the
close of the war, may be referred to. The tribes were literally
starving and in rags.
The agents of the Executive and Governors, who were appointed to
conduct their intercourse after the war, were, in reality, called to
execute a high class of diplomatic functions, second only in general
importance to those required at the prime courts of Europe. The
several classes of duties which have been described denote, to some
extent, in what this importance consisted. Eighteen years had now
elapsed since this important commercial company had furnished
traders to the discomfited tribes. During twelve years of this
period I had had charge of the intercourse with by far the largest
and most unfriendly and warlike of the tribes; and, when I saw that
Mr. Astor had disconnected himself from the concern which he had
organized; and that, to some extent, new agents and actors were
called to the field, I felt anxious to be at my post, to supervise,
personally, the intercourse act, and to see that no improper persons
should enter the country.
15th. Dr. L.D. Gale, of New York, writes me that the American
Lyceum has resolved to enlarge the scope of its objects. "We have,
therefore," he remarks, "as we now stand, 1. The department of
education. 2. The department of physical science. 3. Moral and
political science. 4. Literature and the arts. The influence of the
society has been very much enlarged since its last meeting, and it
now enrolls amongst its active members many, indeed I may say a
large share of the most valuable men of science of the United
States. The chief object of the physical science department is to
obtain, as far as possible, a report of the recent history and
progress, and, in some cases, the future prospects of the different
departments. So that we may be enabled to form a volume of
transactions that shall embrace all that is new or recent in the
departments, posted up to the present time.
"The subject of the antiquities of the western countries of the
United States, and especially the remains of towns and
fortifications, which appear to have been built by a civilized
population, has been frequently agitated this side of the
Alleghanies, and it was thought by the executive committee that
justice would be done to the subject in your hands. They have,
accordingly, requested that you would consent to give them a paper
on the subject. They presumed that you were in possession of much
interesting and valuable matter that has never yet come to the eyes
of the world."
26th. I have been often written to, by persons at a distance
wishing for information on the Indian tribes, or their languages, or
antiquities, and uniformly responded favorably to such applications,
sending a little where it was not practicable to do more. It has
ever appeared to me, that the giving of information was just one of
those points which rendered me not a whit more ignorant myself, and
might add something to the knowledge, as it certainly would to the
gratifications of others. The only good objection is, that time and
attention is required for every such effort. But cannot this be
easily redeemed from waste hours, when the object is to add to the
moral gratifications of others?
A letter was addressed to me, this day, from a Mr. H. Newcomb,
Alleghany, near Pittsburg, which certainly seems a little onerous in
the tax it imposes on my time; as the writer announces his intention
of publishing two or three volumes, on the subject of the Indians,
and presents a formidable array of subjects respecting which he is
to treat. In only one respect it strikes me as singular, namely,
that any writer west of the Alleghanies should set down to write a
work on such a subject, without personal observation. In older
areas, where the Indian has disappeared, books must alone be relied
on; but in the West, there should be something fresh, something
distinctive and personal, to give vitality to such a work. The
writer observes, "I have not yet been able to obtain materials for
the first two volumes satisfactory to myself."
August 1st. Mr. Theodore Dwight, Jr., writes: "Cannot a
syllabic, or semi-syllabic alphabet, be applied to our Indian
tongues?"
Rev. Leonard Woods, Jr., of New York, Editor of the New York
Theological Review, desires a paper on the subject of the American
Indians. "I have found," he says, "that while the subject is one of
very general interest, there are few who possess the requisite
information to do it justice."
15th. The cholera, which first appeared in this country in
1833, made its second appearance in Detroit, in the month of July.
It was not, however, of the same virulence as the first attack.
"From present appearances," writes a friend at that place, "the
cholera is vanishing." Having matters of eminent concern there, I
determined to make a brief visit to the place. My health was very
good, and had never, indeed, been subject to violent fluctuations of
the digestive functions, and, after attaining the object, I returned
to Mackinack. I again visited Detroit for a short time, during the
latter part of August, and resumed my position at Mackinack in
September. Indian affairs, in the upper lakes, were now hastening to
a crisis, which in a year or two, developed themselves in extensive
sales of territory by the Indians, who, as game failed, saw
themselves in straits. These events will be mentioned as they take
definite shapes of action.
Sept. 2d. Mr. David Green, Secretary of the Board of
Commissioners for American Missions, Missionary Rooms, Boston,
depicts a crisis in the mission at Mackinack. "Your favor by Mr.
Ferry," he remarks, "has come to hand. As you anticipated, he has
requested our Missionary Board to relieve him from the missionary
service, and they, though with much reluctance, have granted his
request. He seems fully convinced that he is not likely to be
hereafter useful, to any great extent, in connection with the
Mackinack mission; and that the claims of his family call him to a
different situation. This movement on his part, though he has before
suggested that such a step might be expedient, was quite unexpected
by us at this time; and I fear that we shall not find it easy to
obtain a suitable man to fill his place. No such person is now at
our disposal. I have written to the Rev. Dr. Peters, of New York,
Secretary of the American Home Missionary Society, stating the
circumstances of the place, inquiring if it would not properly fall
within that portion of the Lord's Vineyard, and whether they could
not furnish a suitable man to cultivate it.
"That Society, as well as ours, is, I believe, pressed for
missionaries on every hand. The prayers of all the Lord's people
should be, in these exigencies, 'Send forth laborers into thy
harvest.' Men of devoted piety and zeal, and of high intellectual
character, and judgment, and enterprise, are needed in great numbers
both in our own land and abroad. The want of such men is now the
most serious impediment which our societies have to contend with.
"You may be assured, sir, that we shall do all in our power,
consistent with the claims of our other missions, to send some
person to Mackinack; but we cannot promise to succeed immediately.
Mr. Ferry, we hope, will remain the next spring.
"Some embarrassment is felt by our Board, from the fact that foreign
fields, offering access to densely populated districts, where
millions speaking the same language, can be easily approached--are
more attractive to the candidates for the missionary work than the
small, scattered, and migratory bands of our Indians.
"I fear that a preference of this nature will cause our friends--the
Indians--to be neglected, if not forgotten. As Providence seems, in
so many ways, to be against the Indians, I often fear that no
considerable portion of them are ever to enjoy the blessings of
civilization and Christianity. But we must leave them in the hands
of God, after using faithfully the means which he places at our
disposal."
"We are glad to hear that you still approve of the course pursued by
our missionaries in the north-west, and that the advancement of the
cause of Christ, in that quarter, is still a subject of care with
you, and truth, and divine grace, will enable you rightly to bear
the responsibility in this respect, which rests on you."
I have put in italics, in the above letter, a high moral truth,
which accords with all my observation and experience on the
frontiers; and upon the due appreciation and carrying out of which,
the success of the missionary cause over the world, in my judgment,
depends. It is a sentence that should be inscribed in letters of
gold in every missionary room in America. It is certainly a mistake
to send feeble men on the frontier, who are not deemed to have
sufficient energy, talents, and sound discretion to enter foreign
fields. Our frontiers are full of cavillers, and shrewd and bold
gainsayers of Christianity, men of personal energy and will, who
generally stand aloof from such efforts, and who, when they come
into contact with missionary laborers, judge them by common rules of
judgment--who are, indeed, not the best fitted to estimate "devoted
piety and zeal," but who are, nevertheless, disposed to respect it,
in proportion as it is joined with "high intellectual character, and
judgment, and enterprise." In the frequent want of this--we do not
include Mackinack in this category--is to be sought the true cause
of our failures with the Indians, to whom the strange and intense
story of the Gospel appears at first in something as wild and
marvelous as some of their own relations; and who are, at any rate,
firmly fixed in their heathenish rites and devotions to a subtil
system of deism, and the invocation of gods of the elements and
demons.
With respect to the mission of Mackinack, its influence, on the
whole, has been eminently good, and not evil. Mr. Ferry possessed
business talents of a high order, with that strict reference to
moral responsibilities and accountabilities, which compose the
golden fibres of the Gospel net. He sought to bring all, white and
red men, into this net; and its influences were extensively spread
from that central point into the Indian country. He gathered, from
the remotest quarters, the half-breed children of the traders and
clerks, into a large and well organized boarding school, where they
were instructed in the points essential to their becoming useful and
respectable men and women. They were then sent abroad as teachers
and interpreters, and traders' clerks, over a wide space of
wilderness, where they disseminated Gospel principles. Many of their
parents also embraced Christianity. Many of the girls turned out to
be ladies of finished education and manners, and married officers of
the army or citizens. There were some pure Indian converts of both
sexes, among whom was the chief prophet of the Ottawas--the aged
Chusco. In 1829, after seven years' labor, he witnessed a revival
among the citizens of that town, which appeared to be his crowning
labor, and it had the effect to renovate the place, and for many
years to drive vice and disorder, if not entirely away, into holes
and corners, where they avoided the light. He came to this island
first, to begin his mission, I believe, in 1822. The effort to set
up a mission there seemed as wild and hopeless, to common judgments,
as it would be to dig down the pyramids of the Nile with a pin. I
defended its course of proceedings from an unjust attack in the
legislative council of the territory, in 1830, having had extensive
opportunities to scan its principles and workings--which were only
offensive to worldly men, because, in upholding the Gospel banner, a
shrewd knowledge of business transactions was at the same time
evinced. To be a fool in worldly things is sometimes supposed, by
the wits of the world, to be an evidence of pious zeal.
6th. Being on my passage this day up the River St. Clair, in
the steamboat "Gen. Gratiot," in company with several others, I
asked Capt. Wm. Thorn several historical questions respecting the
settlement of Michilimackinack. The following memoranda embrace his
replies: He is a native of Newport, Rhode Island, although he was
for many years engaged, before the transfer of posts in 1796, in
sailing British vessels on the lakes, and therefore deemed, when he
was taken prisoner during the late war, to have been a British
subject.
He says he began his voyages to old Mackinack seven years before the
removal of the post to the Island. This was, he says, in 1767. The
post was then in command of a Capt. Glazier, afterwards of De
Peyster (who subsequently commanded at Detroit), then of Patrick
Sinclair (who had previously built a fort at the mouth of Pine
River--St. Clair Co. seat), and then of Gov. Sinclair (so called).
The Indians, at the massacre of the garrison of old Mackinack, did
not burn the fort. It was re-occupied, and it was not till the
breaking out of the revolutionary war that the removal from the main
to the island took place. It must have been (if he is correct as to
the period of seven years) in 1774, and the occupancy of the island
is, therefore, coincident with the earliest period of the movement
for Independence--fifty-nine years1.
Previous to that era, Mackinack was the spot where the men stopped
to shave and dress preparatory to the traverse. About the time Capt.
Thorn first began sailing to old Mackinack, the Indians plundered a
boat at the island while the owner stopped to dress, in consequence
of which the interpreter at the old post (Hanson, I think) went over
to demand redress, and killed the depredator, an Indian.
My inquiries on this topic of old men, red and white, which were
commenced last spring, may here drop. It is now rendered certain
that the occupancy of old Mackinack--the Beekwutinong of the
Indians--was kept up by British troops till 1774; between that date
and 1780 the flag was transferred (the letters of the commanding
officers to their generals would alone give this date). The
principal traders, probably, went with it; the Indian intercourse
likewise. Some residents lingered a few years, but the place was
finally abandoned, and the town site is now covered with loose sand.
The walls of the fort, which are of stone, remain, and the whole
site constitutes an interesting ruin. The post was first founded by
Marquette as a missionary station about 1668.
11th. Major Whiting, of Detroit, writes a letter of
introduction in the following terms:--
"Captain Tchehachoff, of the Russian Imperial Guards, is traveling
through our country with a view to see its extent and null--its
geographical and scenic varieties. As he proposes to visit
Michilimackinack, I wish him to become acquainted with you, who can
give him so much information relative to those portions of it which
he may not be able to visit. I have put into his hands some of your
works, which may have anticipated something you will have to say.
"He is, probably, the first Russian who has been on our N.W.
interior since the enterprising gentlemen who thought to speculate
on the 'copper rock.' But Capt. Tchehachoff has no other views than
those of an enlightened and disinterested observer. I am sure that
it will give you pleasure to show him all kindly attentions."
Capt. Tchehachoff visited the island during the month, and accepted
an invitation to spend a few days with me. He repaid me for this
attention with much agreeable conversation and many anecdotes of
Russia, Germany (where he was educated), and Poland. He possesses a
character of extreme interest to me, as being a Circassian, or
descendant of that people, who are the local representatives of the
Circassian race. He was very fair in complexion, and possessed a
fine, manly, tall, and well-proportioned figure, and a beautiful red
and white countenance, with dark hair and eyes. He spoke English
very well, but with a broad Scottish, or rather provincial accent,
on some words, which he had evidently got from his early
teacher--whom he told me was a female--such as ouwn, for own,
&c.
He told me that, on Mr. Randolph's first presentation to the Russian
Empress, he kneeled, although he had been notified that such a
ceremony would not be expected of him. He told some very
characteristic anecdotes of the wild pranks of the German students
at the university. He was, I think, in some way related to
descendants of Count Orloff, who was so remarkably strong and
compact of muscle that he could push an iron spike, with his thumb,
to its head in the sides or planking of a vessel.
Capt. Tchehachoff was certainly strong himself; he had a powerful
strength of hands and arms. He used great politeness, and was very
punctilious on entering the dining-room, &c. He interested himself
in the apparently tidal phenomena of strong currents setting through
the harbor and straits, which were in fine view from the piazza of
my house, and made some notes upon them. He asked me why I had not
concentrated and published my travels, and various works respecting
the geology of the Western country, and the history and philology of
the aboriginal tribes--subjects of such deep and general interest to
the philosopher of Europe. One morning early in October (9th), he
bade us an affectionate adieu, and embarked in a schooner for
Chicago.
Oct. 10th. Chicago is now the centre of an intense and
everyday growing commercial excitement, and however the value of
every foot of ground and water of its site is over-estimated,
and its prospects inflated, it is evidently the nucleus of a
permanent city, destined to be one of the great lake capitals.
The Rev. Jer. Porter, our former pastor at St. Mary's, who was the
first of his church order, I believe, to carry the Gospel there in
1833, writes me, under this date, detailing his labors and
prospects. These are flattering, and go to prove that the religious
element, if means be used, is everywhere destined to attend the
tread of the commercial and political elements of power into the
great area of the Valley of the Mississippi. Chicago is, in fact,
the first and great city of the prairies, where the abundance of its
products are destined to be embarked to find a northern market by
the way of the lakes, without the risks of entering southern
latitudes. This is an advantage which it will ever possess. Nature
has opened the way for a heavy tonnage by the lake seas. Other modes
of transportation may divert passengers and light goods, but the
staples must ever go in ships, propelled by wind or steam, through
the Straits of Mackinack.
1: See ante.
This site includes some historical
materials that may imply negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or language
of a particular period or place. These items are presented as part of the
historical record and should not be interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in
any way endorse the stereotypes implied.
Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the
Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers, 1851
Thirty
Years with the Indians
|
