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was sitting, and could not have avoided the blow though I saw it coming. I was
now concealed under my matress, as all the young Indians were determined to
murder me, was afterwards obliged to put on Indian shoes and cover myself with
a blanket to look like a savage, and escape by fording the river into a field
of Indian corn with St. Vincent, Godefroi, and the other Canadian. Pondiac
asked Godefroi, who returned to the village to see what was going on,
"what he had done with the English man." And being told, he said,
"you have done well." Attawang came to see me, and made his two sons
guard me. Two Kickapoo chiefs came to me, and spoke kindly, telling me that
they had not been at war with the English for seven years. Two Miamis came
likewise, and told me that I need not be afraid to go to their village. A Huron
woman however abused me because the English had killed her son. Late at night I
returned to Attawang's cabin, where I found my servant concealed under a
blanket, the Indians having attempted to murder him; but they had been
prevented by St. Vincent. There was an alarm in the night, a drunken Indian
having been seen at the skirt of the wood. One of the Delaware nation, who
happened to be with Pondiac's army, passing by the cabin where I lay, called
out in broken English: "D - d son of a b - ch." All this while I saw
none of my own Indians: I believe their situation was almost as perilous as my
own. The following day (30th) the Miamis and Kickapoos set out on their return
home, as provisions were growing scarce. An Indian called the little chief,
told Godefroi that he would send his son with me, and made me a present of a
volume of Shakespear's plays; a singular gift from a savage. He however begged
a little gunpowder in return, a commodity to him much
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in the harbour of New York, in order to return to Europe, Sir Henry Moore, then
governor of that province,18 came to bid me adieu, and was rowed on
board by this very man among others. The man immediately recollected me; and we
felt, on seeing each other, what those only can feel who have been in the like
situations. On our arrival at the fort, the chiefs assembled, and passed me by,
when they presented the pipe of friendship; on which I looked at Godefroi, and
said: "Mauvais augure pour moi." A bad omen for me. Nor was I
mistaken; for they led my Indians to the village, on the other side of the
water, and told me to stay in the fort with the French inhabitants; though care
had been taken to forbid them to receive me into their houses, and some strings
of wampum, on which the French had spoken to spare my life, had been refused.
We wondered at this treatment, as we expected that I should be civilly
received; but soon learned that this change of temper was owing to the Shawanese
and Delawares, a deputation of fifteen of them having come there with fourteen
belts and six strings of wampum; who, in the name of their nations, and of the
Senecas, declared they would perish to a man before they would make peace with
the English; seven of them had returned to their villages; five were gone to
Wyaut [Ouiatonon]; and three had set out the morning I had arrived for St.
Joseph;19 (a fortunate circumstance for me, for they had determined
to kill me). The Shawanese and Delawares begged of the Miamis either to put
__________
18Sir Henry Moore was the only colonist appointed governor of New York, having been born in Jamaica in 1713. After serving as governor of that island, and by his bravery and wisdom averting serious peril during a slave insurrection, he was rewarded with a baronetcy and the governorship of New York (1764). He filled this position with acceptability, dying at his post in 1769.- ED.
19For these forts, see Croghan's Journals, ante.- ED.
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us to death (the Indians and myself) or to tie us and send us prisoners to
their villages, or at least to make us return. They loaded the English with the
heaviest reproaches; and added, that while the sun shone they would be at
enmity with us. The Kiccapoos, Mascoutins, and Wiatanons, who happened to be at
the Miamis village declared, that they would dispatch me at their villages, if
the Miamis should let me pass. The Shawanese and Delawares concluded their
speeches with saying: "This is the last belt we shall send you, till we
send the hatchet; which will be about the end of next month (October)."
Doubtless their design was to amuse General Bradstreet with fair language, to
cut off his army at Sandusky, when least expected, and then to send the hatchet
to the nations: a plan well laid; but of which it was my good fortune to
prevent them from attempting the execution. To return to myself: I remained in
the fort, and two Indian warriors (one of whom was called Visenlair) with
tommahawks in their hands, seized me, one by each arm; on which I turned to
Godefroi, the only person who had not left me, and cried out to him, seeing him
stand motionless and pale: "Eh bien! Vous m'abbondonnez donc?" Well
then! You give me up? He answered: "Non, mon capitaine, je ne vous
abandonnerai jamais," No, my captain, I will never give you up; and
followed the Indians, who pulled me along to the water-side, where I imagined
they intended to put me into a canoe; but they dragged me into the water. I
concluded their whim was to drown me, and then scalp me; but I soon found my
mistake, the river being fordable. They led me on till we came near their
village; and there they stopped and stripped me. They could not get off my
shirt, which was held by the
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wrist bands, after they had pulled it over my head; and in rage and despair I
tore it off myself. They then bound my arms with my sash, and drove me before
them to a cabin, where was a bench, on which they made me sit. The whole
village was now in an uproar. Godefroi prevailed with St. Vincent, who had
followed us to the water-side, but had turned back, to come along with him; and
encouraged Pondiac's nephew and the little chief's son to take my part. St.
Vincent brought the great belt, and Pondiac's nephew spoke. Nanamis, an Indian,
bid Godefroi take courage, and not quit me. Godefroi told le Cygne, a Miamis
chief, that his children were at Detroit; and that, if they killed me, he could
not tell what might befal them. He spoke likewise to le Cygne's son, who
whispered his father, and the father came and unbound my arms, and gave me his
pipe to smoke. Visenlair, upon my speaking, got up and tied me by the neck to a
post. And now every one was preparing to act his part in torturing me. The
usual modes of torturing prisoner are applying hot stones to the soles of the
feet, running hot needles into the eyes, which latter cruelty is generally
performed by the women, and shooting arrows and running and pulling them out of
the sufferer in order to shoot them again and again; this is generally done by
the children. The torture is often continued two or three days, if they can contrive
to keep the prisoner alive so long. These modes of torture I should not have
mentioned, if the gentleman who advised me to publish my journal, had not
thought it necessary. It may easily be conceived what I must have felt at the
thought of such horrors which I was to endure. I recollect perfectly what my
apprehensions were. I had not the smallest hope of life; and I remember that I
conceived
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myself as it were going to plunge into a gulf, vast, immeasurable; and that, in
a few moments after, the thought of torture occasioned a sort of torpor and
insensibility; and I looked at Godefroi, and seeing him exceedingly distressed,
I said what I could to encourage him: but he desired me not to speak. I
supposed that it gave offence to the savages, and therefore was silent; when
Pacanne, king of the Miamis nation, and just out of his minority, having
mounted a horse and crossed the river, rode up to me. When I heard him calling
out to those about me, and felt his hand behind my neck, I thought he was going
to strangle me out of pity: but he untied me, saying (as it was afterwards
interpreted to me) I give that man his life. "If you want meat (for they
sometimes eat their prisoners) go to Detroit, or upon the lake (meaning go face
your enemies the English) and you'll find enough. What business have you with
this man's flesh, who is come to speak to us?" I fixed my eyes steadfastly
on this young man, and endeavoured by looks to express my gratitude. An Indian
then presented me his pipe; and I was dismissed by being pushed rudely away. I
made what haste I could to a canoe, and passed over to the fort, having
received on my way a smart cut of a switch from an Indian on horseback. Mr.
Levi, a Jew trader, and some soldiers, who were prisoners, came to see me. Two
very handsome young Indian women came likewise, seemed to compassionate me
extremely, and asked Godefroi a thousand questions. If I remember right, they
were the young king's sisters. Happy Don Quixote, attended by princesses! I was
never left alone, as the wretches, who stripped and tied me, were always
lurking about to find an opportunity to stab me. I lay in the house of one
L'Esperance, a Frenchman. The next day
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my Indians spoke on their belts. The two wretches still sought an opportunity
to kill me. The day following the Miamis returned their answer: "That we
must go back;" shewed the belts of the Senecas, Shawanese, and Delawares;
gave my Indians a small string of white wampum; and told them: "to go and
inform their chiefs of what they had seen and heard." While the council
sat I was concealed in L'Esperance's garret, as Godefroi was obliged to attend
it. Being determined at all events to get into the Illinois country if
possible, St. Vincent and I agreed, that he should endeavour to gain le Cygne
and the young king to attend me to Wyaut: but, in the middle of the night, St.
Vincent came and awoke me, told me that two Frenchmen were just arrived from
St. Joseph, and that the Delawares, who were there, were coming back to the
Miamis village. He advised me to send for my chief immediately, and tell him, for
his own safety as well as mine, to try to get leave to go away in the morning,
(for the Miamis had appointed the next day but one for our departure). This was
accordingly done, and leave obtained. I went to visit le Cygne, who told me,
"that he would have been glad to have attended me to Wyaut; but that he
could not think of leading me to my death: for that there were so many
tommahawks lifted up there, that he should have trembled to have gone
himself." I gave notes to Pacanne and Pondiac's nephew, setting forth that
they had saved my life, and entreating all Englishmen to use them kindly.
(Pacanne shewed his paper to Colonel Croghan, when he made his tour through the
Indian country, and the Colonel was pleased to bring him to Detroit, and, at a
private meeting appointed for that purpose, sent for me, and gave me a very
handsome present to lay at his feet). We gave
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all our blankets and shirts to those Indians who had done us service; and
hearing that the chiefs were in council, and talked of not allowing me to
return with my party, but of detaining me prisoner; and my Indians themselves
appearing uneasy, having left my money and baggage with one Capucin, a
Frenchman, I hurried away about noon, vexed at heart that I had not been able
to execute the orders I had received. I gave General Bradstreet's letter for
Monsieur St. Ange, the French commandant at Fort Chartres, to St. Vincent, to
deliver to that officer; and signed a certificate which he was pleased to put
into my hands, specifying that, on many occasions, he had saved my life. Fear lent
wings to my Indians this day; and we continued our march till it was quite
dark, being apprehensive of an attack. We set out very early the next morning;
and as nothing worthy of observation happened, my thoughts were taken up during
this day's journey in admiring the fine policy of the French with respect to
the Indian nations; of which, from among a thousand, I shall select two
remarkable instances, which I mention as not only worthy of imitation, but to
wear out of the minds of such of my countrymen as have good sense and humanity
the prejudices conceived against and innocent, much-abused, and once happy
people; who have as deep a sense of the justice and benevolence of the French,
as of the wrongs and haughty treatment which they have received from their
present masters. The first of these is the encouragement given by the French
court to marriages betwixt its subjects and Indian women; by which means Lewis
got admission into their councils, and all their designs were known from their
very birth. Add to this, that the French so entirely won their affections by
this step, that to this hour the
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