1895 Landmarks
of Oswego County, NY Book
French Warfare Against the Indians
CHAPTER V
Many thanks and appreciation to Gloria
Foley <[email protected]> for her time and work in transcribing
this Section on French Warfare Against the Indians during the early
1700's, from the 1895 Landmarks of Oswego County, NY Book. Its most appreciated.
(page 46)
Efficient Action of De Nonville-Campaign
Against the Senecas-Destruction of Montreal by Indians-Burning of Schenectady-Repair
of Fort Frontenac-Campaign Against the Iroquois in 1696-Consequences of
French Warfare on the Indians-Close Alliance of the Indians and the English-Peace
of Ryswick-Beginning of Queen Anne’s War-Extension of English Fur Trade-French
Post at Niagara-Governor Burnet Protests-Establishment of Military Post
of Chouaguen—Its effect Upon the French-Plan of Oswego in 1727-Approaching
War-Mismanagement at Oswego—Declaration of War-Military Importance of Oswego-Treaty
of Aix la-Chapelle-Sir Wm. Johnson-His Management at Oswego.
De Nonville, on his arrival
from Canada, made a study of the situation; reported in full to his royal
master; and soon began preparations to open a war on the Iroquois, with
the especial view of subjugating the Senecas. He explained the defenseless
condition of the French; counseled the erection of fortifications; and
asserted that the Iroquois were powerful and dangerous, chiefly through
their ability to secure unlimited arms and ammunition from the English.
He also sent over an estimate of the quantity of beaver sent out from Canada
from 1675 to 1685 inclusive-an average of about 90,000 pounds annually.
Altogether it was a rather discouraging picture that he drew of the situation.
Preparations for an attack
upon the Senecas having been completed, De Nonville with a large force
crossed Lake Ontario in 1687, and landed on the shore of Irondequoit Bay.
Proceeding to the Seneca villages, a battle followed, with little advantage
to either side, after which the Senecas fled into the forest, while the
French destroyed their villages and crops.
(page 47)
The vengeance of the Iroquois
was swift, the other nations joining the Seneca for the purpose.
In the next year a large body of warriors started for the Canadian settlements,
probably by the usual route down the Oswego, along the lake and down the
St. Lawrence. They fell upon the Island of Montreal
like demons, destroyed everything of value in their way, and reached the
very gates of the city. The French were forced to abandon Forts Frontenac
and Niagara, and it seemed as if their day of power was at an end.
During all of these operations
of De la Barre and De Nonville, the animosity between the French and the
English was constantly gaining strength, as shown by the reports.
In the year under consideration (1688) a revolution placed William of Orange
on the English throne, and war promptly followed with France. The
Indian allies of the latter were almost powerless against the dreaded Iroquois,
who harassed the settlements of Canada until the French, realized that
if more thorough measures were not adopted they were lost.
In 1689 Count de Frontenac,
whose former management of the colony had been so effective, was again
sent over as governor of New France. He was an old man, but vigorous,
brave and capable, and the flagging spirits of the people soon revived.
Failing in his first efforts to negotiate peace with the Iroquois, he opened
a vigorous campaign; burned Schenectady on the night of February 9, 1690;
defended Montreal against attack by Major Peter Schuyler, of New
York; and at all points vigorously served his country’s interests.
But it was a losing cause; the French were prevented from tilling their
ground, and from reaping what was sown; the fur trade was stopped by the
Indians, who took possession of the passes between them and their allies
in the west; famine came on, and in June 1692, the Iroquois entered into
a formal treaty of alliance and friendship with Governor Ingoldsby, of
(page 48)
New York. In his desperation,
Frontenac organized a raid against the Mohawks in January, 1693, but its
cost to him outweighed its advantages. After nearly two years spent
in vain efforts to negotiate peace with the Iroquois, Frontenac saw that
his only safety lay in war, and he prepared to act accordingly. In
1695 he sent a strong force to repair and garrison the fort at the outlet
of Lake Ontario, which bore his name, and which had been abandoned and
destroyed by the order De Nonville; it was a work of great importance for
the protection of the fur trade. In the summer of 1696 the veteran
soldier made extensive preparations to invade the Onondagas, the central
nation of the Iroquois, where he hoped to strike a blow that would humble
the spirits of the red men and serve as the opening wedge to rend the confederacy
in pieces. Assembling all the regular troops and the militia of the
colony under the banners of France, together with the Indians near the
settlements and all the western Indians he could muster, he embarked from
the south end of the Island of Montreal, July 4, 1696, with his force and
two large bateaux carrying two small cannon, with mortars, grenades, ammunition,
etc. Twelve days took the army to Fort Frontenac, 180 miles from
Montreal, and twelve more brought them to the mouth of the Oswego River.
There they encamped over night and then began their slow ascent of the
turbulent stream. Fifty scouts threaded the forest on either side
of the river, close by the banks of which the main body marched.
It was tedious work pushing the large bateaux up the current, and it was
the second day before Oswego Falls was reached. Here a pathway was
cut out around the falls and the portage was made. When Count de
Frontenac was about to disembark to walk around the falls the enthusiastic
Indians seized his canoe and with him sitting in it bore it over the portage,
while the forest resounded with their yells. Some of the battalions
did not pass the portage till the next day, after which ten miles were
made. When near Three Rivers they found a rude representation of
the army made on bark, probably left by some of the Iroquois as a warning
to others, and accompanied by two bundles of rushes, to signify that the
invading army was a numerous one. Coming on up the stream, the whole
flotilla finally entered Onondaga Lake, whence they advanced to the village
(page 49)
Scouts now reported that trails had
been discovered leading towards the country of the Oneidas, and it was
inferred that the Onondagas had sent away their women and children.
The fact was, the whole nation almost had fled, leaving the French a barren
victory. The capture of prisoners was confined to a “lame” girl,
“found under a tree, and her life was spared. An old man, also taken
prisoner, did not experience the same fate.” Count Frontenac, with
his accustomed cruelty, permitted his Indians to torture the old man to
death. M. de Vaudreuil, with a detachment, continued to the Oneida
village, near which they met deputies from the nation, who sued for peace;
but their village was burned and their crops destroyed, and the same fate
awaited the village and crops of the Onondagas.
On the 11th of August the entire
army started on their return and encamped below the Falls: by ten
o’clock of the next day the rapid current of the river had taken them to
its mouth. Here they were detained until the 14th by a gale, and
on the 15th continued to Fort Frontenac.
It would seem to have been
a part of the plan of the Almighty that this country should not pass under
the French dominion, but should be preserved for the descendants of the
Pilgrims and the English immigrants who came after them; for the principal
consequence of this attempt by the French to conquer the Indians and thus
to greatly extend their own domain and influence, was to more closely bind
the Indians to the English, who took prompt steps to supply them with corn
and other necessaries for the succeeding winter. The only known relic
of the invaders’ march through Oswego county, found by the settlers, was
a tree which was cut down near Oswego Falls about 1809, deep down in the
body of which was found an old “blaze” into which had been fired a number
of musket balls. The blaze was overlaid by 112
(page 50)
circles, indicating that it was cut
in the year of Frontenac’s invasion, and had been used by the soldiers
as a target.
The peace under the treaty
of Ryswick (1697) succeeded the operations we have described, and the French
king, who had espoused the cause of James II, acknowledged William of Orange
king of Great Britain and Ireland. Inter-colonial war ceased for a long
time in this country, and during the following twenty-five years, little
occurred in which Oswego county was intimately concerned. By the
terms of the treaty, the English were not to afford the Iroquois any aid
to make war on the French, and the French hoped and expected that the latter
would sue for peace. A treaty of neutrality was negotiated by Chevalier
de Callieres August 4, 1701, at Montreal, between the Iroquois and the
northern allies, which gave great satisfaction to the French king.
The Jesuits promptly took advantage of the peaceful conditions, and the
waters of the Oswego and the Seneca often bore their canoes southward,
while the forests echoed their prayers and hymns. They were very
active in establishing and promoting missions among the Five Nations, a
course which gave such offense to the government of the province, that
an act was passed by the Colonial Assembly in 1700, requiring every “ecclesiastical
person receiving his ordination from the Pope or See of Rome,” then residing
in the province, to depart from it before the 15th of November, under penalty
of death.
What is known as Queen Anne’s
war broke out in Europe in 1702, and continued until 1713, when it ended
with the treaty of Utrecht, which conceded the control of the Iroquois
to the English. But not-withstanding this treaty, and the treaty
made by the French between the northern Indians and the Iroquois which
we have mentioned, the latter nation soon began encroaching on the French
and provoking hostility, in which conduct they were stimulated to some
extent, without a doubt, by the English. Peace under the then existing
conditions was impossible. But for several years little occurred
with which these pages need be cumbered.
Meanwhile the English and the
Dutch, with renewed energy, push-
(page 51)
ed their trade farther and farther
into the Indian country and north of the lakes. The important question
of boundaries had been left by the Utrecht treaty largely undefined, a
circumstance that led to endless correspondence, complaints and recriminations
from both sides, are ere long it began to be apparent that harmony between
the French and the English would never be permanent. In 1720
the French established a post at Niagara which is spoken of in a report
of Messrs. De Vaudreuil and Begon (October 26, 1720,) as “required to prevent
the English introducing themselves into the Upper country, and to increase
the trade at Fort Frontenac;” and they sent a delegate to Niagara with
a store of goods for trade. Gov. William Burnet, of New York, protested
against this action, and complained that “the French flag has been hoisted
in one o the Seneca castles.” He considered this an “ill observance
of the articles of the Peace of Utrecht.”
To counteract the encroachments
of the French, Governor Burnet established some kind of a temporary trading
station on the Irondequoit Bay in 1721, but it probably remained but a
short time. Meanwhile the New York Provincial Legislature passed
a law forbidding the supply of Indian goods to the French.
This act seriously affected the New York importers, as well as crippled
the French, who could not obtain their goods so cheaply from any other
source. In retaliation the French incited the northern Indians to
drive the English from their country. “Since the close of October, 1723,”
wrote DeVaudreuil (November, 1724), “the Abenakis did not cease harassing
the English with a view to force them to quit their country.”
We come now to the establishment
of a post at Chouaguen (Oswego), information concerning which reached De
Vaudreuil and was by him conveyed to France in May, 1725. In his
letter he said: “That he he had received the advice the 8th of December
(1724) that the English and the Dutch had projected an establishment at
the mouth of the
(page 52)
River Chouaguen, . . on soil always
considered as belonging to France.” This news appeared more important
to him as he “felt the difficulty of preserving the post of Niagara where
there is no fort, should the English once fortify Chouaguen; and that in
losing Niagara the colony is lost, and at the same time all the trade with
the upper country Indians.”
M. de Vaudreuil proceeded
to Montreal in March, where the report o the intentions of the English
was confirmed. He then made an abortive attempt to induce the Iroquois
to threaten war if the post was established, sending for this purpose M.
de Longueuil among the Indians and thence to Oswego, as we may properly
hereafter call this place. De Longueuil was instructed, “should he find
them [the English] settled at Chouaguen, to summon them to retire on their
own territory until their limits should be settled, failing which he should
adopt proper measures to constrain them. De Longueuil wrote M. Begon,
May 9, 1725, from Fort Frontenac, that “there was no trading post as yet
at Chouaguen; but on October 31, M. Begon reported that De Longueuil had
by that time “found 100 English at the portage of the river, four leagues
from Fort Ontario, with more than sixty canoes; that they made him show
his passport, and showed him an order from the governor of New York not
to allow any Frenchman to go by without a passport.” De Longueuil
reproached the Iroquois chiefs who were present, and so stirred their feelings
against the English that they promised to remain neutral in case of another
war. Going on to the Onondaga village, De Longueuil obtained the
consent of the Indians to the construction of a stone house at Niagara
and two barks all of which were built and finished in 1726. In the
course of his voyage to Niagara, De Longueuil met more than 100 canoes
loaded with peltry going to the English.
On the 25th of July, 1726,
M. de Longueuil wrote that he had given orders to his son, then in command
at Niagara, “not to return until
(page 53)
the English and Dutch retire from
Chouaguen, where they have been all summer to the number of 300 men, and
should he meet their canoes on the lake, to plunder them.” In September
the younger De Longueuil reported that there were then no more English
at Oswego, along the lake nor in the river.
The vacillations in fealty
of the Iroquois between the French and the English is indicated by the
pledge made to the French mentioned above, and by the cession to the latter,
in 1726, by sachems of the Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas, in a deed of
trust, of lands extending in a belt sixty miles wide and in length from
Caynunghage (Salmon River) all along Lake Ontario, the Niagara River, and
“the Lake Oswego,” to the creek called Canahogue, (probably Cuyahoga).
The eastern line of this enormous tract passed southward from Salmon Creek
about through the middle of Oswego county, leaving its eastern half in
possession of the Oneidas.
From this time onward Oswego
was the theatre of events the record of which occupies a conspicuous place
in the history of the country. On the 9th of May 1726, Governor Burnet
wrote the Board of Trade:
I have this spring sent up
workmen to build a stone house of strength at a place called Oswego, at
the mouth of the Onnondage river where our principal Trade with the far
Nations is carried on. I have obtained the consent of the Six Nations
[the Tuscaroras had been taken into the Confederacy several years before]
to build it, and having intelligence that a party of French of ninety men
were going up towards Niagara I suspected that they might have orders to
interrupt this work, and therefore I have sent up a detachment of sixty
Souldiers with a Captain and two Lieutenants, to protect the building from
any disturbance that any French or Indians may offer to it. There are besides
about two hundred traders now at the same place, who are all armed as militia,
and ready to join in defense of the Building and their Trade, in case they
are attacked…. My Lord Bellomont formerly intended to build a Fort by King
William’s order near this place, and it went so far that even plate and
furniture for a chapel there, were sent over from England, but the design
was laid by upon his death, and has never been resumed since ‘till now.
The building of this structure
and consequent rapid development of the
(page 54)
fur trade displeased the French exceedingly.
The trading cabins of the Dutch and English multiplied along the river,
and the great importance of the post in relation to its situation as an
outlet for all the Iroquois nations became more and more apparent.
Speaking of this fort, Governor Burnet wrote the Board of Trade: “ I depend
upon its being of the best use of anything that has ever been undertaken
on that side, either to preserve our own Indians in our Interest, or to
promote and fix a constant Trade with the remote Indians.”
The Marquis de Beauharnois,
who was then governor-general of Canada, took Governor Burnet to task for
his work at Oswego. Under date of July 20, 1727, he wrote:
I cannot avoid observing to
you my surprise at the permission which you have given to the English merchants
to carry on a trade at the River of Oswego, and that you have ordered a
Redoubt with Galleries and full of Loop holes and other works belonging
to fortifications to be built at the Mouth of the River, in which you have
placed a Garrison of Regular troops. . . . I look , Sir, upon the
Settlements you are beginning and pretending to make at the Entrance
of the Lake Ontario into the River of Oswego, the fortifications that you
have made there, and the Garrison that you have posted there, as a manifest
infraction of the Treaty of Utrecht.
The letter from which we are
quoting was sent by a messenger, and the marquis further adds:
I send away at the same time
a Major to summon the Officer who commands at Oswego, to retire with his
Garrison and other persons who are there, to demolish the fortifications
and other works, and to evacuate entirely that post to and to retire home.
In a letter to Beauharnois
and Dupuy, Louis XV wrote; “Sieur de Beauharnois must always have in view
the expulsion of the English from their fort on the River Choueguen.”
The old question of boundaries
was not yet settled and it was the source of this difficulty. The
place was now seen to be of such vast importance that each side determined
to possess it. In reply to the foregoing Burnet reproached the Frenchman
for not awaiting a reply before sending a summons to Oswego demanding evacuation.
He also asserted that the English had carried on unmolested trade for five
years at and near the disputed ground, and therefore he had a right
(page 55)
to protect and continue the business.
“I think myself obliged,” he wrote, “to maintain the Post of Oswego, till
I receive new orders from the King my Master.” And the post was maintained.
Meanwhile Beauharnois had submitted
proposals, early in 1727, to the French government to build “a house and
fort at the mouth of the River Chouaguen, so as to prevent ingress and
egress into Lake Ontario.” Concerning these proposals Louis XV wrote
his minister April 29, 1727: “The attempts of the English to form an establishment
at that point, and the considerable amount of trade they have driven there
these last years, to the prejudice of the commerce of the Colony and that
of Niagara and Fort Frontenac, renders it necessary to anticipate them,”
continuing with his reasons for such action. He then adds: “All these
reasons would have determined his Majesty, from the moment, to order the
erection of this fort and hose, were he not convinced of the impropriety
of undertaking so many things at once.”
Still, though several times
on the apparent verge of actual hostilities, the two powers remained in
nominal peace until 1744, During all this period of sixteen years the post
at Oswego was kept up by the English with a small garrison, and some improvements
were made in the works. The Journal of the Assembly, of May 23, 1741, contains
the following:
Resolved, that there be allowed
a sum not exceeding the sum of six hundred pounds, to and for erecting
a sufficient stone Wall, at a proper distance, round the Trading House
at Oswego, either in a Triangular or Quadrangular Form, as the Ground will
best admit of, with a Bastion or Block House in each Corner to flank the
Curtains, which are to be single for the Accommodation of Men, if need
be.
As in public affairs in these
later days of ours, there were frequent complaints of mismanagement, extravagance,
etc., at the post. In 1733 a petition signed by nearly fifty traders
was sent to the governor, claiming that the commander of the garrison had
laid improper restrictions on trade, and the Assembly requested the governor
to appoint a competent man, who was conversant with the Indian trade and
language to live at Oswego as superintendent. Moreover, on November
1, 1736, Governor Clarke wrote the commander at Oswego as follows:
(page 56)
Sir-I am sorry to hear so many
complaints of your conduct at Oswego. I hope for better things,
but am now in fear, if some better care be not taken, that
the Garrison will desert or perish for want of provision of which I am
told there is no manner of Economy; it behooves you, sir, to be very circumspect,
and I earnestly recommend to you, to keep good discipline, and to take
care of the provisions and of the security of the house and garrison.
And again, August 20, 1742,
the governor wrote the Board of Trade:
My Lords-If the loss of Oswego
(which I much fear will fall into the hands of the French on the first
rupture) does not stagger the best resolutions of the Six Nations, who
at present fear more than they love the French; that Fortress, or rather
Trading house, for it is no better, is in a very defenceless condition,
the Garrison consists of but a Lieutenant, Serjeant, Corporal, and 20 men.
It is and has been without ammunition, the Assembly refusing to be at the
expense, as well as to make provision for victualling a larger Garrison.
He then complains of the character
of the work on the wall before mentioned, saying: “ As it is managed it
a jobb calculated rather to put money in the Pockets of those who have
the management of the business, than any real service to the publick.”
In July, 1743, John Bartram,
a botanist of considerable reputation, visited Oswego. He left his
house, near Philadelphia, July 3d; ascended on horseback the valleys of
the Schuylkill, Susquehanna, and Chenango and its branches, to the headwaters
of Onondaga Creek; spent two days as the guest of the nation at the Council
House of the Onondagas in Onondaga Valley; and descended through Onondaga
Lake and the Seneca and Oswego Rivers to Oswego, where he arrived July
25th. The journey was through a country, then as now, of surpassing
beauty and fertility; but, except for the first two days, through an unbroken
forest. He gives us a view of Oswego as it was after the building
of the wall provided for by the action of the Assembly in May 1741 and
before the breaking out of King George’s War in March, 1744.
He will be permitted to give
his impressions and observations at Oswego in his own words:
On the point formed by the
entrance of the river stands the fort or trading castle. It is a
strong stone house, incompassed with a stone wall near twenty feet high,
and 120 paces round, built of large squared stones. Very curious
for their softness, I cut my
(page 57)
name in them with my knife.
The town consists of about seventy loghouses, of which one half are in
a row near the river, the other half opposite to them. Between were
two streets divided by a row of posts in the midst, where each Indian has
his house to lay his goods, and where any of the traders may traffick with
him. This is surely an excellent regulation for preventing the traders
from imposing on the Indians, a practice they have been formerly too much
guilty of, and which has frequently involved the English colonies in difficulties,
and constantly tended to depreciate us in the esteem of the natives. .
. . .The chief officer in command at the castle keeps a good look out to
see when the Indians come down the lake with their peltry and furrs, and
sends a canoe to meet then, which conducts them to the castle, to prevent
any person inticing them to put ashore privately, treating them with spirituous
liquors, and then taking the opportunity of cheating them. The officer
seems very careful, that all quarreling, and even the least mis understanding,
when any happens, be quickly made up in an amicable manner, since a speedy
accommodation can only prevent our country men from incurring the imputation
of injustice, and the delay of it would produce the disagreeable consequences
of an Indians endeavouring to right himself by force.
Oswego is an infant settlement
made by the province of New York, with the noble view of gaining
to the crown of Great Britain the command of the 5 lakes, and the dependence
of the Indians in their neighborhood, and to its subjects the benefit of
the trade upon them, and of the rivers that empty themselves into them.
At present the whole navigation is carried on by the Indians themselves
in bark canoes, and there are perhaps many reasons for desiring it should
continue so for some years at least ; but a good Englishman cannot be without
hopes of seeing these great lakes become one day accustomed to English
navigation. Ii is true, the famous fall of Niagara, is an isurmountable
bar to all passage by water, from the lake Ontario, into the lake Erie,
in such vessels as are proper for the secure navigation of either. . .
. A vessel of considerable burthen may sail from the hither end of the
Erie lake, to the bottom of the lake Michigan, and for ought we know, through
all parts of the 3 middle lakes. These lakes receive the waters of
many rivers, that in some places approach so near the branches of the vast
river Mississippi, that a short land carriage supplies the communication.
And here to use the words of a most judicious writer, “He that reflects
on the natural state of that continent must open to himself a field for
traffick in the southern parts of N. America, and by the means of this
river and the lakes, the imagination takes into view such a scene of inland
navigation as cannot be paralleled in any other part of the world.” . .
. .
The traders from New
York come hither, up the Mohawks river, which discharges itself into Hudsons
river; but generally go by land from Albany, to Schenectady about 20 miles.
From the Mohawks river, the carriage is but 3 miles into the river that
falls into the Oneida Lake, which discharges itself by the Oneida river,
into the Onondago river, and brings their goods to Oswego in the manner
I have before related. . . . The Albany traders return, after 2 or 3 months
trade at Oswego-Castle.
In a long and detailed report
of the condition of the British prov-
(page 58)
inces with relation to the French
in Canada, made by Governor Clarke in 1743, he said among other things:
The French had lately three
and have now to sailing vessels, each of about fifty or sixty tons, on
the Lake Cadaraqui: On the Northeast end whereof, near the entrance into
the River of St. Lawrence, they have a small stone Fort called Frontenac,
with a garrison of about thirty or thirty-five men, and on the Southwest
end, near the fall of Niagara, another with the like garrison, a trading
house under cover of it, and are now building there one or two more trading
houses. . . . By means only of their Mastery on that Lake it is, that they
have acquired, and still hold their power over all the Indian Nations,
from Canada to the Messasippi, except only the Indians who are nest adjoining
to our Provinces, and have all along been dependent on them (of which the
Five Nations or Cantons are the most considerable), and in all those they
have of late gotten too great an influence, especially among the Five Nations.
. . . We have a trading House and a Garrison of 20 men in it at Oswego,
almost opposite to Fort Frontenac, which in our present situation will
inevitably fall into the hands of the French, on the first opening of War,
& with it the Five Nations, the only barrier against the French to
all the Provinces from this to Georgia. . . . If Oswego be taken (as nothing
can hinder it while the French are masters of the Lake) the Five Nations
will, and must of course, submit to our Enemy, who will oblige them to
assist in all their expeditions. . . .It was, I presume to think, a very
great Oversight, to suffer the French to build those to Forts, & I
am persuaded if it had been strongly & rightly represented by the Governors
of this & the other provinces a stop would have been put to it, those
Forts being built on the lands of the Five Nations (whose native and conquered
countries encompass the Lake on the shore whereon they are built) who by
the 15th Article of the Treaty of Utrecht are explicitly acknowledged to
be subject to he dominion of Great Britain.
Upon the declaration of war
most of the people of Oswego, realizing their defenseless situation, fled.
George Clinton had been made governor of New York, and he said in a communication
to the Assembly if August 20, 1744:
From the Examination herewith
laid before you, it must be inferred, that the Province has suffered Considerable
Damage this summer, by the precipitate Retreat of our Indian Traders from
Oswego, upon notice of the French War; most of them you will find, left
the Place immediately upon the Alarm, sold what they could of their Goods,
to those few of their Brethren that had Sense, Courage and Resolutions,
to stay behind, and brought the remainder back with them. . . . How mean
an Opinion, must the Savages entertain of us, when they find our people
so easily frightened, as it were with a shadow.-{Assembly Journal.
The governor feared the future
loss of the Indian trade through this abandonment of Oswego, and hoped
the Assembly would adopt meas-
(page 59)
ures to avert such a contingency,
and such “as may encourage and invite the most distant Nations to come
yearly to trade at that Mart.” Clinton did what he could to protect and
strengthen Oswego, by sending thither six cannon, and calling a council
of the Six Nations at Albany to solicit their aid in defending the post.
In this he was not very successful, the Indians claiming that the place
was not as valuable as formerly, and evincing an inclination to remain
neutral; which they did in most essential respects during this war.
The reader of the records of the long period of conflict between the French
and the English cannot have failed to observe the constant efforts of both
powers to retain the allegiance of the Iroquois. It was clearly seen
that the side which could gain the zealous and undivided aid of the Indians
would ultimately win. The Iroquois also appreciated the situation
and realized that they were in time to be the losers, whichever nation
finally conquered. Inducements of every nature were tendered the
Indians by both the French and the English, not the least of which was
a plentiful supply of brandy, besides arms, ammunition and trinkets.
At other time threats of future destruction were adopted to gain their
allegiance or their neutrality. With these were mingled, as occasion
seemed to demand, promises of peace, happiness and plenty. The old
records abound in stories of these various devices to gain the powerful
aid and good will of the race whose subjugation was sure to follow the
dominance of either the French or the English.
In 1744 Lieutenant John Lindsay,
founder of the settlement at Cherry Valley, was appointed commander of
the Oswego post, and held the position with credit to himself, five years.
In the spring of 1745 considerable
excitement was created by a letter written from the garrison by young Lieut.
John Butler (who afterwards achieved most unenviable notoriety as a British
partisan in the Revolution), stating that 1,500 men, besides Indians, were
organizing in Canada to attack Oswego. Nothing further was heard of the
reported movement.
In 1743 William Johnson, then
a fur trader in the Mohawk valley,
(page 60)
became interested in his business
at Oswego, and so rapid was his rise in the country and his influence among
the Iroquois, that in 1745 he was commissioned colonel of the New York
militia, and in the next year was made superintendent of Indian affairs
for the Six Nations. About the same time he was also given the contract
to supply the garrison at Oswego.
While the English were making
feeble attempts to strengthen Oswego so that it might withstand assault,
an early attack upon it formed a conspicuous feature in the plans of the
French. On the 8th of October, 1744, Beauharnois wrote his government:
I have the honor to report
to you, My Lord, what I had already undertaken before the receipt of your
letter; what I propose to do next spring; and the difficulties which oppose
the Choueguen project….On receipt of the declaration of war ..the post
of Choueguen was the first object of the views I entertained against the
English establishments, and I should have been attempted its capture had
I been able to overcome the difficulties that presented themselves.
The obstacles referred to
were, briefly, scarcity of provisions in the French colony; the belief
that the Iroquois would aid the English; and the probable loss of their
fort at Niagara if they failed to capture Oswego.
In 1747 the post of Oswego
was placed in jeopardy by the various bands of the enemy who infested the
lines of communications thither from the Mohawk valley, and the English
governor, in co-operation with Colonel Johnson, sent to the post Lieutenant
Visscher and a company, with provisions, goods and ammunition. In
the following year, upon Colonel Johnson declaring that he could no longer
supply the post at two hundred pounds (about $500) per annum, the Assembly
voted him two hundred pounds extra.
The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle,
signed October 18, 1748, ended for a time the war between France and England
and restored peace, which it was fondly hoped would be permanent.
With the barriers removed, Oswego and its vicinity immediately became the
scene of its former business activity. The waters were again enlivened
by Indian canoes and white men’s bateaux; traders gathered around the post
and even opened a considerable trade with their late enemies in Canada,
who were blind to the illicit character of a commerce that was profitable
to them.
(page 61)
But the old jealousy and rivalry,
which had been the foundation of all the intercolonial warfare thus far,
still remained, and a large share of it centered upon Oswego—the
most important post on the frontier. The Abbe Picquet, the irrepressible
founder of Ogdensburg, made a tour of Lake Ontario a little later, and
declared Choueguen to be “a post the most pernicious to France that the
English could erect,” desired its destruction, and estimated that two batteries
of three twelve pounders each could easily demolish it.
Soon after the close of the
war Captain Lindsay resigned his military position, and became Indian agent
and commissary, which position he held until his death in 1751. In
this year the Council, between which body and the Assembly there seems
to have been considerable friction, passed a bill appropriately five hundred
pounds for the repair of the works at Oswego and the conduct of Indian
affairs; but the Assembly declared this action a high breach of privilege;
and soon afterward adjourned. Previous to their adjournment they called
upon the commissioners of Indian affairs for an account of the duties received
at Oswego. John De Peyster reported for the four years closing with
September, 1750, a collection of eleven hundred and forty-five pounds.
His report for 1751 was nine hundred and forty pounds. After these reports
were mad, Johnson wrote Governor Clinton in his usual vigorous English,
that there was some “cursed villainy” about the Oswego duties, but that
it would be difficult to ferret it out; asserting that De Peyster had admitted
receiving over one thousand pounds in 1749, and that the remaining one
hundred and forty-five pounds (making the eleven hundred and forty-five
reported) would not begin to cover the receipts for 1750. It was
partly, at least, in connection with his own affairs that Johnson made
these statements. He was endeavoring to get a settlement of his accounts
with the province, claiming a far larger sum than was allowed him, and
that the duties, if honestly collected and reported, would suffice to pay
his account. He claimed to have advanced for Oswego and other expenditures
up to the close of 1748, 7,177 pounds, of which he had received only 2,401
pounds. These differences led to Johnson’s resignation as superintendent
in 1750, much to the regret of the Indians. Governor Clinton, with
(page 62)
whom he was a favorite, promptly
appointed him a member of the Executive Council; and in 1755, at Alexandria,
Va., after the breaking out of war, he was made “sole superintendent of
the Six Nations,” and created a major-general. No English subject
could ever boast the influence over the Indians that was acquired by Johnson,
which he always used for the good of the English cause. He was a
clearheaded business man, and while he always kept his own interests in
view in financial matters, there is little or no evidence that he ever
was dishonest. He was moreover, the one prominent Englishman who
during the period under consideration, seemed to fully appreciate the importance
of Oswego both as a trading post and a military station.
Some of the items of expense in Johnson’s
accounts will be of interest here, as follows:
December 1, 1746. For supplying
the double Garrison of regular troops, at Oswego with prov’s from 23d June
1746 to 23 Dec. 1746. L228
June 19, 1747. For supplying
the troops at Oswego from 1st Nov. 1746 to 1st May 1747. L228
August 8, 1749. For Extraordinary
charges in supplying garrison, on rect. L 200 1750. For Express to
Oswego to withdraw the Militia in 1748, L4 & money advanced for a Birch
canoe L4. L8
There are many other similar entries.
After Johnson’s resignation he continued
his various business interests, and learning that the Jesuits were contemplating
the establishment of one of their missionary stations on Oneida Lake, he
met the chiefs of the Onondagas and Oneidas and purchased of them for L350
a tract of land two miles wide clear around the lake. While the Indian
title was not, of course, very valuable in itself, and was offered by Johnson
to the province for just what he paid, the government, in 1752, confirmed
the grant, thus making Sir William Johnson the first legal landholder in
Oswego county. If this title remained in him until his death, it
must have descended to Sir John Johnson, and been confiscated with the
rest of his property when he joined the British during the Revolution.
(page 63)
In these years of peace the
English pushed their trade operations farther and more extensively among
the Indians, the profits of which, with other causes, drew to the colonies
a rapidly increasing population. At the same time, while French immigration
was less rapid, their energy in efforts to extend their domain, and in
preparations for a conflict which they doubtless believed was not distant,
were remarkable.
In 1752 the New York Assembly
made provision for rebuilding and repairing the works at Oswego, which
were said to be in a ruinous condition. This action was timely, for
rumors and apprehensions of approaching difficulty with the French began
to prevail. In May, 1752, Captain Stoddard and Lieutenant Holland,
stationed at Oswego, wrote Governor Clinton that thirty French canoes and
500 Indians, under M. Marin, had passed that post on their way to Ohio,
and that they had rumors of a still larger force going in that direction.
It should be remembered that after all the previous war and the several
treaties of peace, no definite boundaries had yet been agreed upon between
the two countries-a condition that sooner or later must inevitably have
caused trouble.