Part 8

“This journey, instead of satisfying, only served to excite my curiosity. Our old men, for several years, had told me that the _ancient speech_ informed them that the Red-men of the north came originally much higher and much farther than the source of the river Missouri; and as I had longed to see, with my own eyes, the land from whence our first fathers came, I took my precautions for my journey westwards. Having provided a small quantity of corn, I proceeded up along the eastern bank of the river Mississippi, till I came to the Ohio. I went up along the bank of this last river, about the fourth part of a day’s journey, that I might be able to cross it without being carried into the Mississippi. There I formed a _cayeux_, or raft of canes, by the assistance of which I passed over the river; and next day meeting with a herd of buffaloes in the meadows, I killed a fat one, and took from it the fillets, the bunch, and the tongue. Soon after I arrived among the Tamaroos, a village of the nation of the Illinois, where I rested several days, and then proceeded northwards to the mouth of the Missouri, which, after it enters the great river, runs for a considerable time without intermixing its muddy waters with the clear stream of the other. Having crossed the Mississippi, I went up the _Missouri_, along its northern bank; and after several days journey, I arrived at the nation of the Missouris, where I staid a long time, to learn the language that is spoken beyond them. In going along the Missouri, I passed through meadows a whole day’s journey in length, which were quite covered with buffaloes.

“When the cold was past, and the snows were melted, I continued my journey up along the Missouri, till I came to the nation of the West, or the _Canzas_. Afterwards, in consequence of directions from them, I proceeded in the same course near thirty days; and at length I met with some of the nation of the Otters, who were hunting in that neighbourhood, and were surprised to see me alone. I continued with the hunters two or three days, and then accompanied one of them, and his wife, who was near her time of lying in, to their village, which lay far off, betwixt the north and west. We continued our journey along the Missouri for nine days, and then we marched directly northwards for five days more, through the country of the Otters, who received me with as much kindness as if I had been of their own nation. A few days after we came to the Fine River, which runs westward in a direction contrary to that of the Missouri. We proceeded down this river a whole day, and then arrived at the village. A party of the Otters were going to carry a calumet of peace to a nation beyond them, and we embarked in a pettiauger, and went down the river for eighteen days, landing now and then, to supply ourselves with provisions. When I arrived at the nation, who were at peace with the Otters, I staid with them till the cold was past, that I might learn their language, which was common to most of the nations that lived beyond them.

“The cold was hardly gone, when I again embarked on the Fine River; and in my course I met with several nations, with whom I generally staid but one night, till I arrived at the nation that is but one day’s journey from the Great Water on the West. This nation live in the woods, about the distance of a league from the river, from their apprehension of bearded men, who come upon their coasts in floating villages, and carry off their children to make slaves of them. These men were described to be white, with long black beards that came down to their breasts. They were thick and short, had large heads, which were covered with cloth;—they were always dressed, even in the greatest heats; their clothes fell down to the middle of their legs, which with their feet were covered with red or yellow stuff. Their arms made a great fire and a great noise; and when they saw themselves outnumbered by Red-men, they retired on board their large pettiauger—their number sometimes amounting to thirty, but never more.

“Those strangers came from the sun-setting, in search of a yellow stinking wood, which dyes a fine yellow colour; but the people of this nation, that they might not be tempted to visit them, had destroyed all those kind of trees. Two other nations in their neighbourhood, however, having no other wood, could not destroy the trees, and were still visited by the strangers; and being greatly incommoded by them, had invited their allies to assist them in making an attack upon them the next time they should return. The following summer I accordingly joined in this expedition; and after travelling five long days’ journey, we came to the place where the bearded men usually landed, where we waited seventeen days for their arrival. The Red-men, by my advice, placed themselves in ambuscade to surprise the strangers; and accordingly, when they landed to cut the wood, we were so successful as to kill eleven of them, the rest immediately escaping on board two large pettiaugers, and flying westward upon the Great Water.

“Upon examining those whom we had killed, we found them much smaller than ourselves, and very white: they had a large head, and in the middle of the crown the hair was very long. Their head was wrapped in a great many folds of stuff, and their clothes seemed to be made neither of wool nor silk: they were very soft, and of different colours. Two only, of the eleven who were slain, had fire arms, with powder and ball. I tried their pieces, and found that they were much heavier than ours, and did not kill at so great a distance.

“After this expedition I thought of nothing but proceeding on my journey, and with that design I let the Red-men return home, and joined myself to those who inhabited more westward on the coast, with whom I travelled along the shore of the Great Water, which bends directly betwixt the north and the sun-setting. When I arrived at the villages of my fellow-travellers, where I found the days very long, and the nights very short, I was advised by the old men to give over all thoughts of continuing my journey. They told me that the land extended still a long way in a direction between the north and sun-setting, after which it ran directly west, and at length was cut by the Great Water from north to south. One of them added, that when he was young, he knew a very old man who had seen that distant land before it was eat away by the Great Water, and that when the Great Water was low, many rocks still appeared in those parts. Finding it, therefore, impracticable to proceed much further on account of the severity of the climate, and the want of game, I returned by the same route by which I had set out; and reducing my whole travels westward to day’s journeys, I compute that they would have employed me thirty-six moons; but on account of my frequent delays, it was five years before I returned to my relations among the Yazous.”

The remarkable difference between the Natches, including in that name the nations whom they treat as brethren, and the other people of Louisiana, made me extremely desirous to know whence both of them might originally come. We had not then that full information which we have since received from the voyages and discoveries of M. De Lisle, in the eastern parts of the Russian empire. I therefore applied myself one day to put the keeper of the temple in good humour; and having succeeded in that without much difficulty, I then told him, that from the little resemblance I observed between the Natches and the neighbouring nations, I was inclined to believe that they were not originally from the same country which they then inhabited; and if the ancient speech taught him any thing on that subject, he would do me a great pleasure to inform me of it. At these words he leaned his head on his two hands, with which he covered his eyes; and having remained in that posture about a quarter of an hour, as if to recollect himself, he answered to the following effect:—

“Before we came into this land we lived yonder, under the sun, (pointing with his finger nearly south-west, by which I understood he meant Mexico); we lived in a fine country, where the earth is always pleasant; there our sons had their abode, and our nation maintained itself for a long time against the ancients of the country, who conquered some of our villages in the plains, but never could force us from the mountains. Our nation extended itself along the Great Water where this large river loses itself; but as our enemies were become very numerous, and very wicked, our Suns sent some of our subjects who live near this river, to examine whether we could retire into the country through which it flowed. The country on the east side of the river being found extremely pleasant, the Great Sun, upon the return of those who had examined it, ordered all his subjects who lived in the plains, and who still defended themselves against the ancients of the country, to remove into this land, here to build a temple, and to preserve the eternal fire.

“A great part of our nation accordingly settled here, where they lived in peace and abundance for several generations; the Great Sun, and those who had remained with him, never thought of joining us, being tempted to continue where they were by the pleasantness of the country, which was very warm, and by the weakness of their enemies, who had fallen into civil dissensions in consequence of the ambition of one of their chiefs, who wanted to raise himself from a state of equality with the other chiefs of the villages, and to treat all the people of his nation as slaves. During those discords among our enemies, some of them even entered into an alliance with the Great Sun, who still remained in our old country, that he might conveniently assist other brethren who had settled on the banks of the Great Water to the east of the large river, and extended themselves so far on the coast, and among the isles, that the Great Sun did not hear of them sometimes for five or six years together.

“It was not till after many generations that the Great Suns came and joined us in this country, when, from the fine climate and the peace we had enjoyed, we had multiplied like the leaves of the trees. Warriors of fire, who made the earth to tremble, had arrived in our old country, and having entered into an alliance with our brethren, conquered our ancient enemies; but attempting afterwards to make slaves of our sons, they, rather than submit to them, left our brethren, who refused to follow them, and came hither attended only by their slaves.”

Upon my asking him who those warriors of fire were, he replied, “that they were bearded white men, somewhat of a brownish colour, who carried arms that darted out fire with a great noise, and killed at a distance; that they had likewise heavy arms which killed a great many men at once, and like thunder made the earth tremble; and that they came from the sun-rising in floating villages.”

“The ancients of the country,” he said, “were very numerous, and inhabited from the western coast of the Great Water to the northern countries on this side the sun, and very far up on the same coast beyond the sun. They had a great number of large and small villages, which were all built of stone, and in which there were houses large enough to lodge a whole village. Their temples were built with great labour and art, and they made beautiful works of all kinds of materials.”

“But ye yourselves,” said I, “whence are ye come?” “The ancient speech,” he replied, “does not say from what land we came; all that we know is, that our fathers, to come hither, followed the sun, and came with him from the place where he rises; that they were a long time on their journey, were all on the point of perishing, and were brought into this country without seeking it.”

Moncacht-apé, after giving me an account of his travels, spent four or five days visiting among the Natches, and then returned to take leave of me, when I made him a present of several wares of no great value, among which was a concave mirror, about two inches and a half diameter, which had cost me about three half-pence. As this magnified the face to four or five times the natural size, he was wonderfully delighted with it, and would not have exchanged it for the best mirror in France. After expressing his regret at parting with me, he returned highly satisfied to his own nation.

Moncacht-apé’s account of the junction of America with the eastern parts of Asia, seems confirmed by the following remarkable fact. “Some years ago the skeletons of two large elephants and two small ones were discovered in a marsh near the Ohio; and as they were not much consumed, it is supposed that the elephants came from Asia not many years before. If we also consider the form of government, and the manner of living among the northern nations of America, there will appear a great resemblance betwixt them and the Tartars in the north-east part of Asia.”

Indians who have never seen the ebbing and flowing of the tide are wonderfully struck with this phenomenon. Many of the inhabitants of Quebec must still remember that the great deputation of Indian chiefs, from the interior, and from the Mississippi, which came to Quebec during the administration of Sir George Prevost, and had in their company the sister of Tecumseh, were often to be seen sitting in a row upon a wharf in the Lower Town of Quebec, contemplating in silence, and evidently under the deepest impression of awe, the rising and falling of the waters of the St. Lawrence.

The white men here described correspond in every particular with the Chinese, who, there is reason to believe, held commercial intercourse with the south of Africa long before Vasco de Gama discovered and doubled the Cape of Good Hope. The Chinese are rather smaller than we are, and have the palest complexion indigenous to Asia. Their muskets are match-locks, and heavier than ours; their powder is inferior in quality.

The stinking wood mentioned by the Indian chief is probably fustic, yielding a yellow dye, which is the prevailing colour of the garments of the superior classes in China.

[2] The narrative of these proceedings must be received with due allowance, as there is considerable discrepancy between the different historians. The statements of Hakluyt are here generally followed.

[3] The first child born in Quebec of French parents was the son of Abraham Martin and Margaret L'Angelois: it was christened Eustache on the 24th of October, 1621.

CHAP. III.

LATER EVENTS IN CANADA.

* * * * *

Having presented the first two phases of the history of Canada—its last period under the rule of the savage, and its first under that of civilized man; we pass to the next, which brings us to our own time—its rule by the government of England.

The war commenced by the United States against Britain in 1812, produced a formidable crisis in the history of Canada, especially of the upper province.[4] It is not proposed to enter into any discussion of the grounds or merits of the hostile resolution adopted by Congress. Doubtless, however, as Britain then stood with her whole disposable force engaged against Napoleon, they calculated with full confidence on obtaining possession of the Canadas, and, indeed, of all British America. Dr. Eustis, secretary at war, said in Congress, “We can take the Canadas without soldiers; we have only to send officers into the provinces, and the people disaffected towards their own government will rally round our standard.” Mr. Clay added: “It is absurd, to suppose we shall not succeed in our enterprise against the enemy’s provinces. We have the Canadas as much under our command as Great Britain has the ocean. We must take the continent from them. I wish never to see a peace till we do.” A similar impression prevailed in the colony itself, defended then by only 4,500 troops, of whom not more than 1,450 were in the upper province, though the most exposed, and presenting the most extended frontier. Not a few were inclined, on the first alarm, to pack up and quit the country; but Sir George Prevost, seconded by the majority of the inhabitants, adopted a more spirited resolution. The militia were called out; Quebec was garrisoned by the citizens; and the frontier placed in a state of defence.

The States, though they had plunged into hostilities so eagerly, and with such sanguine anticipations, were, by no means, in a forward state of preparation. Few of the officers who had distinguished themselves in the war of independence, survived the lapse of nearly thirty years. General Hull, however, one of these veterans, was sent with a force of 2,500 men to open the campaign on the western frontier of Upper Canada. On the 5th of July, 1812, he arrived at Detroit; and on the 12th crossed the river, and took possession of Sandwich, whence he issued a proclamation, inviting the colonists to join him, or at least to remain neutral. He announced that no quarter would be given to a white man fighting by the side of an Indian, though this is said never to have been acted upon. Having no cannon mounted, he did not think it practicable to attack Fort Malden, which covered Amherstburg, where Lieut.-Colonel St. George, with his small force, was posted. Hull, however, pushed forward detachments into the country, which gained some advantages, and induced a few of the inhabitants to join them. But his prospects were soon clouded. Capt. Roberts, with a small detachment, had early reduced the fort of Michillimakinac, which “opened upon him the northern hive of Indians.” Almost the whole of that race, indignant at the encroachments of the Americans upon their territory, eagerly espoused the British cause, and poured in from every quarter to support it. Meantime, General Brock, having embarked all the troops that could be spared from the Niagara frontier, arrived on the 12th of August at Amherstburg, where he mustered about 320 regulars, 400 militia, and 600 Indians. Hull, whose force, weakened by sickness and by sending away two detachments, is said not to have exceeded 800 effective men, retreated across the river, withdrawing the cannon prepared for the siege of Amherstburg, and shut himself up in Detroit. General Brock instantly crossed, advanced upon the fort, and prepared for an immediate assault; but a white flag then appeared from the walls, and a capitulation was quickly signed, by which the whole American force, including the detachments, were surrendered prisoners of war. The Canadian citizens, who had despondingly anticipated speedy conquest, were not a little surprised to see in less than three months the whole army destined for that object marched in as captives. Loud complaints were made by the Americans against the conduct of Hull, who was afterwards tried and condemned to be shot, though spared on account of his age and former services.

The Americans made great efforts to obtain a more fortunate result on the Niagara frontier. Though the New England States, disapproving of the war, withheld their militia, yet early in September more than 6,000 men were brought to the banks of the river, with the view of crossing it, and penetrating into Canada. They were encouraged by the exploit of two row-boats, which captured the same number of British gun-brigs, with valuable cargoes, as they were passing Fort Erie. The troops are represented as filled with enthusiastic confidence, urging, and almost compelling General Van Rensselaer, their commander, to commence active operations. Accordingly, after one abortive attempt, he succeeded, on the morning of the 13th of October, in pushing across to Queenston a detachment, which, being well reinforced, gained possession of the heights. General Brock, having come up, resolved to check their progress, but, making his advance with too small a force, he was repulsed and killed, closing his brilliant career by a glorious death. Meantime, General Sheaffe, having brought up the main force of the British from Fort George, and being joined by a body of Indians, with a detachment from Chippeway, attacked the enemy, and, after a sharp contest of half an hour, compelled the whole, amounting to above 900, to surrender at discretion.

The Americans made yet another attempt to retrieve this unfortunate campaign. General Smyth, who succeeded Van Rensselaer, had assembled, on the 27th of November, 4,500 men in the vicinity of Black Rock. Early on the following morning two detachments succeeded in crossing, and, after a long confused fight in the dark, drove in with loss the British outposts; but when day broke, and Lieut.-Colonel Bisshop had collected about 600 regulars and militia, they hastily retired to the other side, leaving a party of thirty to fall into the hands of the English. Another division began to cross, but some rounds of musketry and artillery induced them to return. In the course of the day, after a vain summons to surrender Fort Erie, nearly half the force was embarked, though in the afternoon the postponement of the enterprise was announced. After several days of uncertain councils, it was finally decided that the expedition should be abandoned for the season.

The severity of the season caused a suspension of operations, scarcely interrupted, unless by an attack on Ogdensburg by Captain M^{c}Donnell, who, crossing the St. Lawrence on the ice, drove out the garrison, and obtained possession of eleven pieces of cannon, and a considerable quantity of stores. The Americans meantime were making extraordinary exertions to open the new campaign under better auspices. At Sackett’s Harbour, on the southern shore of Ontario, a naval armament was equipped, which gave them for some time the control of that fine lake. A large force had been assembled, and placed under a new commander, General Dearborn. The plan of this campaign was limited to the conquest of Upper Canada; the achievement of which, as that country was defended by only 2,100 troops, was considered beyond the reach of chance. On the 25th of April, 1813, the general, with Commodore Chauncey, embarked about 2,000 men, and sailed to York (Toronto), the rising capital of the province. It was then very ill prepared for resistance, scarcely at all fortified, and defended by General Sheaffe with only about 600 men. On the morning of the 27th they reached the place, and succeeded in landing, when, after a brave defence, protracted till two o’clock, the English were obliged to abandon the town. The invaders suffered chiefly by the explosion of a mine, which killed or wounded about 260, including among the former General Pike, a young officer of distinguished merit, who had planned and conducted the attack. After burning all the public buildings, they carried off the artillery and naval stores, and by the 1st of May evacuated the place.