Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/65

 HISTORY OF OHIO.

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��who held all the outposts, Kaskaskia, Detroit, Vincennes and Niagara, and determined to circum- vent them and wrest the West from their power. The British hoped to encircle the Americans by these outposts, and also unite the Indians in a common war against them. That had been attempted by the French when the English con- quered them. Then the French had a powerful ally in the person of Pontiac, yet the brave front- iersmen held their homes in many places, though the Indians " drank the blood of many a Briton, scooping it up in the hollow of joined hands." Now the Briton had no Pontiac to lead the scat- tered tribes — tribes who now feared the unerring aim of a settler, and would not attack him openly — Clarke knew that the Delawares were divided in feeling and that the Shawanees were but imperfectly united in favor of England since the murder of their noted chiefs. He was convinced that, if the British could be driven from the Western posts, the natives could easily be awed into submission, or bribed into neutrality or friendship. They admired, from their savage views of valor, the side that became victorious. They cared little for the cause for which either side was fighting. Clarke sent out spies among them to ascertain the feasibility of his plans. The spies were gone from April 20 to June 22, and fully corroborated his views concerning the English policy and the feelings of the Indians and French.

Before proceeding in the narrative of this expe- dition, however, it will be well to notice a few acts transpiring north of the Ohio River, especially re- lating to the land treaties, as they were not without effect on the British policy. Many of the Indians north and south of the Ohio would not recognize the validity of the Fort Stanwix treaty, claiming the Iroquois had no right to the lands, despite their concjuest. These discontented natives har- assed the emigrants in such a manner that many Indians were slain in retaliation. This, and the working of the French traders, who at all times were bitterly opposed to the English rule, filled the breasts of the natives with a malignant hate, which years of bloodshed could not wash out. The murder of several Indians by lawless whites fanned the coal into a blaze, and, by 1774, several retalia- tory murders occurred, committed by the natives in revenge for their fallen friends. The Indian slew any white man he found, as a revenge on some fi'iend of his slain ; the frontiqrsman, acting on the same principle, made the borders extremely dan- gerous to invaders and invaded. Another cause

��of fear occurred about this time, which threatened seriously to retard emigration.

Pittsburgh had been claimed by both Pennsyl- vania and Virginia, and, in endeavoring to settlg the dispute. Lord Dunmore's war followed.. Dr. John Connelly, an ambitious, intriguing person, induced Lord Dunmore to assert the claims of Vir- ginia, in the name of the King. In attempting to carry out his intentions, he was arrested by Arthur St. Clair, representing the proprietors of Pennsyl- vania, who was at Pittsburgh at the time. Con- nelly was released on bail, but went at once to Staunton, where he was sworn in as a Justice of Peace. Returning, he gathered a force of one hundred and fifty men, suddenly took possession of Pittsburgh, refused to allow the magistrates to enter the Court House, or to exercise the functions of their offices, unless in conformity to his will. Connelly refused any terms offered by the Penn- sylvania deputies, kept possession of the place, acted very harshly toward the inhabitants, stirred up the neutral Indians, and, for a time, threatened to make the boundary line between the two colonies a very serious question. His actions led to hostile deeds by some Indians, when the whites, no doubt urged by him, murdered seven Indians at the mouth of the Captina River, and at the house of a settler named Baker, where the Indians were decoyed under promises of friendship and offers of rum. Among those murdered at the latter place, was the entire family of the famous Mingoe chief, Logan. This has been charged to Michael Cresap ; but is untrue. Daniel Greathouse had command of the party, and though Cresap may have been among them, it is unjust to lay the blame at his feet. Both murders, at Captina and Yellow Creek, were cruel and unwarranted, and were, without doubt, the cause of the war that followed, though the root of the matter lay in Connelly's arbitrary actions, and in his needlessly alarming the Indians. Whatever may have been the facts in relation to the murder of Logan's family, they were of such a nature as to make all feel sure of an Indian war, and preparations were made for the conflict.

An army was gathered at Wheeling, which, some time in July, under command of Col. Mc- Donald, descended the Ohio to the mouth of Cap- tina Creek. They proposed to march against an Indian town on the Muskingum. The Indians sued for peace, but their pretensions being found spurious, their towns and crops were destroyed. The army then retreated to Williamsburg, having accomplished but little.

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