Wacousta (Volume I)
J >>
John Richardson >> Wacousta (Volume I)
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 WACOUSTA;
or,
THE PROPHECY.
Volume One of Three
Preface
It is well known to every man conversant with the earlier
history of this country that, shortly subsequent to the
cession of the Canadas to England by France, Ponteac,
the great head of the Indian race of that period, had
formed a federation of the various tribes, threatening
extermin ation to the British posts established along
the Western frontier. These were nine in number, and the
following stratagem was resorted to by the artful chief
to effect their reduction. Investing one fort with his
warriors, so as to cut off all communication with the
others, and to leave no hope of succor, his practice was
to offer terms of surrender, which never were kept in
the honorable spirit in which the far more noble and
generous Tecumseh always acted with his enemies, and
thus, in turn, seven of these outposts fell victims to
their confidence in his truth.
Detroit and Michilimaclcinac, or Mackinaw as it is now
called, remained, and all the ingenuity of the chieftain
was directed to the possession of these strongholds. The
following plan, well worthy of his invention, was at
length determined upon. During a temporary truce, and
while Ponteac was holding forth proposals for an ultimate
and durable peace, a game of lacrosse was arranged by
him to take place simultaneously on the common or clearing
on which rested the forts of Michilimackinac and Detroit.
The better to accomplish their object, the guns of the
warriors had been cut short and given to their women,
who were instructed to conceal them under their blankets,
and during the game, and seemingly without design, to
approach the drawbridge of the fort. This precaution
taken, the players were to approach and throw over their
ball, permission to regain which they presumed would not
be denied. On approaching the drawbridge they were with
fierce yells to make a general rush, and, securing the
arms concealed by the women, to massacre the unprepared
garrison.
The day was fixed; the game commenced, and was proceeded
with in the manner previously arranged. The ball was
dexterously hurled into the fort, and permission asked
to recover it. It was granted. The drawbridge was lowered,
and the Indians dashed forward for the accomplishment of
their work of blood. How different the results in the
two garrisons! At Detroit, Ponteac and his warriors had
scarcely crossed the drawbridge when, to their astonishment
and disappointment, they beheld the guns of the ramparts
depressed--the artillerymen with lighted matches at their
posts and covering the little garrison, composed of a
few companies of the 42nd Highlanders, who were also
under arms, and so distributed as to take the enemy most
at an advantage. Suddenly they withdrew and without other
indication of their purpose than what had been expressed
in their manner, and carried off the missing ball. Their
design had been discovered and made known by means of
significant warnings to the Governor by an Indian woman
who owed a debt of gratitude to his family, and was
resolved, at all hazards, to save them.
On the same day the same artifice was resorted to at
Michilimackinac, and with the most complete success.
There was no guardian angel there to warn them of danger,
and all fell beneath the rifle, the tomahawk, the war-club,
and the knife, one or two of the traders--a Mr. Henry
among the rest--alone excepted.
It was not long after this event when the head of the
military authorities in the Colony, apprised of the fate
of these captured posts, and made acquainted with the
perilous condition of Fort Detroit, which was then reduced
to the last extremity, sought an officer who would
volunteer the charge of supplies from Albany to Buffalo,
and thence across the lake to Detroit, which, if possible,
he was to relieve. That volunteer was promptly found in
my maternal grandfather, Mr. Erskine, from Strabane, in
the North of Ireland, then an officer in the Commissariat
Department. The difficulty of the undertaking will be
obvious to those who understand the danger attending a
journey through the Western wilderness, beset as it was
by the warriors of Ponteac, ever on the lookout to prevent
succor to the garrison, and yet the duty was successfully
accomplished. He left Albany with provisions and ammunition
sufficient to fill several Schnectady boats--I think
seven--and yet conducted his charge with such prudence
and foresight, that notwithstanding the vigilance of
Ponteac, he finally and after long watching succeeded,
under cover of a dark and stormy night, in throwing into
the fort. the supplies of which the remnant of the gallant
"Black Watch," as the 42nd was originally named, and a
company of whom, while out reconnoitering, had been
massacred at a spot in the vicinity of the town, thereafter
called the Bloody Run, stood so greatly in need. This
important service rendered, Mr. Erskine, in compliance
with the instructions he had received, returned to Albany,
where he reported the success of the expedition.
The colonial authorities were not regardless of his
interests. When the Ponteac confederacy had been dissolved,
and quiet and security restored in that remote region,
large tracts of land were granted to Mr. Erskine, and
other privileges accorded which eventually gave him the
command of nearly a hundred thousand dollars--enormous
sum to have been realized at that early period of the
country. But it was not destined that he should retain
this. The great bulk of his capital was expended on almost
the first commercial shipping that ever skimmed the
surface of Lakes Huron and Erie. Shortly prior to the
Revolution, he was possessed of seven vessels of different
tonnage, and the trade in which he had embarked, and of
which he was the head, was rapidly increasing his already
large fortune, when one of those autumnal hurricanes,
which even to this day continue to desolate the waters
of the treacherous lake last named, suddenly arose and
buried beneath its engulfing waves not less than six of
these schooners laden with such riches, chiefly furs, of
the West as then were most an object of barter.
Mr. Erskine, who had married the daughter of one of the
earliest settlers from France, and of a family well known
in history, a lady who had been in Detroit during the
siege of the British garrison by Ponteac, now abandoned
speculation, and contenting himself with the remnant of
his fortune, established himself near the banks of the
river, within a short distance of the Bloody Run. Here
he continued throughout the Revolution. Early, however,
in the present century, he quitted Detroit and repaired
to the Canadian shore, where on a property nearly opposite,
which he obtained in exchange, and which in honor of his
native country he named Strabane--known as such to this
day--he passed the autumn of his days. The last time I
beheld him was a day or two subsequent to the affair of
the Thames, when General Harrison and Colonel Johnson
were temporary inmates of his dwelling.
My father, of a younger branch of the Annandale family,
the head of which was attainted in the Scottish rebellion
of 1745, was an officer of Simcoe's well-known Rangers,
in which regiment, and about the same period, the present
Lord Hardinge commenced his services in this country.
Being quartered at Fort Erie, he met and married at the
house of one of the earliest Canadian merchants a daughter
of Mr. Erskine, then on a visit to her sister, and by
her had eight children, of whom I am the oldest and only
survivor. Having a few years after his marriage been
ordered to St. Joseph's, near Michilimackinac, my father
thought it expedient to leave me with Mr. Erskine at
Detroit, where I received the first rudiments of my
education. But here I did not remain long, for it was
during the period of the stay of the detachment of Simcoe's
Rangers at St. Joseph that Mr. Erskine repaired with his
family to the Canadian shore, where on the more elevated
and conspicuous part of his grounds which are situated
nearly opposite the foot of Hog Island, so repeatedly
alluded to in "Wacousta," he had caused a flag-staff to
be erected, from which each Sabbath day proudly floated
the colors under which he had served, and which he never
could bring himself to disown.
It was at Strabane that the old lady, with whom I was a
great favorite, used to enchain my young interest by
detailing various facts connected with the seige she so
well remembered, and infused into me a longing to grow
up to manhood that I might write a book about it. The
details of the Ponteac plan for the capture of the two
forts were what she most enlarged upon, and although a
long lapse of years of absence from the scene, and ten
thousand incidents of a higher and more immediate importance
might have been supposed to weaken the recollections of
so early a period of life, the impression has ever vividly
remained. Hence the first appearance of "Wacousta" in
London in 1832, more than a quarter of a century later.
The story is founded solely on the artifice of Ponteac
to possess himself of those two last British forts. All
else is imaginary.
It is not a little curious that I, only a few years
subsequent to the narration by old Mrs. Erskine of the
daring and cunning feats of Ponteac, and his vain attempt
to secure the fort of Detroit, should myself have entered
it in arms. But it was so. I had ever hated school with
a most bitter hatred, and I gladly availed myself of an
offer from General Brock to obtain for me a commission
in the King's service. Meanwhile I did duty as a cadet
with the gallant 41st regiment, to which the English
edition of "Wacousta" was inscribed, and was one of the
guard of honor who took possession of the fort. The duty
of a sentinel over the British colors, which had just
been hoisted was assigned to me, and I certainly felt
not a little proud of the distinction.
Five times within half a century had the flag of that
fortress been changed. First the lily of France, then
the red cross of England, and next the stars and stripes
of America had floated over its ramparts; and then again
the red cross, and lastly the stars. On my return to this
country a few years since, I visited those scenes of
stirring excitement in which my boyhood had been passed,
but I looked in vain for the ancient fortifications which
had given a classical interest to that region. The
unsparing hand of utilitarianism had passed over them,
destroying almost every vestige of the past. Where had
risen the only fortress in America at all worthy to give
antiquity to the scene, streets had been laid out and
made, and houses had been built, leaving not a trace of
its existence save the well that formerly supplied the
closely beseiged garrison with water; and this, half
imbedded in the herbage of an enclosure of a dwelling
house of mean appearance, was rather to be guessed at
than seen; while at the opposite extremity of the city,
where had been conspicuous for years the Bloody Run,
cultivation and improvement had nearly obliterated every
trace of the past.
Two objections have been urged against "Wacousta" as a
consistent tale--the one as involving an improbability,
the other a geographical error. It has been assumed that
the startling feat accomplished by that man of deep
revenge, who is not alone in his bitter hatred and contempt
for the base among those who, like spaniels, crawl and
kiss the dust at the instigation of their superiors, and
yet arrogate to themselves a claim to be considered
gentlemen and men of honor and independence--it has, I
repeat, been assumed that the feat attributed to him in
connection with the flag-staff of the fort was impossible.
No one who has ever seen these erections on the small
forts of that day would pronounce the same criticism.
Never very lofty, they were ascended at least one-third
of their height by means of small projections nailed to
them for footholds for the artillerymen, frequently
compelled to clear the flag lines entangled at the truck;
therefore a strong and active man, such as Wacousta is
described to have been, might very well have been supposed,
in his strong anxiety for revenge and escape with his
victim, to have doubled his strength and activity on so
important an occasion, rendering that easy of attainment
by himself which an ordinary and unexcited man might deem
impossible. I myself have knocked down a gate, almost
without feeling the resistance, in order to escape the
stilettos of assassins.
The second objection is to the narrowness attributed in
the tale to the river St. Clair. This was done in the
license usually accorded to a writer of fiction, in order
to give greater effect to the scene represented as having
occurred there, and, of course, in no way intended as a
geographical description of the river, nor was it necessary.
In the same spirit and for the same purpose it has been
continued.
It will be seen that at the termination of the tragedy
enacted at the bridge, by which the Bloody Run was in
those days crossed, that the wretched wife of the condemned
soldier pronounced a curse that could not, of course,
well be fulfilled in the course of the tale. Some few
years ago I published in Canada--I might as well have
done so in Kamschatka--the continuation, which was to
have been dedicated to the last King of England, but
which, after the death of that monarch, was inscribed to
Sir John Harvey, whose letter, as making honorable mention
of a gallant and beloved brother, I feel it a duty to
the memory of the latter to subjoin.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, FREDERICTON, N.B.,
Major Richardson, Montreal.
November 26th, 1839.
"Dear Sir;--I am favored with your very interesting
communication of the 2nd instant, by which I learn
that you are the brother of two youths whose gallantry
and merits--and with regard to one of them, his
suferings--during the late war, excited my warmest
admiration and sympathy. I beg you to believe that I
am far from insensible to the affecting proofs which
you have made known to me of this grateful recollection
of any little service I may have had it in my power
to render them; and I will add that the desire which
I felt to serve the father will be found to extend
itself to the son, if your nephew should ever find
himself under circumstances to require from me any
service which it may be within my power to render him."
"With regard to your very flattering proposition to
inscribe your present work to me, I can only say that,
independent of the respect to which the author of so
very charming a production as 'Wacousta' is entitled,
the interesting facts and circumstances so unexpectedly
brought to my knowledge and recollection would ensure
a ready acquiescence on my part."
"I remain, dear sir your very faithful servant"
"(Signed) J. HARVEY. "
The "Prophecy Fulfilled," which, however, has never been
seen out of the small country in which it appeared--Detroit,
perhaps, alone excepted--embraces and indeed is intimately
connected with the Beauchamp tragedy, which took place
at or near Weisiger's Hotel, in Frankfort, Kentucky,
where I had been many years before confined as a prisoner
of war. While connecting it with the "Prophecy Fulfilled,"
and making it subservient to the end I had in view, I
had not read or even heard of the existence of a work of
the same character, which had already appeared from the
pen of an American author. Indeed, I have reason to
believe that the "Prophecy Fulfilled," although not
published until after a lapse of years, was the first
written. No similarity of treatment of the subject exists
between the two versions, and this, be it remembered, I
remark without in the slightest degree impugning the
merit of the production of my fellow-laborer in the same
field.
THE AUTHOR.
New York City, January 1st, 1851.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
As we are about to introduce our readers to scenes with
which the European is little familiarised, some few
cursory remarks, illustrative of the general features of
the country into which we have shifted our labours, may
not be deemed misplaced at the opening of this volume.
Without entering into minute geographical detail, it may
be necessary merely to point out the outline of such
portions of the vast continent of America as still
acknowledge allegiance to the English crown, in order
that the reader, understanding the localities, may enter
with deeper interest into the incidents of a tale connected
with a ground hitherto untouched by the wand of the modern
novelist.
All who have ever taken the trouble to inform themselves
of the features of a country so little interesting to
the majority of Englishmen in their individual character
must be aware,--and for the information of those who are
not, we state,--that that portion of the northern continent
of America which is known as the United States is divided
from the Canadas by a continuous chain of lakes and
rivers, commencing at the ocean into which they empty
themselves, and extending in a north-western direction
to the remotest parts of these wild regions, which have
never yet been pressed by other footsteps than those of
the native hunters of the soil. First we have the
magnificent St. Lawrence, fed from the lesser and tributary
streams, rolling her sweet and silver waters into the
foggy seas of the Newfoundland.--But perhaps it will
better tend to impress our readers with a panoramic
picture of the country in which our scene of action is
more immediately laid, by commencing at those extreme
and remote points of our Canadian possessions to which
their attention will be especially directed in the course
of our narrative.
The most distant of the north-western settlements of
America is Michilimackinac, a name given by the Indians,
and preserved by the Americans, who possess the fort even
to this hour. It is situated at the head of the Lakes
Michigan and Huron, and adjacent to the Island of St.
Joseph's, where, since the existence of the United States
as an independent republic, an English garrison has been
maintained, with a view of keeping the original fortress
in check. From the lakes above mentioned we descend into
the River Sinclair, which, in turn, disembogues itself
into the lake of the same name. This again renders tribute
to the Detroit, a broad majestic river, not less than a
mile in breadth at its source, and progressively widening
towards its mouth until it is finally lost in the beautiful
Lake Erie, computed at about one hundred and sixty miles
in circumference. From the embouchure of this latter lake
commences the Chippawa, better known in Europe from the
celebrity of its stupendous falls of Niagara, which form
an impassable barrier to the seaman, and, for a short
space, sever the otherwise uninterrupted chain connecting
the remote fortresses we have described with the Atlantic.
At a distance of a few miles from the falls, the Chippawa
finally empties itself into the Ontario, the most splendid
of the gorgeous American lakes, on the bright bosom of
which, during the late war, frigates, seventy-fours, and
even a ship of one hundred and twelve guns, manned by a
crew of one thousand men, reflected the proud pennants
of England! At the opposite extremity of this magnificent
and sea-like lake, which is upwards of two hundred miles
in circumference, the far-famed St. Lawrence takes her
source; and after passing through a vast tract of country,
whose elevated banks bear every trace of fertility and
cultivation, connects itself with the Lake Champlain,
celebrated, as well as Erie, for a signal defeat of our
flotilla during the late contest with the Americans.
Pushing her bold waters through this somewhat inferior
lake, the St. Lawrence pursues her course seaward with
impetuosity, until arrested near La Chine by rock-studded
shallows, which produce those strong currents and eddies,
the dangers of which are so beautifully expressed in the
Canadian Boat Song,--a composition that has rendered the
"rapids" almost as familiar to the imagination of the
European as the falls of Niagara themselves. Beyond La
Chine the St. Lawrence gradually unfolds herself into
greater majesty and expanse, and rolling past the busy
commercial town of Montreal, is once more increased in
volume by the insignificant lake of St. Peter's, nearly
opposite to the settlement of Three Rivers, midway between
Montreal and Quebec. From thence she pursues her course
unfed, except by a few inferior streams, and gradually
widens as she rolls past the capital of the Canadas,
whose tall and precipitous battlements, bristled with
cannon, and frowning defiance from the clouds in which
they appear half imbedded, might be taken by the imaginative
enthusiast for the strong tower of the Spirit of those
stupendous scenes. From this point the St. Lawrence
increases in expanse, until, at length, after traversing
a country where the traces of civilisation become gradually
less and less visible, she finally merges in the gulf,
from the centre of which the shores on either hand are
often invisible to the naked eye; and in this manner is
it imperceptibly lost in that misty ocean, so dangerous
to mariners from its deceptive and almost perpetual fogs.
In following the links of this extensive chain of lakes
and rivers, it must be borne in recollection, that,
proceeding seaward from Michilimackinac and its contiguous
district, all that tract of country which lies to the
right constitutes what is now known as the United States
of America, and all on the left the two provinces of
Upper and Lower Canada, tributary to the English government,
subject to the English laws, and garrisoned by English
troops. The several forts and harbours established along
the left bank of the St. Lawrence, and throughout that
portion of our possessions which is known as Lower Canada,
are necessarily, from the improved condition and more
numerous population of that province, on a larger scale
and of better appointment; but in Upper Canada, where
the traces of civilisation are less evident throughout,
and become gradually more faint as we advance westward,
the fortresses and harbours bear the same proportion In
strength and extent to the scantiness of the population
they are erected to protect. Even at the present day,
along that line of remote country we have selected for
the theatre of our labours, the garrisons are both few
in number and weak in strength, and evidence of cultivation
is seldom to be found at any distance in the interior;
so that all beyond a certain extent of clearing, continued
along the banks of the lakes and rivers, is thick,
impervious, rayless forest, the limits of which have
never yet been explored, perhaps, by the natives themselves.
Such being the general features of the country even at
the present day, it will readily be comprehended how much
more wild and desolate was the character they exhibited
as far back as the middle of the last century, about
which period our story commences. At that epoch, it will
be borne in mind, what we have described as being the
United States were then the British colonies of America
dependent on the mother-country; while the Canadas, on
the contrary, were, or had very recently been, under the
dominion of France, from whom they had been wrested after
a long struggle, greatly advanced in favour of England
by the glorious battle fought on the plains of Abraham,
near Quebec, and celebrated for the defeat of Montcalm
and the death of Wolfe.
The several attempts made to repossess themselves of the
strong hold of Quebec having, in every instance, been
met by discomfiture and disappointment, the French, in
despair, relinquished the contest, and, by treaty, ceded
their claims to the Canadas,--an event that was hastened
by the capitulation of the garrison of Montreal, commanded
by the Marquis de Vaudreuil, to the victorious arms of
General Amherst. Still, though conquered as a people,
many of the leading men in the country, actuated by that
jealousy for which they were remarkable, contrived to
oppose obstacles to the quiet possession of a conquest
by those whom they seemed to look upon as their hereditary
enemies; and in furtherance of this object, paid agents,
men of artful and intriguing character, were dispersed
among the numerous tribes of savages, with a view of
exciting them to acts of hostility against their conquerors.
The long and uninterrupted possession, by the French, of
those countries immediately bordering on the hunting
grounds and haunts of the natives, with whom they carried
on an extensive traffic in furs, had established a
communionship of interest between themselves and those
savage and warlike people, which failed not to turn to
account the vindictive views of the former. The whole of
the province of Upper Canada at that time possessed but
a scanty population, protected in its most flourishing
and defensive points by stockade forts; the chief object
of which was to secure the garrisons, consisting each of
a few companies, from any sudden surprise on the part of
the natives, who, although apparently inclining to
acknowledge the change of neighbours, and professing
amity, were, it was well known, too much in the interest
of their old friends the French, and even the French
Canadians themselves, not to be regarded with the most
cautious distrust.
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12