xt7zs756fb53 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7zs756fb53/data/mets.xml Strickland, W. P. (William Peter), 1809-1884. 1865  books b92977st852009 English Carlson & Porter : New York Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Frontier and pioneer life --Ohio River Valley. Pioneers --Ohio River Valley. Indians of North America --Ohio River Valley. The pioneers of the West; or, Life in the woods. text The pioneers of the West; or, Life in the woods. 1865 2009 true xt7zs756fb53 section xt7zs756fb53 
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   THE

PIONEERS OF THE WEST;

oe,

LIFE IN THE WOODS.

BY W. P. STKICKLAED.

WESTWARD THE   OOUfiSK   OF   EMPIRE   TAKES   ITS WAT.

Bishop Berkley.

CAK1TON  & PHILLIPS.

Boston: J.  P. MAGEE. 
    
       0 it i t\\ i &.

CHAPTER PAGE

I.    THE WEST............................................. 9

II.    PIONEER EXPLORERS OF THE WEST.................. 21

III.    THE HUNTERS OF THE WEST......................... 47

IV. -THE PIONEER SETTLERS.............................. 90

V.   THE PIONEER PREACHERS............................. 137

VI.   PIONEER INSTITUTIONS AND PROFESSIONAL MEN.... 172

Vn.   PIONEER BOATMEN.................................... 1S3

Vm.   THE PROPHET FRANCIS............................... 211

IX.   LOGAN, THE MINGO CHIEF.........................225

X.   THE MOUNTAIN HUNTER............................. 2i6

XI.   INDIAN CAPTIVITY .................................... 2G3

XII.   "THE OLD CHIEF;" OR, THE INDIAN MSSIONARY____ 206

XIH.   THE HERMIT .......................................... 331

XTV.   PIONEER PANTHER HUNTING......................... 358

XV.   THE SQUATTER FAMILY............................... 371

XVI.   THE LOST HUNTER.................................... 381

XVII.   THE WISCONSIN SCHOOLMA'AM....................... 387 
    
    
    
   THE

PIONEERS OE THE WEST.

CHAPTEK I.

THE "WEST.

The West and its past history have been a prolific theme. Its early exploration and settlement by the Anglo-Saxon race, whose toils, hardships, and deeds of heroic bravery will be the wonder of all times, have called forth the labors of the most gifted pens, both at home and abroad. Nor is the theme yet exhausted. The narratives occasioned by continued investigation and research, grow fresher and more interesting as time rolls on, disclosing more fully the history and romance of the past. The labors of one in this field serve but as an incentive by increasing the aggregate of historic materials for the succeeding labors of others.

The pen of Cooper has graphically portrayed the events connected with some of the early settlers of the 
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pioneers  of the west.

East, and one of the characters in his tale of the Pioneers, whether real or imaginary, is made to close his days in the "West. "Leather Stocking," the renowned hunter, whose rude hut stood not far from the shores of Otsego, and whose rifle sent its unerring death message alike to the heart of a panther, the head of a turkey, a bird on the wing, a loon on the lake, or a hostile Indian; or who could pierce a fish with his tri-pronged gig eighteen feet below the surface of the water   this same bold and daring hunter, after the settlers had become too numerous for his comfort, and would too often cross his path in the woods through which he had roamed for upward of half a century, and in which he had made his home for forty years, sought a wider and a freer scope in the boundless West.

On one occasion, when his young friend Edwards, of "York," astonished at his preference for uninhabited regions, said to him, in answer to some remarks on this subject,

"Woods! do you not call these endless forests woods ?" the hunter repbed,

" I don't call them woods, when I can lose myself every day of my life in the clearings. The meanest of God's creatures are made for some use, and I am formed for the wilderness. Let me go where my soul longs to be again." Thus saying, he shouted to his dogs, that were lying in the grass of the burial-ground, which contained the ashes of his long-tried 
   the west.

11

and trusty friend, the Mohican, an Indian chief, who had shared his hut and fare: "Away, dogs, away; you'll be foot-sore before you see the end of your journey;" and started out upon his course. Having passed the clearing, with a long last wave of his honest hand he bade adieu to his friends, and was soon lost to sight in the forest, directing his hurried steps toward the setting sun.

According to present geographical division, the United States are parceled off into separate classes, denominated the Eastern, Western, Northern or Middle, and Southern. The Northern States are those comprised within the limits included in that portion north of Mason and Dixon's line, and extending to the Lakes; the Southern, all that lie south of that line; the Eastern, those which lie along the Atlantic; but who can tell the locabties and define the boundaries of the Western? what they are, and what they shall be? only that they extend from the foot of the Alleghanies to the great rocky chain that rises from the trackless plains and desert lakes, and from thence spreading away over dense, interminable forests, into which the ax of the woodman has never let the light of the sun fall, to the far-off Pacific.

We shall not confine our sketches to what is now usually assigned as the limits of the West. Once the entire continents of North and South America were 
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pioneers  of the west.

called the "West; and as the patriot knows no North, or East, or South, so we shall know no West; but from lakes to ocean, and from mountain to mountain, embracing the mighty valley, and all that lies beyond, we shall feel our pen at liberty to describe the events connected with its pioneer history.

Other parts of the country are finished, or nearly so; but the "West is in its infancy, and has just begun its development. Ho imagination is bold and capacious enough to grasp its future. There is room sufficient in its wide expanse, and resources enough in its bosom, for the erection and establishment of empires great as the world has ever known. We may refer to its beginnings, and recall the scenes of border life in its once dense, uncultivated forests, and along its mighty rivers, and on its broad plains and almost boundless prairies, where every inch of the pioneer was contested by the native red man, and the wild beasts, which, like him, roamed unfettered and free through its equally wild forests; we may tell of the sacrifices, toils, and perils of the backwoodsman, in levebng these forests, and clearing and cultivating farms, rearing towns and cities, and founding institutions of religion and learning; but who shall tell of its future ? What imagination can conceive, or what pen describe, the scenes that are to rise up and unroll themselves, like a mighty panorama, before the vision of coming generations ? 
   the west.

13

Not more mysterious was it in its beginning, bewildering the minds of the profoundest archaeologists and ethnologists who have attempted to read its records in the mounds, fortifications, walls, elevated squares, and covered ways, which are scattered thickly over the land, like the monuments of Egypt; but which, unlike the doomed cities of the Nile, have left no Eosetta stone to decipher their meaning, or afford the slightest clew to their origin or uses, or to the race which has long since passed away. Numerous books have been written, and authors have exhausted both their genius and learning in attempting to fathom the mystery of a race concerning whom the present red man knows nothing. All the different tribes and races inhabiting the West and the South have been questioned, and their traditions from remotest times rehearsed and interpreted; but a boundary beyond which no tradition or conjecture could pass was invariably reached, forming an impassable barrier, and creating a chasm as wide between the primitive race and the present, as that which separates us from the first ages of mankind before the flood, as it regards time; but vastly more inexplicable as it regards lineal descent. Whence came the first inhabitants of the land ? Who reared those immense and numerous fortifications and temples, the ruins of whicli only can be seen? Who were they? whence came they? and whither did they go? are questions 
   pioneers  of the west.

alike involved in a mystery deep and profound as the silence which reigns over the graves where they have been slumbering for a thousand years. They are unknown to history, prophecy, or song. No writ, or scroll, or strain, is left among the nations, to tell of their eventful history and fate. Other nations have been blotted from the roll of the living, but have left memorials of their existence which contain records of their history and destiny. Petra, the proud capital of Edom, with its excavated palaces, temples, triumphal arches, and tombs, though the winds of heaven have scattered the very ashes of her dead, has left, written on her everlasting rocks, characters that are legible to the traveler after the last of the nation had been buried a thousand years: but where, in all the mounds and fortifications of this land, can be found a single script to tell of the departed? Huge skulls and giant frames have been plowed up by the hand of civilization; the resting-places of the dead have been invaded by the restless search of the antiquarian ; but Decay's effacing hand has swept away every line and trace that would either lead to an identification of the race with any of the world's present inhabitants, or to a knowledge of their wonderful history   the more wonderful because of the mystery that enshrouds it.

History tells of the Druids, a primitive race who inhabited the island of Britain; and Stonehenge, 
   the west.

15

which gives evidence in its construction of a knowledge and skill in mechanical philosophy unknown even to the present age of progress, stands a confirmation strong of their existence and history; but what record, sacred or profane   what rock, or mound, or wall, contains any allusion to the original inhabitants who dwelt on the borders of our lakes, on the banks of our rivers, or on the plains and in the valleys of the land? All is still and silent as a hushed eve of Indian summer on a vast prairie, whose far-off boundaries are closed in on all sides by the descending sky.

We talk of the East   not New England, with its granite mountains and granite hearts, and rocky shores, and beautiful villas, and magnificent cities, and honest people   but, further on toward the rising sun, of Kome and Jerusalem, of Babylon and Nineveh, the land of Caesar and Virgil, of Jesus and Paul, of Belus and Ninus; and we sit enchanted, as a Stephens and Robinson, a Layard, Durbin, and Lynch, describe the grandeur of their ancient ruins; but who can tell if the ruins in our own land, though not so magnificent, are not really as ancient as some of those ? The grand old woods, and mountains, and plains, may even be more ancient, if the geology of some be true; but whether so or not, they are primeval, and, so far as antiquity is concerned, are alike interesting and wonderful, apart from historic associations, as the 
   16

pioneers   of.the west.

groves, and mountains, and plains of Italy, Palestine, or Assyria. If among the native inhabitants there were none to record cotemporaneous history, or no

"Prophet bard to wake the lyre of song,"

thus perpetuating their names and memory, enough is left to tell their numbers, and strength, and skill, and of an antiquity little, if any, inferior to the Oriental nations of the past. But we must return to our theme, the "West. Four centuries have nearly passed away since the first white man cast his eye upon the continent of America, and upward of three hundred since the fiftieth degree of north latitude was reached by the daring Spaniard. Not long after, Fernando de Soto, with six hundred stalwart knights, entered the land of flowers in search of gold. Exploring Georgia and Alabama, and destroying the Indian town of Mobile, he pushed his enterprise into Mississippi and Arkansas. Descending the Mississippi to the mouth of Red River, he was invited by the Indians to visit the town of Natchez, where he ended his fruitless search for gold with his life, and was buried beneath the Mississippi's turbid wave. His companions, headed by Moscoso, pushed their journey further; but having been reduced by wars and hardships to one half of their original numbers, disheartened with the prospect, and losing all hopes of gaining the object of their pursuit, they 
   the west.

17

constructed a flotilla, in which they descended the Mississippi; and, finding a voyage to their own country, they returned no more to tempt the dangerous wave or enter the wilderness of the New World. The sad fate which befell De la Eoque and his company of adventurers to this far-off land of flowers and gold, gave a check, for many years, to the spirit of enterprise in this direction. The reports from the country, however, were of so enchanting a nature, having lost nothing by the distance between it and Spain, and the time it took to cross the ocean, that the then reigning queen, as a memorial of her state in life, named it Virginia, a name subsequently m confined to one of the states. Thus voyages and discoveries, attended with successes and disasters, continued to be made; until, at length, a permanent settlement of the whites from England was effected at Jamestown in 1607.

For more than a century after De Soto's expedition into the Great Western Yalley of North America, this vast wilderness remained utterly unknown to the whites. In the year 1616, four years before the May Flower was " moored on wild New-England's shore," Le Caron, from France, had penetrated through the nations of the Iroquois and Wyandots, and found the rivers of the wilderness, one of which he traced to Lake Huron. Shortly after this, Canadian envoys pushed their explorations until they met the Indian 
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pioneers of the west.

nations of the northwest, on the far-off shores of Lake Superior. It was not, however, to remain. The wildness of the region was sufficient to intimidate even the spirit of such daring adventurers; and it was twenty years later before even the love of gain could prompt the fur trader to spend the winter on those frozen and inhospitable shores. But the spirit of adventure was abroad; and enough had been seen and heard of the "West, and its rich lands and hunting grounds, to stir the adventurer to action. Soon Michigan is explored, and the French take formal possession of the northwest. Others start out to find the sources of the Mississippi and Missouri, and trace it to its mouth. In these expeditions, what are now the states of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Mississippi, were traversed.

The first man who crossed the mountains, and entered the Ohio Valley, was John Howard, as early as IT42. It is said of this adventurer that he sailed down the Ohio in a canoe made of a buffalo-skin, from its source to its mouth, and was taken a prisoner by the French on the Mississippi. After him followed others from Pennsylvania and Virginia. In 1748 Conrad "Weiser was sent as an interpreter, with presents to the Indians, at their town upon the banks of the Ohio, between the head of the river and Beaver Creek; the. object of his visit was to open up a friendly intercourse, and secure a trade with the 
   the west.

19

Indians, which had been monopolized by a set of unprincipled, half-savage white men. Following this movement was the formation of companies in the east, for the purpose of settling the rich, wild lands in the valley of the Ohio. Explorers were sent out in different directions; and as the whites had appropriated the country to themselves, all that was necessary was to obtain grants from the Colonial Government, and run their lines, and mark their boundaries. Thus was the West, the land of the Indians, parceled out; and thus, from time to time, as it was visited by settlers, did it become the home of the white man. We shall have more to say, not only in regard to the exploration, but the settlement of the West, in our sketches.

Upward of one hundred years have passed away since the canoe of the first white man parted the waters of the Ohio. Then the entire valley, in all its length and breadth, was occupied by the Indians. But now how changed the scene ? Where occasionally, at distant intervals, he passed an Indian encampment, whose fires gleamed upon the midnight waters, as he glided noiselessly by, now continuous towns and cities dot the entire margin throughout its course, and filled with their teeming thousands, while the valley contains its crowding and ever-increasing millions. Town is added to town, and state is added to state, until, stretching from mountain to plain, and from

plain to prairie, and from prairie to mountain again,

2 
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pioneers of the west.

and from the mountain to the Western ocean, the vast tide of human population wends its westward way.

The history of the West may be embraced within the following periods, each bearing a particular designation, as the country was more or less under the control, or claimed as the possession of the various races which have visited it, since first discovered by the whites : The occupancy by the Spaniards from 1512 to 1819; the occupancy by the French from 1635 to 1763; the possession by the English from 1758 to the year 1778; and its possession by the Anglo-Americans, or citizens of the United States, from the year 1750 until the present time. 
   pioneer explorers of the west. 21

CHAPTER II.

pioneer explorers of the west.

We Lave already alluded briefly to some of the early explorers of the West, but we design in this chapter to enter somewhat more into detail in regard to this class of pioneers. The most that had been done was by a rapid transit over those sections of the country inhabited by Indians, who were either peaceful, or with whom temporary treaties had been formed. As these Indians reserved the richest valleys on the Ohio and its tributaries for their hunting grounds, and generally resided elsewhere, there was a terra incognita to the white man, which the Indians, from the knowledge already gained of his character, were unwilling they should find out. But what can escape his anxious eagle eye, or be beyond the reach of his covetous grasp ? More than even De Soto beheld in his golden visions, when the land of flowers greeted his eyes, the eastern settler beheld in the rich valleys of the West.

De Soto had explored the South two hundred years before, and had left the footprints of stalwart knights 
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pioneers   of the west.

on its verdant plains, and on the banks of its rivers; Le Caron had explored the North, and blazed his way through the interminable forests which border the upper lakes. La Salle and Marquette, nearly a hundred years later, had penetrated the northwestern wilds, and finding the far-off Wisconsin, set sail upon its waters in hopes of finding the great river of the West, which led to the Pacific. They found it, and embarking on the yellow flood of the Father of Waters, they followed its windings, and passed through what are now the States of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi. Subsequently, Lewis and Clarke ascended the Missouri to ascertain its sources; and finding them in the Rocky Mountains, they scale those mighty barriers, and stop not in their fatiguing journey until, far away through dense forests, where the white man had never been before, inhabited by the Nez Perces, Black Feet, and Flat Head Indians, they reach the Columbia, and, embarking on its waters, find the utmost limit of the "West.

About fifty years, however, before this great exploration   when the valley was all a wilderness, and unexplored, with the exceptions we have named    bold and daring adventurers started out from the East, and, crossing the Alleghanies, penetrated the valley. It will be our object in this chapter to narrate some of these adventures.   It would be an easy 
   pioneer explorers   of  the west. 23

matter, as many have done in their pioneer sketches, to present vivid pictures of the West, which, panorama-like, unroll before the mind, without, however, any special connection; but they lose half their interest by the want of that which is as important to satisfy the mind of the reader, as it is necessary to the western pilot, on one of the broad and rapid rivers of the West, to have landmarks to guide him on his way. Names and dates are quite as important, in giving interest to a narrative, as any eloquent description can be, and we shall not lose sight of connection, either in the order of dates or events.

The frontiers were exposed to the desolations of the savages; and by the frontiers we mean Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. The English and the French both had their allies among the various tribes of Indians. Each were striving hard to gain recruits from the other. The considerations of rum and other articles, with the presents and promises of the English, were outdone by the presents and politeness of the French; and, notwithstanding the solemn treaties which had been entered into, they were frequently seduced from their allegiance, and the French, backed up by soulless English traders, gained many of the British allies. In addition to the treaties which had been formed, another was entered into with the Delawares in Pennsylvania.  This, how- 
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pioneers of the west.

ever, did not seem to prove binding upon the nation. There were the Shawnees and Mingoes, who were still without even the show of any binding obligation to keep the peace.

A crisis had arrived. Such was the state of the country, and the weak, disheartened condition of the English, that, unless they could overcome the influence of the wily Frenchman and the heartless trader, whose only love for the Indian was to take advantage of him, and cheat him out of his skins and furs   similar to the love which the boa constrictor has for the kid; unless this power could be broken, and the Indians of the "West gained over, it was feared that the enemy would gain an advantage from which they would not be likely to recover; but the question was, " How shall it be done ? "Who is adequate to the undertaking? "Where shall the man be found possessing the nerve and daring, the knowledge and sagacity indispensable to so great a task?" The occasion demanded all these, and more. The man who embarked in this enterprise must have a courage undaunted, and a physical endurance equal to any fatigue. His mission would require him to pass through a country, which was then a howling wilderness, filled with hostile foes; and should he meet those between whom and his brethren the tomahawk had been buried, and they had sworn a friendship, no rebance was to be placed upon it, as the avowed 
    
    
    
    
   pioneer  explorers of the west. 27

friends of yesterday might prove the bitterest enemies of to-day. Besides, as we have already intimated, the whole French interest would be roused against him. Every stream in its western flow had been tinged with the blood of the white man; every mountain and valley had echoed with the wild shouts of war, and the rude cabins of the settlers had been burned to the ground. Among all the brave and gallant men of General Forbes's army, though they lacked not daring and bravery, there was not one who met the description, and possessed the necessary qualifications for so important and hazardous an enterprise.

Seventeen years before, there had come out to the "West a band of Moravian missionaries, with a view of establishing missions among the Indians. They seemed to have partaken of the spirit of their brethren, who had braved the snows and icebergs of Greenland, to bear the glad tidings to the natives of that desolate shore. Unattended and unarmed, with the words of peace upon their bps, and the love of God and man in their hearts, they pushed their way through trackless forests, and in Western Pennsylvania had located a mission. Among these missionaries was one whose name was Christian Frederic Post. All eyes were turned to him as the man.

Ten years before, Conrad Woiser had been sent on 
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pioneers of the west.

a somewhat similar expedition to Logstown, an Indian village on the Ohio, seventeen miles below Pittsburgh; but all treaties and negotiations had failed to bring about peace. The sachem of the Pennsylvania savages had exerted his utmost to call his western brethren to peace; but they would not hear Lis voice; their cry was still for blood. When intelligence came to the brave old warrior, that Post was about to enter upon the mission, he strongly urged him not to go, as it woidd be of no use whatever, and he would surely lose his life. But he feared not; with that strong faith which characterized the Moravians, mixed with just enough of the romantic element that entered into the composition of the Christian knight, to give a spirit of adventure, he believed that it was the will of the great Master that he shoidd start out upon this errand.

It was precisely in the midsummer of 1758 that our Christian hero left the city of Philadelphia. Habited as a hunter, and provided with the necessary outfit for a long and fatiguing journey, he left the city of Penn, and took his course up the Susquehanna. As he passed along from settlement to settlement, instead of finding inhabitants, all were deserted; and the plantations and cabins presented nothing but a scene of desolation. Leaving the valley, he ascended the mountain; and urging his way through its wild and unbroken solitudes, he at length, 
   pioneer  explorers  of the  west. 29

after a month's travel, reached the Alleghany River, opposite French Creek. He was now in the vicinity of the enemy's fortifications. The garrison of Fort Venango was before him; and further down the stream, at the junction of the Alleghany with the Monongahela, stood intrenched Fort Du Quesne, both of which were occupied by the French, fully armed, and stoutly manned.

The former fort was passed without detection or interruption; and he proceeded on his journey to Cuskagee, an Indian town on Big Beaver Creek, not far from a Moravian mission. The Indian town contained ninety huts and two hundred able warriors. Here Post was known and beloved. His self-sacrificing devotion to the good of the red man for years, had satisfied them that lie sought not to advance his own interests by coming among them and cultivating a friendship, but his only aim Avas to do them good. His name and fame had spread through many "Western tribes, as "the good pale face;" and Indian mothers taught their children to lisp the name of Post, the Christian, with as much interest as patriot mothers subsequently taught their children to lisp the name of "Washington. Here, then, he was at home, among his friends. Assembling the chiefs, he opened up to them   for he understood their language, and was allied to them by marriage   his mission.   He described to them 
   SO

pioneers  of  the west.

the condition of the country, and the relations which the English and French sustained in regard to it; as well as the distracted state of the various "Western tribes, swaying to and fro in their allegiance to both parties, as cunning or cupidity might dictate.

At Fort Du Quesne there were fragments of eight nations of Indians, more or less under the power and influence of the French; and the friends of Post, brave though they were, nevertheless had reason to fear that power. Their attachment to him, however, was too great for them not to listen to his proposals in regard to, the propriety of holding a council with them.   To test the matter, Post said to the chiefs:

"Shall I cross the river alone, and enter the fort of my enemies?"

"Nay, we will go with thee, and carry thee in our bosom. Thou needest fear nothing, thou man of the Great Spirit."

A messenger, however, was sent, and the Indians at the fort were apprised that their brethren of Cus-kagee desired to hold a conference with them, opposite the fort, on the other side of the river. Post and the chiefs departed for the place; and on the last day of summer there met on the banks of the Ohio the representatives from the different tribes. Post stated the object of the meeting, presenting everything in its true light to the assembled warriors, who listened with great attention to every word which 
   pioneer explorers   of  the   west. 31

fell from his lips, for he was not a stranger to them. All seemed disposed to listen to his advice, but an old Onondaga chief of the Six Nations. The old man was evidently in liquor; but as the old Latin proverb holds true, in vinum est Veritas, so he uttered some truths. In a boisterous manner he replied to Post, exclaiming, "The land on which I now stand belongs to the Six Nations, and the English have no right to it."

At this a Delaware advanced, and rebuking the Onondaga, he said, addressing Post, "That man speaks not as a man. He endeavors to frighten us by saying this ground is his. He dreams; and he and his father, the French, have certainly drunk too much liquor; pray, let them go to sleep till they are sober." Then turning to the old chief, he said: "You do not know what your own nation does at home, how much they have to say to the English. Go to sleep with your father, and when yon are sober we will speak to you."

It was obvious that the Delawares, and nearly all the Western Indians, were wavering in their attachment for the French. It takes not an Indian long to find out when a deception is practiced upon him, especially when his suspicion is a little excited; and, when once deceived, it is hard to restore confidence.

The rough, outspoken manner of the old inebriate, was the occasion of awakening in the minds of the Indians present a remembrance of the wrongs they 
   pioneers  of the west.

had suffered, and the deceptions practiced upon them both by the English and French, and, as might be expected, they were not exactly ready to listen to the proposals even of the good Post to join the colonies. Some of them uttered bitter complaints against the whites for the disposition they manifested to lay their rapacious hands on all tli6 hunting grounds.

" Why," said one of them, addressing Post, " did you not fight your battles at home or on the sea, instead of coming into our country to fight them? Your heart is good; you speak sincerely; but we know there is always a great number who wish to get rich, and take away what others have. The white people think we have no brains in our heads; that they are big, and we a little handful; but, remember, when you hunt for a rattle-snake you cannot find it, and perhaps it will bite you before you see it."

Post, however, was not discouraged, but labored on, using every honorable means in his power, without resorting to any false promises, to convince them that it would be to their advantage to form a union with the colonies. Besides, the army of General Forbes was approaching Du Quesne, and the strong probability was, from the weakened condition of the fort, that it would fall into the hands of the English. They were at length won by the sincerity and kind- 
   pioneer  explorers of  the west. 33

ness of Post, and a definite peace was concluded between the various Western tribes there represented and the English.

Leaving the treaty ground, he started homeward, and, after suffering incredible perils from French scouts and hostile Indians, Post at length reached the settlements uninjured.

But his work was not done. The French had destroyed and deserted Du Quesne, and had proceeded to lower posts down the Ohio. Washington was urging his way through the wilderness, and opening a road to the Fork of the Ohio, advancing at the rate of from four to eight miles a day. In the mean time a treaty had been held with the Eight United Nations at Easton. Still there was a powerful body who Avere opposed to the English, and these must be conciliated. Post accordingly starts out again for the Ohio. Following in the track of Forbes's army, he finally overtook it, and receiving messages from the general to the West, he traveled on to bear the news of the treaty to the distant tribes. Being successful in finding them, he laid before the chiefs his plans and proposals. The result was, that he was again fortunate in preventing them from joining the French, which they were just on the eve of doing, and had arr