St. Joseph Taken by the Spanish.

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On their arrival at Detroit, they did good service to the American cause by congratulating themselves that their oath did not bind them not to fight for the Americans, if a chance offered.

A large convoy of stores and provisions were on their way from Detroit to Vincennes when the Americans took it, which was intercepted on the way by a detachment under command of Capt. Helm, who by the late capitulation of the place was now released from the bonds of a war prisoner, and again an officer in Clark's little army. The amount of clothing, provisions, etc., was more than sufficient to supply all the wants of the garrison, and stinted rations and rags were now substituted with plenteousness and comfortable garments. On the 7th of March Clark sent Colonel Hamilton, with eighteen of his principal soldiers, to Virginia, as war prisoners, under an escort of 25 men. Soon after their arrival, Hamilton was put in irons, and confined in a dungeon, debarred the use of pen, ink and paper, and excluded from all communication with any one except his keeper. This was done to punish him for having offered premiums to the Indians for white scalps. For this offense he was ever afterwards called "The hair buyer." The severity of his sentence was soon afterwards mitigated by order of continental court-martial. Early in 1779 a war broke out between England and Spain, which was subsequently followed by an acknowledgment of the Independence of the United States by that power, though with a bad grace, as if dragged into the reluctant admission by the force of circumstances. Withal, however, the hostile attitude of the two nations, England and Spain, was not without its influence in preserving the conquests achieved by Clark, inasmuch as it secured the alliance of the then Spanish town of St. Louis to the American cause, and interposed a weighty obstacle in the way of any attempt on the part of the English to retake the Illinois country or Vincennes, while St. Louis was their ally.

Instead of this being attempted, St. Louis took the offensive herself as an ally of America. On the 2nd of June, 1781, Don Eugenie Pierre, a Spanish officer, marched from St. Louis with 65 men against the British post of St. Joseph. The place was taken, and with overreaching ambition the commander went through the forms of taking possession of the country in the name of Spain, but retired shortly afterwards to St. Louis.

By virtue of this insignificant conquest, Spain subsequently attempted to establish a claim to the country intervening between Lake Michigan and her own territory west of the Mississippi.

*Jefferson's Correspondence, Vol. I, p. 455.

While these events were transpiring in the West, the armies of England and America were brandishing their battle-blades in each other's faces, with stubborn courage on both sides, and when fighting ceased, among other issues settled, the conquests of the West and its consequent destiny, were not forgotten.

At this time the population of St. Louis, according to Hutchins, was 800 white and 150 colored people, and being a Spanish town, it was legal plunder for the English. Accordingly, an expedition was set on foot against it from the British post of Michilimackinac, estimated at 1,500 men, most of whom were Indians.

While Clark was waiting at Kaskaskia, says Stoddard in his sketches, "The commandant of Michilimackinac in 1780 assembled about 1,500 Indians and 140 English, and attempted the reduction of St. Louis. During the short time they were before that town 60 of the inhabitants were killed, and 30 taken prisoners. Fortunately, Gen. Clark was on the opposite side of the Mississippi with a considerable force. On his appearance at St. Louis with a strong detachment, the Indians were amazed. They had no disposition to quarrel with any other than the Louisianians, and charged the British with deception. In fine, as the jealousy of the Indians was excited, the English trembled for their safety, and secretly abandoned their auxilaries and made the best of their way into Canada. The Indians then retired to their homes in peace. This expedition, as appears, was not sanctioned by the English court, and the private property of the commandant was seized to pay the expenses of it, most likely because it proved unfortunate."

This account has been quoted by able historians, and is doubtless correct, except as to the assistance credited to Gen. Clark as offering to help defend the town. This was impossible, as he had left the country previous to that time, but, without doubt, the respect with which his gallant conduct had inspired the Indians of the immediate country around had its effect on the Indian force from Michilimackinac, and, besides saving St. Louis, prevented them from attacking the towns of Southern Illinois, which then were in a hostile attitude to British rule, either as French or American towns, both of which countries were at war with England.

Auguste Chouteau says that Clark rendered the town no assistance. This settles the point as to the question, for he was one of the original settlers under Laclede's grant, and must have been an eye-witness. The shameful conduct of Leyba, the Lieutenant-Governor at the time, was an excess of treachery seldom equalled. Previous to the attack he sent all the powder away, but fortunately a trader had eight barrels of this precious specific, which the defenders appropriated for the occasion. Not content with this dereliction, he spiked some of the cannon of the defenders; but despite these obstacles, the courageous soldiers stood to their places, and beat back their numerous assailants with a courage seldom equalled. The storm of indignation which the traitor Leyba met after the battle, was too much for him to live under, and he sickened and died shortly afterwards, tradition says from poison administered by his own hand. This account is taken from Stoddard, Hall, Martin, and the Western Annals, neither of which appear to have details as full as could be desired, especially as it is the only siege or battle that ever occurred at St. Louis.

CHAPTER X.

Moravian Settlements on the Muskingum-Premonitions of the American Revolution-British Emissaries Among the Indians-Forts McIntosh and Laurens Built-Desperate Attack on the Latter-The Siege Raised by Hunger-The Moravians Removed-Mary Heckwelder's Account-Horrible Slaughter of the Exiles-Crawford's Expedition Against Sandusky-The Enemy Encountered-Crawford Taken Prisoner-His Awful Death by Fire-Peace-Complex Diplomacy at the Treaty of Paris-Firmness of Jay Triumphant.

The few sparse settlements in Kentucky already made, still maintained their ground, although constantly menaced by Indians on the war path, while the Alleghanies interposed serious barriers between them and any succor from the parent State in case of an attack.

No attempt had yet been made at settlement on what might with propriety then have been called the Indian side of the Ohio, except the Moravian settlements. These had been in progress on the Muskingum river since 1762. Christian Frederic Post (the same who in 1758 executed the heroic mission to Fort Pitt,) and his co-worker, John Heckwelder, at that time set up a tabernacle there for worship. The missionary spirit was the incentive to their enterprise, but to facilitate their work in this direction, they purchased small parcels of land of the Indians, made an opening in the forest, planted fields of corn, and soon they were surrounded with plenty. The celebrated David Ziesburger joined them in a few years, and the towns of Shoenbrun, Gnadenhutten and Salem, were built within an area of ten miles, near the present site of New Philadelphia, in Tuscarawas county, Ohio.

This could not be called a white settlement, yet it represented Christian civilization, as developed by the teachings of the Moravian missionaries, whose heroic faith had been inherited from the martyr Huss. Since that remote period this remarkable people had been disciplined by a school of three centuries of

persecution, during which time their courage had become the admiration of the Protestant world. They had ever been in its van breaking up the fallen ground, ready to be tilled by more effeminate Christians.

Their attempts on the Muskingum had thus far been a success, but unhappily for them they still held to the doctrines of nonresistance, with unshaken faith, that God's Providence would safely lead them through the dangers that surrounded them.

However plausible or practicable such a theory might be in times of peace, it became a fatal illusion when the fires of revolution kindled along the Atlantic should shake the border into fury, as was soon to be the case. When the centre is disturbed, how much more is the circumference agitated.

The borders of Pennsylvania and Virginia were now daily becoming more exposed to dangers, as the British emissaries among the Indians excited them to take the war-path, and the Continental Congress passed a resolution to send a force into the interior, with a view of taking Detroit, the western supply depot, where the Indians obtained the means wherewith to keep up the

war.

In May, 1778, while the expedition of Clark was about starting on its mission, Brigadier General Lachlin McIntosh, of the Continental Army, was placed in command of the Western Department, with his head quarters at Ft. Pitt. The following October, at the head of a small force of regulars and militia, he descended the Ohio and built a fort thirty miles below Fort Pitt, which was named Fort McIntosh. This was the first stockade ever built by Americans on the Northern side of the Ohio.

For prudential reasons, probably for the want of means, the Continental Congress now instructed him to abandon the original design against Detroit, but in lieu thereof, to make an incursion into the interior for the purpose of overawing the Indians. With this intent he took up his march at the head of 1,000 men, intending to attack Sandusky, but on reaching the Muskingum he encamped, and concluded to defer the attack against the objective point till the coming spring. Here he built Fort Laurens, so named in honor of the President of the Continental Congress. He left Colonel John Gibson in command of the post with 150 men, and returned with the main body to Fort Pitt.

All these movements were reported to the English commander at Detroit, who, as might be expected, at once laid his plans to capture the audacious Americans, who had dared to make a stand in the heart of the country.

It will be remembered that Francis Vigo, the Spanish trader of St. Louis, who arrived at Kaskaskia in January, brought information to Clark that Hamilton had weakened his forces by

Siege of Fort Laurens.

165

sending away large detachments against the frontiers, and that Clark, taking advantage of this incautious movement, had marched against Vincennes and taken it. It may therefore be inferred that Fort Laurens was the decoy duck which gave Vincennes to the Americans.

Late in January, 1779, the threatened attack was made on the fort, and kept up till March with desperate resolution. The garrison successfully resisted every assault of their besiegers, though they environed the post by means of their numbers, and gave them no respite either by night or day.

Starvation soon began to threaten them, but, happily for the besieged, the besiegers were in a similar predicament, and the sanguinary contest now became a rivalship, not of courage and muscle only, but a trial of endurance under the pangs of hunger. While the enemy were thus beset with perplexity, how to obtain provisions till they could press the siege to a successful issue by starving out the garrison, while they themselves were gaunt with hunger, they proposed to Gibson, the commander, to raise the siege if he would give them a barrel of flour. The offer was promptly accepted, as a device to conceal the desperate straits to which the garrison was reduced. The flour was sent outside the palisade, and some meat with it, which the hungry Indians and their companions devoured like a pack of wolves, and vanished in the forest, taking their course for Detroit.

The last savage yelp soon died away with the retreating foe, and silence took the place of the bedlam of war-whoops that had echoed about the place for two months. A runner skilled in woodcraft was now selected to hasten to Fort McIntosh with all possible dispatch, and obtain supplies. With the shyness of a fox venturing from his lair, the bold ranger left the fort and safely reached his destination, a distance of fifty miles, through an unbroken wilderness, when a band of scouts were immediately sent with provisions for the relief of the hungry garrison, in their frontier hermitage. Here they remained till the following August, when the fort was evacuated.

Fort McIntosh was evacuated soon afterwards, which left no representation of American interests between Vincennes and Fort Pitt. With the exception of a part of the Delawares, all the Indians of the country now became active allies of the English. The Moravians, or praying Indians, as they were sometimes called, were, in accordance with their faith, neutral.

Their villages laid in the war-path of their savage brothers, and when a hostile war party were returning from a successful incursion into the white settlements, dragging their wretched captives into their distant lodges in the wilderness, they often quartered on these apostate savages, who durst not refuse them