CHAPTER XI.

THE INDIAN PROPHECY.*

WASHINGTON'S JOURNEY TO THE KANAWHA RIVER IN 1770-FORMS A CAMP ON ITS BANKSABUNDANCE OF GAME THERE- - VISITED BY A TRADER AND A PARTY OF INDIANS-FIRST INTERVIEW WITH THEM - THE INDIAN SACHEM'S MISSION HIS GREAT REVERENCE FOR COLONEL WASHINGTON-SPEECH OF THE INDIAN SACHEM-HIS REMARKABLE PROPHECY-- ITS EFFECT UPON THE COMPANY-DEPARTURE OF THE SAVAGES-DOCTOR JAMES CRAIK-HIS FAITH IN THE PROPHECY-SCENE AT THE BATTLE OF MONMOUTH-COLONEL THOMAS HARTLEY.

Ir was in 1770, that Colonel Washington, accompanied by Doctor James Craik, and a considerable party of hunters, woodsmen, and others, proceeded to the Kanawha with a view to explore the country, and make surveys of extensive and valuable bodies of lands.† At that

*This was first published in the Philadelphia United States Gazette, on the twenty-seventh of May, 1826.

†The officers and soldiers who accompanied Washington in the expedition against the French, on the Ohio, in 1754, were promised grants of land in the fertile regions of the great Kanawha, where it empties into the Ohio. These lands were formally granted that year, by an order in council of the British government, and a proclamation by Governor Dinwiddie, but on account of the continuance of a state of war, they were not located, and actual possession given, until many years afterward. In 1770 a company in London solicited a grant of land within the proposed boundaries of which nearly all of the promised bounty land lay. Washington at once took the matter in hand, as the champion of the soldier about to be wronged. He first laid before Governor Botetourt a history of the claim, and entered a strong protest against the proposed grant to the English company, at the head of whom was the celebrated Horace Walpole. He was successful in his defence of the soldier's rights, and that nothing essential to their interests should be left undone, he resolved to visit the region under consideration, and select the best tracts of land for himself and his companions-in-arms; and on the fifth of October, 1770, accompanied by his friend and neighbor, Doctor Craik, with three negro attendants, he left Mount Vernon for the Ohio. His Diary, kept during this journey to the wilderness and back, which

time of day, the Kanawha was several hundred miles remote from the frontier settlements, and only accessible by Indian paths, which wound through the passes of the

mountains.

In those wild and unfrequented regions, the party formed a camp on the bank of the river, consisting of rudely-constructed wigwams or shelters, from which they issued to explore and survey those alluvial tracts, now forming the most fertile and best inhabited parts of the west of Virginia.*

This romantic camp, though far removed from the homes of civilization, possessed very many advantages. The great abundance of various kinds of game, in its vicinity, afforded a sumptuous larder, while a few luxuries of foreign growth, which had been brought on the baggage horses, made the adventurers as comfortable as they could reasonably desire.†

One day when resting in camp from the fatigues attendant on so arduous an enterprise, a party of Indians led by a trader, were discovered. No recourse was had to arms, for peace in great measure reigned on the frontier; the border warfare which so long had harassed the unhappy settlers, had principally subsided, and the savage driven farther and farther back, as the settlements advanced, had sufficiently felt the power of the whites, to view them with fear, as well as hate. Again, the approach occupied "nine weeks and one day," is printed entire in the appendix to the second volume of Spark's Life and Writings of Washington.

*These lands lay in the present counties of Kanawha, Jackson, Mason, and Cabel.

↑ Washington in his Diary, thus refers to one of his horses: "My portmanteau horse being unable to proceed, I left him at my brother's [Samuel, on Worthington's marsh, over the Blue Ridge], and got one of his and proceeded to Samuel Pritchard's, on Cacapehon."

of this party was anything but hostile, and the appearance of the trader, a being half savage, half civilized, made it certain that the mission was rather of peace than war.

They halted at a short distance, and the interpreter advancing, declared that he was conducting a party, which consisted of a grand sachem, and some attendant warriors; that the chief was a very great man among the northwestern tribes, and the same who commanded the Indians on the fall of Braddock, sixteen years before,* that hearing of the visit of Colonel Washington to the western country, this chief had set out on a mission, the object of which himself would make known.†

The colonel received the embassador with courtesy, and having put matters in camp in the best possible order for the reception of such distinguished visiters, which so short a notice would allow, the strangers were introduced. Among the colonists were some fine, tall, and manly figures, but so soon as the sachem approached, he in a moment pointed out the hero of the Monongahela, from among the group, although sixteen years had elapsed since he had seen him, and then only in the tumult and fury of battle. The Indian was of a lofty stature, and of a dignified and imposing appearance.

* See note on page 158.

On the way, Washington and Doctor Craik were joined by several frontier men, among them Joseph Nicholson, an interpreter. Under date of October 20, he recorded in his Diary: "We embarked in a large canoe, with a sufficient store of provisions and necessaries, and the following persons, besides Dr. Craik and myself, to wit, Captain Crawford, Joseph Nicholson, Robert Bell, William Harrison, Charles Morgan, and Daniel Rendon, a boy of Captain Crawford's, and the Indians, who were in a canoe by themselves." Captain Crawford afterward suffered a horrible death at the hands of the Shawnees, in Ohio. At Fort Pitt they were joined by "Colonel Craghan, Lieutenant Hamilton, and Mr. Magee."

The usual salutations were going round, when it was observed, that the grand chief, although perfectly familiar with every other person present, preserved toward Colonel Washington the most reverential deference. It was in vain that the colonel extended his hand, the Indian drew back, with the most impressive marks of awe and respect. A last effort was made to induce an intercourse, by resorting to the delight of the savages-ardent spiritwhich the colonel having tasted, offered to his guest; the Indian bowed his head in submission, but wetted not his lips. Tobacco, for the use of which Washington always had the utmost abhorrence, was next tried, the colonel taking a single puff to the great annoyance of his feelings, and then offering the calumet to the chief, who touched not the symbol of savage friendship. The banquet being now ready, the colonel did the honors of the feast, and placing the great man at his side, helped him plentifully, but the Indian fed not at the board. Amazement now possessed the company, and an intense anxiety became apparent, as to the issue of so extraordinary an adventure. The council fire was kindled, when the grand sachem addressed our Washington to the following effect:-*

"I am a chief, and the ruler over many tribes. My influence extends to the waters of the great lakes, and to to the far blue mountains. I have travelled a long and weary path, that I might see the young warrior of the great battle. It was on the day, when the white man's blood, mixed with the streams of our forest, that I first beheld this chief: I called to my young men and said, mark yon tall and daring warrior? He is not of the

* He addressed Washington, through Nicholson, the interpreter.

red-coat tribe- he hath an Indian's wisdom, and his warriors fight as we do-himself is alone exposed. Quick, let your aim be certain, and he dies. Our rifles were levelled, rifles which, but for him, knew not how to miss-'twas all in vain, a power mightier far than we, shielded him from harm. He can not die in battle. I

am old, and soon shall be gathered to the great councilfire of my fathers, in the land of shades, but ere I go, there is a something, bids me speak, in the voice of prophecy. Listen! The Great Spirit protects that man, and guides his destinies—he will become the chief of nations, and a people yet unborn, will hail him as the founder of a mighty empire!"*

The savage ceased, his oracle delivered, his prophetic mission fulfilled, he retired to muse in silence, upon that wonder-working Spirit, which his dark

"Untutored mind

Saw oft in clouds, and heard Him in the wind."

Night coming on, the children of the forest spread

*This narrative the author of the Recollections received from the lips of Dr. Craik. Washington does not mention the circumstance in his Diary. It was a peculiar trait of his character to avoid everything, either in speech or writing, that had a personal relation to himself, in this manner. In his Diary he mentions a visit from an embassy of the Six Nations, led by White Mingo, who made a speech. But that occurred on the nineteenth of the month; while the incident that forms the subject of this chapter, did not occur until they had reached the mouth of the Kanawha, after the thirty-first.

The Reverend Samuel Davies, a Presbyterian minister at Hanover, in Virginia, during the earlier portions of the French and Indian war (and in 1759, was president of the college at Princeton), preached several patriotic discourses after the defeat of Braddock, to arouse his countrymen to action. In one of these, entitled "Religion and Patriotism the constituents of a good Soldier," he remarked, in allusion to the remarkable preservation of Washington on the bloody field of Monongahela, "I can not but hope Providence has hitherto preserved him in so signal a manner, for some important service to his country." It is an interesting fact, that Washington never received the slightest wound in battle.