[485] A few days before, a boy belonging to Croghan’s party had been lost, as was supposed, in the woods. It proved afterwards that he had been seized by the Kickapoo warriors, and was still prisoner among them at the time of the attack. They must have learned from him the true character of Croghan and his companions.—MS. Gage Papers.
[486] Journal of George Croghan, on his journey to the Illinois, 1765. This journal has been twice published—in the appendix to Butler’s History of Kentucky, and in the Pioneer History of Dr. Hildreth. A manuscript copy also may be found in the office of the secretary of state at Albany. Dr. Hildreth omits the speech of Croghan to the Indians, which is given above as affording a better example of the forms of speech appropriate to an Indian peace harangue, than the genuine productions of the Indians themselves, who are less apt to indulge in such a redundancy of metaphor.
A language extremely deficient in words of general and abstract signification renders the use of figures indispensable; and it is from this cause, above all others, that the flowers of Indian rhetoric derive their origin. In the work of Heckewelder will be found a list of numerous figurative expressions appropriate to the various occasions of public and private intercourse,—forms which are seldom departed from, and which are often found identical among tribes speaking languages radically distinct. Thus, among both Iroquois and Algonquins, the “whistling of evil birds” is the invariable expression to denote evil tidings or bad advice.
The Indians are much pleased when white men whom they respect adopt their peculiar symbolical language,—a circumstance of which the Jesuit missionaries did not fail to avail themselves. “These people,” says Father Le Jeune, “being great orators, and often using allegories and metaphors, our fathers, in order to attract them to God, adapt themselves to their custom of speaking, which delights them very much, seeing we succeed as well as they.”
[487] In a letter to Gage, without a date, but sent in the same enclosure as his journal, Croghan gives his impression of Pontiac in the following words:—
“Pondiac is a shrewd, sensible Indian, of few words, and commands more respect among his own nation than any Indian I ever saw could do among his own tribe. He, and all the principal men of those nations, seem at present to be convinced that the French had a view of interest in stirring up the late differences between his Majesty’s subjects and them, and call it a beaver war.”
[488] MS. Gage Papers. M. Nicollet, in speaking of the arrival of the British troops, says, “At this news Pontiac raved.” This is a mistake. Pontiac’s reconciliation had already taken place, and he had abandoned all thoughts of resistance.
[489] MS. Johnson Papers.
[490] The Lords of Trade had recently adopted a new plan for the management of Indian affairs, the principal feature of which was the confinement of the traders to the military posts, where they would conduct their traffic under the eye of proper officers, instead of ranging at will, without supervision or control, among the Indian villages. It was found extremely difficult to enforce this regulation.
[491] MS. Minutes of Proceedings at a Congress with Pontiac and Chiefs of the Ottawas, Pottawattamies, Hurons, and Chippewais; begun at Oswego, Tuesday, July 23, 1766.