Morse says, in his Report, 1822: “In the war kindled against these tribes, [Peorias, Kaskaskias, and Cahokias,] by the Sauks and Foxes, in revenge for the death of their chief, Pontiac, these 3 tribes were nearly exterminated. Few of them now remain. About one hundred of the Peorias are settled on Current River, W. of the Mississippi; of the Kaskaskias 36 only remain in Illinois.”—Morse, 363.
General Gage, in his letter to Sir William Johnson, dated July 10, 176—, says: “The death of Pontiac, committed by an Indian of the Illinois, believed to have been excited by the English to that action, had drawn many of the Ottawas and other northern nations towards their country to revenge his death.”
“From Miami, Pontiac went to Fort Chartres on the Illinois. In a few years, the English, who had possession of the fort, procured an Indian of the Peoria [Kaskaskia] nation to kill him. The news spread like lightning through the country. The Indians assembled in great numbers, attacked and destroyed all the Peorias, except about thirty families, which were received into the fort. These soon began to increase. They removed to the Wabash, and were about to settle, when the Indians collected in the winter, surrounded their village, and killed the whole, excepting a few children, who were saved as prisoners. Old Mr. Gouin was there at the time. He was a trader; and, when the attack commenced, was ordered by the Indians to shut his house and not suffer a Peoria to enter.”—Gouin’s Account, MS.
Pontiac left several children. A speech of his son Shegenaba, in 1775, is preserved in Force’s American Archives, 4th Series, III. 1542. There was another son, named Otussa, whose grave is on the Maumee. In a letter to the writer, Mr. H. R. Schoolcraft says, “I knew Atóka, a descendant of Pontiac. He was the chief of an Ottawa village on the Maumee. A few years ago, he agreed to remove, with his people, to the west of the Mississippi.”
Transcriber’s Note: The pages in this e-book have been renumbered, along with any references to that page number. Blank pages have been deleted. On pages that remain, some unnecessary page numbers may have been deleted when they fall in the middle of lists. Illustrations may have been moved. Footnotes (labeled FOOTNOTES:) have been moved to near the end. When a particular speaker’s preference can be determined, we have rendered consistent on a per-word-pair basis the hyphenation or spacing of such pairs when repeated in the same grammatical context. Paragraph formatting has been made consistent. The publisher’s inadvertent omissions of important punctuation have been corrected. Two lists of illustrations have been added.
The following list indicates any additional changes.
Page
10 Pontiac at Isle à la Peche[Pêche].—Suspicious
17 is also sometimes tattoed[tattooed] on the body
26 the rich borders of the Genessee[Genesee],
422 most of whom, with his Wife, be[he] killed and scalped
518 and to those of the Rivière â[à] la Tranche
557 Beaujeau[Beaujeu], a French captain, leads a sortie
559 their character, 162[160];
560 Coureurs de bois,” or bush-rangers, 68, 162[160];
564 Indians, their general character, 13[15];
564 their pride and self-consciousness, 14[15];
569 scalps his own Indian wife and several of her relations, 421[419]
571 the massacre in Lanscaster[Lancaster] jail