IV
Journal of Captain Thomas Morris, of His Majesty’s XVII Regiment of Infantry; Detroit, September 25, 1764
Reprint from the author’s Miscellanies in Prose and Verse (London, 1791), pp. 1-39
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
The journal of Captain Thomas Morris is notable from two points of view. First, because of its rarity—the volume in which it is found, Miscellanies in Prose and Verse (London, printed for James Ridgway, 1791), being a treasure much prized by the collector of valuable Americana. In the second place, the journal is of importance to historical students because of the light it throws upon conditions in the West at this critical moment (1766), and the proof it furnishes that Pontiac’s influence was still paramount among the Western Indians, that Bradstreet had been completely duped, and that native hostility to British sovereignty over the Western tribes was deep-seated, and would take many years wholly to uproot.
Incidentally, also, the journal possesses considerable dramatic interest. Dealing with a single episode, told in the first person by the chief participant, and he a person of literary tastes, the thrilling incidents—repeated escapes from torture and death, the flight through the woods, and the final refuge at Detroit—all depicted graphically, yet simply, hold one’s attention unflagging to the end. The side touches are in keeping with the principal incidents: the contrast between the author’s situation and his calm enjoyment of Shakespeare’s tragedy, so curiously preserved for him from the loot of some English officer’s baggage; the appearance of the white charger that had borne its master Braddock to sudden death in the Monongahela Valley nine years before; the gratitude and fidelity of the Canadian Godefroy, evinced to so good a purpose; the pomp and pride of the red-coated brave who wore on his back his reward for services to Sir William Johnson; the honor of Pontiac and the Miami chief, who protected with difficulty the sacred person of an ambassador; the roguery of the Loretto Indian, who deserted his chief and so speedily suffered therefor—all these circumstances heighten and prolong the reader’s interest, and add vividness to the narrative.
Our knowledge of the author’s life is but slight. He came of a race of soldiers, his father and grandfather before him having served as captains of the same regiment in which he was an officer. His early education was considerable; and fifteen months had been spent in Paris familiarizing himself with the language and literature of its people. His tastes were always those of a scholar and a lover of literature; he being of that class of British soldiers of which Wolfe was so conspicuous an example, whose recreations took the line of literary appreciation and performance. Morris came to America in 1758, as a lieutenant in the 17th regiment of infantry, in which he had been commissioned three years previous. Although this was Forbes’s command, Morris saw service at Louisburg in 1758, and was with Amherst in the campaign around Lake Champlain in the following year. In 1761, he was promoted to a captaincy and assigned to the garrison of Fort Hendrick, at Canajoharie in the Mohawk Valley—the home of the famous Mohawk chiefs, Hendricks and Brant. It was doubtless there that he acquired that knowledge of the Mohawk temperament which he exhibits in the opening pages of his journal. While stationed at this lonely outpost he addressed his friend “Dicky” Montgomery in a parody of one of Horace’s odes, which possesses more historical interest than literary merit.[1] It is evident from his dedication of certain odes to “ceux des Français, qui ont connu l’auteur au siége de la Martinique,” that Morris accompanied General Monckton upon that expedition in 1762.