[77] Rogers names the lake here mentioned, as Sandusky. It is difficult to tell from this description whether or not the flotilla entered the inner Sandusky Bay. Probably the encampment for the nineteenth was on the site of the present city of Sandusky, at Mill or Pipe Creek.—Ed.
[78] Médard Gamelin was the son of a French surgeon, and nephew of that Sieur de la Jémerais who accompanied La Vérendrye on his Western explorations, and died (1735) in the wilderness west of Lake Superior. Gamelin was born two years before this event. Emigrating to Detroit, he employed himself in raising and training a militia company composed of the habitants, which he led to the relief of Niagara (1759). There he was captured and kept a prisoner until released by the orders of General Amherst in order to accompany Rogers’s expedition, and pacify the settlers at Detroit. He took the oath of allegiance and remained in that city after its capitulation to the British, dying there about 1778.—Ed.
[79] The present Cranberry Creek is east of Sandusky. The creek which Croghan mentions was some small tributary of Portage River (the Carrying-place), or directly beyond it. Rogers says they went “to the mouth of a river in breadth 300 feet,” which is evidently Portage River.—Ed.
[80] Rogers’s Journal (p. 191), gives his own speech. He indicates in his account that the Indians were preparing to resist the English advance; but Croghan does not mention any such suspicions.
General Jeffrey Amherst was an English soldier of much distinction, who after serving a campaign in Flanders and Germany, was commissioned by Pitt to take charge of the military operations in America (1758). His first success was the capture of Louisburg, followed by the campaign of 1759, when he reduced Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and moved upon Montreal, which capitulated the following year. He was immediately made governor-general of the British in North America, received the thanks of Parliament, and was presented with the order of the Bath. It was in obedience to his orders that Rogers undertook this westward expedition. Amherst’s later career was a succession of honors, emoluments, and high appointments in the British army. He opposed the cause of the colonies during the American Revolution. Late in life he was field-marshal of the British army, dying (1797) at his estate in Kent, as Baron Amherst of Montreal.—Ed.
[81] Cedar Point is at the southeastern entrance of Maumee Bay. Rogers’s Journal for November 23 says that an Ottawa sachem came into their camp; possibly this was Pontiac.—Ed.
[82] From the distances given in Rogers’s Journal it would appear that the expedition encamped the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth in the entrance of Swan Creek, Monroe County, Michigan, a short distance north of Stony Point.—Ed.
[83] Pierre François Rigault, Chevalier de Cavagnal, Marquis de Vaudreuil, was Canadian born, and entered the military service at an early age. In 1728 he was in the present Wisconsin on an expedition against the Fox Indians; some years later, he was governor at Trois Rivières, and in 1743 was sent to command in Louisiana, where he remained nine years, until appointed governor of New France, just before the outbreak of the French and Indian War. As the last French governor of Canada, his term of service was embittered by quarrels with the French generals, and disasters to French arms. After his capitulation at Montreal, he went to France, only to be arrested, thrown into the Bastile, and tried for malfeasance in office. He succeeded in securing an acquittal (1763); but, broken by disappointments and enmities, died the following year.—Ed.
[84] The Potawotami Indians are an Algonquian tribe, being first encountered by French explorers on the borders of Green Bay; but later, they had villages at Detroit, St. Josephs River (southeast Michigan), and Milwaukee. They were devoted to the French interests, and easily attracted to the vicinity of the French posts. For the Wyandots (Hurons) and Ottawas, see ante.—Ed.
[85] The French fort of St. Josephs was established early in the eighteenth century, on the right bank of the river of that name, about a mile from the present city of Niles, Michigan. Its commandant was the “farmer” of the post—that is, he was entitled to what profits he could win from the Indian trade, and paid his own expenses. After the British took possession of this fort, it was garrisoned by a small detachment of the Royal Americans. When Pontiac’s War broke out, but fourteen soldiers were at the place, with Ensign Schlosser in command. The fort was captured and eleven of the garrison killed, the rest being carried prisoners to Detroit. During the Revolution, Fort St. Josephs was three times taken from the British—twice by parties from the Illinois led by French traders (in 1777, and again in 1778); and in 1781, a Spanish expedition set out from St. Louis to capture the stronghold, and take possession of this region for Spain. See Mason, Chapters from Illinois History (Chicago, 1901). The United States failed to garrison St. Josephs when the British forts were surrendered in 1796, and built instead (1804) Fort Dearborn at Chicago.