[1455] Gage's despatch, May 27, 1764 (Haldimand Coll., p. 18). Major Loftus arrived at New Orleans from Mobile with the 22d regiment, Feb. 12, 1764. The French governor "gave him a very bad account of the disposition of the Indians towards us [the English], and assured him, unless he carried some presents to distribute amongst them, that he would not be able to get up the river" (Gage to Earl Halifax, N. Y. Col. Doc., vii. 619). The attack on the command of Major Loftus was made on the 20th of March, 1764, by the Tunicas Indians, a few miles above the mouth of the Red River: first from the west bank, and later from the east bank, of the Mississippi. The spot is indicated on Lieut. Ross's Map of the Mississippi, 1765 (pub. 1775), by the legend "Where the 22d regiment was drove back by the Tunicas, 1764;" and on Andrew Ellicott's Map of the Mississippi, 1814 (Journal, p. 25), by "Loftus's Heights", on the east bank. Pittman (p. 35) gives some particulars of the attack, and says, "They killed five men and wounded four."
[1456] Capt. Pittman was the author of The Present State of the European Settlements on the Mississippi, with a Geographical Description of that River; illustrated by [eight] plans and draughts (London, 1770, 4to). It is the earliest English account of those settlements, and, as an authority in early Western history, is of the highest importance. He was a military engineer, and for five years was employed in surveying the Mississippi River and exploring the Western country. The excellent plans which accompany the work, artistically engraved on copper, add greatly to its value. They are: (1) Plan of New Orleans; (2) Plan of Mobile; (3) Draught of River Ibbeville to Lake Ponchartrain; (4) Plan of Fort Rosalia; (5) Plan of Cascaskies [Kaskaskia]; (6, 7, 8) Draught of the Mississippi River from the Balisle to Fort Chartres (in three sheets). Cf. Vol. V. pp. 47, 71.—Ed.
[1457] Sir William Johnson, hearing of the failure of the English troops to reach the Illinois country by way of the Mississippi, attributed the result to a conspiracy existing between eighteen tribes of Indians to prevent it, which he charged to the intrigue of the French residing in New Orleans and the Illinois (N. Y. Col. Doc., vii. 776).
[1458] Fraser, "being too zealous", as Sir William Johnson wrote in July, 1765, "set out before Mr. Croghan had effected the necessary points with the Indians;" and "with two or three attendants" (Stone's Life of Johnson, ii. 247) floated down the Ohio, and arrived at Fort Chartres without casualty. Here he was courteously received by the French commander; but he and his attendants were ill treated by drunken Indians, and their lives were saved by the interposition of Pontiac in their behalf. The story of Fraser's troubles came to Sir William in another form, and he wrote: "From late accounts from Detroit there is reason to think that Fraser has been put to death, together with those that accompanied him, by Pontiac's party" (N. Y. Col. Doc., vii. 746). Fraser, finding the Illinois country at that time an unsafe place of residence, took a passage in disguise down the Mississippi to New Orleans, and thence to Mobile.
[1459] N. Y. Col. Doc., vii. 746, 765. The Shawanese, in their treaty of July 7, stipulated to send ten deputies (Ibid. 752); and the Delawares, in their treaty of May 8, agreed "to send with Mr. Croghan proper persons to accompany and assist him" (Ibid. 739).
[1460] Then called Post Vincent, and later simply "The Post" and "O'post." It was often erroneously written "St. Vincent."
[1461] The savages apologized, saying they supposed the Indians of the party were Cherokees.
[1462] Now Lafayette, Indiana.
[1463] George Croghan's journals (for there are several) of his journey to the Illinois country in 1765 are important documents in the history of the West. "This journal", says Parkman (ii. 296), "has been twice published,—in the appendix to Butler's History of Kentucky, and in the Pioneer History of Dr. S. P. Hildreth",—implying that they were publications of the same journal. Dr. Hildreth, in a note appended to his version (p. 85), makes a statement from which it is evident that he supposed they were the same journal: "The above journal was copied from an original MS. among Col. [George] Morgan's papers, and not copied from Butler's History of Kentucky, which had not been seen by the writer at that time." It is an important fact that these journals are not the same, no paragraph in one being the same as a paragraph in the other. Their subject matter is different, and yet they are in no instance contradictory. The one printed by Dr. Hildreth may be regarded as an official report, and the one printed by Butler as a descriptive account. The former gives the details of the official business which he was sent to transact; the latter is such a journal as any traveller would keep, giving from day to day the incidents of the journey, describing the scenery and topography of the country, the fertility of the soil, the game, and omitting wholly to speak of public business, or what was done at councils with the Indians. He describes his being wounded and captured by the Indians, near the Wabash, as a personal misfortune, but makes no mention of conferences with the Indians at Ouatanon, or of his meeting Pontiac and making peace with him. Butler (p. 365, ed. 1834; p. 459, ed. 1836) states that "the following journal, so curious and little known, is extracted from the Monthly American Journal of Geology and Natural Science, December, 1831, by G. W. Featherstonhaugh, Esq., Philadelphia, and purports to be from the original, in possession of the editor." This text was reprinted at Burlington, New Jersey, 1875, in a tract of 38 pages (Thomson's Bibliog. of Ohio, no. 285). A third version of Croghan's journal is in the letters of Sir William Johnson to the Lords of Trade (N. Y. Col. Doc., vii. 779-788). With some variations it is the same as that printed by Dr. Hildreth. Each contains passages and paragraphs which are not in the other. In the Johnson text, words and passages are omitted, as illegible, which are given in the Pioneer History. Sir William, writing Nov. 16, 1765, says: "A few days ago [Oct. 21] Mr. Croghan arrived here, and delivered me his journal and transactions with the Indians, from which I have selected the principal parts, which I now inclose to your lordships. The whole of his journal is long and not yet collected; because after he was made prisoner and lost his baggage, etc., he was necessitated to write it on scraps of paper procured with difficulty at Post Vincent [Vincennes], and that in a disguised character, to prevent its being understood by the French, in case through any disaster he might again be plundered" (Ibid. 775). Sir William, from May 8 to Sept. 28, 1765, frequently reports that he has heard from Croghan, and mentions incidents and details which are not contained in either of the three versions named (Ibid. 746, 749, 765). Being at Post Ouatanon on the 12th of July, Croghan said: "I wrote to Gen. Gage and Sir William Johnson, to Col. Campbell at Detroit, Major Murray at Fort Pitt, and Major Farmar at Mobile, or on his way up the Mississippi, and acquainted them with everything that had happened since my departure from Fort Pitt" (Hildreth's Pioneer History, p. 71; N. Y. Col. Doc., vii. 781). In the Butler journal, writing from the same place, July 15, he said: "From this post the Indians permitted me to write to the commander at Fort Chartres [St. Ange]; but would not suffer me to write to anybody else (this, I apprehend, was a precaution of the French, lest their villainy should be perceived too soon), although the Indians had given me permission to write to Sir William Johnson and to Fort Pitt on our march, before we arrived at this place." In the summary of his report to Sir William, he said: "In the situation I was in at Ouatanon, with great numbers of Indians about me, and no necessaries, such as paper and ink, I had it not in my power to take down all the speeches made by the Indian nations, nor what I said to them, in so particular a manner as I could wish." It is evident that Croghan wrote many accounts of his journey, and only three of them, as now appears, are accessible. A biographical sketch of George Croghan, by Dr. O'Callaghan, is in N. Y. Col. Doc., vii. 982, 983. For earlier traces of Croghan see Vol. V. 10, 596, 610.—Ed.
[1464] N. Y. Col. Doc., vii. 783; Hildreth's Pioneer History, p. 75. Pontiac kept his promise, visited Sir William Johnson in the spring, concluded a peace, and departed laden with presents. He returned to his village on the Maumee, and little is known of him for the next three years. He then reappeared in the Illinois country, and visited his old friend M. St. Ange, who was in command of the post of St. Louis, then under Spanish rule. Like other Indians, Pontiac indulged at times in the excessive use of intoxicating liquors. Against the advice of his friend, St. Ange, he attended an Indian drinking carousal, at which he was waylaid and brained with a hatchet by a Kaskaskia Indian, who had been paid a barrel of rum by an English trader, named Williamson, to commit the deed. St. Ange claimed the body, and buried it with the honors of war, in an unknown grave near the fort of St. Louis. J. N. Nicollet, in his sketch of St. Louis (p. 82), says: "This murder, which roused the vengeance of all the Indian tribes friendly to Pontiac, brought about the successive wars and almost total extermination of the Illinois nation. Pontiac was a remarkably well-looking man, nice in his person, and full of taste in his dress and in the arrangement of his exterior ornaments. His complexion is said to have approached that of the whites. His origin is still uncertain, for some have supposed him to belong to the Ottawas, others to the Miamis, etc.; but Col. P. Chouteau, senior, who knew him well, is of the opinion that he was a Nipissing." (Reprinted in Olden Time, i. 322.)