THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY
ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following work from the Miami Archives should be read and
considered within the historical context in which it was composed and printed.
The opinions expressed and the language used do not reflect the opinions or
standards of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, but are, rather,
indicative of thought in that historical moment during which the document was
published.
Journal of Captain
Thomas Morris
(Detroit, Sept. 25, 1764)
(Due to length divided here into two
parts)
Morris, Thomas (of His Majesty's
XVII Regiment of Infantry) in:
Thwaites, Early Western
Travels, vol. I,
pp. 301-328.
us to death (the Indians and myself) or to tie us and send us prisoners to their villages, or at least to make us return. They loaded the English with the heaviest reproaches; and added, that while the sun shone they would be at enmity with us. The Kiccapoos, Mascoutins, and Wiatanons, who happened to be at the Miamis village declared, that they would dispatch me at their villages, if the Miamis should let me pass. The Shawanese and Delawares concluded their speeches with saying: "This is the last belt we shall send you, till we send the hatchet; which will be about the end of next month (October)." Doubtless their design was to amuse General Bradstreet with fair language, to cut off his army at Sandusky, when least expected, and then to send the hatchet to the nations: a plan well laid; but of which it was my good fortune to prevent them from attempting the execution. To return to myself: I remained in the fort, and two Indian warriors (one of whom was called Visenlair) with tommahawks in their hands, seized me, one by each arm; on which I turned to Godefroi, the only person who had not left me, and cried out to him, seeing him stand motionless and pale: "Eh bien! Vous m'abandonnez donc?" Well then! You give me up? He answered: "Non, mon capitaine, je ne vous abandonnerai jamais," No, my captain, I will never give you up; and followed the Indians, who pulled me along to the water-side, where I imagined they intended to put me into a canoe; but they dragged me into the water. I concluded their whim was to drown me, and then scalp me; but I soon found my mistake, the river being fordable. They led me on till we came near their village; and there they stopped and stripped me. They could not get off my shirt, which was held by the (page 315) wrist bands, after they had pulled it over my head; and in rage and despair I tore it off myself. They then bound my arms with my sash, and drove me before them to a cabin, where was a bench, on which they made me sit. The whole village was now in an uproar. Godefroi prevailed with St. Vincent, who had followed us to the water-side, but had turned back, to come along with him; and encouraged Pondiac's nephew and the little chief's son to take my part. St. Vincent brought the great belt, and Pondiac's nephew spoke. Nanamis, an Indian, bid Godefroi take courage, and not quit me. Godefroi told le Cygne, a Miamis chief, that his children were at Detroit; and that, if they killed me, he could not tell what might befal them. He spoke likewise to le Cygne's son, who whispered his father, and the father came and unbound my arms, and gave me his pipe to smoke. Visenlair, upon my speaking, got up and tied me by the neck to a post. And now every one was preparing to act his part in torturing me. The usual modes of torturing prisoners are applying hot stones to the soles of the feet, running hot needles into the eyes, which latter cruelty is generally performed by the women, and shooting arrows and running and pulling them out of the sufferer in order to shoot them again and again: this is generally done by the children. The torture is often continued two or three days, if they can contrive to keep the prisoners alive so long. These modes of torture I should not have mentioned, if the gentleman who advised me to publish my journal, had not thought it necessary. It may easily be conceived what I must have felt at the thought of such horrors which I was to endure. I recollect perfectly what my apprehensions were. I had not the smallest hope of life; and I remember that I conceived (page 316) myself as it were going to plunge into a gulf, vast, immeasurable; and that, in a few moments after, the thought of torture occasioned a sort of torpor and insensibility; and I looked at Godefroi, and seeing him exceedingly distressed, I said what I could to encourage him: but he desired me not to speak. I supposed that it gave offence to the savages, and therefore was silent; when Pacanne, king of the Miamis nation, and just out of his minority, having mounted a horse and crossed the river, rode up to me. When I heard him calling out to those about me, and felt his hand behind my neck, I thought he was going to strangle me out of pity: but he untied me, saying (as it was afterwards interpreted to me) I give that man his life. "If you want meat (for they sometimes eat their prisoners) go to Detroit, or upon the lake (meaning go face your enemies the English) and you'll find enough. What business have you with this man's flesh, who is come to speak to us?" I fixed my eyes steadfastly on this young man, and endeavoured by looks to express my gratitude. An Indian then presented me his pipe; and I was dismissed by being pushed rudely away. I made what haste I could to a canoe, and passed over to the fort, having received on my way a smart cut of a switch from an Indian on horseback. Mr. Levi, a Jew trader, and some soldiers, who were prisoners, came to see me. Two very handsome young Indian women came likewise, seemed to compassionate me extremely, and asked Godefroi a thousand questions. If I remember right, they were the young king's sisters. Happy Don Quixote, attended by princesses! I was never left alone, as the wretches, who stripped and tied me, were always lurking about to find an opportunity to stab me. I lay in the house of one L'Esperance, a Frenchman. The next day (page 317) my Indians spoke on their belts. The two wretches still sought an opportunity to kill me. The day following the Miamis returned their answer: "That we must go back;" shewed the belts of the Senecas, Shawanese, and Delawares; gave my Indians a small string of white wampum; and told them: "to go and inform their chiefs of what they had seen and heard." While the council sat I was concealed in L'Esperance's garret, as Godefroi was obliged to attend it. Being determined at all events to get into the Illinois country if possible, St. Vincent and I agreed, that he should endeavour to gain le Cygne and the young king to attend me to Wyaut: but, in the middle of the night, St. Vincent came and awoke me, told me that two Frenchmen were just arrived from St. Joseph, and that the Delawares, who were there, were coming back to the Miamis village. He advised me to send for my chief immediately, and tell him, for his own safety as well as mine, to try to get leave to go away in the morning, (for the Miamis had appointed the next day but one for our departure). This was accordingly done, and leave obtained. I went to visit le Cygne, who told me, " that he would have been glad to have attended me to Wyaut; but that he could not think of leading me to my death: for that there were so many tommahawks lifted up there, that he should have trembled to have gone himself." I gave notes to Pacanne and Pondiac's nephew, setting forth that they had saved my life, and entreating all Englishmen to use them kindly. (Pacanne shewed his paper to Colonel Croghan, when he made his tour through the Indian country, and the Colonel was pleased to bring him to Detroit, and, at a private meeting appointed for that purpose, sent for me, and gave me a very handsome present to lay at his feet). We gave (page 318) all our blankets and shirts to those Indians who had done us service; and hearing that the chiefs were in council, and talked of not allowing me to return with my party, but of detaining me prisoner; and my Indians themselves appearing uneasy, having left my money and baggage with one Capucin, a Frenchman, I hurried away about noon, vexed at heart that I had not been able to execute the orders I had received. I gave General Bradstreet's letter for Monsieur St. Ange, the French commandant at Fort Chartres, to St. Vincent, to deliver to that officer; and signed a certificate which he was pleased to put into my hands, specifying that, on many occasions, he had saved my life. Fear lent wings to my Indians this day; and we continued our march till it was quite dark, being apprehensive of an attack.
The Following day, while we were shooting at some
turkeys, we discovered the cabins of a hunting party on the opposite side of
the Miamis river; the men were in the woods; but a squaw came over to us, who
proved to be the wife of the little chief. Godefroi told her that I was gone to
the Ilinois country with her son. She informed us that the Indians were not
returned from Detroit; and added that there were four hundred Delawares and
three hundred Shawanese (as she had been told) at the Uttawaw villages, who
wanted to go and set fire to that place. We were sure that this piece of news
about the Shawanese and Delawares was false, as the Uttawaws themselves wanted
provisions: but my Indians believed it, and it served to being them over at (page 320) once to my way of
thinking, which was, to pass through the woods, and avoid the villages of the
Uttawaws. They were all much alarmed, but in particular the Huron of Loretto.
This regenerate monster of the church, this Christian savage,20 who spoke French
fluently, had the cruelty and insolence to tell me, that as I could not march
as fast as the rest, I must take an old man and a a boy (both lame) and make
the best of my way: that the chief would go with me, and he would conduct the
other[s], who were eleven in number, and all able men. I spoke to him with
gentleness, and begged that he would not think of separating from us; on which
he said something, that I did not understand, in his language which resembles
that of the five nations, and of course was understood by my chief, and which
vexed him so much, that he told me, "I might go by myself;" but I
found means to pacify him. I now told Godefroi, who was of himself so
determined, that he would of course go with me. Upon this the Huron gave us
very gross language; and indeed such stubborn impudence I never saw. He told
the chief that if he suffered me to take my horses with me, we should be
discovered, but I obtained the chief's consent to take them a little way. I
then proposed going into the wood to settle the distribution of our provisions
and ammunition; but the Huron would listen to nothing: so leaving him and his
party, consisting of ten, with my best horse, which he said he would turn loose
as soon as he should get a little way further, I struck into the wood (page 321) with Godefroi, the
chief, the old Indian, and the Indian boy; Godefroi and myself on horseback.
_______________________________
20 One of the earliest Jesuit missions in Canada was to the Hurons, for whom (1673) a village was built at Loretto, ten miles from Quebec, on a seigniory belonging to the Jesuit order. Remnants of the Loretto Hurons are still to be found at the old village. The French had employed these "praying Indians" in their wars; it will be seen that the English were following the same policy.- ED.
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