by John Tanner
Without any further words, we parted, and the old Smoker and myself continued our laborious and difficult route along the bed of the Illinois. Most of the country on both sides the route from Chikago to the Yellow Ochre River, are prairie in which horses and carts can be driven without any difficulty. On our arrival at the place appointed, we found the Po-ta-wato-mie there, and all safe.
We now embarked every thing together in the canoe, and went down to Fort Clark which is on a narrow neck of land between two lakes, and is thence called by the Indians Ka-gah-gum-ming[*], (the isthmus.) Here I found some acquaintances, or rather those who claimed relationship in consequence of their having been in some measure connected with the family that I belonged to among the Indians. Here was a Taw-ga-we-nin-ne, a son of him that had been the husband of Net-no-kwa, and some of the relatives of one of my wives. One of these, an old woman, gave me a sack of Wiskobimmenuk, or that sort of corn which is plucked green, boiled, and then dried. Two or three miles beyond this, as I went on my way, I saw a man standing on the bank, who, as I came opposite to him, called out, “My friend, do you love venison?” When I told him I did, and had put my canoe in shore, he lifted a large and fat deer into it, saying, “Perhaps you will like to eat some of this, which I have just now killed.” He was going to turn away when I called him back, and though he refused any compensation for the deer, I gave him a little powder and shot, and some flints, for which he appeared very thankful.
About this time, when I was one day warm at work, I shot a crane and got into the water to take it up. Shortly after I felt somewhat unwell, but not reflecting on the cause of my illness, I went again into the water to get something I had shot, when immediately I fell down, and was unable to get up. My fever returned upon me with such violence that being in immediate expectation of death, I gave the Old Smoker directions to take my children to Governor Clark, who, I was confident, would assist them in reaching my relatives. But contrary to my expectation, I became gradually better, and after some days was able to go on my journey. We passed great numbers of Potawattomies, their lodges standing many together in almost every bend of the river. Some of them started out in their canoes occasionally, and accompanied me some distance on my way. One day a man came running from his lodge to the bank of the river, and asked me who I was. When I had told him, he inquired if my children could eat honey; and when I told him I believed they could, he sent two young men, each with a large wooden bowl full, which they brought wading into the water, and handed to me.
In this manner I descended the Illinois River, killing plenty of game, and having at all times enough to eat; my health, also, gradually improving, until I came to St. Louis. Here Governor Clark showed his wonted kindness, not only to me and my children, but to the Old Smoker who had been so serviceable to me in my journey. After giving the old man a handsome present, he provided for his return to his own country, and dismissed him. I was detained longer at St. Louis than I had wished, as new clothes were to be made for my children. Some of these not having been completed in time for me to take with me, the Governor sent them afterwards to Kentucky. From St. Louis, I went to Cape Guirardeau in my birch bark canoe, having a letter from Governor Clark to the Indian agent at that place.
At Cape Guirardeau, where I left my canoe, and where I remained but a very short time, I saw some of the gentlemen of Major Long’s party, then on their return from the Rocky Mountains. This was in the fall of the year 1820, and was about one year after my first arrival on the Ohio in 1819. From the time of my capture by Manito-o-geezhik and Gish-kaw-ko, just thirty years had elapsed before I started in the spring of 1819 from the Lake of the Woods. So that it must have been in the spring of the year 1789 that I was taken prisoner. I am now forty-seven years old.
Four months I remained with my sisters at Jackson, fifteen miles from Cape Guirardeau; then I went to Kentucky, and the next fall I returned to St. Louis, to see Governor Clark; but he was not at home, and as many people were then dying in St. Louis of fevers, I made but a short stay. On my way home, I fell sick of a violent fever at the Grand Prairie, which is eighty miles from the place where I had left my children. Fortunately I fell into the hands of a woman who treated me with much humanity and kindness, and I soon began to recover. I now heard that my children were dying with the fever which prevailed so generally throughout the country, and notwithstanding my own miserable and debilitated condition, I hastened home. Only one of my children died. The others though very sick, at last recovered. But I was not alone in this affliction. Seven died out of the circle of my near relatives with whom I then lived, and an alarming mortality prevailed throughout that part of the state.
On the ensuing spring an attempt was made to recover something for my benefit from the estate of my father; but my stepmother sent several of the negroes, which it was thought might fall to me, to the island of Cuba, where they were sold. This business is yet unsettled, and remains in the hands of the lawyers.
In the spring of 1822,I started to go again to the north, not finding that I was content among my friends in Kentucky. I went by the way of the Grand Prairie, and having given my canoe to my brother, I took horses, and putting my children on them, I came to St. Louis, thence by way of the Illinois, towards Chikago.
The Indian agent for Fort Clark lived at this time at a place called Elk Heart, some distance below. He, as well as most of the people on this route, had been kind, and had shown a disposition to assist me whenever I needed any thing. On this journey I stopped at Elk Heart, at the house of the agent, and though he was not himself at home, I had my horses fed, and was supplied with what refreshment I needed for myself and children, free of expense. On the following day, I met the agent on his way home from Fort Clark, and told him of the reception I had met at his house in his absence. He was glad to hear of this, and he told me that I should soon come to a bad river to cross; “but,” said he, “there is a boat now on this side, in which I have just crossed. The man to whom it belongs, lives on the other side. You must use the boat to cross, and then tell him to take it around to the other river, which is beyond his house, and help you to cross that, and I will pay him for his trouble.” We crossed accordingly, but my daughter Martha being now sick, we stopped all day near the house of the man to whom the canoe belonged. I had one very handsome horse which had been given me by my brother, and which this man said he was determined to have from me. He offered to buy it, but I told him the horse was necessary to my journey, and I could by no means part with it. Still he insisted, and said unless I would let him have the horse, I should not have his canoe to cross the other river. He cursed and abused me, but all the means he could use did not induce me to give up the horse. The canoe had been taken around to the river I had to cross for the use of some other person, and when I was ready to go I started, expecting to find it there. But on my way to the ferry, I met the man on horseback who said to me, “I have taken away the canoe, and you cannot cross.” Without regarding this, I went on, and when I arrived, I found the canoe was indeed gone, and that there were no logs, or other materials to make a raft. Fearing to endanger the children by swimming them across on the horse’s backs, I stood for some time in doubt what to do. At last I recollected, that if he had hid the canoe, as was most probably the case, his track would lead me to it. Then going back to the road a considerable distance from the river, I found his track coming into it. This I followed, until I found the canoe hid in thick bushes, about a mile below the ferry. Taking it up to the crossing place, I carried my children, and led the horses over; then giving the canoe a push into the stream, I said to it, “go, and stay where your master hides you.”
At Chikago, I was compelled to sell my horses for much less than their value to Captain Bradley and a Mr. Kenzie, who was then agent in place of Dr. Wolcott, as they told me I could not get them taken to Mackinac. One old horse which I left as being of little or no value, I afterwards received fifteen dollars for from some gentlemen who wished to make use of him, but who might have had him
for nothing. When Captain Keith, in the schooner Jackson, arrived, he told me, on seeing the paper given me by Governor Clark, that he would have taken my horses to Mackinac for nothing; but it was now too late as they were sold.
A principal part of my design in returning to Mackinac was to engage myself to Col. Boyd, the Indian agent there, as an interpreter; he having very often expressed a wish that I should do so, whenever I had acquired such a knowledge of the English language as would qualify me to discharge the duties of that station. It was now, therefore, a disappointment to me, to be informed that I had come too late, an interpreter having recently been hired to fill the place. He informed me, however, that an agent to be stationed at the Saut De St. Marie would probably arrive in the steam boat which was expected immediately, and Col. Boyd thought I might obtain the situation of interpreter for him. When Mr. Schoolcraft, the gentleman expected, arrived at Mackinac, he readily accepted my proposal. But as he was to stay but an hour or two on the island, he directed me to make my preparations and follow him, allowing me four days after his arrival at the Saut before it was necessary for me to be there. I made my preparations accordingly, and was nearly ready to start when a letter came from Mr. Schoolcraft, stating that he had found an interpreter at the Saut, and therefore did not wish me to join him. I carried back to the traders the furniture and other articles which I had purchased with the expectation of residing at the Saut, and they willingly restored me my money.
CHAPTER XV
Transactions of the agents and clerks of the American Fur Company, in the country about the Lake of the Woods. – Treachery of an Indian woman. – Misfortunes attendant on an attempt to bring my children from the Indian country.
Being now destitute of employment, I engaged to Mr. Stewart, the agent of the American Fur Company, to go with the traders into the Indian country. This I preferred to remaining with the Indian agent, though he again proposed to hire me for a striker in his smith’s shop. For my services with the people of the American Fur Company, I was to receive two hundred and twenty-five dollars per year and a suit of clothes.
My children I placed at school at Mackinac, and went to the Saut De St. Marie with Mr. Morrison, one of the company’s principal clerks. Thence they sent me, in a boat with some Frenchmen, to Fond Du Lac. I was unacquainted with the manners of these people, and should have suffered, and perhaps perished for want of provisions, had I not purchased some occasionally from the crew. From Fond du Lac I went to Rainy Lake with Mr. Cote, but my ignorance of the business in which I had embarked exposed me to much inconvenience. I had still some of my traps with me, with which I took a considerable number of musk rats on this journey, and I was not less surprised than displeased, to be told that the skins did not belong to me. But I was not only compelled to give these up; I was made to paddle by myself a canoe heavily loaded with wild rice, and to submit to various other laborious employments which I did very reluctantly.
When we arrived at Rainy Lake, I went to hunt, but killed nothing. Soon afterwards, they sent me to the rapids of Rainy Lake River, and before the ice had formed so as to put an end to the fishing, I had taken one hundred and fifty sturgeons. The winter had now commenced, and Mr. Cote sent me with one clerk, four Frenchmen, and a small outfit of goods, equal to one hundred and sixty dollars in value, to trade among the Indians. We were furnished with no other food than wild rice at the rate of eighteen quarts per man, and instructed not to return until we should have exchanged for peltries all our goods. As I knew we should be compelled to travel far before we found the Indians, I requested of Mr. Cote permission to remain while I could prepare a train and harness for two good dogs which belonged to me; also snow shoes for ourselves; but he would not hear of a moment’s delay.
Four days after we started, a heavy snow fell, and our wild rice being all expended, the clerk and three of the Frenchmen left me and returned to the Fort. There was now only myself and one Frenchman named Veiage, who however was a hardy, patient, and most excellent man, and we struggled through the snow with our heavy loads as we might.
After some days, and when we were extremely reduced through want of provisions, we found some lodges of Indians, but they also were in a starving condition. With these I left Veiage, and with a few goods, went to visit another encampment at some distance; these also I found perishing of hunger. On my return to the place where I had left my companion, the lodges were removed and no person remained. Here my strength failed entirely, and I sat down expecting to perish, as the night was very cold; but an Indian who had come back to look at his traps, found me, made a fire, and after he had raised me up, assisted me to his lodge. He had taken one beaver, and this was now to be divided among twenty persons, not one of whom had eaten a mouthful in two days, and all were in a starving condition.
Soon after this, as I continued on my journey according to my strength, I found the lodge of my friend Oto-pun-nebe, the man who had taken my part in the affair with Wawbebe-nais-sa. His wife began to cry when she saw the extreme misery of my condition, so much was I reduced and changed in appearance by hunger and fatigue. About this time eight starving Frenchmen came upon us, who had been sent by Mr. Cote, he supposing that I had found buffalo, and must by this time have meat in great abundance. One of my dogs died, and we ate him. We were travelling on the old trail of the Indians, but a deep snow had fallen since they passed. Under this snow we found several dead dogs, and other things thrown away or left by the Indians, such as bones, worn out moccasins, and pieces of leather. With these we were able to sustain life. We killed also, and ate my last dog; but we had yet a long distance to travel before we could reach the buffalo, and as we were all rapidly failing, we consulted together, and determined to kill one of the Fur Company’s dogs. We did so, and this enabled us to reach the buffalo, when our distress was for the present at an end.
After I had killed many buffaloes, and meat had for some time been plenty in our camp, the Frenchmen became lazy and insolent, and refused to go for meat, to carry packs, or render me any assistance whatever. When we were ready to return to the trading house, every one of these men refused to take any load but his own blanket and provisions, except Veiage, and with him I divided our peltries, which in all weighed six hundred pounds. We were of course a considerable time in carrying these heavy loads to the Fort.
When I arrived, I accounted for my whole outfit; having the peltries I had purchased in exchange for every article, except some powder and shot which we had ourselves expended in hunting. The price of this was deducted from my pay in my final settlement with the agent of the American Fur Company. Then ten dollars as the price of the dog we had killed in the extremity of our hunger, and which had been the means of saving, not my life only, but that of the nine Frenchmen that were with me. But Mr. Cote did not consider my return a good one, and complained of me for having refused to take whiskey with my outfit. I told him that if I had taken whiskey, I could certainly have obtained a much greater quantity of peltries, but I was averse to trading with the Indians when intoxicated, and did not wish to be one, on any occasion, to introduce whiskey among them. But as he had determined on sending me out again, and insisted I should take whiskey, I told him I would for once conform entirely to his instructions, which were “to use every method to procure the greatest possible quantity of skins at the lowest price.” This time I went to the country about the Lake of the Woods, and with an outfit valued at two hundred dollars, I purchased by means of whiskey, more than double the amount of peltries I had before brought in. Now Mr. Cote expressed the highest satisfaction at my success, but I told him if he wished to have his goods sold in that way, he must employ some other person, as I could not consent to be the instrument of such fraud and injustice. I had been so long among the Indians that many of them were personally my friends, and having seen the extent of the mischiefs occasioned by the introduction of intoxicating liquors, I had become desirous of preventing it, as far as in my power, at least. I was not willing to be myself active in spreading suc
h poison among them, nor was I willing to use the advantage their unconquerable appetite for spirits might give me in bargaining with them, as I knew that though they might easily be defrauded, any fraud thus practised must be known to them, and they would feel resentment and dislike in proportion as they were made to suffer; more particularly against me, whom they looked upon as one of their own number.
I remained fifteen months in the American Fur Company’s employ, during all which time I slept only thirteen nights in the house, so active and laborious were my occupations. It had been an item in my agreement with Mr. Stewart that I should be allowed to go to Red River to see my children, and make an attempt to bring them out with me. Accordingly, when the traders were about to make their yearly visit to Mackinac, I was allowed to go by myself; but having been disappointed of moccasins and other articles that had been promised me by Mr. Cote, I suffered much inconvenience, travelling as I did by myself in a small canoe. My children were three in number, two daughters and one son, and had been a long time separated from me even before I first left the Indian country.
