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BOUQUET'S VICTORY.

61

strength to encounter fresh dangers, from this place Bouquet wrote his despatches.* Even after his success his anxiety, or possibly the sense of his responsibility, came to the surface. "I hope, he said, we shall be no more disturbed, for if we have another Action we shall be hardly able to carry our wounded." But whatever his sense of the difficulties in his front, he did not fail to do justice to the service of the men he commanded. The sentence in which he performed this duty, and it may be taken as a type of his character, forms the closing lines of his letter "The behaviour of the troops on this occasion speaks for itself so strongly, that for me to attempt their eulogium. would but detract from their merit."

Bouquet reached fort Pitt in safety, on the 11th, with the wounded and stores; he had but twenty-four miles of march, but he made it leisurely and without interruption. As soon as the troops were refreshed, a detachment was sent to fort Ligonier to bring up the convoy which had been left there. Major Campbell, who was in command, did not meet an Indian, so overwhelming had been their defeat. The men had however greatly suffered in the march, for of the 42nd and 77th, only 245 were fit for duty. The victory of Bouquet is memorable under the two-fold aspect, that it was the last action of any magnitude with the Indians during British rule, and by the moral effect it created.

The Indians had selected the mode, the time and the place of attack. Sustained by the successes of the year, they had Return of killed and wounded in the two actions at Edge Hill, near Bushy Run, the 5th and 6th August, 1763.

-Killed

-Wounded

confidently looked forward to overwhelming the British column. They had temporarily abandoned the siege of fort Pitt, which they anticipated to renew and triumphantly bring their attack to a conclusion by the force which had annihilated Bouquet. But they themselves were so thoroughly overpowered and broken that they never recovered the blow, and in the future, although desirous of engaging in hostilities, they had never the courage to recommence them. The day's action greatly depressed them, for they had been thoroughly repulsed in all directions. Their losses were very serious. It is estimated that sixty Indians were killed, among them some well-known chiefs. Kikyuscung, one of the great ringleaders of the mischief, was among the dead, his body having been found with Wolfe, another prominent chief. Butler had previously been killed at fort Pitt.* These tribes never again raised their head in outrage.

The following year they accepted the terms of the peace dictated to them at the river Muskingum, recognizing the sovereignty of the white race, from the conviction that it was impossible to oppose it. Amherst expressed to Bouquet the greatest satisfaction at the important service rendered at Edge Hill, but Bouquet's career of usefulness was not yet ended; he had to complete to its full consequences the peace which his generalship had gained. In modern times all memory of the action and of the soldiers who fought in it, has passed away. Few men out of the circle of historical students, pursue these researches, or know the contest even by name. If in any way related, the encounter is chronicled as an ordinary skirmish in an Indian outbreak; whereas, however small the number engaged, it may be described as one of the prominent events of the continent, from the important consequences which followed. There has been rarely an occasion where gallantry, judgment and determination, could more justly claim public recognition. But amid the dreary political contests of the home government at this painful period, George Grenville was then in power, it passed unreOfficial account, published in New York papers, 29th August, 1763.

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THE OHIO BOUNDARY.

63

warded, although reported in the contemporary historical literature. These were the days when honours were reserved for a class. Fortunately that evil time has forever passed away a more generous appreciation of merit has arisen with the advance of liberal institutions, and it is a condition of modern times that members of the great, as of the less prominent families, must, as a rule, owe to merit, not to royal favour, the distinction which was formerly granted often as a matter of course. Bouquet obtained no honour from the government he served so well, and it is a strange record to make, as will be hereafter seen, that the sole recognition of the service he performed came from the province of Pennsylvania, which otherwise, in this crisis, had been so languid in the discharge of its duties. It is therefore more imperative on the public writer to preserve the fame of Bouquet in the honourable rank it can claim. His name remained without prefix to shew the contemporary estimate of his worth; but whoever examines and considers his career by the results he achieved, the nobility of his nature, the absence of littleness of spirit, his sense of duty, his unfailing fortitude in the darkest hour, will say to all the world, "this was a man."

The events which I have described on the Ohio and its tributaries may appear to many unconnected with the history of Canada; but the fact must be remembered that all the country west of the boundaries of Pennsylvania and Virginia, north of the Ohio, including the Illinois country, during the war by the French had been regarded as part of Canada, and officially described in the Quebec Act of 1774. The

was so

failure to recognize it as part of the older provinces created great dissatisfaction, and formed one of the grievances set forth in the declaration of independence. It was only after the revolutionary war that this territory ceased to be so considered. The boundary of the present United States was laid down to pass through the centre of lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron and Superior. The events of this date affecting this extended territory consequently exact mention. Even were no such explanation admissible, the operations of the Indian

war were so extended and so inter-dependent, that any narrative of British America would be unintelligible without full reference to them.

A few days more than a month after the action of Edge Hill, Amherst had to report a disaster, in which the losses were nearly as great as in the two pitched battles of the fifth and sixth of August. On the 14th of September a party of twenty-eight men under a sergeant of Wilmot's, the 80th regiment, was returning from the lower landing to fort Schlosser. They had the preceding day escorted a convoy of provision from Niagara, for the use of the Detroit garrison. Not expecting attack, they were marching in some disorder, when suddenly they were fired upon by a concealed party of Indians. A rush followed the discharge of the muskets, and in a few minutes, the whole party assailed by overpowering numbers was killed. Philip Stedman, one of three brothers that had built some saw-mills at fort Schlosser, who had accompanied the party the preceding day, having escaped the first fire and, being well mounted, dashed through the Indians who in vain attempted to stop him. He was fortunate enough to escape the shots fired after him, and reached fort Schlosser in safety. There is a tradition that a drummer boy who had been forced over the precipice was stayed in his descent by a tree, and managed to remain unseen; and that a wounded driver crawled into the bush and concealed himself until all was over. With these exceptions, the entire party was destroyed. The firing being heard in the lower fort,* a detachment, consisting of some of the 60th, the 80th and some provincials, was sent out. The Senecas, the attacking party, placed themselves in ambush to attack them at a spot called the "Devil's Hole."† There were at least five hundred of this tribe present, concealed on the wooded hills, where they awaited the arrival of the troops. As the latter marched hastily forward, not looking for resistance, they were received by the fire of the whole

Now Lewiston.

† According to the late Mr. Marshall of Buffalo, who made the subject of the Niagara frontier a special study, the place still retains the name.

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THE DEVIL'S HOLE.

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concealed body. Those who escaped the volley were immediately overpowered. Five officers, all that were present, seventy-six rank and file were killed and eight wounded, with two sutler's scouts, making a total of ninety-one. Major Wilkins in command at Niagara hurried forward with a large body of men only to find the corpses of those slain. The Senecas with the spoil of the convoy had disappeared. Only twenty escaped uninjured. *

Amherst had long desired to return to England. He may perhaps have seen the troubles which were threatening the exercise of imperial control. This is not the place to enter into any examination of that question. Events, however, could not have failed to impress officers serving in America, how little personal consideration was to be obtained by the discharge of their duty, and how inadequately during the political struggles which were then taking place in the mother country, to-day read with pain and shame, the character of that service was appreciated or even understood. The danger of any foreign attack on the British colonies had passed away for

ever.

There was no dread of French invasion or of Abenaki raids to the destruction of life and property. Even at no great distance from the frontier, the difficulty of the struggle with the Indians of the west was imperfectly known, and except with men engaged in the fur trade, the possession of the Illinois was regarded as wholly unimportant. The news of the acceptance of Amherst's request to retire reached him in the middle of August. It was not, however, until the

The killed and wounded on the 14th September were as follows :

and two Sutler's Scouts.

Amherst to Egremont, 13th Oct., 1763. Can. Arch., A. & W. I., 98. 2, p. 588. + Amherst replied in the effusive manner customary at that time, and although in accordance with George the third's theory of personal rule, it is so repugnant to

F