‘This land where ye dwell I have made for you and not for others. Whence comes it that ye permit the Whites upon your lands? Can ye not live without them? I know that those whom ye call the children of your Great Father supply your needs, but if ye were not evil, as ye are, ye could surely do without them. Ye could live as ye did live before knowing them, – before those whom ye call your brothers had come upon your lands. Did ye not live by the bow and arrow? Ye had no need of gun or powder, or anything else, and nevertheless ye caught animals to live upon and to dress yourselves with their skins. But when I saw that ye were given up to evil, I led the wild animals to the depths of the forests so that ye had to depend upon your brothers to feed and shelter you. Ye have only to become good again and do what I wish, and I will send back the animals for your food. I do not forbid you to permit among you the children of your Father; I love them. They know me and pray to me, and I supply their wants and all they give you. But as to those who come to trouble your lands – drive them out, make war upon them. I do not love them at all; they know me not, and are my enemies, and the enemies of your brothers. Send them back to the lands which I have created for them and let them stay there. Here is a prayer which I give thee in writing to learn by heart and to teach to the Indians and their children.’
The Wolf replied that he did not know how to read. He was told that when he should have returned to earth he would have only to give the prayer to the chief of his village who would read it and teach him and all the Indians to know it by heart; and he must say it night and morning without fail, and do what he has just been told to do; and he was to tell all the Indians for and in the name of the Master of Life.
‘Do not drink more than once, or at most twice in a day; have only one wife and do not run after the wives of others nor after the girls; do not fight among yourselves; do not “make medicine,” but pray, because in “making medicine” one talks with the evil spirit; drive off your lands those dogs clothed in red who will do you nothing but harm. And when ye shall have need of anything address yourselves to me; and as to your brothers, I shall give to you as to them; do not sell to your brothers what I have put on earth for food. In short, become good and ye shall receive your needs. When ye meet one another exchange greeting and proffer the left hand which is nearest the heart.
‘In all things I command thee to repeat every morning and night the prayer which I have given thee.’
The Wolf promised to do faithfully what the Master of Life told him, and that he would recommend it well to the Indians, and that the Master of Life would be pleased with them. Then the same man who had led him by the hand came to get him and conducted him to the foot of the mountain where he told him to take his outfit again and return to his village. The Wolf did this, and upon his arrival the members of his tribe and village were greatly surprised, for they did not know what had become of him, and they asked where he had been. As he was enjoined not to speak to anybody before he had talked with the chief of his village, he made a sign with his hand that he had come from on high. Upon entering the village he went straight to the cabin of the chief to whom he gave what had been given to him, – namely, the prayer and the law which the Master of Life had given him.
This adventure was soon noised about among the people of the whole village who came to hear the message of the Master of Life, and then went to carry it to the neighboring villages. The members of these villages came to see the pretended traveller, and the news was spread from village to village and finally reached Pontiac. He believed all this, as we believe an article of faith, and instilled it into the minds of all those in his council. They listened to him as to an oracle, and told him that he had only to speak and they were all ready to do what he demanded of them.
PONTIAC’S SPEECH TO ASSEMBLED OTTAWAS, HURONS, AND POTAWATOMIES 5 MAY 1763
It is important for us, my brothers, that we exterminate from our lands this nation which seeks only to destroy us. You see as well as I that we can no longer supply our needs, as we have done, from our brothers, the French. The English sell us goods twice as dear as the French do, and their goods do not last. Scarcely have we bought a blanket or something else to cover ourselves with before we must think of getting another; and when we wish to set out for our winter camps, they do not want to give us any credit as our brothers, the French do.
When I go to see the English commander and say to him that some of our comrades are dead, instead of bewailing their death, as the French brothers do, he laughs at me and at you. If I ask anything for our sick, he refuses with the reply that he has not use for us. From all this you can well see that they are seeking our ruin. Therefore, my brothers, we must all swear their destruction and wait no longer. Nothing prevents us; they are few in numbers, and we can accomplish it. All the nations who are our brothers attack them, – why should we not attack? Are we not men like them? Have I not shown you the wampum belts which I received from our Great Father, the Frenchman? He tells us to strike them, – why do we not listen to his words? What do we fear? It is time. Do we fear that our brothers, the French, who are here among us will prevent us? They do not know our plans, and they could not hinder anyway, if they would. You all know as well as I that when the English came upon our lands to drive out our Father, Belestre, they took away all the Frenchmen’s guns and that they now have no arms to protect themselves with. Therefore, it is time for us to strike. If there are any French who side with them, let us strike them as well as the English. Remember what the Master of Life told our brother, the Wolf, to do. That concerns us all as well as others. I have sent wampum belts and messengers to our brothers, the Chippewas of Saginaw, and to our brothers, the Ottawas of Michillimackinac, and to those of the Thames River to join us. They will not be slow in coming, but while we wait let us strike anyway. There is no more time to lose. When the English are defeated we shall then see what there is left to do, and we shall stop us the ways hither so that they may never come again upon our lands.
PONTIAC’S SPEECH TO FRENCH SETTLERS NEAR DETROIT 25 MAY 1763
My brothers, we have never intended to do you any injury or harm, neither have we pretended that any should be done you, but among my young men there are some, as among you, who are always doing harm in spite of all precautions that one can take. Moreover, it is not for personal vengeance merely that I am making war upon the English; it is for you, my brothers, as well as for us. When the English have insulted us in the councils which we have held with them, they have insulted you, too, without your knowing it. And since I and all my brothers, also, know that the English have taken away from you all means to avenge yourselves by disarming you and making you sign a paper which they have sent to their own country, – a thing they could not do to us, – for this reason we wish to avenge you equally with ourselves, and I swear the destruction of all that may be upon our lands.
What is more, you do not know all the reasons which oblige me to act as I do. I have told you only what concerns you, but you will know the rest in time. I know very well that many of you, my brothers, consider me a fool, but you will see in the future if I am what people say I am, and if I am wrong. I know very well, also, that there are some among you, my brothers, who side with the English in making war upon us and that grieves me. As for them, I shall know them well and when our Great Father returns I shall name and point them out to him and they will see whether they or we will be most satisfied with the results in the end.
I do not doubt, my brothers, that his war causes you annoyance because of the movements of our brothers who are coming and going in your homes constantly; I am chagrined at it, but do not think, my brothers, that I inspire the harm which is being done you. As a proof that I do not desire it just call to mind the war with the Foxes, and the way I behaved as regards you seventeen years ago. Now when the Chippewas and Ottawas of Michillimackinac, and all the northern nations, came with the Sacs and Foxes to destroy you, who was it that defended you? Was it not I and my men?
When Mackinaw, the great chief
of all these nations, said in his council that he would carry the head of your commander to his village, and devour his heart, and drink his blood, did I not take up your cause, and go to his village, and tell him that if he wanted to kill the French he would have to begin first with me and my men? Did I not help you rid yourselves of them and drive them away? How does it come then, my brothers, that you would think me today ready to turn my weapons against you? No, my brothers, I am the same French Pontiac who helped you seventeen years ago; I am French, and I want to die French, and I repeat that it is altogether your interests and mine that I avenge. Let me carry out my plan. I do not demand your assistance, because I know you could not give it; I only ask you for provisions for myself and all my followers. If, however, you should like to help me I would not refuse; you would please me and get out of trouble the quicker, for I promise when the English shall be driven away from here, or killed, we shall all withdraw to our villages, following our custom, to await the coming of our French Father.
Thus you see, my brothers, what my sentiments are. Do not worry. I shall see to it that neither my followers nor any other Indians harm you any further, but I ask that our women may have permission to raise our corn upon your fields and fallow lands. By allowing this you will oblige us greatly.
And the French replied that they were very willing.
APPENDIX C: CONTEMPORARY REVIEWS OF THE WORKS OF ROBERT ROGERS
REVIEWS OF PONTEACH
The Gentleman’s Magazine February 1766
1. Ponteach. or, The Savages of America, a tragedy; by Major Rogers. 2s 6d. Millan.
The characters of this piece are, Ponteach, the Indian emperor on the great lakes; Philip and Chekitan his sons; Tenesco his counsellor and generalissimo; Astinaco, the Bear, and the Wolf, Indian kings in alliance with Ponteach; Torax and Monelia, son and daughter of Hendrick, emperor of the Mohawks; an Indian conjurer; a French priest; Sharp, Gripe, and Catchum, English governors; Colonel Cockum and Capt. Frisk, commanders of a garrison in Ponteach’s country; M’Dole and Murphey, two Indian traders; Honnyman and Orsbourne, two English hunters; and Mrs Honnyman, Honnyman’s wife.
The English traders are represented as practising every species of fraud to circumvent and over-reach the Indians; the English hunters, as way-laying and shooting them at their return from the chace, and carrying off the peltry they were bringing home; the colonel and captain as treating their just complaints with derision and insult; and the governors as embezzling three-fourths of a present sent from his Majesty to the Indian chiefs, and converting the returns wholly to their own use.
Ponteach, justly incens’d at these villanies, forms a project of destroying the English, and to effect his purpose finds it necessary to gain Hendrick, the Chief of the Mohawks, who is a friend to the English. The indignation which the reader feels at the villainies of our traders, hunters, officers, and governors, at first creates an interest for Ponteach; but this interest is immediately destroyed, by representing Ponteach as equally cruel and perfidious. He engages the other Indian chiefs to join him in opposing the English, under the specious pretence of procuring for them freedom & independance, and at the same time intends as soon as they have served his purpose, to throw them off the mark, and assume an universal tyranny himself.
The same unskillful management destroys the effect of the under plot. Philip, one of the sons of Ponteach, in order to induce Hendrick to join his father against the English, forms a scheme of murdering Monelia and Torax, his son and daughter, and persuading him that the English were the assassins. We are struck with horror at a project so diabolically cruel, but we abhor the projector yet more, when we find that Monelia is beloved by his brother Chekitan, with the utmost tenderness and ardour. Chekitan, however, ceases to be an object of pity, when we find that he had some time before taken a captive with whom Philip was equally enamoured, and obstinately refused to deliver her to him, at his earnest entreaty, at the same time gratifying his own sordid avarice, by selling her for a slave. All the personages of the play may be considered as devils incarnate, mutually employed in tormenting one another; as their character excite no kindness, their distress moves no pity. The dialogue, however adapted to the characters, is so much below the dignity of tragedy, that it cannot be read without disgust; damning and sinking, and calling bitch, can scarcely be endured in any composition, much less in a composition of this kind: The manners, too, are liable to the same exception, for who but would turn with abhorrence and disgust, from a scene in which Indian savages are represented as tossing the scalps of murdered Englishmen from one to the other.
Ponteach is finally disappointed of his project, but the perfidy of some whom he trusted; and the piece concludes with the following speech, which he is supposed to utter as he is retiring to some unknown desart, whither his enemies cannot pursue.
[reprints the play’s final 22 lines, beginning with ‘Kings like Gods are valued & ador’d’]
The Monthly Review, or Literary Journal
March 1766
Art. 41. Ponteach; or the Savages of America. A Tragedy. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Millan.
Major Rogers, of whose Military Journal, and Description of North America, we gave some account in our Review for January last, is the reputed author of this Indian tragedy; which is one of the most absurd productions of the kind that we have seen. It is great pity that so brave and judicious an officer should thus run the hazard of exposing himself to ridicule, by an unsuccessful attempt to entwine the poet’s bays with the soldier’s laurel. His journal, and account of our western acquisitions, were not foreign to his profession and opportunities; but in turning bard, and writing a tragedy, he makes just as good a figure as would a Grubstreet rhymester at the head of our Author’s corps of North American Rangers.
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REVIEWS OF A CONCISE ACCOUNT OF NORTH AMERICA
The Gentleman’s Magazine
November 1765
22. A concise account of North-America … By Major Rogers, Millan. 5s.
This is an account very different from the compilations which are undertaken for booksellers, by persons wholly unacquainted with the subject, and who generally have neither sufficient diligence nor skill to regulate the mulitfarious materials which lie scattered before them, perhaps in an hundred volumes, nor even to reject, much less reconcile the inconsistencies and contradictions with which such materials always abound.
Major Rogers has travelled through great part of the country he has described, in the course of his duty as an officer in his majesty’s army, and has received accounts of other parts immediately from the inhabitants, or from persons who had been carried prisoners thither, and afterwards released.
The author gives an account of every province separately, and of its first discovery and settlement; he describes its situation as to latitude and longitude, and to the countries and seas by which it is bounded; its extent; its rivers; its climate; its commodities, buildings, and number of inhabitants: With a particular attention to such facts and circumstances as appeared most interesting in a political or commercial view.
In this work there is also an account of the interiour part of America, a territory much larger than the whole continent of Europe, and hitherto almost wholly unknown. This territory he has considered under three several divisions, marked out by three great rivers that rise near the center of it, St. Lawrence, the Christino, and the Mississippi.
The river St. Lawrence he has traced, and is pretty well acquainted with the country adjacent to it, as far up as lake Superiour; and with the country from the Green Bay westward, to the Mississippi at the Gulph of Mexico: He has also travelled the country adjacent to the Ohio and the lakes Erie and Meshigan, and his situation gave him opportunities of gaining accounts of the other parts, more particular and authentic than any other.
He has subjoined such an account of the Indians, their customs and manners, as gives a just idea of the genius and policy of the people, and of the method in which they are to be treated by those who wish to
preserve a safe and advantageous commerce with them. This is a very entertaining as well as useful part of the work, for which the Major was particularly qualified, by a long and experimental acquaintance with their several tribes and nations, both in peace and war.
It is proposed to continue this History in a second volume, containing maps of the colonies and the interiour country, in which the faults and deficiencies of those already extant will be corrected and supplied; by subscription; the price one guinea.
[Some extracts from this work shall be occasionally given in the future numbers of this miscellany.]
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The Critical Review
November 1765
11. A concise Account of North-America; containing a Description of the Several British Colonies on that Continent, including the Islands of Newfoundland, Cape-Breton, &c. By Major Robert Rogers. 8vo. Pr. 3s. Millan.
Works of this nature may be considered as a kind of almanac; and indeed, when we consider the particular circumstances of our American provinces at this time, we wish that some more authentic account of them than has yet appeared, was published; and that the alterations to which the several governments are subject, were authenticated as occasion may offer. The relations we have from Charlevoix, La Hontan, and other French writers, concerning the American Indians, may have been faithful at the time those authors wrote; but the change of the possessors must undoubtedly give North-America a new face.
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