The Indian World of George Washington

by Colin G. Calloway

  The chiefs assembled in their council house that night—without Washington and Gist—to consider how many men should escort the Virginians on their journey. After the forceful declarations he had heard from Tanaghrisson, Washington must have been bitterly disappointed that instead of sending a force of warriors, the council decided “only three of their Chiefs, with one of their best Hunters, should be our Convoy.” Not a single Shawnee or Delaware went along. The reason the Indians gave for not sending more was “that a greater Number might give the French Suspicions of some bad Design, and cause them to be treated rudely.” Washington was right to be skeptical but probably naïve in thinking the real reason was that “they could not get their Hunters in.” The historian Francis Jennings blamed Washington himself, who “by personality or purpose … seems to have stirred instant dislike” among the Ohio Indians, but the causes of the Indians’ ambivalence ran deeper than that. They suspected English intentions as much as they did French and were not ready to play their hands. When Washington finally departed Logstown on the morning of November 30, the only Indians in his party were Tanaghrisson, Jeskakake, a chief named White Thunder, and a young man Washington knew only as the Hunter. White Thunder was the Iroquois known as Belt of Wampum. Conrad Weiser described him as “a man of very good understanding, has a good countenance, speaks well, and is reckoned among the greatest Warriors among the Six Nations. I esteem him very much.” The Hunter was a Seneca warrior called Guyasuta, who would feature prominently in the affairs of the Ohio country for the next forty years.22

  Following their Indian guides through freezing rain, Washington and his party made their way along the forest trails of western Pennsylvania, then north from the Forks of the Ohio to the Indian town and French outpost at Venango, a distance Washington estimated as about sixty miles from Logstown, but more than seventy miles the way they traveled.23 They reached Venango on December 4. Washington immediately went to the house of John Fraser, which the French had commandeered and over which the French colors now flew. Captain Joncaire received Washington and Gist but explained that he was not the appropriate person to accept Virginia’s petition: Washington would have to take it on to Fort LeBoeuf. Having dispensed with that business, Joncaire invited them to dinner and, Washington remembered, “treated us with the greatest Complaisance.” The wine flowed freely, and the French officers became less restrained in their talk, telling Washington “that it was their absolute Design to take Possession of the Ohio, and by G—— they would do it.” France claimed the Ohio by right of discovery by La Salle sixty years earlier, and the purpose of the French expedition now was to prevent the English settling there.24 Washington gave the impression in his diary that he remained in control of the situation, sipping from his glass but listening through an interpreter and observing while the French officers in true Gallic fashion allowed too much wine to loosen their lips. But forty-six-year-old Joncaire was no fool; at an outpost where everything, including wine, was probably in short supply, his hospitality more likely was designed to get Washington to divulge information, or to provide the occasion for an informal but clear assertion of French rights to the Ohio.

  Pouring rain all day on the fifth prevented Washington’s party from traveling on. Although not mentioned in Washington’s journal, Gist recorded that “Our Indians” met in council with the Delawares and told them to hand back their wampum belt to the French, as Shingas desired. The Delawares refused.25

  Hearing that Tanaghrisson was with the group, and knowing full well how important he was to maintaining relations with both the Six Nations and the Ohio Indians, Joncaire made a show of being concerned that Washington had not brought the Half King with him the day before. Washington made the best excuses he could, claiming he had heard Joncaire say “a good deal in Dispraise of Indians in general” and did not think Tanaghrisson would be welcome. He confessed to the real reason in his journal: “I knew that he [Joncaire] was Interpreter, and a Person of very great Influence among the Indians, and had lately used all possible Means to draw them over to their interest; therefore I was desirous of giving no Opportunity that could be avoided.” Joncaire indeed possessed fluency in Seneca, experience in Iroquoia, and connections in Indian country—all things that Washington lacked. But there was nothing Washington could do when Joncaire invited Tanaghrisson and the other chiefs to join him and Washington in his cabin. Joncaire greeted the Indians like old friends and proceeded to ply them with liquor, “so fast,” complained Washington, “that they were soon render’d incapable of the Business they came about.”26

  Nonetheless, Tanaghrisson was quite sober when he turned up at Washington’s tent the next day. He insisted that Washington wait and hear what he had to say to the French. He intended to deliver his message and return the wampum with the appropriate formality and protocol. Washington was against it. He was anxious to be on his way to Fort LeBoeuf and did not want Tanaghrisson speaking to anyone until he addressed the French commandant there. Tanaghrisson insisted, however, that Venango was the place “where all their Business with these People was to be transacted” and Joncaire was the officer responsible for Indian affairs. Tanaghrisson had to deliver his warning at Venango, and Washington had to stay and see the outcome. He sent some of the party and the horses farther up French Creek, ready for departure as soon as the business was finished. When Tanaghrisson and Joncaire met in council, Washington, as Virginia’s envoy, could only watch as the Seneca chief and the French officer acted out their prescribed roles in a scene of political theater. Tanaghrisson stood and “spoke much the same as he had before done to the General” and offered Joncaire the French speech belt. Joncaire, who knew the belt was coming, refused to accept it, as Tanaghrisson knew he would. The appropriate person to receive such a belt, Joncaire explained, was Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, who had taken over as the French commander at Fort LeBoeuf on the death of the sieur de Marin. Joncaire would furnish an escort of four French officers, something Washington would rather have done without.27

  And still Washington could not get on his way. “We found it extremely difficult getting the Indians off To-day,” he wrote on December 7, “as every Stratagem had been used to prevent their going up with me.” He had left the interpreter John Davison with them during the night with strict instructions not to let them out of his sight, “as I could not get them over to my Tent (they having some Business with Custaloga, to know the Reason why he did not deliver up the French Belt which he had in Keeping).” Finally, Washington sent Gist to get the Indians moving, “which he did with much Persuasion.”28 It was a tug-of-war: Joncaire did everything he could to get the Indians to stay behind, and Gist “took all care to have them along with us.”29

  Leaving Venango late in the morning on the seventh, Washington’s party was slowed by heavy rain, snow, and hard traveling. Unable to cross French Creek, which was in flood, they had to make their way through many mires and swamps. Nevertheless, Washington the surveyor made note of “much good Land” and “Several extensive and very rich Meadows,” one of them almost four miles long.30 As he would throughout his life, Washington identified lands for future development without considering the possibility that they had been previously cleared and managed by Indian people.

  Venango was little more than a trader’s house with a stockade around it. Fort LeBoeuf was a much more formidable frontier outpost, and Washington duly took notes on its fortifications. He had time to do so because he was kept waiting again. On the twelfth Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, who had arrived as commandant only a week before Washington, gave him an audience. Washington described him as “an elderly Gentleman, and has much the Air of a Soldier.” At fifty-two, Saint-Pierre was a seasoned campaigner. In his thirty years of military service he had accumulated extensive experience in Indian country that included campaigning against the Chickasaws and dealing with Abenakis, Assiniboines, Choctaws, Crees, Mohawks, and Sioux. Just the year before he had traveled hundreds of miles to the Red and Winnipeg Rivers, exploring the C
anadian prairies in search of the western sea. He would not have been unduly impressed with Washington’s trek from Virginia. He was also, needless to say, more than a match for a young Virginian who wanted very much to have “the Air of a Soldier” himself. Saint-Pierre informed Washington that they must wait for Pierre Legardeur de Repentigny (Washington called him “Reparti”), the commander at Fort Presque Isle, who had been sent for because he spoke a little English. Only then could Washington present Dinwiddie’s letter. When Repentigny arrived and Washington handed over the letter, Saint-Pierre and his officers retired into a private room to translate the document, then asked Washington to come in with his interpreter Van Braam to look over it and make corrections. The French officers then held another council to discuss the letter on December 13. Washington took the opportunity to take note of the fort’s dimensions and make whatever observations he could, and instructed his party to compile a tally of the men and canoes at the fort.31

  The next day, snow was falling fast. With the horses growing weaker, Washington sent Barnaby Currin and two others to take them without loads to Venango and wait there if there was a prospect of the river freezing, and, if not, to continue back down to the Forks of the Ohio. Waiting for the French to respond, Washington fretted about what they were up to with his Indian allies. “As I found many Plots concerted to retard the Indians Business, and prevent their returning with me; I endeavour’d all that lay in my Power to frustrate their Schemes.” Tanaghrisson met privately with Saint-Pierre and a couple of officers and presented him with the wampum belt, as he was supposed to do. But Saint-Pierre understood that accepting the belt meant severing diplomatic relations. Instead, Tanaghrisson told Washington, “he evaded taking it, and made many fair Promises of Love and Friendship; said he wanted to live in Peace, and trade amicably with them, as a Proof of which he would send some Goods immediately down to the Loggs-Town for them.” Rather than let Tanaghrisson terminate his allegiance and commitments to the French, Saint-Pierre was trying to pry him away from his allegiance and commitments to the English.32

  Finally, after keeping Washington waiting all day, Saint-Pierre delivered his answer on the evening of the fourteenth. It was hardly the diplomatic confrontation Washington expected. Instead, Saint-Pierre simply and cordially handed Washington a sealed letter to be delivered with all expediency to Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie and offered to provide whatever supplies he needed for the return journey. Saint-Pierre was killed two years later at the Battle of Lake George, but he had quietly won this opening encounter. He had effectively reduced Washington to an errand boy.

  The next morning Saint-Pierre ordered provisions and liquor to be loaded into Washington’s canoe and behaved very amicably. While he was doing all he could to help the Virginians on their way, however, he was also doing all he could to get the Indians to stay. “Every Stratagem that the most fruitful Brain could invent, was practiced, to win the Half King to their Interest,” Washington fumed. He feared that leaving Tanaghrisson behind would give the French the opportunity to do just that. He was on the verge of losing his Iroquois allies. “I can’t say that ever in my Life I suffer’d so much Anxiety as I did in this Affair,” he wrote. When he pressed Tanaghrisson “in the strongest Terms to go,” Tanaghrisson replied that Saint-Pierre “would not discharge him until the morning.” Washington promptly marched over to the commandant and complained that by detaining the Indians, Saint-Pierre, contrary to his promises, was detaining him, too. Saint-Pierre denied it and professed not to know why the Indians were staying, but Washington found out he had promised them guns and ammunition if they waited until the next morning. Tanaghrisson wanted to stay and receive the gifts, and Washington was forced to delay once again: he dared not depart and leave the Indians alone with the French. He agreed to wait another night, on the promise that nothing would hold up the Indians in the morning. Even then, Washington complained, the French “were not slack in their Inventions to keep the Indians this Day also.” They gave the gifts they had promised but “then endeavoured to try the Power of Liquor, which I doubt not would have prevailed at any other Time than this.” Washington insisted so adamantly that Tanaghrisson keep his word “that he refrained, and set off with us as he had engaged.”33

  With the sealed letter to Dinwiddie in his pack, Washington and his companions paddled their canoes down the rock-filled and ice-choked creek back to Venango. They reached it on the twenty-second after a meandering and exhausting journey that Washington estimated at 130 miles.34 After a night’s rest, Washington was ready to be off again. He asked Tanaghrisson whether he intended to travel with them or continue by water. Tanaghrisson replied that White Thunder had hurt himself and was sick and in no shape to travel, so he would have to carry him down by canoe. Washington remained unsure of his Indian allies so long as the French were around: “As I found he intended to stay here a Day or two, and know that Monsieur Joncaire would employ every scheme to set him against the English as he had done before; I told him I hoped he would guard against his Flattery, and let no fine Speeches influence him in their Favour.” Tanaghrisson told him not to be concerned, “for he knew the French too well, for any Thing to engage him on their Behalf.” He offered to send the young hunter Guyasuta to accompany Washington.35

  Leaving their Indian allies behind, the Virginians pushed on south. Washington abandoned his militia uniform and “put myself in an Indian walking Dress”—buckskins and moccasins—for the journey. For three days—including Christmas Day—they plodded through woods and deep snow, walking their emaciated horses. On the twenty-sixth, their mounts finally gave out, and Washington decided to carry on with Gist while the rest of the party found refuge from the storm for themselves and the horses. “I took my necessary Papers, pulled off my Cloaths; tied myself up in a Match Coat [usually made of coarse woolen cloth]; and with my Pack at my Back with my Papers and Provisions in it, and a Gun, set out with Mr. Gist, fitted in the same Manner.”36

  The next day, the twenty-seventh, they arrived at an Indian village ominously known as Murdering Town, presumably in memory of some dark deed. An Indian, whom Gist recognized from their talks with Joncaire at Venango, came over to speak with them. Addressing Gist by his Indian name, Annosanah, he offered to guide them to the Forks of the Ohio. Washington accepted; Gist was skeptical. His doubts increased as the Indian seemed to be leading them to the northeast, away from the Forks. Then the Indian suddenly turned, dropped to one knee, and fired his musket at them. Gist overpowered him before he could reload and was ready to kill him. Instead, at Washington’s insistence, they kept him prisoner until about nine in the evening and then released him. They hurried on through the rest of the night to put as much distance as possible between themselves and their enemies, who they assumed would come after them as soon as it was light enough to follow their tracks. They kept traveling the next day until dark before they felt safe enough to sleep.37

  The weather was so cold they had expected to find the Allegheny frozen. Instead, great chunks of ice flowed downriver. There was no way to cross it except by raft. With just “one poor Hatchet” between them, they spent an entire day building a makeshift raft. Just after sunset, they launched it, hoping to make their way down to Shannopin’s Town. Halfway across the river they became trapped in ice. When Washington tried to push the ice away with his pole, the current caught it with such force that he was thrown into the river. Thrashing about in the frozen waters, he managed to grab the corner of the raft, and Gist pulled him aboard. Gist steered the raft to a small island, where, his own fingers and some of his toes frostbitten, he built a fire and got Washington out of his wet Indian clothes and back into his dry uniform, to stave off hypothermia. The site of the near-fatal accident, now named Washington’s Crossing, is beneath Pittsburgh’s Fortieth Street Bridge. The severe cold that almost killed Washington froze the river that night. The two men walked to shore in the morning.38

  They made their way to Fraser’s cabin. There they encountered a war party of twenty
warriors who had been heading south, presumably to raid the Cherokees or Catawbas, but had turned back. At the head of the Great Kanawha River the Indians had come across seven bodies scattered around a cabin. They had been scalped, “all but one Woman with very light Hair,” and some had been “much torn and eaten by Hogs.” The war party hurried away “for Fear the Inhabitants should rise and take them as the Authors of the Murder.” From the marks that were left, they said, the killers were “French Indians of the Ottoway Nation.”39 Events were overtaking Washington even as he hurried to get the French message to Dinwiddie.

  While he waited at Fraser’s for horses, Washington took the opportunity on New Year’s Eve to travel three miles to the mouth of the Youghiogheny River to visit Queen Aliquippa, a Seneca clan mother of considerable influence in the region, “who had expressed great Concern that we passed her in going to the Fort.” Conrad Weiser described her in 1748 as an old woman who wielded “great authority”; Céloron de Blainville said in 1749 that she regarded herself “as a queen” and was devoted to the English. Her son, Canachquasy or Kanuksusy, had been the spokesman for the ten warriors who traveled from the Ohio to Philadelphia in 1747, asserting their independence from Onondaga’s neutral stance and requesting arms to fight the French. On their way to the Treaty of Logstown in 1752, the Virginia commissioners exchanged a gun salute when they reached Aliquippa’s town, then “went on Shore to wait on the Queen, who welcomed them & presented them with a String of Wampum to clear their Way to Loggs Town.” She gave the commissioners a meal and food for their journey; they gave her a brass kettle, tobacco, and other small gifts.40 Thinking of diplomacy as business conducted exclusively by men, Washington had committed a faux pas by not paying his respects to her on the outward journey. Letting him know it, she gave him the opportunity to make amends. Washington gave her a match coat and a bottle of rum, the latter of which, he wrote dismissively, “was thought the best Present of the two.” He underestimated whom he was dealing with. Aliquippa wanted more than a courtesy call and a bottle of rum. She wanted information, she wanted to impress on him the need to erect a Virginian post in the area, and she knew what was at stake.41