The Chippewas are a numerous people inhabiting the country north of Lake
Superior, and about the source of the Mississippi. They are divided into
several tribes, and are distinguished by the number of blue or black lines
tattooed on their cheeks and foreheads.
Travellers have always described them as "the most peaceable tribe of
Indians known in North America." They are not remarkable for their
activity as hunters, and this no doubt is owing to the ease with which
they can procure both game and fish.
[Illustration: THE SENTINEL.]
In their pursuit of deer, they sometimes drive them into the small lakes,
and then spear them from their canoes; or shoot them with the bow and
arrow, after having driven them into inclosures constructed for the
purpose. Snares made of deer sinews, too, are frequently used for catching
large and small game: and as these occupations are not beyond the strength
of the old men and boys, they take a share in these toils, which among
most of the tribes are left exclusively to the squaws.
In person the Chippewas are not remarkable; they are generally robust,
their complexion swarthy, their features broad, and their hair straight
and black, which is the case in most of the Indian tribes. But they have
not that piercing eye, which so generally animates the Indian
countenance.
The aspect of the women is more agreeable than that of the men; they wear
their hair of a great length, and pay much attention to its arrangement,
greasing it with considerable taste.
They appear to be more attentive to the comforts of dress, and less
anxious about its exterior than of their red brethren. Deer and fawn
skins, dressed with the hair on, so skilfully that they are perfectly
supple, compose their shirt or coat, which is girt round the waist with a
belt, and reaches half way down the thigh. Their moccasins and leggins are
generally sewn together, and the latter meet the belt to which they are
fastened. A ruff or tippet surrounds the neck, and the skin of the deer's
head is formed into a curious sort of cap.
A robe of several deer skins sewn together is throw over the whole; this
dress is sometimes worn single, but in winter it is always made double,
the hair forming both the lining and the outside.
Thus attired, a Chippewa will lay himself down on the snow and repose in
comfort; and if in his wanderings across the numerous lakes with which his
country abounds, he should fall short of provisions, he has only to cut a
hole in the ice, when he seldom fails of taking a blackfish, or a bass,
which he broils over his little wood fire with as much skill as a French
cook.
At the time of the French and Indian wars, the American army was encamped
on the Plains of Chippewa. Colonel St. Clair, the commander, was a brave
and meritorious officer, but his bravery sometimes amounted to rashness,
and his enemies have accused him of indiscretion. In the present instance
perhaps he may have merited the accusation, for the plain on which he had
encamped was bordered by a dense forest, from which the Indian scouts
could easily pick off his sentinels without in the least exposing
themselves to danger.
[Illustration: CHIPPEWA INDIANS FISHING ON THE ICE.]
Five nights had passed, and every night the sentinel, who stood at a
lonely out-post in the vicinity of the forest, had been shot; and these
repeated disasters struck such dread among the remaining soldiers, that no
one would come forward to offer to take the post, and the commander,
knowing it was only throwing men's lives away, let it stand for a few
nights unoccupied.
At length, a rifleman of the Virginian corps, volunteered his services for
this dangerous duty; he laughed at the fears of his companions, and told
them he meant to return safe and drink his commander's health in the
morning. The guard marched up soon after, and he shouldered his rifle and
fell. He arrived at the place which had been so fatal to his comrades, and
bidding his fellow soldiers "good night," assumed the duties of his post.
The night was dark, thick clouds overspread the firmament, and hardly a
star could be seen by the sentinel as he paced his lonely walk. All was
silent except the gradually retreating footsteps of the guard; he marched
onwards, then stopped and listened till he thought he heard the joyful
sound of "All's well"--then all was still, and he sat down on a fallen
tree and began to muse. Presently a low rustling among the bushes caught
his ear; he gazed intently towards the spot whence the sound seemed to
proceed, but he could see nothing save the impenetrable gloom of the
forest. The sound grew nearer, and a well-known grunt informed him of the
approach of a bear. The animal passed the soldier slowly, and then quietly
sought the thicket to the left. At this moment the moon shone out bright
through the parting clouds, and the wary soldier perceived the ornamented
moccasin of a savage on what an instant before he believed to be a bear!
He could have shot him in a moment, but he knew not how many other animals
might be at hand; he therefore refrained, and having perfect knowledge of
Indian subtilty, he quickly took off his hat and coat, hung them on a
branch of a fallen tree, grasped his rifle, and silently crept towards the
thicket. He had barely reached it, when an arrow, whizzing past his head,
told him of the danger he had so narrowly escaped.
He looked carefully round him, and on a little spot of cleared land he
counted twelve Indians, some sitting, some lying full length on the
thickly strewn leaves of the forest. Believing that they had already shot
the sentinel, and little thinking there was any one within hearing, they
were quite off their guard, and conversed aloud about their plans for the
morrow.
It appeared that a council of twelve chiefs was now held, in which they
gravely deliberated on the most effectual means of annoying the enemy. It
was decided that the next evening forty of their warriors should be in
readiness at the hour when the sentinel should be left by his comrades,
and that when they had retired a few paces, an arrow should silence him
for ever, and they would then rush on and massacre the guard.
This being concluded, they rose, and drawing the numerous folds of their
ample robes closer round them, they marched off in Indian file through the
gloomy forest, seeking some more distant spot, where the smoke of their
nightly fire would not be observed by the white men.
The sentinel rose from his hiding-place and returned to his post, and
taking down his hat, found that an arrow had passed clean through it. He
then wrapt himself in his watch-coat, and returned immediately to the
camp; and without any delay demanded to speak to the commander, saying
that he had something important to communicate.
[Illustration: GENERAL MORGAN.]
He was admitted, and when he had told all that he had seen and heard, the
Colonel bestowed on him the commission of lieutenant of the Virginia
corps, which had been made vacant by the death of one of his comrades a
few nights back, and ordered him to be ready with a picket guard, to march
an hour earlier than usual to the fatal out-post, there to place a hat and
coat on the branches, and then lie in ambush for the intruders.
The following evening, according to the orders given by Colonel St. Clair,
a detachment of forty riflemen, with Lieutenant Morgan at their head,
marched from the camp at half past seven in the evening towards the
appointed spot, and having arranged the hat and coat so as to have the
appearance of a soldier standing on guard, they stole silently away and
hid themselves among the bushes.
Here they lay for almost an hour before any signs of approaching Indians
were heard. The night was cold and still, and the rising moon shone forth
in all her beauty. The men were becoming impatient of their uncomfortable
situation, for their clothes were not so well adapted to a bed of snow as
the deer-skin robes of the hardy Chippewas.
"Silence!" whispered Lieutenant Morgan--"I hear the rustling of the
leaves."
Presently a bear of the same description as had been seen the night
before, passed near the ambush; it crept to the edge of the
plain--reconnoitred--saw the sentinel at his post--retired towards the
forest a few paces, and then, suddenly rising on his feet, let fly an
arrow which brought the sham sentinel to the ground. So impatient were the
Virginians to avenge the death of their comrades that they could scarcely
wait till the lieutenant gave the word of command to fire--then they rose
in a body, and before the Chippewas had time to draw their arrows or seize
their tomahawks, more than half their number lay dead upon the plain. The
rest fled to the forest, but the riflemen fired again, and killed or
wounded several more of the enemy. They then returned in triumph to relate
their exploits in the camp.
Ten chiefs fell that night, and their fall was, undoubtedly, one principal
cause of the French and Indian wars with the English.
Lieutenant Morgan rose to be a captain, and at the termination of the war
returned home, and lived on his own farm till the breaking out of the
American war. And then, at the head of a corps of Virginia rifleman,
appeared our hero, the brave and gallant Colonel Morgan, better known by
the title of general, which he soon acquired by his courage and ability.
[Illustration: BLACKBIRD.]