THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF

CAPTAIN JOHN MONTRESOR

ON THE NIAGARA, AND THE FIRST

CONSTRUCTION OF FORT ERIE.

BY FRANK H. SEVERANCE.

Little attention appears to have been given, by students of the history of the Niagara frontier, to the period shortly after the British had succeeded the French in possession of Fort Niagara. The French relinquished that post in July, 1759. The British garrisoned the fort, and immediately established communication with Fort Pitt by way of Presqu' Ile, now Erie. The following year came Major Robert Rogers and his rangers, with numerous British officers en route to Detroit to receive the surrender of the French garrison at that point. There was much coming and going. Sir William Johnson early returned to the scene of his victory over the French; but the traders were ahead of him, eager to seize the opportunities which the conquest had opened. When on his way to Detroit in 1761, he found that a storehouse had been built at the upper landing on the Niagara by Rutherford, Duncan & Co., who were preparing to monopolize the carrying-place around the Falls under authority of a permit from Gen. Amherst. They had discovered a quantity of hand-sawed lumber left by the French in the Chippewa Creek, and were using it to build a small

I

vessel for the purpose of exploring the unknown shores of the upper lakes. Blockhouses guarded the wharves at the upper and lower landings, the former being known as Little Niagara; windlasses were used for hoisting heavy weights up the heights, and also for helping vessels to overcome the rapids at the head of the river.

But the march across country, from the point at Lewiston Heights to the place of re-embarking above the falls, was all unprotected. The ambuscade and massacre at the Devil's Hole, in 1763, was one of the most atrocious episodes of this period. It is also one of the most familiar; and I pass over it to dwell upon the important steps which the British immediately took to prevent its repetition.

This is the period, the reader will recall, when Pontiac was plotting his great blow at the British. Major Gladwin. was hemmed in at Detroit until relieved by the expedition of 1763. To make more vivid the conditions of the time and place, on the Niagara frontier and to the westward, I submit the following episode, of which no mention will be found in Parkman or other less valuable chronicles of the times of Pontiac and his conspiracy:

In August or September, 1763, there arrived at Fort Niagara one Lieut. Rutherford, in charge of a vessel which Major Gladwin had sent down from Fort Detroit for goods. Rutherford, who was a mere youth, had just escaped from a long and cruel captivity. In May of that year Major Gladwin of the 80th Regiment, commanding officer at Detroit, being anxious to know whether the lakes and rivers between that place and Mackinac were navigable for vessels larger than the small batteaux then in use, dispatched a small party, under command of Capt. Charles Robson of the 77th Regiment, on an exploring trip. Young Rutherford went with them. They were surprised by the Indians and Capt. Robson and most of the others were killed and scalped. Rutherford, made a prisoner, saw the body of Capt. Robson served up at a feast, and with great difficulty escaped from being compelled to eat of the remains of his friend. His master, Perwash, a Chippewa, made him wear Indian dress, kept him for a time as a slave, then adopted

him, and finally sold him to a Frenchman named Quilleim. He was recaptured by a band of Chippewas, taken before Pontiac, where he acted as interpreter, carried off by King Owasser, chief of the Ottawas, and by him delivered again. to Perwash, young Rutherford's former master. He witnessed many atrocities and bore many hardships, and finally, by the aid of a Frenchman, made his escape, running away through the woods at night, clad only in a leathern shirt. His French friend met him at an appointed rendezvous with a canoe and took him down to Detroit.

"The whole town turned out to see me," he afterwards wrote. "My appearance certainly was calculated to excite their pity as well as laughter. I had, as before remarked, nothing but a greasy painted shirt on, my face painted red, black and green, my hair cut all away, and my skin blacked all over with the moss I had put on. My legs were so lacerated with the briars and thorns, and so affected with poisonous vines, that they were swollen as big as any in His Majesty's service. Besides this, to those who inspected me narrowly, my arms presented the appearance or impressions, one of a turkey's foot, the other of a flower in pink or purple dyes. I had thus been tatooed by the savages as a mark set upon me as belonging to their tribe, and such is the indelible effect upon the part punctured, that the impression will remain as fresh through life as on the first day of the operation."

After ten days' rest, Rutherford was sent by Major Gladwin in a vessel bound for the Niagara to procure a supply of provisions for the garrison. "I agreed to run the hazard of the undertaking," he writes, "and accordingly embarked on board the ship. We had some shots fired at us from the Huron Indians going down the river, which we returned. In four days we reached Fort Schelope [Schlosser], near the Falls, and marched under a strong guard to [Fort] Niagara, without experiencing any annoyance from the enemy. It was late before the sloop could be laden and ready to sail again. Some artillery and provisions with about 18 officers and men of the 17th and 46th Regiments, constituted the chief part of what we had on board."

They had only sailed one day from Fort Schlosser, and must therefore have been well at the eastern end of the lake, when the vessel sprung aleak. The heavy artillery and other things were thrown overboard, and after desperate work at the pumps, when everybody was in despair, the sinking ship grounded on a sand-bar within fifty yards of the shore. With great difficulty they landed only to be attacked by the Indians. The refugees fought from behind a temporary breastwork, several of their party being killed. before the Indians left them. Here-our hero says they called the place Lover's Leap-they stayed for 24 days, awaiting a reinforcement of batteaux to take them back to Niagara. "It was here," wrote Rutherford, "that I first entered upon duty as a private soldier. After we had quitted this position we marched over the carrying-place at the Falls just three days after the Indians had defeated our troops in a rencontre❞—that is, the massacre of the Devil's Hole. "We saw about 80 dead bodies, unburied, scalped and sadly mangled. When at Niagara I determined not to attempt fortune longer in the woods, and resolved to go to New York, where after residing some time with my uncle, I proceeded to join the 42d Regiment, in which corps I had obtained an Ensigncy, at the time when they were preparing for an expedition against the Shawanese and Delaware Indians to the westward, under Gen. Bouquet."*

I have given this episode to help make more vivid the conditions of the time. Now, in the spring of 1764, there came to Niagara Col. Bradstreet and his army, on their way up Lake Erie, to force submission on the tribes in the neighborhood of Sandusky and Detroit. The arrival of this army of 1200 men at Fort Niagara, its advance over the portage and its embarkation at Fort Schlosser for Lake Erie, Parkman records in a single page; but of the important work which had been done to make possible this rapid transit from lake to lake and around the great cataract with security against Indian surprise, he says not a word. On that subject, drawinig my data from unfamiliar sources, I offer the following narrative.

*For Rutherford's narrative, see Transactions of the Canadian Institute, Vol. III.

On Sunday night, May 19, 1764, there arrived at Fort Niagara a man whose coming was to prove of great significance in the Niagara region. This was Capt. John Montresor, His British Majesty's chief of engineers in America. He was a son of that Col. James Montresor, who, as chief military engineer for Gen. Amherst in 1759, had conceived and in part directed the plan, the successful execution of which won Fort Niagara from the French. Capt. John, like his father, was an able engineer, but his long and arduous service for the King in America was but illrequited. As he is to perform an important work on the Niagara it is well to form his intimate acquaintance.*

He had already served four years at Gibraltar, as an assistant engineer under his father, prior to his departure from England for America, Dec. 24, 1754, in the same ship with Gen. Braddock. At first an ensign in the 48th Regiment, Gen. Braddock soon gave him engineer's rank at ten shillings a day; on July 4, 1755, he was made a lieutenant of the 48th; he received an engineer's commission from Gen. Shirley, May 14, 1756, and thereafter served, according to his own journals, as "engineer and practitioner of engineering," "lieutenant and sub-engineer," "engineer extraordinary and captain lieutenant," and "engineer in ordinary and captain" for ten years. Dec. 18, 1775, he received his special commission from the King as Chief Engineer of America. His American service covered nearly 24 years, in which period he served under 14 commanders in chief, was in 18 actions and made 32 voyages. His journals record a long list of what he terms "special services," many of these being hazardous expeditious against the enemy, carrying despatches, scouting, and well nigh every form of adventure which an intrepid soldier could undertake in wilderness warfare. One of these undertakings was what he termed his "great success in 1763, in relieving the garrison of De

*

My narrative is based on the Montresor journals, the original MSS. of which are still preserved by the family. In 1882 they were in possession of Col. Henry Edward Montresor of Stenely Grange, Huntingdonshire, England, who permitted a copy to be made by Mr. G. D. Scull for the New York Historical Society, which printed them in verbatim journal form in its Publications for the year named.