CAPTAIN THOMAS MORRIS ON THE MAUMEE
By HOWARD H. PECKHAM
In any historical celebration of the
Maumee Valley, Captain
Thomas Morris may justly claim a brief
mention. He was the
first British officer to ascend the
Maumee River. I say "officer,"
because it is possible that one or two
Pennsylvania traders may
have penetrated that far into Ohio in
the 1740's or 1750's. But
Morris did something else, too. He has
left us two accounts of
his Maumee adventures--one a day-by-day
diary, the other a nar-
rative based on his diary and written in
later years.
Not a great deal is known about Morris
although he achieved
enough subsequent fame to be found in
the Dictionary of National
Biography. He was born in 1732 in Carlisle, England, the son of
a retired army officer and song writer.
He attended Winchester
College and then, early in 1749, joined
the British army as ensign
in the 17th Regiment. In December, 1755,
he was promoted a
lieutenant. His regiment was sent to
America in 1758 at the
height of the French and Indian War and
was employed at the
siege of Havana in 1762. It then
returned to continental America
and remained here under General Thomas
Gage, the new com-
mander-in-chief.
You will recall that 1763 was a
momentous year in this region.
The British had won the West by conquest
and had garrisoned all
of the former French posts in 1760 and
1761 except Fort Chartres
on the Mississippi. Hostile Indians
barred the way to British
soldiers seeking to reach the Illinois
post, and Pontiac's uprising
set back the day of English occupation
another year. In the sum-
mer of 1764, General Gage sent out two
expeditions to quell the
rebellion of the western tribes. One under Colonel Bouquet
marched into southern Ohio. The other,
under Colonel John
Bradstreet, was sent to relieve Detroit
and to chastize Pontiac's
immediate allies. Thomas Morris, now a
captain, was one of the
(49)
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
officers accompanying Bradstreet. This
expedition sailed from
Niagara and coasted along the south
shore of Lake Erie. At
Sandusky a stop was made for an Indian
conference, by which
Bradstreet was lulled into the belief
that the Indians regretted
their uprising and were reconciled to
having the English in their
midst. He therefore resolved to send an
officer across country to
Fort Chartres as advance agent for a
garrison which would be sent
later.
Three other factors also prompted
Bradstreet to take this
premature step. First, he was at the
head of an all-water route to
the Mississippi by way of the Maumee and
Wabash rivers. Sec-
ondly, he had found a Canadian able and
willing to act as guide
and Indian interpreter to the
destination. Lastly, he had in Captain
Morris an officer who could speak French
and was daring enough
to undertake the mission.
Accordingly, on the afternoon of August
26, 1764, Captain
Morris, two Canadians, two servants and
19 Indian escorts started
in canoes from Cedar Point and crossed
Maumee Bay. At the
same time Bradstreet's force moved
northward to Detroit. Owing
to its late start, Morris' party
encamped that night near the mouth
of the Maumee River. Next day the canoes
made good progress
up the river to the rapids (in the
vicinity of Fort Meigs), where
he stopped at an Ottawa village. The
great chief Pontiac, whose
village was on a near-by island, came
out to meet him and greeted
him with an unfriendly speech, saying
briefly that all English men
were liars and that the French king was
not yet defeated.
Morris was unharmed, however, and was
allowed to occupy
a cabin in the village. Here he met a
French trader and former
soldier named St. Vincent, who
befriended him and accompanied
him on his journey. The next day Morris
addressed a council
of chiefs and told them that the French
king had ceded this terri-
tory to the British king. This news the
chiefs received with con-
tempt and disbelief. That night one of
Morris' Indian escorts, a
Mohawk, ran away after stealing most of
the captain's effects and
selling his two barrels of rum to the
Ottawas. Consequently, the
village blades got roaring drunk and
decided to kill Morris, who
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL PROCEEDINGS 51
was obliged to slip out of his cabin in
disguise and take refuge in
a cornfield across the river.
The next day, August 30, Morris received
a surprise. The
local chief brought him some melons--and
a volume of Shakes-
peare, which Morris bought for a little
powder. Now I am aware
of the proud literary tradition of
Indiana, and I am reluctant to
point out that this incident occurred in
Ohio. If the savages of
Ohio were reading Shakespeare in 1764,
I'm afraid Indiana must
bow to its neighbor, although you
Indianans may argue that the
Ohio Indian probably got the volume from
some Miami Indians
of Fort Wayne who had read it so often
they were tired of it.
Of course, if Ohioans admit this
possibility, they may then counter
with the assertion that anyway here was
the beginning of the
rental library business. However, I
shall leave that controversy to
be settled in my absence and go on to
quote from an essay which
Morris wrote in after years lauding the
dramatic ability of a
French actress, one Mademoiselle Du
Menil. In one place he re-
marks: "If the world ever afforded
me a pleasure equal to that
of reading Shakespeare at the foot of a
water-fall in an American
desert; it was Du Menil's performance in
tragedy."
On August 31, Morris again set out up
the river, assured by
some Miami warriors that he would be
welcomed at their village.
Because the river was so shallow here,
he bought three horses and
used the canoes only to carry the
baggage. His party of 17 Indians
had been reduced to 12, and he had
sent back one of his servants
with a letter to Bradstreet. They
followed the shore of the river
up to a second Indian village and
encamped. The next few days
were spent in easy marches, the canoes
being dragged along in
shallow water. Morris was finding game
very plentiful. He was
eating fish, venison, turkey, duck and
raccoon, besides Indian corn.
One day his party managed to get away
with two deer, ten turkeys,
some ducks, raccoons, corn, etc. Morris
restrains himself to ob-
serving only, "I never saw such
hearty eating before."
On September 7, the party reached
"Miamis fort," on the
site of the present city of Fort Wayne.
Morris relates that he
was "met at the bottom of the
meadow by almost the whole village,
who had brought spears, bows and arrows,
and tomahawks to
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
dispatch me." And how did Captain
Morris receive this Hoosier
welcome? He mentions in his diary that
he took to a canoe and
paddled out into the middle of the
river, which I can well believe.
In his narrative he embroiders the story
a bit and asserts that he
remained in his canoe, "reading the
tragedy of Anthony and
Cleopatra, in the volume of
Shakespeare." Morris had attended
college, and college men sometimes read
at unexpected moments,
but I submit to you whether any person
in Morris' circumstances
would use a book other than as a shield.
The chief of the Miami village was
Pacanne, who was cer-
tainly not the village idiot, although
he can hardly avoid being
called the village nut. He had just
received a visit from a dele-
gation of Shawnees and Delawares, and
these visiting firemen had
declared that they would never make
peace with the English and
urged the Miamis to kill Captain Morris
when he arrived or make
him return. Morris was surprised to
learn of this attitude on the
part of the Shawnees and Delawares,
because it indicated his
superior, Colonel Bradstreet, had been
deceived in believing the
friendly protestations of the Indians.
Morris was taken to the fort, where the
few French families
lived, but after a short time two
warriors seized him and took him
across the river to their village. They
stripped him of his clothes,
bound his arms and put him in a cabin.
His Canadian guide and
Pontiac's nephew spoke to the village
elders for Morris' release,
and the local chief untied him. He was
then chased out of the
village and returned to the fort. For
the next two days Morris
had to hide in the garret of one
Monsieur L'Esperance.
Meanwhile the Miamis held a council and
decided that the
Englishman should not go farther
westward. Morris was deter-
mined to push on down the Wabash to
Ouiatenon (Lafayette,
Indiana), but two Frenchmen came in from
St. Joseph (Niles,
Michigan) and reported that the
before-mentioned delegation of
Shawnees and Delawares were waiting at
Ouiatenon to kill Morris
on his arrival. Morris decided that Fort
Wayne's welcome should
not be outdone by Lafayette's and
prepared to turn back.
On September 10, at noon, Morris
and his party set out down
the Maumee, leaving his baggage behind
with Monsieur Capucin.
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL
PROCEEDINGS 53
(By the way, has anyone ever located
that baggage and found the
Shakespeare volume?) The third day out
they met a squaw from
the Ottawa village at the rapids who
said there were 700 Shawnees
and Delawares at her town preparing to
burn Detroit. Morris
was sure the news was false, but it
scared his Indian bodyguard.
They wished to avoid the village and
hurry on to Detroit by them-
selves, confident they would make better
time without the white
men. So Morris and his Canadian, and two
Indians, were left
to go by themselves through the woods,
circle northward around
the Ottawa village and reach Detroit.
Morris' route cannot be traced exactly.
It was northeast, of
course, through woods and meadows, and
Morris said the direct
distance was 150 miles. On the 16th he
crossed the trail running
from the Maumee rapids to Detroit. He
avoided it and kept to a
by-path until he reached the Potawatomi
village in lower Michi-
gan. The next day, September 17, Morris
walked into the fort
at Detroit, and it gave him great
satisfaction that he had reached
it ahead of the Indians who had deserted
him.
Morris returned to the East that fall,
and in 1767 went back
to England. He resigned from the army,
married and settled
down to a life of writing. He published
four volumes of poetry,
essays, biography and a novel. He also
composed a few songs,
popular in his day. He was still living
in 1806, and the date of his
death is not known.
I have spoken of the two accounts of his
Maumee Valley
adventure. Until recently only one was
known--the published
version. It was supposed that this was
written from memory, or
from a diary in Morris' possession. But
in going through the
General Gage papers in the Clerents
Library, a considerable
correspondence between Colonel
Bradstreet and Gage was uncov-
ered. In one of his letters Bradstreet
enclosed a report of Morris'
mission up the Maumee. The report turned
out to be Morris'
original diary, which he sent on to
Bradstreet without taking time
to copy. For the same reason Bradstreet
forwarded it to Gage.
On the cover is a note to Bradstreet's
aide-de-camp, asking him to
make a copy and return it to Morris.
Undoubtedly he did so, and
that is all that Morris ever retained.
About 1791 he wrote up his
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
adventure and published it in a volume
called Miscellanies in Prose
and Verse (London, 1791). That in itself has become a rare book,
but I am glad to say that the Clements
Library owns a copy, along
with the original manuscript diary in
Morris' handwriting, on
which the narrative is based. There is
not a great deal of differ-
ence between the diary and the
narrative, although the latter is
longer. He added one interesting
paragraph at the end of his
published narrative: observing that the
Miami Indians which had
held him prisoner were still making
trouble for white men in that
region and that they had just defeated
an American expedition
sent against them. With this reference
to General Harmar, having
brought matters up to date, I step aside
to let the following
speakers continue the story. Thank you.