Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/471

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MAJOR HOLMES KILLED AT MACKINAW.
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the command of Major Holmes of the army. The agent of the Northwest Company who had borne arms against the United States escaped, and the troops burned the trading post of the company, and the huts of those traders who were disloyal. An attempt was also made to bring out of Lake Superior a schooner, called the Perseverance, of one hundred tons, and used to carry goods to Fort William, but in dragging it through the rapids it bilged, and Lieut. Turner ordered it to be burned. On the 4th of August, Holmes was killed while leading an attack upon the British troops at Mackinaw. The Tigress, an American gunboat, in command of sailing-master Champlin,[1] near the mouth of St. Mary's River, was soon after captured by some British sailors under Lieut. Bulger, boarding in the night, assisted by Indians under Dickson.

FIGHT IN A.D. 1818 BETWEEN SIOUX AND OJIBWAYS.

Toward the close of the year 1818, a fight took place between the Sioux and Ojibways in the country between the headwaters of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. A Yankton chief, called by the French Le Grand, held a council with some Ojibways and smoked the pipe of peace. When the latter were returning home, some of the Sioux sneaked after them, scalped a few, and took a woman prisoner. When the intelligence reached Leech Lake, thirteen young warriors started for the Sioux country to avenge the insult. For four weeks they travelled without meeting any of their enemies, but at length on the Pomme de Terre River, on a very foggy morning they thought a buffalo herd was in sight, but on nearer approach it proved to be a Sioux camp, and some of the latter on horseback gave the alarm. The Ojibways finding that they were discovered, and that their foes were numerous,

  1. His son was the late Raymond Champlin, of St. Paul.