CHAPTER V. Condition of the Territory under the English.-Pontiac forms a Confederacy to attack the English Posts.-War breaks out. -Siege of Detroit.--Battle of Bloody Bridge.-Indians assemble around Michilimackinac. - Minavavana-Alexander Henry-Wawatam. — Michilimackinac destroyed.-General Bradstreet arrives.-Peace concluded.-Death of Pontiac. No material change took place in the condition of the country in consequence of its surrender to the English. The capitulation of Montreal permitted the French emigrants to remain in the territory, and to enjoy undisturbed their civil and religious rights. Agriculture was no more encouraged than before, and the same general plan continued to be pursued in conducting the fur-trade. No land was allowed to be purchased directly of the Indians, nor were the English commandants, styled governors, permitted to make any grants of land except within certain prescribed limits. The settlements of the French, however, continued to extend, and their long, narrow farms, surrounded by pickets, and fronted by houses of bark or logs, and their roofs thatched with straw, were seen stretching along the banks of all the principal streams. There were as yet no schools, and the instruction of the children continued to be confided entirely to the Catholic priests. Before that time peltries had constituted almost the only medium of traffic, but now English coin began to be introduced. Horses were for a long time unknown at Detroit, the first having been brought there, it is said, from Fort Duquesne, after Braddock's defeat.† Although the English had acquired possession of the country, it had been against the will of the Indians. The design of Pontiac probably was to lead the English into his territory only that he might have a better opportunity to destroy them. He believed that it was their intention to drive him from his lands, and he therefore considered them as dangerous intruders. His spacious domain, its waters abounding with fish and its woods with game, had now fallen into the hands of a people whom he had always looked upon as his enemy. Some of the Indians had been struck by the British officers in the garrison, an indignity which their savage natures could not endure, and they readily joined with their chief to expel these hated strangers from their country. Pontiac was not long in circulating war-belts among all the principal tribes on the borders of the lakes, and he formed a chain of operations extend * Manuscript Journals from Detroit. ing more than a thousand miles along their waters. He flattered himself that, if the British garrisons could be destroyed or driven away, he should afterward be able effectually to defend the country against farther intrusion by means of his own strength, combined with that of his savage allies. A grand council of the Indians was accordingly soon assembled at the River Aux Ecorce, and Pontiac addressed them in person. He told them that it was the design of the English to drive the Indians from their country, and that they were their natural and inveterate enemies. He also assured them that the Great Spirit had appeared to a Delaware Indian in a dream, and thus addressed him: " Why do you suffer these dogs in red clothing" (the English) "to enter your country and take the land I gave you? Drive them from it; and then, when you are in distress, I will help you." He also exhibited to them a war-belt, which he said the French king had sent over from France, ordering them to drive out the British, and make way for the return of the French.* The shores of the lakes were soon alive with bodies of Indian warriors, who had abandoned their hunting-grounds and camps, and were repairing to the posts on the frontier. Among these were seen the Ottawas, the Chippewas, the Miamis, the Pot * Cass. tawatamies, the Missisagas, the Shawanese, the Ottagamies, and the Winnebagoes, besides parties from numerous other tribes. At about the same time they attacked the Forts of Le Bœuf, Venango, Presque Isle, Michilimackinac, St. Joseph, Miami, Green Bay, Ouiatonon, Pittsburgh, and Sandusky. Their military operations, indeed, extended along the entire line of the waters of the lower lakes.* This general and simultaneous attack was made in the month of May, 1763, and was so sudden and wholly unexpected that the garrisons were all taken by surprise. Detroit was then the most important station upon the lakes, and was garrisoned by one hundred and twenty-two men and eight officers, Major Gladwin being the commandant. Three rows of pickets surrounded the fort in the form of a square. Most of the houses of the French were situated within these pickets, that they might be protected by the guns of the fort. The inhab. itants were provided with arms and ammunition. Within the pickets there was also a circular space, which was named by the French Le chemin du Ronde, from its being a place of deposite for arms; and over the gates of the fort, and at each of its corners, there were small dwellings. The town was defended in front by an armed schooner named * See Cass. L the Beaver, moored in the river, which at this point is about three quarters of a mile wide. The post commanded the great channel of communication from Lake Michigan to Buffalo and Pittsburgh; its possession, therefore, was an object of great importance; and Pontiac, who was the chief director of the confederacy, undertook its reduction in person.* His plan was one which strikingly exhibits the cunning which is so characteristic of the Indians. He intended to take the fort by surprise; and for this purpose he ordered a party of his warriors to saw off their rifles so short that they could conceal them under their blankets, and under a feigned pretence to gain admission into the fort, and mas. sacre the garrison. To carry out his design, he encamped at a short distance from the post, and sent word to the commandant that he was desirous of holding a council with him, that "they might brighten the chain of peace." On the evening of that day, an Indian woman, by the name of Catha. rine, brought to Major Gladwin a pair of moccasins which she had been employed to make for him, and he was so much pleased with them that he gave her an elk-skin, and told her to take it home and make from it several pairs more. She took the skin, but continued to linger about the gate * Cass. |