The fort of Michilimackinac was now burned to the ground. Seventy of the English soldiers had been massacred, and, to complete the sanguinary deed, the bodies of many of them were boiled and eaten by the savages: the lives of the remainder, as well as of the prisoners taken at St. Joseph and Green Bay, were spared, and on the return of peace they were all released, either with or without ransom. At the close of these tragical events, a number of Indian canoes arrived with English traders, who were beaten, insulted, and marched to the prison lodge.

After the work of devastation had been finish. ed, many of the Indians retired to the island of Mackinaw, while others repaired to Detroit, to aid Pontiac in the siege of this post. This chief, how. ever, soon found that his enemies were too formidable for him. General Bradstreet now arrived to relieve the fort, at the head of an army of three thousand men. On his way he had destroyed the villages of the hostile savages, laid waste their cornfields along the rich bottoms of the Maumee, dispersed the natives in every direction, and reached Detroit without opposition. The Indians, perceiving that they could no longer contend against so powerful a foe, laid down their arms, and thus the war was brought to a close.

Of Pontiac after his discomfiture, but little is

certainly known. Disappointed and mortified at the failure of his plans, he retired to Illinois, where he was assassinated about the year 1767 by an InIdian of the Peoria tribe.* The character of this chief was bold and strongly marked. Excelled by none of his race in courage, strength, and energy, he possessed traits which pointed him out for a leader. To have had sufficient influence to bring the numerous tribes of the West, along a frontier of a thousand miles, to co-operate with him in his desperate undertaking, must have required much more than ordinary talents. Although destitute of those principles of honour which prevail among civilized nations in the operations of war, he possessed a larger share of humanity than is commonly found among savages. Undismayed by dif. ficulties, and far-seeing and comprehensive in his plans, he fought from a sense of justice and in defence of the rich domain which had been bequeath. ed to him by his ancestors.

* Cass.

CHAPTER VI.

Condition of the Fur-trade under the English.-Hudson's Bay Company.-English Administration of the Law.-Criminal Trial.-Quebec Act.-Mineral Rock on Lake Superior.Northwest Company.-American Revolution.-Expeditions from Detroit.-Indian Council held at Detroit.-American Independence established.

FROM the year 1679, when La Salle and Henne. pin crossed Lake Erie with the first vessel that had ever disturbed the waters of that lake, the face of the country had been, down to the time of the English occupation, but little changed. During the period of the French power in this quarter, the fur-trade had been vigorously carried on along the great chain of lakes, and through every channel in which it could be made to circulate, either by companies chartered for that object, or by individual enterprise. The coureurs des bois, who acted, says La Hontan," like East Indiamen and pirates,"* returning periodically from their inland voyages to swell the population at the different posts, brought with them in bark canoes the furs and peltry which they had collected, and deposited them at the factories erected to receive them: from thence they * La Hontan's Voyages. N

were at regular seasons transported to the headquarters of the trade at Montreal and Quebec, where they were shipped for Europe.

The principal channels through which this traffic was carried on between the upper and lower provinces, continued to be the Ottawa River or Lake Erie, the packs, when the latter course was adopted, being transported across the portage of Niagara Falls upon the backs of the traders.

The condition of this trade under the French, although depending much on the peculiar character of the people, was essentially modified by the positive operation of the laws. The government of the colony was, it is true, exercised with apparent mildness, but still it was impressed with those harsh principles which characterized the most aristocratic period of the Bourbons. Even the form of land distribution, founded on the Coutume de Paris, was extended to the French colonies of the West. Its operation was exceedingly oppressive, and greatly retarded the growth of the settlements. It confined the energies of the people to narrow tracts of land, granted under burdensome conditions, placing them in the power of seigneurs, which was but another name for masters, instead of opening the broad and fertile bosom of the West to free and unencumbered industry, such as is now effecting such extraordinary changes in that region under

the equal laws of our own republic. The people under this system were but the mere appendages of large corporations, parts of a vast machine which was planned and kept in motion solely for the benefit of royal monopolies.

It has been remarked that the aspect of things in these remote regions was but little changed after they came into the possession of the English. The chapels and the forts continued in much the same state; the little farms of the French, surrounded by pickets, stretched along the banks of the streams as before; and the country presented a variegated aspect of French, English, and Indian manners. The red coats of the British regulars contrasted very strikingly with the peasant garb of the French farmers, and with the wild and fantastic dress of the natives.

*

The insurrection being quelled, a system of conciliatory measures was adopted to secure the good. will of the disaffected tribes; small grants of land were made around the posts, and the Indians themselves were induced to cede portions of their territory for a trifling consideration to the French colonists. These grants were made, however, without any authority from the British government. The French settlements extended along the banks of the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers to the distance

* Carver.