pretty close siege throughout the months of May, June, July, and August, during a part of which time the English garrison were compelled to subsist on half rations. About the 31st of May, Lieutenant Cuyler, who had been despatched from Niagara, arrived at Point Pelee with ninety-seven men, manning twenty small boats laden with provisions and stores for the garrison at Detroit. A few hours after the arrival of the English party at this place, they were surprised and defeated by a band of Pontiac's warriors, who took possession of all the boats, except one, in which an officer and thirty men escaped. Of the remainder of the party some were killed, and others captured. The prisoners were then compelled to navigate the boats, in each of which the Indians placed a guard; and thus the vessels, keeping close to the Canadian shore, moved up the Detroit river, attended by a considerable number of warriors, who marched along the banks. When the foremost boat arrived at a point nearly opposite to Detroit, four prisoners who were manning the boat determined to effect their escape or to perish in the attempt. They suddenly changed the course of the boat, and began to force her across the stream and towards the fort. The Indian guards, who attempted to stop them, after a short struggle leaped overboard, dragging with them one of the prisoners. The three who remained in the boat were fired on by the Indians, and one of the fugitives was wounded; but an armed vessel lying before Detroit opened a fire upon the Indians, and thus covered the retreat of the English boatmen until they reached the vessel. The Indians then landed the boats, and took the rest of the prisoners to Hog Island, where nearly all of them were put to death.

In the early part of June, a strong detachment of Indians left the siege, and proceeded to Fighting Island, for the purpose of intercepting a vessel laden with arms and provisions for the relief of the garrison at Detroit. The Indians, in their canoes, annoyed the English vessel very much, until the latter

nearest they choose to come now. For the first two or three Days we were attacked by three or four Hundred of them; but we gave them so warm a Reception that they don't care for coming to see us, tho' they now and then get behind a House or Garden and fire at us about three or four Hundred yards' distance."--[Letter from Detroit, dated July 6, 1763.

reached the point of the island, where, on account of the wind failing, she was compelled to anchor. To deceive the Indians in regard to the strength of his crew, the captain had concealed his men in the hold. Soon after dark the Indians embarked in their canoes and proceeded to board the vessel. "The men were silently ordered up and took their stations at the guns. The Indians were suffered to approach close to the vessel when the captain, by a stroke of a hammer on the mast, gave the signal for action. An immediate discharge took place, and the Indians precipitately fled, with many killed and wounded. The next morning the vessel dropped down to the mouth of the river, where she remained six days waiting for a wind. On the thirteenth she succeeded in ascending the river, and reaching the fort in safety." *

Soon after these events occurred, Pontiac made some unsuc cessful attempts to destroy the English vessels moored before Detroit. Large rafts constructed of combustible materials were towed to a certain position in the river, and there set on fire, with the expectation that the current would carry these burning masses into contact with the vessels.

A fleet of gun-boats, strongly armed, and having on board three hundred English regular troops under the command of Captain Dalyell, arrived at Detroit, late in the month of July. Soon after the arrival of this reinforcement, a battle was fought between the English and the Indians, at a place which, from the time of the engagement to the present day, has been called "Bloody Bridge." The English commander, in his official returns, gave the following minute account of this affair. "On the evening of the 30th July, Captain Dalyell, aid-de-camp to General Amherst, being arrived here with the detachment sent under his command, and being fully persuaded that Pontiac, the Indian chief, with his tribes, would soon abandon his design, and retire, insisted with the commandant that they might easily be surprised in their camp, totally routed and driven out of the settlement; and it was thereupon determined that Captain Dalyell should march out with two hundred and forty

*Thatcher.

seven men. Accordingly we marched about half an hour after two in the morning, two deep, along the great road by the river side, two boats up the river along shore, with a patteraro in each, with orders to keep up with the line of march, cover our retreat, and take off our killed and wounded; Lieutenant Bean, of the Queen's Independents, being ordered, with a rear guard, to convey the dead and wounded to the boats. About a mile and a half from the fort, we had orders to form into platoons, and, if attacked in front, to fire by street-firings. We then advanced, and, in about a mile farther, our advanced guard, commanded by Lieutenant Brown, of the 55th regiment, had been fired upon so close to the enemy's breastworks and cover, that the fire, being very heavy, not only killed and wounded some of his party, but reached the main body, which put the whole into a little confusion; but they soon recovered their order, and gave the enemy, or rather their works, it being very dark, a discharge or two from the front, commanded by Captain Gray. At the same time, the rear, commanded by Captain Grant, were fired upon from a house, and some fences about twenty yards on his left; on which he ordered his own and Captain Hopkins's companies to face to the left and give a full fire that way. After which, it appearing that the enemy gave way every where, Captain Dalyell sent orders to Captain Grant, to take possession of the above-snid houses and fences; which he immediately did; and found in one of the said houses two men, who told him the enemy had been there long, and were well apprised of our design. Captain Grant then asked them the numbers; they said above three hundred; and that they intended, as soon as they had attacked us in the front, to get between us and the fort; which Captain Grant told Captain Dalyell, who came to him when the firing was over. And in about an hour after, he came to him again, and told Captain Grant he was to retire, and ordered him to march in the front, and post himself in an orchard. He then marched, and about half a mile farther on his retreat, he had some shots fired on his flank; but got possession of the orchard, which was well fenced; and just as he got there, he heard a warm firing

in the rear, having at the same time, a firing on his own post, from the fences and cornfields behind it. Lieutenant McDougal who acted as adjutant to the detachment, came up to him, (Captain Grant,) and told him, that Captain Dalyell was killed, and Captain Gray very much wounded, in making a push on the enemy, and forcing them out of a strong breastwork of cordwood, and an entrenchment which they had taken possession of; and that the command then devolved upon him. Lieutenant Bean immediately came up, and told him, that Captain Rogers had desired him to tell Captain Grant, that he had taken possession of a house, and that he had better retire with what numbers he had, as he (Captain Rogers) could not get off without the boats to cover him, he being hard pushed by the enemy from the enclosures behind him, some of which scoured the road through which he must retire. Captain Grant then sent Ensign Pauli, with twenty men, back to attack a part of the enemy which annoyed his own post a little, and galled those that were joining him, from the place where Captain Dalyell was killed, and Captain Gray, Lieutenants Brown and Luke, were wounded; which Ensign Pauli did, and killed some of the enemy in their flight. Captain Grant, at the same time, detached all the men he could get, and took possession of the enclosures, barns, fences, &c. leading from his own post to the fort, which posts he reinforced with the officers and men, as they came up. Thinking the retreat then secured, he sent back to Captain Rogers, desiring he would come off; that the retreat was quite secured, and the different parties ordered to cover one another successively, until the whole had joined; but Captain Rogers not finding it right to risk the loss of more men, he chose to wait for the armed boats, one of which appeared soon, commanded by Lieutenant Brehm, whom Captain Grant had directed to go and cover Captain Rogers's retreat, who was in the next house. Lieutenant Brehm accordingly went and fired several shots at the enemy. Lieutenant Abbott, with the other boat, wanting ammunition, went down with Captain Gray. Lieutenant Brown and some wounded men. returned also, which Captain Grant supposes the enemy seeing

did not wait her arrival, but retired on Lieutenant Brehm's firing, and gave Captain Rogers, with the rear, an opportunity to come off; so that the whole from the different posts joined without any confusion, and marched to the fort in good order, covered by the armed boats on the water side, and by our own parties on the country side, in view of the enemy, who had all joined, and were much stronger than at the beginning of the affair, as was afterwards told us by some prisoners that made their escape; many having joined them from the other side of the river and other places. The whole arrived at the fort about eight o'clock, commanded by Captain Grant, whose able and skilful retreat is highly commended.

"Return of killed and wounded of the several detachments near the Detroit, July 31, 1763.—Of the 55th Regiment: one sergeant, thirteen rank and file, killed; one captain, two lieutenants, one drummer, twenty-eight rank and file, wounded. Of the Royal Americans: one rank and file killed; one rank and file wounded. Of the 80th Regiment: two rank and file killed; three rank and file wounded.-Of the Queen's Rangers: two rank and file killed; one rank and file wounded.

"Names of the officers:-55th Regiment: Captain Gray, Lieutenant Luke, and Lieutenant Brown, wounded.

"N. B. Captain Dalyell, killed, not included in the above."* Soon after this engagement, parties of the Pottawattamie and Huron tribes gave up their prisoners, and expressed a desire for peace. Other bands of Indians who had been engaged in the siege, retired disheartened to their villages and hunting grounds; but the uncompromising hostility of Pontiac kept the English garrison at Detroit in a state of suspense until the spring of 1764.

During the months of June and July, 1763, Fort Pitt was closely besieged by different war parties, consisting, generally, of Shawanees and Delaware warriors. But Captain Ewyert and the garrison defended themselves, until they were reinforced, early in August, by the arrival of several companies of

*Drake, B. V. C. iii, p. 55.

†Gordon's His. Pa. 399.-"Ecuyer."--Dodsley's An. Register, for 1763.