expedients they removed all exterior buildings, fences, trees and other obstacles that lay within the range of their guns or that might afford protection to sneaking and stealthy Indians who would crawl snake-like close to the palisade and fire at the sentinels and loopholes, or shoot their arrows tipped with burning tow upon the roofs of the structures within the Fort. tunately the supply of water was inexhaustible; the provisions

For

were wisely husbanded; friendly Canadians across the river. under cover of night brought supplies. These Canadian farmers were also subject to tribute to the Indians, who seized their supplies by theft or open violence. They appealed to Pontiac and about the only creditable act recorded of that perfidious chief was his agreement to make restitution to the robbed settlers. Pontiac gave them in payment for their purloined property

promissory notes drawn on birch bark and signed with the figure of an otter the totem to which he belonged - - all of which promises to pay, it is said, were redeemed.

Day after day passed with varying incidents of attack and repulse. The keen-eyed watchfulness of the Indians never for an instant abated; their vigils were tireless and ceaseless; woe to the soldier who ventured without the Fort or even lifted his head above the palisade. Pontiac's patience was strengthened with the delusive idea that the French were only temporarily defeated and would rally to his assistance. He even dispatched messengers across the interior to the French commandant Neyon at Fort Chartres on the Mississippi, requesting that French troops be sent without delay to his aid. Meanwhile Gladwyn had sent

one of his schooners to Ft. Niagara to hasten promised reinforcements from the British. Lieutenant Cuyler had already (May 13) left Niagara with a convoy of seven boats, ninety-six men and quantities of supplies and ammunition. This little fleet. coasted along the northern shore of Lake Erie until near the mouth of the Detroit river. The force attempted to land, when a band of Wyandot Indians suddenly burst from the woods, seized five of the boats and killed or captured sixty of the soldiers. Cuyler with the remaining men (36), many of whom were wounded, escaped in the other boats and crossed to Ft. Sandusky, which they found had been taken and burned by the Wyandots; the garrison had been slaughtered and Ensign Paully sent prisoner to Pontiac's camp. Cuyler with his escaping companions slowly wended his way back where he reported the result of his expedition to the commanding officer, Major Wilkins. At the same time the Wyandots, with the captured boats and prisoners, proceeded up the Detroit to Pontiac's quarters, arriving in full sight of the Fort's garrison, when Gladwyn of course learned of the destruction of the Cuyler flotilla. The disappointment to the

HENRY GLADWYN.

inmates of the Fort was almost unbearable. Gladwyn's schooner, however, reached Ft. Niagara and returned about July 1, laden with food, ammunition and reinforcements and the most welcome. news of the Treaty of Paris. Pontiac, undismayed, continued his efforts. His forces now numbered, it is recorded, about eight hundred and twenty warriors; two hundred and fifty Ottawas, his own tribe and under his immediate command; one hundred and fifty Pottawattamies, under Ninivay; fifty Wyandots under Takee; two hundred Ojibwas under Wasson, and one hundred and seventy of the same tribe under Sekahos.*

The two schooners were a serious menace to the movements of the Indians, and many desperate attempts were made to burn them by midnight attacks, and the floating of fire rafts down upon them; but all to no avail. Pontiac had the stubborn persistency of a later American general who said he would fight it out on that line if it took all summer. He exerted himself with fresh zeal to gain possession of the fort. He demanded the surrender of Gladwyn, saying a still greater force of Indians was on the march to swell the army of besiegers. Gladwyn was equally tenacious and unyielding, he proposed to "hold the fort" till the enemy were worn out or re-enforcements arrived. Pontiac sought to arouse the active aid of the neighboring Canadians, but the treaty of Paris had made them British subjects, and they dared not war on their conquerors. History scarcely furnishes a like instance of so large an Indian force struggling so long in an attack on a fortified place.

The Wyandots and Pottawattamies, however, never as enthusiastic in this war as the other tribes, late in July decided to withdraw from the besieging confederacy and make peace with the British. They did so and exchanged prisoners with Gladwyn. The Ottawas and Ojibwas, however, still held on, watching the fort, and keeping up a desultory fusilade. The end was drawing nigh. On July 29 Captain James Dalzell arrived from Niagara with artillery supplies and two hundred and eighty men in twentytwo barges. Their approach to the fort was bravely contested

*Parkman observes that as the warriors brought their squaws and children with them, the whole number of Indians congregated about Detroit, at this time, must have been more than three thousand.

by the combined Indian forces, even the Wyandots and Pottawattamies breaking their treaty and treacherously joining in the assault. Dalzell's troops entered the fort and he proposed an immediate sortie. Dalzell was bravery personified, and he had fought with Israel Putnam. On the morning after his arrival (July 31) at two o'clock, he led a force of two hundred and fifty men out of the fort. They silently in the darkness marched along the river towards the Ottawa village just across the Parent's creek. The Indians were prepared and had ambuscaded both sides of the road. They were, Indian fashion, secreted behind trees and fences and Canadian houses. Their presence was not discovered till the van of Dalzell's column reached the bridge over the creek, when a terrible fire was opened upon the soldiers from all sides. It was still dark, the Indians could not be seen. A panic ensued. The troops in disorder retreated amid an awful slaughter. Dalzell himself was killed and Major Robert Rogers assumed command, and the fleeing soldiers were only spared from total destruction by two of the British boats coming to the rescue. About sixty men were killed or wounded. It was known as the Battle of Bloody Bridge. Upon the retreating into the fort of Major Rogers' survivors the siege was renewed. Pontiac was greatly encouraged over this victory and his Indians showed renewed zeal. The schooner "Gladwyn" was sent to Niagara for help. On its return it was attacked and its crew and supplies practically destroyed. Another relief expedition under Major Wilkins in September was overwhelmed in a lake storm and seventy soldiers drowned. But even Indian persistency began to tire. The realization that the French were beaten and time only would bring victory to the British led all the tribes, except the Ottawas, to sue for peace. This was October 12. Pontiac could only hold his own tribe in line. The Ottawas sustained their hostility until October 30, when a French messenger arrived from Neyon who reported to Pontiac that he must expect no help from the French, as they were now completely and permanently at peace with the British.* Pontiac was advised to quit the war at once. His cause

* True to his Indian nature Pontiac determined to assume a mask of peace and bide his time. Gladwyn wrote as follows to Lord Jeffrey Amherst: "This moment I received a message from Pontiac telling me

was doomed. The great chief who had so valiantly and unremittently fought for six months sullenly raised the siege and retired into the country of the Maumee where he vainly endeavored to arouse the Miamis and neighboring tribes to another war upon the invading British.

Though the memorable siege of Detroit, personally conducted by Pontiac, ended in failure to the great chief, his conspiracy elsewhere met with unparalleled success. The British posts, planned to be simultaneously attacked and destroyed by the savages were some dozen in number, including besides Detroit, St. Joseph, Michillimackinac Ouiatenon, Sandusky, Miami, Presque Isle, Niagara, Le Boeuf, Venango, Fort Pitt and one or two others of lesser importance. Of all the posts from Niagara and Pitt westward, Detroit alone was able to survive the conspiracy. For the rest "there was but one unvaried tale of calamity and ruin." It was a continued series of disasters to the white men. The victories of the savages marked a course of blood from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi. We have already made note of the destruction of Fort Sandusky. On May 16 (1763) the Wyandots surrounded the fort and under pretense of a friendly visit, several of them well known to Ensign Paully, the commander, were admitted. While smoking the pipe of peace the treacherous and trusted Indians suddenly arose, seized Paully and held him prisoner while their tribesmen killed the sentry, entered the Fort, and in cold blood murdered and scalped the little band of soldiers. The traders in the Post were likewise killed and their stores plundered. The stockade was fired and burned to the ground. Paully was taken to Detroit where he was "adopted" as the husband of an old widowed squaw, from whose affectionate toils he finally escaped to his friends in the Detroit Fort.

St. Joseph was located at the mouth of the river St. Joseph, near the southern end of Lake Michigan.* Ensign Schlosser was in command with a mere handful of soldiers, that he should send to all the nations concerned in the war to bury the hatchet; and he hopes your excellency will forget what has passed"Parkman.

This post of St. Joseph was the site of a Roman Catholic Mission founded about the year 1700. Here was one of the most prominent French military posts.